ear for music

[Anaïs]

Do you have an ear for music? How do you train it?
Have some of you experiences with programs like Earmaster?

Shout

[Fleming]

>Do you have an ear for music?
I'm lucky, I have a naturally good ear in that I could play in tune with others and play by ear with no real training. Things like naming intervals and chords is different though. I could always tell the difference, but couldn't name them quickly without a lot of work. I also had trouble with rhythms, but learning to play the drums helped with that.

>How do you train it?
I compose. Slowly breaking things down, thinking about them, and working through music with an ear for what works and what doesn't will help more than somebody's canned ear trainer program, in my opinion. It's more fun too.

[fluteguy18]

I am one of those lucky people who have "perfect" pitch. You play something to me, and I can play it back. Ask me to name the pitch, and I am almost always right.

So, I would say: Yes. I have an ear for music. But no, I don't train it. I was lucky and had the inborn ability.

[pied_piper]

I am one of those lucky people who have "perfect" pitch. You play something to me, and I can play it back. Ask me to name the pitch, and I am almost always right.

So, I would say: Yes. I have an ear for music. But no, I don't train it. I was lucky and had the inborn ability.

I believe that perfect pitch is learned rather than an "inborn ability", but some people have a greater affinity toward it than others. Have you ever known a non-musician with perfect pitch?

The reason for my "theory" is that pitch is similar to color. Everyone (with a few exceptions) can see all of the colors of the rainbow. As children, everyone is taught that red is the name of the color corresponding to visible light with a 650nm wavelength. When we began our music education, however, we typically were only taught to produce various printed notes by pressing down certain fingers. We are not typically taught that a 440Hz audible frequency is an "A". Those musicians who practice for many hours each day gradually begin to associate those frequencies with the names we give the notes just as a child associates each visible wavelength with the names we give the colors.

I tend toward having perfect pitch, but my pitch recoginition is a bit warped by the fact that I first learned to play an Eb Alto Sax (and later to double on flute and clarinet as well). So, I would hear pitches transposed to Eb rather than in concert pitch. Today, I play flute more than sax, and I can "usually" name a concert pitch correctly, but I sometimes will subconsciously "slip" back to hearing the pitches transposed and therefore name it incorrectly (but it is correct when transposed - boy, talk about confusing!!). When I play the flute exclusively for a week or so, I usually end up re-orienting my ears to concert pitch and name the notes correctly. When I do more doubling on sax or clarinet, my ears again get a bit confused...

[fluteguy18]

I can agree with that to an extent, but I think it's a combination of the two. I think the ability to recognize a pitch then reproduce it without thought is inborn. I know a lot of musicians who practice many more hours a day than I do [and that's saying something], who can't do that without some trial and error. But, I think the process of naming the pitch IS learned. I am sometimes off by a half step when I name the pitch, but I think it is because I first associated the names of the pitches with a piano I had at home. The piano wasn't tuned often, and was frequently a half step flat.

So the naming of pitches: yes, I think it is learned. But recognizing immediatly and reproducing without thought: no. Not for me at least. I've always been able to recognize and reproduce the pitches on whatever instrument I'm playing. Ever since I was a little kid, I would watch movies and then go straight to the piano [and later my flute], and bang out the melody. ::

But ultimately whether it is inborn or not isn't important. Some people like myself can name the pitch of any given noise at any given moment. Some people can't tell if a melody is going up or down in pitch unless they physically play/sing it. [Trust me, I know a few of those]. But either way, your sense of pitch can improve. You just have to practice listening.

[c_otter]

A couple of years ago I started automatically translating pitches into fingerings. For example, I hear a pitch, say an A, and without thinking, the A fingering pops into my head. At that point I realize it's an A. Actually, if I think, I can mess myself up. It's not perfect, but I seem to get it right 90-95% of the time. Fluteguy, this sounds like what you were born with.

Interestingly enough, I didn't consciously try to learn this. I just started being able to do this over the past few years. I'm in my late 30s, so this isn't limited to being young.

N

[pied_piper]

Interestingly enough, I didn't consciously try to learn this. I just started being able to do this over the past few years.

This is exactly what I was describing. I don't think anyone is truly born with perfect pitch, but some do learn it at such a young age that it seems that they were born with it. We weren't born able to walk, but we were born with the ability to LEARN to walk. We weren't born able to talk, but we were born with the ability to LEARN to talk. Since we don't often remember our very early years, someone who hears a lot of music as an infant learns to identify pitches. There are even theories a fetus can learn while still in the womb. If we stretch this to perfect pitch, then perhaps some are "born" with it, but even then, I would still say it is learned.

I know a lot of musicians who practice many more hours a day than I do [and that's saying something], who can't do that without some trial and error.

Just as some people are colorblind, some are tonedeaf to varying degrees. Odds are that some of these people become musicians and they learn to cope with that - some better than others.

As human beings, we are born with truly marvelous brains that provide us with an enormous ability to learn. At the most fundamental levels, we might say that everyone is born with the ability to learn almost anything. My view is that we are born with the ability to learn perfect pitch whereas you feel some are born with perfect pitch. For that, I'll refer back to my comment to c_otter about a fetus learning in the womb. In some respects, perhaps this debate is similar to the question "When does life begin?", but, I DON'T want to go there!

BTW, here's some interesting background on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch

[atoriphile]

A question for those with "perfect" pitch: Do you regularly ad lib or play along with pieces without sheet music?

For everyone: Do you think doing this type of ad lib playing will eventually teach your fingers to play the right notes when you hear them?

[fluteguy18]

In the nature vs. nurture section, it states that most scientists think that it is a learned skill which is a result of training early in the child's development. I blatantly disagree with this. I didn't have ANY musical training until I was almost 11 years old. By the terms of those studies, that is too late. And besides, I could already recognize and reproduce pitches by that point anyway. I didn't play piano at all, but I could still go up to the piano in my living room and reproduce the melodies I heard.

[fii]

um, what do you mean by "ear for music"? if it is absolute pitch, yes i have. although not really perfect. but i can guess most of the notes correct. maybe about half note error only.

i believe it is not an inborn talent. because, my mother and father are not musician. i have a good absolute pitch. my sister has it. but all the rest of my siblings can't name it. it is because i and my sister were having music lessons since we were small kids (around 4-5 y.o till today). i never specially trained it.

because of this absolute pitch ear, i feel kinda hard to learn transposing instrument. bcoz of what i hear and playing is different. when you play C on clarinet Bb, it sounds Bb. and it makes me lazy to read score. i prefer to learn by ear, rather than reading scores. and this makes my sight reading skills really poor.

but there are also many advantages by having this absolute pitch. i can play a lot of songs, and i don't need to buy the scores, which is sometimes very expensive.

my absolute pitch only works in "naming the note", but not "to play in tune". i have to learn a lot more...

[flutegirl16]

If I hear a song on the radio once, a week later I will be able to sing it starting on the right pitch. I dont know what note name the pitch is (say a C of a G) I just hear the right tone in my head.

Is this just a weird form of perfect pitch? Maybe just good tone memory?