Absolute Pitch Education

[KosciaK]

Hello!

I'm not listening for the quality of chord/arpeggio/interval. I just focus on question "Does this sound contains C or not?" no matter if it's Caug, F7, A-7 or whatever else it can be.
On the other hand I want to listen as atively as I can. I mean I want to know all the time whay I'm listening for. I want this quality or Cness to be ringing in my head so I exactly know how it sounds. This Xness is just getting more and more specific through the game as new contexts appear. When I hear arpeggio I can say which note is the C - if it's first note, second, third, fourth note played. Of course I don't care what are the other notes. I just want to locate C

Strange thing happens when playing Interval loader. I hear strong C and over that weaker interval quality. This Cness is sometimes masking the interval :)

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Just got to Captain 2nd on C!

First game - just like before, it was hard time to get the Cness to be clear enough to be able to distinguish C from C# so I was killed by the first wave. In second game I've got to Captain 2nd. Probably I would do even better but I had phonecall that distracted me and after comming back to the computer I 've started making lots of errors.
These sounds in Captain rank are getting harder and harder. After the game I was very tired.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Best result do far is Red Major 3rd (with something around 75 waves, less then 80 for sure)

That's how I'm working:
- play the game (try to get through the rank) and record it
- then I just analyze the recordings, export to separate files new sounds
- I set up tapes starting with easy things up to latest sounds in the similiar sequence as they appear in APB
- when I'm working on the computer I just set up "playground" tape and play it in background (I listen rather passively, not focusing very much on the sounds, just noticing target sound when it appear clearly)
- when going to bed I just put my headphones and play the "playground" tape trying to relax, clear my mind and hear the C - it's just some kind of meditation thing.

In the effect I play APB every 2-3 days but with "playground" tapes I can work with the method around 1-2 hours a day.

Noticed improvements in hearing:
- I can hear Xness even in complex chords (inversions or chords with C as one of the middle voices) right away.
- I need less time to establish the Cness. When today I started the game I knew which note is the C almost from the start

Today - 1st wave on Major 4th was very easy for me. Then in the middle of 2nd wave low C appeared. That's tricky! I have get used to it and make the Cness in my head more specific. Sometimes I just feel that low C is somewhere in there (especially in chords) but I can't hear it clearly.

With C in lower octave it's even more FUN :)

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

After 92 waves highest rank is Red Colonel 2nd

Before upgrading to the new version (with additional ranks) my highest rank was Major 2nd. After upgrading APB started at Colonel 4th. I had lots of trouble with these fast new sounds. In the first game I was killed in the middle of the forst wave. In the second game in the end of the first wave. In the third one I was backtracked to Major 4th and managed to get to Colonel 2nd.
Today I played 2 games - in both I could get up to Colonel 2nd. These fast sounds are still tricky for me but on the other hand low C becomes more and more clear! In the begining of low C I was hearing to different Cness - one for middle C and one for lower C (the better I memorized middle C the harder it was to hear low C?). Now it's just C - sometimes when I answer automatically I'm not sure which C was in the chord.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

After 105 waves Red Commodore 3rd!

I had some trouble with Colonel, mostly with these fast tones in the first wave and in the very end with some of the chords with C3. C5 in the Commodore rank surprisingly seems to be much easier to hear then C3. I hope it will be a bit easier to get through Commodore.

Some time ago someone mention this "area" where you hear C - it was somwhere in the upper-right corner in front of the head. When C3 was introduced (probably even earlier when melodies came in) this Cness moved to the left-upper corner, still a bit slightly in front of the head.
Second funny thing is that now C (especially middle C) seems to be sounding totally different then other notes. A bit deeper, with different characteristic. This Cness is so strong that it changes the sound completely.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Busy week and I havan't enough time for APB. So the best result is still Red Commodore 3rd (Commodore rank turned out to be not so easy as I expected).

Yesterday something strange happened to me. It was very, very boring lecture. After a while I've noticed strange noise. It was a fan built in the projector. I've started wondering "I wish I knew what's the pitch of this noise". Suddenly C melody word appeared in my mind, then again and again. Every time in the same key. I've tried to play it in different keys but it was sounding right only in one key. After getting to home I've played melody word in my head, sung what I felt was C, checked on guitar and... Voila! It was C. Today, just after waking up I've tried same trick - melody word, sing C, check and I was right again!

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

After 135 waves Red Avenger 4th

General rank was very hard. Especially 4th and 3rd rank. Then it became easier and General 1st was much easier.
Then Admiral - done few hours later the same day. I must say it was quite easy. Much easier then General. Xness in all the octaves started to "ring" with the same strenght.
I just can't wait to get through Avenger and Destroyer to start blue levels.

It's easier and easier for me to virtually play C melody word in my head. So I can produce middle C with very high accuracy.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[aruffo]

Have you tried reversing that--? Recalling the C from nowhere, and then using the Melody Word to check yourself? (I can do that with extremely high accuracy, by now...)

