Absolute Pitch Education

[pitchpaths]

I am quite familiar with the works of Edwin Gordon, music learning theory, and GIA Publications. A few of my professional colleagues are also contributing authors at GIA. Gordon is quickly becoming the new "Suzuki prophet" among music educators today. His two most important works are Learning Sequences in Music and A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children.

Gordon, however, is not a fan of absolute pitch - at all. To paraphrase: "Just because you can name colors does not make you an artist." Though I am a partial advocate of his music learning theory, my sharpest criticism is that he 1) assumes absolute pitch is useless; 2) recommends movable-do exclusively; and 3) loses sight of "keyality" in favor of pure functional tonality.

[cjhealey]

PitchPaths,

Thanks for the reponse about Gordon's method.

I am curious as to whether you believe there are better methods or approaches to developing 'audiation' as well as many of the other skills he attempts to distill in musicians, composers etc.

???

I am most interested in improving my inner hearing or my ability to hear and imagine music with clarity and conception. That is my main goal. (Along with perfect pitch)

Suggestions anyone?

Chris

[pitchpaths]

Hi cjhealey,

Considering that Gordon coined the term "audiation" (basically, "thinking music"), his theoretical literature and co-authored material is naturally the best way to develop his music learning theories.

[bryandaste]

Well, I went ahead and got the Pitch Paths course. I'll be honest, at first I didn't think much of it. It's mainly trigger melodies, which I thought, "Well, I'm already doing that..." And a lot of the trigger melodies used are the same as those in APB. This turned out to be a boon, however, as my mind had already associated those melodies with their respective pitches.

I've been using the Pitch Paths trigger melodies and tests for about a week, and after doing so I returned to APB tonight. All I can say is Wow! I went from Yellow Commodore 2nd class (where I had been stuck since December) to General 1st class in one sitting! I actually had to stop the game because I had been going so long I just got tired ... it's 3:40 AM as I write this.

I don't know if I can give Pitch Paths all the credit, but it sure seems like it complements the APB principles with a slighty different approach.

Yellow General 1st class after 278 waves

[steveAZ]

I second that notion. Pitch Paths and ETC go great together!

[Space]

Has anyone heard of Bruce Arnold (www.arnoldjazz.com)? He's primarily a guitar teacher from New York and his eartraining method is all contextual. He contends that even so-called 'atonal' music is not truly atonal and that to the well trained ear the keys can be heard as shifting, albeit much more rapidly creating sort of 'micro-tonalities'. One must begin by learning to hear all 12 pitches against a key center and he claims that learning intervals is completely unnecessary. Then one begins a particular excercise designed to develop your ability to hear modulations by studying literally every possible 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 note combination within the 12 pitches and if you wish all 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 note combinations if you wish!

He also claims to have a method for developing AP but hasn't published it in course-form yet. He does seem extremely partial to this contextual based eartraining but he's not averse to AP development and feels it can definitely be done and seems to be conveying that he has developed it as well.

Anyway, my whole point here is that I've taken his RP eartraining and applied it to ETC. I do one level of APB followed by a session in Pitch Player which is a simple program that allows you to listen to and identify random single pitches as well as 2, 3, 4, and 5 note chords. You can also weight pitches to play more often than others. I always set the pitch I'm on in APB to 99 (the highest) so that I remain in the key of that pitch. This way I'm working on AP and (contextual) RP simultaneously.

We'll see how it goes.

Rob

[aruffo]

Interval Loader, and Functional Ear Trainer especially, are meant to offer the same RP techniques advocated by Bruce Arnold.

[Space]

Yeah, I kinda reached the end of what I could get out of Functional Eartrainer. The expanded version 2 or whatever only allows you to work on 2 note combinations within the diatonic major and minor scales. I emailed Alaine Benbassant (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) about expanding it further to include all chromatic 2 combinations as well as all possible combinations up to 11 notes. I wanted to take the idea of learning to hear interval/chord structures from any degree to its limit. Or at least have that option.

I recall not being able to save my place in Interval Loader on ETC4. Is that the way it still is?

Rob

[aruffo]

Interval Loader keeps track of where you are by the high scores you achieve, and if you click "remember level" it should start you where you left off. It's saving your place, if indirectly.

When I had the Arnold books in my hands I have to confess I was dismayed by how little they seemed to offer for the $ he charges... but then, perhaps some of the products offer what Alain doesn't, hm?

...makes me wonder if the Monstercourse that I provide is capable of doing all the stuff that FET doesn't... although it's not automatic (because it's a giant load of MP3 files you assemble according to your own interests), I seem to remember that B. Arnold's are all audio CDs you need to rip or put on random shuffle... ah well. In any event, there are always options out there.

[Space]

Well, I partly agree about the cost of Arnold's materials just as I do with Burge's. The problem with selling information is that it can be aquired other places for free oftentimes. Bruce Arnold's 'method' is not really all that new and it's something he picked up from his own teachers. Alain's FET doesn't cover modulation and the 'advanced' version only gives you 2 note diads within the major and minor scales - not the chromatic scale.

Bruce Arnold's method is outlined basically like this:

One note: Learning to hear all twelve pitches against a key center. FET allows one to master this ability much better than Arnold's CDs, IMO.

Keynote Recognition: Learning to play any note on your instrument and by knowing what note you played, immediately being able to tell what key you are in. For example if you play a C and it sounds like the bVI, you know you are in the key of E.

Two note: Learning to hear whether a two note combination in the chromatic scale causes a modulation or not.

Once two note is mastered, one can move on to 3, 4, 5 note, etc. Arnold doesn't have CDs for anything beyond 2 note and may never. He says once you know now the excercise works, you can make your own CDs.

Alain's programs don't cover keynote or two note, etc.

Rob

[Wade]

[Space]

As far as I can tell from reading the FAQs on Arnold's site, 2-note goes something like this:

First, the cadence is played.

Then middle C.

Then a particular harmonic interval.

Then the middle C again.

I'm not 100% sure of this, but that's what I pieced together (haven't been able to afford to get the thing yet). The point is to listen to see if the middle C changed degrees after the interval was played. That would mean that that particular interval in that context causes your ear to modulate. Also, he talks about how modulation is a very flexible thing and that your ear might hear a modulation at one time, then later in the same situation it may not.

Of course REAL music has many more parameters, but by slowly building the number of notes you can hear and ID at one time, your sense of key and key modulations will become more refined and present in actual musical situations. Hopefully, eventually you can hear the keys and modulations in 'atonal' music - if you wish to take it that far anyway. Personally, I'm a fan of such things, so I definitely want to pursue that level of ability.

Naturally, I'll have more to report on this once I can purchase the first 2-note book.

Rob

[bryandaste]

Just a tip - check your local library! Mine had the Burge courses available to check out. I had to put a "hold" and wait in line for quite a while to get them, but they are there!

[koenig]

What I'd really love to see are some of the creators of these great methods collaborate on the ultimate ear training software. I can dream right

[Stefan]

I would be interested in seeing the claimed university studies that David Lucas claims to have been conducted on his site and in his ear training courses, I have both of his courses and while they seem that they would be of benefit if you were to take the time to go through them, I do not think they are as effective(especially for absolute pitch) as what Aruffo has developed. Ive used Graham Englishes course as well, didnt finish it or even get half way through, but Graham seems like a good guy and he does use melody triggers as the main part of his course as well after you get through what he calls the journey which is nothing more than listening to each pitch with randomized timbre's or instruments and describing out loud in all your senses a specific imagined location for each pitch