Perfect Pitch

Robert Porri · Post by **Robert Porri** » 14 Nov 2004 11:55 am

David L. Donald. You said, "Over here Do is ALWAYS C in any key, F is always Fa... this is from their sulfege training. But doesn't lend itself to on the fly transposing as well."

I'm just curious about this. Maybe I misunderstood something you said.

With that method, could you say something is in the key of "mi flat" if it's in Eb? Also, would the Do Re Mi be used to say or sing the rest of the notes of such a scale, like mi flat, fa, sol, la flat, ti flat etc.? Seems it would be easier to just say the letter names if that was the case.

Chris Lasher · Post by **Chris Lasher** » 14 Nov 2004 11:56 am

Does anyone know of any (relative pitch) ear training CDs that one could practice while driving in the car? All the ear training CDs I have run across have all the answers in books, which is really impractical. I'm looking for a CD or set of CDs where the excercise is played, you are given a few moments, and then the answer is spoken to you. I would think something like this would be easy to find, but Google has not been my friend. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 14 Nov 2004 12:14 pm

Robert, in solfege all the notes are accounted for (note that there are duplicates, depending on the harmonic analysis of the scale position):

<pre>
Scale degree Syllable Pronunciation
Unison, Octave Do dough
Augmented unison Di Dee
Minor second Ra "Rah rah rah"
Major second Re ray
Augmented second Ri like reach
Minor third Mé May
Major third Mi like the word me
Perfect fourth Fa 'a' as in father
Augmented fourth Fi like feet
Diminished fifth Se say
Perfect fifth So (or Sol) long 'o', like sold
Augmented fifth Si see
Minor sixth Le lay
Major sixth La 'a' as in large (like Fa, above)
Augmented sixth Li like lean
Minor seventh Te like take
Major seventh Ti* tea

</pre>

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www.tyack.com

Jonathan Cullifer · Post by **Jonathan Cullifer** » 14 Nov 2004 1:13 pm

I don't know how people with absolute pitch have absolute pitch. I guess it's just one of those God-given abilities.

Recognizing relative pitch is simply a matter of hearing "beats" between two frequencies. Sound, after all, is quite mathematical. When these "beats" go away you the two notes are in harmony with one another.

http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/soundbeat.htm
That contains a good bit of information on beat frequencies. It's quite fascinating.

Robert Porri · Post by **Robert Porri** » 14 Nov 2004 1:22 pm

Dan,
I remembered some of that as soon as I started reading your post. Thanks for the complete scale.

Bob P.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 14 Nov 2004 2:02 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Chas, I think you are confusing a very highly trained ear, with extra strong sulfege abilities,
with perfect pitch.
This ear trained thing is good.
...........
But one quirk, if you ever went to Berklee and...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually, I went to Berklee, '69-'70 before Cal Arts, '72-'77. I'm familiar with relative pitch, meaning that I can hear the changes and know when it's a II chord, even if I don't know what key it's in and sometimes I can remember what middle C sounds like. But I was referring to people who could tell you what keys you sat on, if you sat on a piano keyboard or if you flushed the toilet, could tell you that it was a sharp C#...

When I was in school, there was a guy who was a human "tapedeck". The Keith Jarret, Koln (sp?) concert lp had just come out and he listened to one side twice and then played it back on the piano, from memory. scary.

Mel had a friend who could look at a page of piano music and play the right hand forward while he played the left hand backwards, from bottom to top. Not a very useful "gift".

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 14 Nov 2004 2:11 pm

On Autism/Savantism.

I'm much like my Austrailian Sheperd.

We both hear in ET.

We're both highly gifted in a specific area.

We just don't know exactly what it is yet...

....

EJL

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 14 Nov 2004 2:48 pm

I go back to an article that Chas posted in Music ... awhile ago.

Savant for a Day

My wife ... who did a Sub-I in Neurosurgery at the Univ. of Miami School of Medicine ... is familiar with this machine ...

I'm about ready to "hook up" ...

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Aiello's House of Gauss


My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield
[This message was edited by Rick Aiello on 14 November 2004 at 07:06 PM.]

Mark Butcher · Post by **Mark Butcher** » 15 Nov 2004 10:38 am

Wow, that's plenty to consider, thanks.

I guess I'd settle for Perfect Relative Pitch but I suppose I'll need Perfect Discipline to work and achieve it!

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Sho-Bud Pro 1
Many stringed things.
www.marksmandolins.com

Bruce Clarke · Post by **Bruce Clarke** » 15 Nov 2004 1:34 pm

The fact remains that many of the great musicians, including Mozart, Artur Rubenstein, Nat Cole and countless others had or have absolute pitch. Concert pitch in Mozart's day was lower than today's concert pitch, which to me seems to indicate that memory is involved.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 15 Nov 2004 2:00 pm

Some people are born with "perfect pitch", but most others can learn it...it's a matter of "is is worth it"? Believe me, if you spent 8 hours a day humming nothing but an "A" note, in a few weeks, you'd never forget that pitch! Once you have the "A" note burned into your brain, the rest can be derived from that, so the rest are pretty easy. (The hard part is just humming that "A" note for 8 hours a day for a few weeks.

) Of course, the one big advantage to having "perfect pitch" is you never have to ask the band to find your key. Instead, you tell them!

For most people, the easiest chord sound to recognize and remember is a "G" chord. Some musicians theorize that each major chord has an emotion associated with it, and the "G" chord happens to be associated with "happiness".

Len Cascia · Post by **Len Cascia** » 16 Nov 2004 7:18 am

I don't know if this has been presented here before, but since it's relative, and may be helpful, here's a simple ear training exercise/test. Obviously start with your guitar "in tune".

1. Use an open string or tuning fork to orient yourself to a root/key on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd fret.

2. Cover the remaining frets with a piece of paper (charts of what you want to play for example) or close your eyes.

3. Initially play something simple without looking (I IV V, ii V I, I VI II V etc...) returning to the root, listening carefully as you reach for chords that require bar movement. Play a few iterations at first (then progressively more) and see where you end up as you resolve back to the tonic. No peeking or hitting open strings as a reference tone. More importantly, see if you can hear if you're right on, sharp or flat before you look. Check your results with the original reference tone with your ears, don't rely on your eyes.

4. Now play something similar but modulate the progression up a half or whole tone (or both) during the process of resolving back to the original tonic. Hear/see where you end up.

5. You get the idea. Now run through the cycle of fifths (ii V I) ending up in the original key. Again, hear/see where you end up. Try this also in multiple iterations.

6. Play a tune that has lots of chords and has key changes (jazz standards work well), again without looking and see where you end up.

The results may surprise you, I'd be curious as to what they mean though?