What's this mysterious scale-related "skill" called?

by agro1986 Fri Oct 10, 2008 8:38 am

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by Thomandy Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:05 am

There has been a big discussion about perfect pitch somewhere on the forum...

The fact is that the experts disagree also. But its highly likely that its genetic!!! Smile

And that you need to practice and learn pianotheory to get to practice it well on a piano. You CANT know if you got perfect pitch on your own unless you got good pianotheoretical skills and practice memorizing what keys the Hrz(sound) is atatched to... ect Smile

by wamaral Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:55 am

That's called perception, and it's a very nice skill to have!
I do believe that perception, together with Relative pitch, is much more useful than Perfect pitch. And as a plus, they can be acquired with practicing! You just need to train your ear very very precisely to the sounds.
I do have a quite good relative pitch, and I'm really focused on training my perception. It helps you a LOT!

By the way, it's very common to be "off by a fifth" when you start practicing perception, as you know a fifth is the most "pleasant" and natural interval to hear (a 3:5 ratio in the wavelength, for you who likes math) Laughing

by agro1986 Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:21 am

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by VictorCS Sat Oct 11, 2008 11:27 am

When I do practice my relative pitch I usually listen to a song, then try to mimick it on the keyboard or guitar.
But there are som limits, right now i'm working on Rambo: First Blood's Home Coming.
And it's quite easy when there arent any other instruments playing than the guitar, but when mixed with other instruments, it's hard to isolate the guitar.

But playing by ear is a great skill, that should be practiced, and because most of us doesnt have perfect
pitch we dont get annoyed by playin it in a wrong key as long the intervals are right.

by pianohama Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:06 pm

agro1986 wrote:Ah, it's perception isn't it.

Anyway, talking about interval identification, I'm still struggling on identifying the (minor and major) 7th, tritone, and anything higher than a perfect octave . I'm trying to practice that more...

try humming the melody and find the notes on the piano..

by Admin Andrew Fri Nov 14, 2008 3:20 am

The thing I do (which might sound very strange) is I take an interval and play back and forth between that interval. Many many times very quickly, then I Hum it, then I sing the interval while I say the name of the interval, this links that pitch to the name that it has. So for example play a minor 7th a few times, then hum it and then sing that interval while you say the words minor 7th. It's almost like creating a song that will stick in your mind with the lyrics of the song telling you the right answers. ^_^