Learning And Training For Perfect Pitch

Learning And Training For Perfect Pitch. What does each one mean and what does it mean to you as a singer, guitarist, or music artist?

It’s been said that only 1 in every 10,000 people possess this skill. That’s right its a SKILL which anybody can learn! In fact you already have the skill, you just need to develop it. You then can truly play by ear your instrument of choice! Ever heard of the term play by ear?

Yes having either or both these skills will help you learn to play by ear. It seems like an almost magical gift that only musical superstars, legendary composers or a few lucky people have, however I assure you ANYONE can learn it. Like learning to count or read, you just need some ear training! To train your ears you just need to acquaint yourself with pitch training!

Let’s start with Perfect Pitch and Absolute Pitch, they mean the same thing are will be used here interchangeably. Simply put, perfect pitch is being able to correctly recognize exactly what note is being played when you hear it.

People with perfect pitch or absolute pitch can even recognize the tones from other sources such as the human voice or telephones! With perfect pitch training, you too can play by ear, in other words, hear a song and play it note by note.

Imagine being able to replay that awesome song you just heard on the radio, composing a melody in your head, or being able to recognize whether a pitch is sharp or flat. It sounds like an amazing skill and yet, you can learn it too!

Relative pitch is being able to recognize the interval between tones or notes regardless of its absolute value. What this means is that if you have this skill you’ll be able to sing in harmony with someone, “jam” more effectively with your guitar, identify complex chords and tune an instrument to itself.

You’ll be able to recognize chords, and it will improve your improvisational skills. You may also sometimes hear it being called interval training.

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Having both perfect pitch and relative pitch can be attained by anyone, and having both skills working in concert will expand your musical ability and enjoyment to heights previously unknown! Hopefully I can help you with some tips on learning both skills.

With perfect pitch training you can recognize the key a piece is in, with relative pitch training you will be more easily able to improvise and play or sing in harmony. Both are different and discreet skills and yet can you see how they actually work together?

Another example is absolute pitch allowing you to hear the melody in your head, and then relative pitch allowing you to hear the chords, then what do you have? A song! See how useful these skills are? As I’ve said you probably already have a talent for these skills, you just need to coax it out and allow it to flower!

They’re only starting points on your journey to a greater musical enjoyment, but will give you a huge boost in your music career. If you want an even quicker and greater boost to learning absolute pitch and relative pitch, there is a program called Pitch Master Pro which helped me immensely.

It might help you too. Look below for some tips to get you started. Which one should you start with first? It doesn’t matter, but there are a lot of people with relative pitch, it might be easier for you too. this should help in your perfect pitch training. Try both and then run with whichever is easiest first. In the end it is really just ear training.

How To do Training For Perfect Pitch

How To do Training For Perfect Pitch can be a fluid process, the following are not in a particular order so here are a few easy steps to get you started.

Certain instruments require you to hear pitches in your head so that you can play a particular note. Learn to play a brass or bowed string instrument.
Limit the use of a chromatic tuner. Tune to the instrument itself, to piano or a tuning fork. This will help you learn quicker because you’re already practicing!
Get yourself some training material. Pitch Master Pro helped me, it will probably help you too. It’s only a small price to pay for accelerated advancement in your musical skills.
Sing whenever you can. Driving in the car, whilst you’re taking a shower. Joining your local choir provides valuable relative pitch ear training and will help pitch recognition in general.
When you listen to a song, try to locate the melody on each instrument; this improves the thought process needed to train for relative pitch. Isolate one instrument and immerse yourself in it. It will help you separate notes give you a new appreciation of a song.
Match your voice to songs that have someone singing with a voice similar to yours. You won’t be able to play by ear if you can’t even hear it with your ears.
Play music by ear as much as possible. Play any songs that you recently heard on the radio, at the supermarket, a tv ad jingle.
Sing back the notes after playing them from a properly tuned instrument like a piano.
As you get better at ear-training, try listening for the unique sounds of each key signature. Try to guess the key signatures of songs just by listening to them.
You can certainly look on the internet but it will take more time and grabbing relative or perfect pitch tips from here and there is probably not the most effective way to do it, in this case “playing it by ear” may not be the best method (ok lame joke i know!) Give Pitch Master Pro a try, its a whole lot easier!

Perfect pitch tips

Some of these will be similar to learning relative pitch, but they tie in together really well.

Develop relative pitch. If you can’t tell the intervals between notes, it is harder to learn perfect pitch. But it’s not impossible so don’t give up!
This is an exercise which gave me a great start. It works well for my students too. Choose a common note, such as C, B-flat, F or G. Keep your eyes closed, play the note repeatedly on a piano or other instrument. Describe the note to yourself. What does it remind you of. Does it sound particularly smooth? Full? Thin? Twangy? Try to feel the note and hold it inside you. Is there a color you associate with this note? Get that note really stuck in your head. Associate with one definitive thing which you will instantly think of. An example you might want to try to associate the first note of a song with the same note you are trying to learn, like Twinkle Twinkle little star in C. Get to the point where as soon as the note of C is hit, you instantly think of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which you know starts with a C.
Now either randomly press notes on the piano or have a friend do it for you. When the note you have been studying comes up (at any octave) check and see if you were right. Repeat this for a couple of days. Then try to guess the note without playing it to yourself first. This was one of the ways for me to fast track my own learning.
Repeat these steps with the other eleven notes of the chromatic scale.You’re now well advanced in your perfect pitch training.
After you are well-versed in single notes, attempt 2 and 3 note chords. After that you are the pearl and the musical world is your oyster.
To reinforce this, when you hear any music, try to see if you can recognize the notes you’ve learned. Starting to pay attention to pitches will teach your brain to perceive everything you hear slightly differently. Perfect pitch here we come!
Of course you can learn all this in more detail from the material that helped me in my perfect pitch training and relative pitch skills. I use the same material to teach my students. The main skill they wanted was to play by ear anything I heard, Pitch Master Pro definitely helped them gain perfect pitch or absolute pitch and relative pitch.

It’s been a whole new world for me ever since I learned these skill

Perfect pitch training and relative pitch training

I hope that I’ve helped you in some small way with your musical journey. Don’t waste any time, just pick up an instrument, or listen to a song and just sing along! Would it be wonderful if we all devoted ourselves to music? Maybe one day, the world will jam together in perfect harmony with perfect pitch or absolute pitch and relative pitch!