Thread: Ear training
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Old 03-31-2015, 02:39 PM
Rmz76 Rmz76 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by posternutbag View Post
There are people who are born with good pitch recognition, but it is absolutely a skill that can be taught.

OK, let me put a finer point on it. There are really (at least) two types of pitch recognition, relative and absolute.

I am certain that relative pitch recognition can be taught. Relative pitch recognition is based on being able to discern whether one pitch is higher or lower than another. If you can play a high note and a low note and tell which is which, then you can improve relative pitch recognition. From there it is just a matter of learning what intervals sound like. For instance, and octave is "Some-where..." from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." You learn to recognize an octave, a perfect fifth, etc based on prominent intervals between the notes of songs.

I am less sure that so-called perfect pitch, or absolute pitch, can be taught. This where you recognize individual notes, an Ab sounds like an Ab in the same way red looks like red.

In college, Ear Training classes were funny. The students with good pitch recognition skated through, and the students with poor pitch lived in constant fear of failing. There really was no middle ground. The students who were bad seldom put forth any effort to get better, but I know from personal experience that my relative pitch recognition has improved. I can't identify a random note on a keyboard, but if you play 2 notes, I can accurately identify the interval.
This is true. Ignore the mail order and on-line courses promising perfect pitch. There have been many University studies done on pitch training and if there is a system to teach perfect pitch it it hasn't been proven yet.

I had a good friend who claimed to have perfect pitch. He had this incredible gift and could name a note on guitar or keyboard, but he had horrible timing and wasn't a very good musician except for his ability to nail the chord changes. There were little things that would bother him too. If an artist changed the key of a song for a live performance different to that of the album version he would get upset and leave and say "I can't stand to listen to it". He was also super sensitive to non musical sounds. He did work at trying to develop relative pitch but struggled with it.

I think relative pitch is much more useful.
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