Remember your first music lessons.

Funscrape.Com More Happy New Year Comments

Hey Guys and a very Happy New Year!

Apologies for not having posted in a while. As a TV composer work can sometimes take over.

However I am back to provide you with more tips to get your perfect pitch training back on course!

Today I am not going to talk about technique or tips that will help you to develop your music ear training. So what am I going to talk about?

It's the most important lesson of all.......GIVING YOURSELF TIME TO DEVELOP.

Think back to your first music lesson or the first time you picked up your instrument and tried to play a tune. I bet at the time you struggled to get the notes right or to create the correct shape with your mouth, or maybe the fingering was a little tough. But, I bet you soon saw a steady but slow improvement? With each lesson or practice you got a little better until without you realizing you were suddenly playing that tune and well too!

Perfect pitch training is exactly the same thing.....No question. You are developing a new aspect to your musicianship which takes slow but steady steps. The problem is the going can be tough sometimes and you feel like your getting nowhere fast?


But


This may give you some encouragement? Developing my perfect pitch training has been something that hasn't come naturally to me. I had to work at it; sometimes with the excellent courses that I subscribed to I felt I was getting nowhere. However I first started to notice my ear developing when I recognised notes aand could play them straight back on the keyboard. Then I started to notice that I was able to hear a phrase and know where and what intervals to play on the piano. I have to say this felt pretty cool. For the first time I started to feel like a real muso! Gradually as time went on I worked harder and harder spurred on by being able to acknowledge that I was improving.

At some point this will be you. If you desire to have perfect and relative pitch YOU CAN DO IT. Hell if I can then anyone can! Just remembber to give your self time to develop. YOU WILL GET THERE IN THE END!

Peace and may '09 be a year full of success and happiness.

Perfect Pitch Training Links

Ok no lesson today but I have been doing some searching around to see what's out there on perfect pitch training.

I can across this website which has a ton of links to lots of different ezine articles discussing anything and everything to do with perfect pitch and relative pitch. I checked out some of the articles and they seem to me to be pretty good. There's a recommended course section which might be a bit spammy(?) plus a few other sites.

The site is called perfect pitch links and seems like quite a good resource.

Go check it out

http://www.perfectpitchpeople.com/Links/

:)

Perfect Pitch Training : Learning Intervals

Today's blog is all about giving you some free tips for learning music intervals. Using the exercises previously blogged practice these easy quick perfect pitch tips to help develop your music ear training further.

Tip 1

Learn each interval intimately, the sound and it's personality. Think of the different personality of the perfect 5th compared to the minor 2nd.

Tip 2

Focus on one interval at a time making sure the span and sound of the interval is locked in your mind before you move on.

Tip 3

Develop a physical connection with the interval. For example where you place your fingers on the piano or the stretch on the guitar.

Tip 4

Give your self time to hear the interval in you inner ear. Internalize the sound your are listening too.

Tip 5

What is the tone/timbre of your instrument when playing intervals? e.g The sound of a power chord on a distorted guitar is very different to the tone of to flutes playing a power chord or 5ths.

Tip 6

Your goal is immediate recognition of the different intervals so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to learn them. Patience is absolutely essential as learning each one will take time but the reward is truly worth it.

It is worth remembering Haydn's famous words "I listened more than I studied". From these few words it is clear that in the mind of a genius perfect pitch training will be one of the best decisions you ever will make.

Perfect Pitch Training: Interval Recognition

Become intimate with Intervals

Recognizing intervals is absolutely key to developing good perfect pitch. Why? Because when you can identify the different intervals of a musical phrase, you can notate and transcribe without interruption, or put another way you won't have take the hit and miss approach of randomly pressing keys on your keyboard.



Solfage is brilliant!

Diatonic scales is the best place to start learning your intervals. Solfage is a great way to learn and understand scale degrees and how they relate to each other. Solfage was developed in the 11th century by Guido d' Arezzo and is still commonly used today. It takes time to get used to singing solfege but even just minimum effort can benefit you greatly. It will free you to practice interval recognition even when you aren't at your instrument. You can literally practice perfect pitch training 24/7 where ever you are. How cool is that!

Solfage Scale Names

Sing a scale (best to start with C major) vocalizing the following syllables e.g pitch the note C but vocalize the syllable Doh etc etc.


