Peak: Unleashing Your Inner Champion Through Revolutionary Methods for Skill Acquisition and Performance Enhancement in Work, Sports, and Life

by K. Anders Ericsson

And when we are confronted with such an exceptional person, we naturally tend to conclude that this person was born with something a little extra. “He is so gifted,” we say, or, “She has a real gift.”

And over time I’ve come to understand that, yes, these people do have an extraordinary gift, which lies at the heart of their capabilities.

The letter writer reported that when the young Mozart heard a note played on a musical instrument—any note—he could immediately identify exactly which note it was: the A-sharp in the second octave above middle C, perhaps, or the E-flat below middle C.

The first hint emerged with the observation that the only people who had received this “gift” had also received some sort of musical training early in their childhood.

So what about Mozart’s perfect pitch?

In retrospect, then, there should be nothing at all surprising about Mozart’s development of perfect pitch.

In short, perfect pitch is not the gift, but, rather, the ability to develop perfect pitch is the gift—and, as nearly as we can tell, pretty much everyone is born with that gift.

In particular, the brain responds to the right sorts of triggers by rewiring itself in various ways.

“There appears to be a limit for me somewhere around eight or nine digits,”

To understand just how audacious this was, you need to know a little about Dan.

We know from the historical record that at a very young age Mozart was impressing audiences across Europe with his playing of the harpsichord, clavichord, and the violin.