As someone who has absolute pitch,

As someone who has absolute pitch, I have always found it strange that most people find this labeling task so difficult. When we identify a color as red, we do not do so by comparing it with another color and then evaluating the relationship between the two. The labeling process is much more direct. A lack of absolute pitch therefore appears to be somewhat analogous to the rare syndrome of color anomia, in which the patient can recognize that two objects are of the same color, and can discriminate between different colors, but simply cannot label them. So the real puzzle concerning absolute pitch is not why some people possess it, but rather why it is so rare.