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Let me briefly share my background:I am not born with Perfect Pitch. My parents are not musical. I began picking up an instrument at the age of 14, but did not train my ear until I was 21. I discovered the phenomenon of Perfect Pitch at 24 and the year was 2013. However, I did not have the right tools and methods to help me achieve my goals in Perfect Pitch and I was left floundering. Although, I continued practicing my relative Pitch. Fast forward to 2019, I finally have the right tools and methods to help me develop Perfect Pitch. I simply use a DAW and a flashcard app called Anki to quiz myself with the notes chords and voicings. I also use the Eguchi Perfect Pitch Method sans the colored paper stuff. The only thing I applied in that method is quizzing myself with one thing at a time. If I guess everything accurately then I add one thing the next day. If I made a mistake, I don't add anything until I get the current variables accurately. I did this day by day and now I memorized the sounds of 15 different chords and voicings. By the end of the year, I am confident that I will memorize 200 chords or more. As for the relative pitch, today I am able to recognize the sounds of various chord progressions and I play by ear bass guitar in my church. I am able to recognize the relative chords of chord progressions on TV and radio commercials and progressions of simple pop tunes. I am currently learning the sounds of common jazz progressions and variations of blues progressions. When it comes to relative pitch, the next thing I want to master are recognizing melodies and that's on they way. As for Perfect Pitch I started out from scratch, I wasn't born with it, yet had experienced success. Those people who say Adults can't develop Perfect Pitch apparently did not put an ounce of effort to practice Perfect Pitch. I am one of the anomalies out there who practice Perfect Pitch on a regular basis and experiencing success. The idea that Perfect Pitch can't be developed stemmed from an age old idea before computers were invented. In the 21st century, we have now the tools and technologies to help us attain Perfect Pitch.
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03-08-2019 10:19 AM
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Additional information:
For the Relative Pitch, I use an Apple App called Anytune to transcribe chords and melodies. Not to mention I also use the Charlie Banacos method.
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Everybody at all ages do HAVE perfect pitch. But only for a short amount of time after they heard the notes
Whether one has perfect pitch or not is a question of whether pitches are ingrained in the long term memory or not. Adults I believe can develop perfect pitch but not truly for long term and it'll require constant training to maintain it. Even then it may not be always there consistently and reliably. People who have perfect pitch, naturally possess that ability whether they like it or not.
I don't want to sound dismissive and I find your affords and results interesting but of all the ways one can make use of their practice time to train their ears, train their time or train other musical/instrumental skills, developing perfect pitch would be very very low on my list.Last edited by Tal_175; 03-08-2019 at 02:40 PM.
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When I was studying classical guitar with Aaron Shearer he made the remark to me that while having perfect pitch would be nice, he didn't think that it gave one guitarist an advantage over another.
Originally Posted by Tal_175
So spending time trying to develop perfect pitch was pretty low on his recommended list of priorities as well.
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Rick Beato has done a lot of research on this topic and has a son with perfect pitch. He gives some pretty convincing reasons why adults are unable to develop pitch.
It seems to me that if perfect pitch was a learnable skill, and therefore teachable, it would be taught in music schools.
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Relative pitch= useful
Perfect pitch= curse
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I wish I was so cursed. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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What concert pitch is your perfect pitch?
The frequency of concert pitch has varied over half an octave in the last few hundred years, only recently standardized 64 years ago as A5=440Hz (ISO 16). If any people have had perfect pitch throughout earlier history, their perfect pitch will have been with respect to varying frequencies of concert pitch, so there would be no one native perfect pitch the same for everyone.
What temperament is your perfect pitch?
There have been over 25 different temperaments of which a few are well known. Equal temperament is a relatively modern one, and likewise those that would have had perfect pitch would have to have had it in a temperament, so not the same for everyone.
How perfect is your perfect pitch?
If the test is naming the correct note name from presented pitch, the margin of error for a correct answer covers that note's frequency spread around its pitch frequency of +49.999... cents sharp to -49.999... cents flat, so the margin of error contained in every correct answer covers the span of a semi-tone.
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The last thing I want is perfect pitch.
When I was a student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music we had an ear test - about 60 students in a room writing down intervals and melodies played on a tape machine (yes, I'm that old). Well, the tape was turning at slightly the wrong speed. All those arrogant sods with perfect pitch failed dismally, while those of us with decent relative pitch came sailing through. How we laughed!
Another reason I don't want perfect pitch is that I do not always play at A=440.
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I know that this discussion is about Perfect Pitch, but no one has benefited from relative pitch more than me. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
My recognition of relative chords is actually incredible. I may not know the actual key at first but I am able to recognize the movement of the relative chords in most songs in just one listen. And I'll only get better and better at that as I learn more complex chordal movements by transcribing chords. When it comes to relative pitch the next phase that I like to accomplish is melody recognition or interval and scale degree recognition in melodies. Transcribing is a proven method that was critical in my relative pitch development. I do store a file in google drive of all the chord changes and melodies that I have transcribed. The reason why I want to learn RP and AP simultaneously is that if I'm going to make music my livelihood; I don't want to spend my entire lifetime being mystified by the art of music and be oblivious to it. I want to take control and have authority over music and it starts by training my ears.