C - Do (pronoucened Doh no Homer Simpson impressions please!)
D - Re (pronounce Ray)
E - Mi (pro' Mee
F - Fa (Pro' Far)
G - So (Sol)
A - La (Lah)
B - Ti (Tee)
C - Do

Solfage Interval Identification Technique

Now once you can sing up and down the scale comfortably try singing from memory just a few intervals. Limit yourself to just a few intervals so that you can focus your mind on learning the important and most dominant intervals.

C (Doh) up to C (Doh) - Learn the interval of the Octave.
C (Doh) up to G (Sol) - Learn the interval of the 5th.
C (Doh) up to F (Fa) - The interval of a 4th

This may seem simple, that's because it is. It may seem like there isn't much to do, just learning 3 different intervals - The octave, 5th and 4th. However these three intervals are the bedrock to your learning interval recognition and developing perfect pitch.

I give you my word that if you practice this and become intimate with those three intervals you will be well on your way to unlocking the secret of many great composers' genius.

Until next time keep PERFECT PITCH TRAINING

Absolute Pitch or Relative Pitch The Pros and Cons

By definition the two are slightly different.

Absolute Pitch is the ability to hear a note and identify it's tone.

Relative Pitch is being able to distinguish and recognize intervals.

So, which is better?

Absolute Pros:

Those that have it naturally can spot notes and identify them from memory (remember this can be taught and learnt). Studies have also revealed that those who have had absolute pitch from an early age can switch it on and off like a radio.

Absolute Cons:

Pitch is variable; take the guitar for instance. When a guitar is tuned with a tuner the tuner needle can be seen to flicker up and down in pitch slightly, demonstrating how pitch is not static. Imagine a pianist reciting a piece on a piano half a tone out, for someone with absolute pitch it could be a nightmare, because of this those with absolute benefit from learning relative pitch.

Relative Pros:

One advantage with relative is we can be comfortable with tones sounding at any pitch across the sound spectrum. If you your ear isn't absolute you are able perceive intervals freely. One good example is transcribing orchestrated music. Through the various record methods the pitch of the recording can change giving someone with absolute pitch a head ache but those with relative an opportunity to open there mind and transcribe freely.

Rock bands often detune slightly from A440 (for whatever reason) again transcribing with relative allows you to easily hear the intervals without distraction.

As an example of this check out Sigur Ros' Hippipolla. This wonderful song is not in standard A440. See if you can transcribe this track using relative pitch and interval recognition (don't worry about not having a full understanding I will give you some transcribing tips in coming blogs :)) you will soon see that if you play along with the piano at A440 it won't be in tune, it will be very slightly out. With absolute pitch this song would present many challenges. Have fun and enjoy...let me know how you get on?



So to sum up Relative vs Absolute are both essential to your music ear training. You are at a definite advantage learning relative pitch, however absolute is a skill that will naturally develop and in the long term the two will go had in hand together. You will utilize both techniques.

Until next time......

Hearing what you see....

Hello perfect pitchers,

Have to say that isn't me above but I'm sure my head a very much more hollow and resonant than his is!

Today I am going to continue with that crazy tutorial that I recorded yesterday. This blog is all about tonal memory and using note matching and resonance to develop you music ear training.

So try out the following to enhance your perfect pitch:

Find an object that has a pitch to it. An empty glass, glass half full of water, metal bar that vibrates or um.....someones head that you think might resonant to a pitch, make sure your gentle though! Next sing in unison with that object, perhaps even sing an octave up a down from the source pitch.

Once you have done this and you can feel the resonance stop the object and internalize the sound, listen to the pitch in your head. Then using tonal memory sing the note aloud. Checking with the object that you have it spot on!

This is practicing HEARING WHAT YOU SEE!

UNTIL NEXT TIME......

Perfect your pitch resonance!

OK here is a short video tutorial I created that will help you to develop your ability to pitch notes more accurately than you ever thought possible!

Singing in unison is the first step in developing your ear. Why? Well the simple answer is if you can sing in unison and control the resonance of a note your inner ear will become 100% more accurate.

This is my first video tutorial so let me know what you think. Is it helpful? Confusing? Boring? etc etc.

Enjoy and look out for the next step soon.

So here are the simple steps to follow to develop your perfect pitch training:

1. Find a single tone to sing along to.
2. Sing in unison
3. Bend the note slightly to feel the resonance of the notes in unison
4. Move your voice up/down an octave, sing in unison to feel the resonance
5. Finally sing different intervals and possibly even start to create melodies against the single tone.