Kid totally nails most difficult ear training test!!!

[edh]

hmmm....I wonder if the kid had tinnitus would he hear it in perfect pitch? And would it drive him nuts?

[princeplanet]

So what? It is about as useful to being a musician as the ability to identify colour according to the Munsell Colour System to being an artist or scoring a high Stanford-Binet IQ to being a mathematician.

One does not lead to the other as a natural consequence. A parlour trick and no more than that.

I'm not impressed. Nothing against the kid however. Putting it in perspective. Oh well, he could possibly be a great piano tuner. And have a big problem playing the guitar.

There was a guy I know who once said that NOT having this gift and playing music is like a blind person painting. The inference being that a true musician hears this well, without tricks or even trying.

While there are a lot of us "blind painters" out there ( and some of us get pretty good ) I often wonder if he's right .....

[2bornot2bop]

How or why anyone could go to an internet forum and be dismissive of a child's gift, to the point of ridicule, is beyond me.

Sometimes it's simply better to keep ones trap shut rather than offer an "opinion", lest one outs themselves as ignorant or foolish

Dylan seems like a great kid! His dad Rick is a musician, professor, producer, etc

as an infant Dylan viewed and listened to Wes (2:53 on video clip) - An influence?

Speaking of "blind painters."

[destinytot]

How or why anyone could go to an internet forum and be dismissive of a child's gift, to the point of ridicule, is beyond me.

I think that without patience, focus and restraint, participating in internet forum discussion is a waste of (precious) time.

Sometimes it's simply better to keep ones trap shut rather than offer an "opinion", lest one outs themselves as ignorant or foolish

Provided what one says is true or supportable, I'm not sure that 'outing oneself as ignorant or foolish' matters at all.

I'm here to learn; I'm in favour of encouraging articulation where there is divergence of understanding - as long as challenges or criticism are directed at ideas - not at individuals.

Re. ear training, this highly effective exercise involves exposing not the recognition of notes/pitches but where this is lacking or undeveloped:
"I-IV-V-I Cadence in C followed by x number of pitches/Pencil exercise
What Banacos called the Pencil exercise serves to develop a strong relative pitch.
It can be practiced alone or in pairs. For practice in pairs, one person plays a I-IV-V-I
cadence in C major on the piano followed by a single note, while the other person
attempts to identify that note as quickly as possible. Once proficiency in identifying a
single note is achieved, the exercise progresses to identification of two notes played
simultaneously. Eventually the exercise extends up to eleven notes played
simultaneously. At the stage of eleven notes, identification of the missing note is
expected instead of naming each one of them. For solo practice, this exercise can be
performed in two basic ways. First, play the cadence on the piano, turn one’s back to the
keyboard, and reach behind to strike one or two keys with the eraser ends of one or two
pencils. Second, make several recordings playing long series of cadences and notes,
saying the answers a few seconds after each example. Then, playback the recording,
guess for the right notes and confirm when hearing the answer. It is best to avoid singing
the note C or any other notes after hearing them, but rather to identify and name each
note instantly without measuring the intervals.
Banacos emphasized the importance of recognizing notes by reacting immediately
from a Zen-like perspective of non-thinking. Putting the advice in his own words: “Go
for speed, not correctness” “Zen mind, intuitive mind” “Strike, guess, look, repeat.” For
him the purpose of this exercise was to aim for recognition of an entire set of notes as one
‘color’ as opposed to hearing separate individual entities. He considered the successful
identification of six notes or more a professional level.
Banacos would administer this exercise by playing the cadence in C and varying
the dynamics, tempo, and character, to keep one alert. Several students reported that after
practicing this exercise they experienced a tremendous improvement in the ability to
recognize sound colors. In live jazz sessions or performances, they started responding
quickly and interacting with their band-mates by relying more on attentive and deep
listening.
The following instruction was given specifically to saxophonist Sean Berry and
pianist Tom Thorndike for the purpose of putting individual pitches in a diatonic context
by assigning numbers to each one in relation to a key center. After naming every single
note, they had to select one of the notes and consider it the root of a chord and relate all
of the remaining notes to it explaining what extensions or chord tones they were. For
example, hearing the set of notes Eb, G, C#, F, B, and A# simultaneously, these students
had to name all the notes, select one of them as root (G for example), and name this set of
pitches as a G7 (#9,#11,b13) harmonic color.
Banacos used a metaphor to describe for bassist Ervin Dhimo the goal in this
exercise. He said, “When you hear the voice of your father, you don’t take a moment to
think whose voice it is; you immediately recognize your father’s voice and, in a split
second, you say: It’s my father.”31 One should learn to recognize notes and sound colors
in the same way."
from http://www.charliebanacos.com/Kordis...ation_2012.pdf

[Irez87]

Wait, wait, wait...