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I dunno if you are being flippant, but you are correct perhaps. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
I knew a guy with perfect pitch. He was a piano tuner (among other things), but there was no doubt he had it. I watched him tune many a piano without a tuner.
He remarked to me once he hated noon. Because church bells rang at noon, and he said none of them were in tune. I never knew how serious he really was about this, but I can certainly imagine hearing notes out of pitch could very well be annoying.
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If you seriously want to learn and improve your musical skills, stop wasting time trying to acquire perfect pitch. It's not in any way necessary, for anything at all. You could spend the time you save by improving your relative pitch, or practising technical things on the instrument, or learning some repertoire, or studying motif development or...etc etc.
Why would you want to acquire perfect pitch anyway? I very much doubt if it's possible to acquire it as an adult, for a variety of reasons, but even if you managed to do it, what then? What practical value do you think it would bring to your musical activities, beyond providing a nice little trick you can pull out at parties now and then?
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Perfect pitch is when you throw a banjo in the trash and it lands on an accordion.
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I like your approach, but - as a Richard Galliano fan - I'd chose different instruments. Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
Bombard meets Bagpipe... I'd be 100% d'accord...
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Be careful.
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I don't understand your claim, Jason. You've not developed perfect pitch, and neither has any other adults (that didn't obtain it at young age). Perfect pitch means you have the pitches stuck in your head. They're instant and obvious, like colours. There is no thinking or guesswork involved. They can be recognised and imagined at any time, regardless of surrounding noise or harmony.
Nobody is born with perfect pitch, though the ability to develop it is probably genetic. The pitches we use are chosen by society and is programmed into young, growing brains. Most always through playing around with those pitches. Give yer kid a keyboard, the very best tool for kids to develop this thing
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That's good to develop but not unique. Good jazz musicians all develop the ability to do this. They know what the qualities of the chords are when they hear it- major, minor, dominant, diminished, dom b5, etc. Most can immediately recognize the extensions and tensions (6th, major 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th). They hear functional harmony clearly and know how to respond to it. Those of us who don't or can't develop this will probably not become "good" jazz musicians- we can play from sheet music, perhaps, but we can't sit in and play standards by ear without a chart. Until we can do that, we're not fully developed as jazz musicians. Originally Posted by Jason Sioco
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I only studied piano as a youngster for about 5 years, but pretty basic stuff. Besides a few group guitar and ensemble classes and many jam sessions with others, that is the extent of my musical training outside of countless hours of listening to (quality - my own interpretation) music, studying books, and and playing guitar for over 40 years. What is it when I hear a note (I used to play with a saxophonist, listening to recordings, etc.) from another source and I instantly hit the same note on my guitar? I don't know if I can do it all the time, and I don't really even try to challenge myself to do very often, but I can do it. No hunting. Just hear a singular note and nailing it. I will add that I couldn't tell you what the note is unless I back track and figure it out. I also can sing along to songs that I dig without sounding horrible. I just attribute it to having a decent ear, but is that a sign of perfect pitch or just dumb luck? BTW, if I tried to copy a solo from someone like Coltrane I would be beating my head against the wall. I don't have that type of discipline.
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It's not a dumb luck. It ain't a "pitch memory" either. We all can learn to nail a heard note with singing. And sing the heard chord tones without much mistakes and without knowing the key in advance, just sing along instantly. Takes average talent, not "perfect pitch". It's much much harder on an instrument but not impossible. At least it gets better with practice. The term "perfect pitch" kinda excludes all under par efforts. So that's why the attitude of "don't need it, useless" is so common maybe? I feel there should be better word for the the less lucky. Originally Posted by lammie200
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Wow, I really have to start up that Performance Ear Training Journal again.
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Hate to break it to you but...
You're not learning perfect pitch, you're just improving your pitch memory. Perfect pitch cannot be learned after a certain age, period.
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If you hear a note, you can sing it. If you hear a chord, you can sing most of the notes and don't add bad notes. It has NOTHING to do with the pitch memory. So, what would you call this? Technically it's closer to the "perfect pitch" ability than to "pitch memory" while not being perfect at all. Originally Posted by powersurge
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Someone who really knows what he is talking about (he doesn't have perfect pitch, his son does)
Rick Beato: "After age 6 you can't develop perfect pitch".
Last edited by fep; 03-12-2019 at 09:38 AM.
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I'm referring to the OP's experiment. Also, what your describing is pitch matching. AP/PP is when you can hear/reproduce a note and know exactly what the note is. No memorization or references involved--- it's instant and inherent.
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