How to Learn Perfect Pitch
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Ok, you are reading the article. That means that you want to learn how to get perfect pitch right? The first and hardest step is to get motivated enough to make an effort to learn. Now that we’ve established that, we can begin.
This article explains a few techniques to help you on your way to learning perfect pitch. As a guitarist, I can appreciate the value of having perfect pitch. Think of how much easier your musical career would be. One thing I hated was having a rhythm or score in my mind and not being able to write it. I would try to figure out the general idea of the song, only to give up and eventually forget the score all together.
Imagine you’re sitting down, eating with your friends. You are talking and having a good time, when all of a sudden a musical score pops into your head. You grab a napkin and a pen and immediately begin jotting down notes of music. You write fluently, and just as quickly as the music came into your head, you capture it on paper- Your friends are stunned.
The biggest problem musicians have is not being able to translate their exact feelings into music. This is why learning the language is so vital. This is where perfect pitch comes in. Ok I’ll stop teasing you. Wipe the drool from your mouth and let’s begin. Let’s describe what perfect pitch is just to make sure we are all on the same page.
Perfect Pitch is being able to identify a musical note without a reference note. Basically, you can tell what any sound is in the world and classify it into the seven notes. Soon you will hear car horns, clanging cans, or even laughter as musical notes. Another form of language is Relative pitch. Relative pitch is being able to figure out notes while having a reference note there for you. You can probably figure out if a given note is higher or lower than the C note when someone plays that note and the C note in succession. This takes little training, but is vital in helping you learn perfect pitch.
Below are a few techniques to help you on your journey to perfect pitch.
First thing’s first. Perfect Pitch is attainable. Believing that it some special gift you are born with will make it almost impossible to learn. When you were little, you weren’t born with the ability to distinguish the difference between blue and green; you have to learn that skill. Colors are just different wavelengths of light that your eye differentiates. Musical notes are just different wavelengths of sound that you must train your ear to distinguish. What I’d like you to do is hum a C note. Don’t worry if you don’t know how. Just try to hum what you think a C sounds like. Hum it a few times.
Now actually play a C note on your guitar. See how close you were. Listen to the C on your guitar. How does it make you feel? What emotions are attached to the sound? What does the note make you visualize? What does it remind you of? What makes the C note special? What makes it different? Keep listening to the C note for a few minutes. Repeat this exercise a few times a day over the next few days. It only takes about five minutes per exercise. Who doesn’t have five free minutes a few times a week? That’s what I thought.
The next tip requires you to have done the previous exercise. Now it’s time to get your mind ready to memorize what you visualized. Find a quiet place to relax and be calm. This is a perfect area to listen to the intricacies of the notes. Ok now play single, long notes on your guitar. Try to dissect each sound as it hits your ear. What makes one note different from the other? You are training your ear acuity. You are training your ear to be sensitive to the little changes in sound waves. Again, try this a few times a day for a few days. You will notice that your ear is more sensitive and can pick up things you wouldn’t have normally heard.
Here are a few tips to help you achieve your goal.
To learn perfect pitch, don’t learn notes relative to other notes. This is only useful for relative pitch and may hinder your perfect pitch education.
Practice; just as you inadvertently practiced learning colors at a young age, you must now consciously practice these techniques.
I am sure that every now and then you hear a song that reminds you of another song. This is because the two songs use the same notes, but in different ways. A good exercise is to play a song that you know starts with that note. Every time you hear that note you will think of that song and immediately identify it.
Your guitar or piano is your best friend. It is the ultimate reference point when you are unsure of which note is being played. Try to get a friend to play a random note and see if you can identify the note and the octave. You will see yourself get closer and closer to the correct note until you can easily identify and sound that enters your ear.
Try to think of everything as practice. Identify the notes in people’s voices. Try to figure out what note a snap is. Whenever you hear music or sounds, try to figure out what notes and what patterns are used.
Pick a pitch that you are comfortable with. The human ear is more sensitive to mid-range frequencies rather than high or low frequencies. Also, this will help you find your range with your voice.
The better you get at identifying sounds, the more you will want to identify more sounds, and in turn practice more and more. These techniques, if used correctly, can help you make huge gains in learning perfect pitch. For those who aren’t patient and would like a quicker way to learn, be sure to read the next installment where you will be given a few secret exercises to make life easier.
