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Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

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Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#131

Post by vunderba »

flyingcircus3 wrote: post #128
vunderba wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I would agree that with proper practice (assuming you have a "locked in" song for every semitone in a scale) - that this could probably be extrapolated to being able to hear a random note on an instrument and then naming that note, and vice versa singing a given note on command.

An even easier method, which I was taught is interval training. The jaws theme is a minor second. Do re mi starts with a major second, and so on. Interval training is easier, imo, and would then allow you to memorize fewer songs with absolute notes.

Yeah agreed. I did interval training as part of a sight singing class a while back.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#132

Post by soylentcola »

rybosome wrote: post #19

I suppose I have perfect pitch, in that I can more often than not: * aurally identify key signatures * aurally identify chords * sing a given note on command It wasn't until I was into my early twenties that I could do this. For me, the single biggest stepping stone was building the connection between what I could hear in my head from a song that I remember clearly with the underlying music theory. Specifically, buil…

I've got far from perfect pitch, but I can relate. In high school (mid 90's) I took up guitar and figured out that I could use (the memory of) the intro to "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses as a way to mentally get an "E" in my head to tune the lowest string and go from there.

I'd heard the song so many times that I found I could recall the low, then high E at the start and that's really all you need to get the rest in tune.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#133

Post by dhosek »

trgn wrote: post #93
dhosek wrote: post #87

The thing that really accelerated my pitch learning was choral singing (in particular, with a serious classically-oriented choir at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago). If you’re singing the notes, they really get internalized. At the peak of my skills, I was able to compose a fully harmonized melody on a walk and then play it on piano when I got home.

I'm middle aged and looking for a new hobby, and for this reason alone I might take up singing, to be able to play by ear much more easily on my instrument (iso by trial and error, I get there eventually but it's not effortless). I'm held back by a sense of embarrassment when singing. I feel weird singing by myself (always have), let alone with others around. I don't have this same embarrassment making mistakes when…

I think it helped that I was a regular attendee at Mass before becoming a chorister so I had the advantage of years of singing in the congregation where you’re surrounded by people singing (or not) of various skill levels and it’s kind of expected that you sing around others. Most church choirs are pretty welcoming though and tend to be a bit desperate for male voices. Only the Cathedral choir had an audition process.¹ Beyond that, I think a big part of it is to just accept that you’ll be with other amateurs and you won’t be the only one who makes mistakes on occasion.

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1. The cathedral choir kind of spoiled me for choral singing though. In most church choirs, the accompanist will play choral parts one at a time for the singers to hear them. At Holy Name, they just played all four parts together and you had to hear your part in the chord.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#134

Post by junar »

mcnichol wrote: post #114

I feel like this article is more of a "Here's all the things I think about perfect pitch and my journey with music" Maybe I took the title too literally. As someone who wants to gain perfect pitch (and still feels mildly distant from this ability) one thing I can say has been the most helpful: * Get a string instrument * Strum the strings * Try to tune the first string by ear * Once you think you have it, check it ag…

Why would you measure in Hz and not cents [1]?

5 Hz is going to be larger practical pitch difference at G3 (196 Hz) compared to E5 (659 Hz).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent_(music)

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#135

Post by dhosek »

bluGill wrote: post #126
dhosek wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s very much a regional thing where Europeans tend to tune higher than Americans, as I recall. A lot is going to be dictated by the pitch of the local church organ. Historically, as I recall, A was a bit lower than 440 as testified by older wind instruments and organ pipes.

A440 was standardized in 1939. There was an earlier attempt to standardize on A435 in the late 1800s, but they specified a temperature uncomfortably cold, when you move something (I'm not sure what) tuned at A435 to a more comfortable room temperature you get close to A440, and from there a little rounding and we have A440. Before the 1850s every town had their own standard which was mostly based on whatever the A no…

There’s also a standard of using the metric system, but there are still plenty of backwards places that don‘t follow it. One of the instruments I play is flute and while there is some flexibility possible to adjust the pitch by moving the headjoint in or out, there is an idealized pitch for the best intonation.¹ Most student instruments are A440 but some intermediate and professional models are tuned to A442 or A444.

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1. Granted, the player’s technique also affects intonation so this is not insurmountable.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#136

Post by empeyot »

Related: Ayako Sakakibara et al.: A longitudinal study of the process of acquiring absolute pitch: A practical report of training with the ‘chord identification method’

https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612463948

Abstract TL;DR: Results suggest that, at a minimum, children younger than 6 years old are capable of acquiring AP through intentional training.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#137

Post by illwrks »

vunderba wrote: post #40

It should be noted that a lot of people mistake relative pitch for perfect pitch. Perfect pitch means that I can sit down at a piano (or other instrument), play one random note, and you can instantly tell me what note that is. No preamble, no tuning yourself up, you can just do it. Relative pitch is much more about recognizing intervals - a tritone versus a perfect fifth for example. You'll find as was the case when…

Nothing but a random comment, but my daughter has near perfect pitch and it amazes me to no end. She can hear a note and 99% of the time tell you exactly what it is. She loves telling me when I'm off key in the car singing along to things. She's only just turned 11.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#138

Post by trgn »

dhosek wrote: post #133
trgn wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm middle aged and looking for a new hobby, and for this reason alone I might take up singing, to be able to play by ear much more easily on my instrument (iso by trial and error, I get there eventually but it's not effortless). I'm held back by a sense of embarrassment when singing. I feel weird singing by myself (always have), let alone with others around. I don't have this same embarrassment making mistakes when…

I think it helped that I was a regular attendee at Mass before becoming a chorister so I had the advantage of years of singing in the congregation where you’re surrounded by people singing (or not) of various skill levels and it’s kind of expected that you sing around others. Most church choirs are pretty welcoming though and tend to be a bit desperate for male voices. Only the Cathedral choir had an audition process…

great thx! biggest issue now is to relapse my lapsed status ;)

> they just played all four parts together

.. that sounds like baptism by fire

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#139

Post by danbmil99 »

It's incorrect to say that Perfect Pitch means you can pick out any of the 12 tones commonly used in western music. It doesn't mean that; that can only come with training.

The core ability with perfect pitch is to remember a note persistent over many months or years. If you know a song well, and you have perfect pitch, you will almost always sing it in the correct pitch. Not within a semitone; within a percent, enough that if you were singing with the recording, you would not be out of tune.

There is overwhelming evidence that this ability is either genetic or acquired at a very early age. It's a difference between people like the way you can fold your tongue or move your thumb. It's innate.

someone with musical training can use this skill to identify the 12 tones of western music, but that's frankly just a party trick built on the core capability.

Here's the concrete example. My son has perfect pitch. I didn't know this until we were watching a Beatles movie, I think A Hard Day's night, and he asked why the instruments Were Out Of Tune. Later I played the record and compared it with the video, and they were off by less than a quarter tone. The Beatles another musicians in the '60s often used very speed to subtly change the tone and tempo and many Beatles Tunes are at a pitch that lies between the standard a 440 12 lb scale

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#140

Post by plaidfuji »

rybosome wrote: post #19

I suppose I have perfect pitch, in that I can more often than not: * aurally identify key signatures * aurally identify chords * sing a given note on command It wasn't until I was into my early twenties that I could do this. For me, the single biggest stepping stone was building the connection between what I could hear in my head from a song that I remember clearly with the underlying music theory. Specifically, buil…

Oh wow, I’ve always thought this would be a good way to do it but I’ve never bothered to actually look up the key of the songs I can “hear” in my head. If the “Hello” of Comfortably Numb is an F#, that’s all I need :)
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