The Perfect Pitch

[C.Ketola]

http://www.perfectpitch.com/

 

Does it really work?

[Terje]

I'm not sure, I've never tried it myself. Some people have and don't like it, so be warned.

And, more importantly, perfect pitch isn't what you want really, you want better relative pitch. Good relative pitch lets you know what note you are playing in relation to the other notes you're hearing. This is very handy in a real life situation. The good news is that better relative pitch can definitely be had by ear training.

People with perfect pitch can often be annoyed out of their brains by things not being in perfect tune. I've heard that story more than once.

[Neilsonite]

I have both the relative and perfect pitch courses from that website, and I'm currently using them, as well as a program from here: http://www.aruffo.com/eartraining/
The above program is much cheaper and I think it's easier to use and seemingly more effective (especially in perfect pitch, but it also tackles relative pitch). I've noticed a big improvement in my ear, but be warned: it takes a long time and a lot of persistent work.
I think that that relative and absolute pitch are incredibly useful, both from my own experience (although my ear training is very much still going along, and is far from established), and from the experience of a number of musicians I play with who have perfect pitch. I only play with one person who has both established (ie really good) relative pitch and perfect pitch, and that is clearly the combination you want...
If I were you I'd ignore what Terje said - just because people keep saying it doesn't make it true! (No offense Terje, I just think people have misled you...)
Everyone who is even remotely musical can tell if something is in tune or not, perfect pitch just gives you better memory for specific tones. So, if you hear a bird sing a note, you can identify it, whether it is exactly a C, or a bit sharp or flat. If it annoys you out of your brain that a bird is singing a note bewtween the pitches we arbitrarily define as C and C# (instead of it pleasing you that you know exactly what that pitch is and could instantly recreate it on your instrument), then I think you don't really deserve a brain anyway...

[Poparad]

I borrowed the David Lucas Burge course from a friend and gave it a listen, and I think it is grossly overpriced for what he offers. He basically spends all but the last cd explaining what perfect pitch is and why you'd want it, without really explaining how to get it until the very end.


While I will not deny that there would be some benifits to perfect pitch, I believe that obtaining excellent relative pitch is far and above more important. Learning relative pitch goes hand in hand with learning theory and gives you and understanding of the sounds of all the musical ideas you learn in the theory books. Perfect pitch will tell you the note names being played, but relative pitch will tell you what kind of triad it is; what sort of interval it is, etc. Also, relative pitch is much easier to hone and develop than perfect pitch.

[Das Bus]

Perfect pitch is a bit of a funny one, as I think it actually develops as a result of relative pitch. It is only in the last 100 years of so that musicians have been able to agree on A below middle C being 440Hz. There was a lot of variation in the past and therefore 'perfect' pitch was always subjective.

You can teach yourself relative pitch, or at least the tools required. Practise your scales, chords and melodies and learn to distinguish between different intervals. You can test yourself by making a tape of lots of different intervals and then play it back to yourself and try and guess what they are. Or a friend could help. I found that I just picked up relative pitch as I learnt the piano, and never made much of an effort with it.

Perfect pitch? I can hit a note without thinking about it from time to time, but since so many different guitarists tune down etc it kind of becomes subjective.

Ian.

[Quoiyaien]

I have been looking at these ads since I first started playing guitar, and I finally decided to give in and buy it. I was on the website, and being weak to advertisements, I also ordered the 41 CD relative pitch coarse. I guess I will find out once and for all if this actually works. I will let you know how thing go.

Peace:)

[DerryAir2003]

what about a song for each pitch?

About a girl - E
Smells like ten spirit - F
Paradise City - G

I'm trying this at the moment. I wake in the morning and I try and sing the first note of a song into my guitar tuner. Most of the time I hit the right note.

i think the idea is to think of each note as a 'flavour" with those courses.

[mvolta84]

I am interested in learning relative pitch, my ears are not good at all, i can't tune by ear if my life depended on it.
I am interested in the relative pitch program in http://www.aruffo.com/eartraining/

Is it good?

also where is the absolute pitch section on the site?
Is this the ear training companion??

Also i've been playing for a few years but i want to develop more ear training than knowing the formal ways of playing the guitar, how exactly would i apply knowing relative/absolute pitch to guitar playing?

[PhantomDan13]

A good way of developing relative pitch is definetely to learn a bit of piano. Because of the physics of the guitar, notes are coloured differently, so that even the same pitch can sound quite different if played in two different positions on two different strings. The piano is a lot more consistent, and also in my opinion, visual, which helps you assosciate the relation between notes.

Learning the basics of other instruments can often be useful for getting of a learning plateau just because your stimulating the brain in new ways.

[Poparad]

Originally posted by mvolta84 Also i've been playing for a few years but i want to develop more ear training than knowing the formal ways of playing the guitar, how exactly would i apply knowing relative/absolute pitch to guitar playing?

 

 

The best thing to do in conjuction with ear training is to learn about the different types of intervals and triads. Each one has a different sound, and in my mind you have to both learn the mechanics of them (how many half steps, names) and the sounds of them in order to fully learn them.

 

Here are two good free eat training sites:

 

http://www.musictheory.net

 

http://www.good-ear.com

 

 

There are many websites out there that will explain the different intervals and traid types, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding several with a Google search.

[chrisgraff]

Originally posted by DerryAir2003 what about a song for each pitch? About a girl - E Smells like ten spirit - F Paradise City - G I'm trying this at the moment. I wake in the morning and I try and sing the first note of a song into my guitar tuner. Most of the time I hit the right note. i think the idea is to think of each note as a 'flavour" with those courses.

 

 

Those kind of associations are THE way to learn perfect/relative pitch IMHO.

[bobthemerciful]

My friend has perfect pitch. Tuneless-ness that would merely irritate me makes him almost feel sick. Tisn't just showing off, he's one of the best musicians I've ever met, let alone had the privilege to be on stage with. Even when he's so drunk he can barely stand he can still pick notes out with 98% accuracy. He thinks it's more of a curse though. Peace