Two things at once?

[christianm77]

Yes (or at least, the jury is out.)

[christianm77]

BTW, Bruce Arnold, a student of Charles Banacos (and a teacher of Sheryl Bailey IIRC), appears to believe it possible to develop perfect pitch because he sells courses on it.

I can't really comment any more than this; I think there are some students of Banacos and Arnold floating around who might have more of an idea.

Myself; my wife has some absolute pitch sense without having perfect pitch. I can tell when a guitar is out of tune with concert without a reference, and can sing melodies in the right key (as can many people, it's not unusual at all); it's clearly a spectrum.

[mysticguitar]

To answer the question about the 1 4 5 in D. That's a familiar enough progression that I'd be thinking about melody, not the names of the notes.

If I played a B over the G chord, and I wanted to think about why, I'd know instantly that it was the 3rd of the chord. I would be less likely to name the interval in terms of the tonal center. I could do it if someone asked, but I wouldn't ordinarily think that way.

Caveat: there is a whole approach to jazz guitar improv that eludes me. I'm basically trying to scat sing and play that -- if I can feel the harmony. If I can't feel the harmony, then I'm trying to avoid clams while making what melody I can muster. I do that by focusing on tonal center and chord tones. I'm aware of other theoretical devices, but, when I have to resort to them, something is going more wrong than right.

Usually if I'm playing the B over a G chord I know it's a chord tone, I'm also going to use a G arp or G pentatonic or Lydian and will play a bunch of other notes but before the G chord is done I'm going to resolve go the B. What I'm experimenting with now is to stay in the D pentatonic and when I go for the B Iknow it's the 6th of the D pentatonic. This way it sounds smoother and I play different ideas. I did it today while playing in a duo, I liked how it sounded.

[mysticguitar]

I also understand some Rock players will take the tonal center pentatonic and play over the changes, 1 4 5 and just rip, without targeting chord tones or altering the root pentatonic when the chord they are on does not contain the appropriate notes, say the 4th of the 4 chord.