Music is a language that can be learned. The intricate patterns and relationships between notes dictate the sounds and songs we all innately respond to and—at least in written form—it can be mastered by anyone willing to put in the time.

But there are also those super-humans among us (approximately one in every 10,000 people) who are able to communicate with music on an auditory level: Those born with perfect pitch have the ability to hear a tone and identify exactly what it is, no visuals required.

Like this crazy, ridiculously lucky/talented kid:

The skill has been sought after by musicians for centuries, and now some psychologists from University of Chicago are saying they think it’s possible to train your ear (and your brain) to perfectly identify notes—even in adulthood—by building musical memory.

A team lead by Howard Nusbaum tested a small group of 47 participants, all of whom did not possess the powers of perfect pitch. The subject all had varying levels of musical background and were asked to listen to instrumental samples, where a note was played followed by white noise. They then had to try to replay the correct note. The second experiment required the students to try to name the musical note played.

Then they underwent training that included listening to 180 notes in three blocks, which they also had to label. They were given the right answers immediately after guessing, and then were able to listen to the note again.

After this training, the researchers say, the participants showed a big improvement in their ability to identify notes—even a few months after the training session took place.

“This is the first significant demonstration that the ability to identify notes by hearing them may well be something that individuals can be trained to do,” Nusbaum said in a statement released with the study. “It’s an ability that is teachable, and it appears to depend on a general cognitive ability of holding sounds in one’s mind.”

The research was shared in Reddit’s science community, where some weighed in on their own abilities that have dissipated over the years: