Any experience with the Perfect Pitch product?

[Simplyhere]

Do any of you folks have experience with the "Perfect Pitch" instructional materials. There is usually an add about it in Acoustic Guitar. My son is learning the Viola, in the strings classes at school (6th grade), and his instructor is recommending the students get this Perfect Pitch product. Says that "long term" it will be beneficial.

It's a little pricey, at $169 bucks, and I just wondered if any of you knew anything about it before I took the plunge.

Thanks in advance.

[anothersmith]

This question comes up from time to time; I've been curious about the course, too. Someone (maybe Proy?) posted a few months ago that he was trying the program, but I haven't seen an update since then.

[Nigel Tufnel]

I have had the pleasure to be around several people who had been through the program. The question always comes up about relative as opposed to perfect pitch which is the correct terminology blah blah blah etc. Some interesting things to consider are the following. Is it neccesary to have perfect pitch? Does it add to your musical ablity as opposed to relative pitch? From my experience those I have played with did not improve dramatically as musicians. They were mostly struggling to get the imperfectionsthey now heard out of their instruments. I would look into another program. If you think about it perfect pitch might not be the best thing.

[~j~]

gimmick

could spend that time working on other things, like playing in ensembles that would help your sense of pitch in a better way than you individually having some misconception that because you took some course you must be right

[Guitar Dad]

mapletrees chimed in on this a while ago, and he mentioned a program that is used by Berklee that was much cheaper. I have the title around here somewhere...lemme look.

I don't know how helpful this would be, especially for guitar.

[Greg]

I have no experience with the Perfect Pitch product, but I became very interested in it after seeing the 1-2 page spread in every (and I mean every) guitar magazine I bought. I ordered the free introductory tape for the Relative Pitch course and became much more interested in that, because the syllabus was very comprehensive. It seemed to be like a music theory course, but completely involving the ear. If I remember right, there are five levels and four 90-minute tapes for each level. By the fifth level, you are supposedly analyzing Bach by ear....aint that exciting? Well, I ordered the first level a few years ago, and still havent reached the end, due to my absurd lazyness and lack of motvation. You have to sing intervals in order to internalize them, and man, I really hate the sound of my own voice--can't I just play the guitar without all the aggravation of hearing those bleating sounds I make? Can't you just install a jack in the back of my head, boot up to my machine, insert a floppy that says "Ear Training" on it, and download the program into my head like "The Matrix"....

"I'm going to learn...Ju-Jitsu?"

...no, can't do that. Honestly, the first time I had actually mastered an interval (like the proper spellings and sounds of the Major third), I really felt like I had accomplished something. I never found a practical use for it, but I could sure pass that test with flying colors (then anyway). And the problem is, you can work so hard to get one interval into your head that by the time you've mastered it, you've already forgotten the last one. This of course became very frustrating for me. As David L. Burge discusses the drills and various intervals involved, he tries to convince you that this is "easy" but I had an impossible time forming that mindset.

For what it's worth, I don't think that his courses are a gimmick: I think they are very well-organized, comprehensive learning tools. The problem lies with the student, and how much time and effort he or she is willing to commit to this task, just like anything else.

Then again I think Photoreading is real. I'm eager to hear more suggestions myself.

Greg

[Guitar Dad]

I think mapletrees mentioned this book once:

Essential Ear Training for the Contemporary Musician
by Steve Prosser

This one is supposedly better:

Ear Training: One Note Complete Method
by Bruce E. Arnold

Both are available on amazon.com, and they're a lot cheaper...

[Guitar Dad]

Could somebody explain to me, as a musical novice, why this is important?

[revkev]

Seems to me like relative pitch and the ability to harmonize would be more important than perfect pitch. Just my $.02

[anothersmith]

As one who has little confidence in her ability to sing the note she intends to sing, I can see being suckered in by a product like this. There's nothing wrong with my voice that a few lessons wouldn't help, but ads like the one for "Perfect Pitch" make it seem so easy to do in the privacy of your own home.

That's one person's take on why someone would buy this (or a similar) product.

[Greg]

Originally posted by Guitar Dad
Could somebody explain to me, as a musical novice, why this is important?

I guess you're asking why ear-training is important, and I suppose that those among the collective wisdom of this board could give you much better answers than I could. I've been playing guitar for years but I consider myself a musical novice as well, and that's probably one of the reasons why I was so interested in ear training when I first heard about it. Since music is a hearing art, I thought it would be a great boon for me as a musician if I could learn to recognize the smallest components that make up music, and learn to identify by ear the harmonies that they are built upon. So I guess the musicians who would gain the most advantage with this ability would be composers or songwriters and improvisationists mostly. If you're playing a fretless stringed instrument, it could be dreadful for the ensemble and anyone else who's listening if you're playing out of tune and don't even know it. However, it's probably not important to everyone, and some people have a gift for this kind of perception anyway.

Greg

[12strings]

as far as ear training goes, here's some stuff to think about.

relatave pitch is much more necessary for 99% of musical situations you go into, and even if you can't sing intervals on demand ("sing a minor 6th") if you can sing songs that you know on pitch, then you have at least some relative pitch. almost everyone can improver their relative pitch. if you can look at music and sing it simply by looking at then notes, you have quite good relative pitch that will serve you well in most musical situations.


Perfect pitch is not necessary very often, usally just a nice thing to have.

However, those who do have perfect pitch ussually have very good relative pitch as well...because they can think of (C-->Ab...a minor 6th) just by the notes. they often don't see why they would have to take a course in ear training.


so perfect pitch may help relative pitch, but relative pitch is easier to learn, and more necessary.

[Roy]

Even though I'm not nearly as good a guitarist as I want to be, one thing I've gotten pretty good at is learning a song by ear. This skill has come ....(surprise, surprise)... by learning songs by ear. You gradually learn to recognize the sounds of intervals on the guitar, of which strings they are being played on, and you get to where you can focus in on individual notes. I find this possibly the most enjoyable part of guitar...figuring out from a recording what the guitarist is doing, then being able to play it they way they did.
I guess I'm suggesting learning by listening to songs carefully and learning them by ear...it's relative pitch, not perfect, but you will learn a valuable skill in the process because you are learning songs you enjoy.