Aural training is the most important thing.
Try right from the start to recognize keys and notes.
A bell, a window-pane, a cuckoo—learn the sounds they make.

Robert Schumann
Musical Rules at Home and in Life
 
 
The myth of 'perfect pitch!'
It is not innate but a question of practice,
just like measuring by eye.

Zoltán Kodály
The Selected Writings of Zoltán Kodály
 
 
‘Absolute pitch’ can be acquired and developed. 
If not, the question may be raised
whether there is any musical gift at all in a mind
that cannot learn to remember and compare pitches.

Paul Hindemith
Elementary Training for Musicians
 
 
We are musicians.
Ours is an aural art.
Sound is our specialty. 
And we do not know our tones? 
Does an artist not know his colors?

JMJ

Absolute pitch musicians play what they hear.
Non-absolute pitch musicians hear what they play.

JMJ