Guys... I researched this phenomena through my studies of neuroscience and how it relates to education (I take everything I do a little... too seriously. I read a lot )

There are five popular myths in neuroscience:

1. "The Mozart Effect"

2. "The Water Bottle Effect"

3. Sleep studying

4. "Girls Aren't Good At Math"

5. "Left-sided Versus Right-sided Thinkers"

Look them up. Yes, the brain is wired for music and language acquisition at a young age due to neuro-plasticity. But, the problem with pop neuroscience and pop psychology is that people take something that is new and barely tested and trump it as the cure all for everything.

That's just salesmanship and big business at its best.

Read from the source, not from the ad.

[Irez87]

I think that without patience, focus and restraint, participating in internet forum discussion is a waste of (precious) time.

Provided what one says is true or supportable, I'm not sure that 'outing oneself as ignorant or foolish' matters at all.

I'm here to learn; I'm in favour of encouraging articulation where there is divergence of understanding - as long as challenges or criticism are directed at ideas - not at individuals.

Re. ear training, this highly effective exercise involves exposing not the recognition of notes/pitches but where this is lacking or undeveloped:
"I-IV-V-I Cadence in C followed by x number of pitches/Pencil exercise
What Banacos called the Pencil exercise serves to develop a strong relative pitch.
It can be practiced alone or in pairs. For practice in pairs, one person plays a I-IV-V-I
cadence in C major on the piano followed by a single note, while the other person
attempts to identify that note as quickly as possible. Once proficiency in identifying a
single note is achieved, the exercise progresses to identification of two notes played
simultaneously. Eventually the exercise extends up to eleven notes played
simultaneously. At the stage of eleven notes, identification of the missing note is
expected instead of naming each one of them. For solo practice, this exercise can be
performed in two basic ways. First, play the cadence on the piano, turn one’s back to the
keyboard, and reach behind to strike one or two keys with the eraser ends of one or two
pencils. Second, make several recordings playing long series of cadences and notes,
saying the answers a few seconds after each example. Then, playback the recording,
guess for the right notes and confirm when hearing the answer. It is best to avoid singing
the note C or any other notes after hearing them, but rather to identify and name each
note instantly without measuring the intervals.
Banacos emphasized the importance of recognizing notes by reacting immediately
from a Zen-like perspective of non-thinking. Putting the advice in his own words: “Go
for speed, not correctness” “Zen mind, intuitive mind” “Strike, guess, look, repeat.” For
him the purpose of this exercise was to aim for recognition of an entire set of notes as one
‘color’ as opposed to hearing separate individual entities. He considered the successful
identification of six notes or more a professional level.
Banacos would administer this exercise by playing the cadence in C and varying
the dynamics, tempo, and character, to keep one alert. Several students reported that after
practicing this exercise they experienced a tremendous improvement in the ability to
recognize sound colors. In live jazz sessions or performances, they started responding
quickly and interacting with their band-mates by relying more on attentive and deep
listening.
The following instruction was given specifically to saxophonist Sean Berry and
pianist Tom Thorndike for the purpose of putting individual pitches in a diatonic context
by assigning numbers to each one in relation to a key center. After naming every single
note, they had to select one of the notes and consider it the root of a chord and relate all
of the remaining notes to it explaining what extensions or chord tones they were. For
example, hearing the set of notes Eb, G, C#, F, B, and A# simultaneously, these students
had to name all the notes, select one of them as root (G for example), and name this set of
pitches as a G7 (#9,#11,b13) harmonic color.
Banacos used a metaphor to describe for bassist Ervin Dhimo the goal in this
exercise. He said, “When you hear the voice of your father, you don’t take a moment to
think whose voice it is; you immediately recognize your father’s voice and, in a split
second, you say: It’s my father.”31 One should learn to recognize notes and sound colors
in the same way."
from http://www.charliebanacos.com/Kordis...ation_2012.pdf

Bruce Arnold teaches the Charlie Banaco's method quite brilliantly. This is exactly how I study ear training. I am up to two notes at once and hope to get to three notes by the end of the summer. It's a long journey, but an incredibly fruitful one!

[destinytot]

Bruce Arnold teaches the Charlie Banaco's method quite brilliantly. This is exactly how I study ear training. I am up to two notes at once and hope to get to three notes by the end of the summer. It's a long journey, but an incredibly fruitful one!

And if you hadn't championed that particular cause, I don't think I'd ever have got it. I'd been going about this in an overly-complicated way until you clued me in - thank you!

[destinytot]

This becomes a realistic goal:

Once proficiency in identifying a single note is achieved, the exercise progresses to identification of two notes played simultaneously. Eventually the exercise extends up to eleven notes played simultaneously. At the stage of eleven notes, identification of the missing note is expected instead of naming each one of them.