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Today got to Destroyer 4th! That was _very_ hard I must say. If there were no spaceships I wouldn't do it.
I've preperad new "booster tape" with C in all octaves and I hope this will help me get through Destroyer rank

About singing C. It's hard for me to to the way you have described. If I want to sing C I almost automatically start to hear melody word and just sing the last note. Or the first one when I just now it's ok for sure. When I hear a note I can sing mentally C melody word and compare ("definetely not C" or "very close to C" or "C on 90%").

When I think now about it only C has definite pitch in my mind, the rest of the melody word is rather a contour. I'm just not sure about other notes if they are right or not and don't really care, I just want C to be in the right place

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

REVISION DAY :)

I was wondering how much I've improved. I don't like this benchmark thing so I had to think about different way. My "cunning plan" (as Baldrick would say) was: create second player, set "fast notes" and see how far can I go.
I was killed for the first time in the.... Cadet 1st.... There was some mistakes like hitting wrong button, then some "normal" errors and without any spaceship I was killed. I've started new game and got to Major 1st. Again I had some problems at the end of Cadet and then Warrior and Captain almost errorless. These fast notes in Major rank on the "fast" setting is madness! After being killed in Major 1st. I've played once more and these fast melodies weren't that hard but still was causing losts of problems. Finally with some problems got to Commodore 4th and decided to end game. I was too tired to carry on.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Revision cont.

Commodore rank was (is?) hell!
4st - very easy, 3rd especially 2nd - hard and then 1st - piece a cake. I have lots of problems with C5 as middle voice in chords. C4 and C3 were much easier to hear inside chords. Got to work on it. I'll try to check if changing faster to normal tones make it easier (but it will take revisions much longer). Good point is that I know what I need to improve and what's causing problems in higher levels.

I was foolin around with different VSTi instruments and I must say changing timbre doesn't affect pitch recognition that much

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Yesterday I've noticed strange thing. I found Functional Ear Trainer on my disk, turned it on, set key of C major, and 1,3,5,7 notes. After a while of playing I've discovered that I'm not using my relative hearing! I was selecting C because it sounded like C not because it sounded like root note, other notes because it was third, fifth, etc to C - not third, fifth, etc of played chord and because E sounds completely different then G.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Still on Blue General with Fast tones and Blue Destroyer with previous game (where I was playing with normal and slow tones)

I've observed something strange. When there _is_ a target note in the sound but I've choosen "no" and I can see I was wrong there's automatic recall in my mind of this sound and I can clearly hear the Xness

Got to ask Chriss for new version and see what will happen :)

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Blue Cadet 2nd (in octaveless version)

When I got the new version I've created new player (by the way I have discovered that I can change the name of the player by clicking on it :) so I can always move back to an octave-version to continue playing "the old way"
What can I say:
- Red levels were very easy! Only Destroyer 3rd-1st caused some troubles and I got to change from faster to normal notes. I like these "real life" melodies or rather tunes samples - a bit hard but very fun and force you to concentrate on every note.
- I don't like G melody word... It's not G enough.... C one was great because it started and ended on C so Cness is very strong. G is only starting on G and it's hard to keep Gness in my mind.
- In the beginning it's hard to keep Gness in my head. The problem is when I've got 6 C sounds in a row so there's no G sounds left under blue buttons to compare
- After a while G is starting to scream (in the beginnign it's just whispering but then it's louder and louder) "I'm over here you fool". I start to hear this new quality and just like C this note just sounds different then other notes
- It's fun and exciting when I can hear both C and G. When hearing for example Cmajor chord I can clearly hear both C and G. Or when it's red sound to guess I can say "no. there's no C but I've heard G"
- Sometimes G comes out inside C and I'm not sure if it was G or is it just an overtone

EDIT

- The game is going a bit too fast. What I mean. In older version you had to pass around 5 waves to get through rank. Now it's only about 2,5 wave. I think it would be best to keep it around 1 wave per class. Now in blue levels I feel that chords comes too early.
- Connected with previous one. Wouldn't it be better to keep old names? So you would have Red Cadet to Red Avenger (if I remember correctly it is the last one only with middle C) then Blue Cadet through Blue Avenger, next pitch and so on. After unlocking all pitches Red Commodore (or just Commodore because all the pitches are already unlocked) and here would come octaves. This way there's no problem with naming the ranks with octaves after all pitches.

/EDIT

I just got to prepare booster tapes for G.
By the way if someone is interested I can send the files (set of midi files with intervals, chords, arpeggios and some melodies + cue files)

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

It's getting easier and easier to get to Cadet 2nd. And then problems start.
It's a bit confusing to hear G on red missiles and C on blue ones. Or both C and G whatever the missile is. Sometimes I'm so focused on hearing G it starts "covering" C so there's red missile, I can clearly hear G but I'm not sure about C and make error. I'm just used to push "yes" when I hear target pitch automatically and now I have to stop and think which note I hear and what is the colour of the missile. Probabely piano version will help.

Greetings!
KosciaK