Pitch & Harmony
Relative Pitch
Hearing a note by its relationship to another note.
In plain English
Relative pitch means recognising the distance between notes rather than identifying a pitch without any reference. If one note is known, other notes can be found from their intervals.
Try or listen for this
After hearing the first note of a melody, sing the next note by listening for how far it moves up or down.
Why it matters
Relative pitch supports playing by ear, singing, improvising, transcribing, and correcting intonation.