Q: is having a perfect pitch an innate skill or is it developed over time?
A: it has to be developed over a very short period of time, at an extremely young age. i should also mention that it is not important to good musicianship, and might likely distract from it. it also has a misleading name 'perfect pitch', because it has nothing to do with whether you can sing or play in tune. 'absolute pitch' might be a slightly clearer name for it. absolute pitch is mostly not at all what gives music its power. nearly 100% of the power of music comes from the relative relationships between pitches. and the good news is that those can be mastered at later ages, although it still helps to start young but it's not a deal breaker if you don't. where as with absolute pitch, you really can't get there unless you have it locked in by age 6. but as i said before, absolute pitch is hardly important for excellent musicianship, and might even be misleading or distracting