Absolute Pitch Education

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Best result so far is Blue Warrior 4th

I've tried method described by etaxier. I've closed my eyes and a) when I heard no C or G I press "no" without opening my eyes b) whenr I heard both C and G I press "yes" without opening my eyes c) when I heard only one of the target notes I obviously had to open my eyes to see if the heard note matches the colour of the missile. If I was unsure whether I'm right or not I just kept hitting C until I got it (with my eyes still closed)
I've noticed strange effect in c). After hearing a sound I _knew_ which note it was but I had to think what is the name of that note. I knew/felt that I just heard this specific note but it took me some time to name it (give the correct label "it's C" or "it's G"). Just like hearing the chroma and labeling were different tasks. It was much easier to label the note when I opened eyes and saw color of the missile (instant yes or no answer) then labeling the note in my head with still closed eyes without knowing what is the color of the missile.

This method of playing (with closed eyes) was much easier then normal way. Maybe no clash between hearing process and labeling process?

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

"Demote rank" option or ability to set certain rank/level in Custom game would be great.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to play regularly so maybe that's why I still have lots of troubles in Warrior.
When I start on Warrior 4th it's too hard for me... I get to the half of the wave, get killed, again half of the wave, backtracked to Cadet 1st. Cadet 1st is easier so I get back to Warrior where I'm soon killed. And so on and so on... A bit frustrating....

BUT! After listening to MonsterCourse samples I have understood how this Interval Loader is supposed to work and started playing a game or two almost every day. I must say I'm getting better and better. Now I can get up to level 7 and I start feeling the change in intervals perception (from distance to harmonic)

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Blue Major 3rd

Captain level was quiet easy but I had to switch to normal mode, especially for the arpeggios beginning with G. There was lots of comparing with the blue buttons but I feel my Gness perception has improved - G starts to jump out more easily.

Here's what I have done to pass this bloody Warrior rank.
- demoted myself back to Cadet
- whenever I wasn't sure I've switched to normal or even slower tones.
- in Warrior I've run MIDI Monitor in the background. Every time I've made an error (or I couldn't hear G clearly) I've checked the chord and played it several times on the VST piano until I could hear it. Sometimes I had to put the chord into parts. For example chord DGAC: first I was listening to DG then GA and GC, then DGA, GAC, DGC and then it was easy to spot G in the chord.
- from time to time I switched back to faster tones to check if I can clearly hear G inside all the sounds under blue buttons.
- After making Warrior level this way I demoted back to Cadet and without cheating played the game again.
- still there are one or two chords that seems a bit problematic but Warrior rank became easy!

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Blue Colonel 1st

Major rank was relatively easy. Colonel is getting much harder. I can get through first wave without problems and then it's getting worse and worse. I need lots of comparing with the blue buttons. Of course only for G. C is very firm in my head and I make C erros very rarely.
Somewhere around the end of Colonel 2nd there the way I perceive Gness changed completely. With this "new" Gness it's much easier to spot G in the middle of arpeggio and to distinguish it from G# but it's not as strong as the old Gness.

I wonder how I was getting with red Colonel levels, got to read previous entries!

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

I've found easy way to demote rank!
Just start game, Stop and save, start game, stop and save, start and Stop and save and you are demoted a rank :)

Got to Commodore 4th two days ago. Then I was very busy and couldn't play. Today when I started APB it was way too hard on Commodore level so I've demoted myself and...
... Colonel rank wasn't a problem any more and I got to Commodore 3rd. I didn't have to slow down anything and played all the time with normal setting.
I had some problems with semitone errors. Mostly with G and G#. Sometimes the sound almost the same.
At the end of the game I had that strange feeling. Normally only C and G sound differently then other tones (there's this new quality, hard to describe, the way they ring out in your head, this feeling that it is something familiar). Now almost all tones were ringing this way. I felt that know the sound but just can't give the correct label.

BTW It would be a nice idea to have a tempo slider so one can set any tempo. Sometimes Normal is a bit too fast but Slow is too slow and I would love to set something in between.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[aruffo]

A tempo slider! Good grief.. yes, that would be fairly easy to implement. I'll do that. (currently on vacation without a laptop, though, so a slight delay.)

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Few days ago I've realised that I don't work enough with the melody words. So now every time I take bass to my hands I imagine C or G melody word, sing a note and check if I'm right or not. I'm getting better and better at it.
Yesterday I've picked up my fretless bass. Last time I've played a fretless was few months ago so I was sure I would have lots of problems with playing in tune. I have imagined C melody word, sung the note, played what should be C on the bass and something was wrong. I've imagined G, sung the note, checked the G string and there was one fret difference (halftone). It seemed a bit strange that in both cases I was "wrong" by semitone. I've decided to tune the bass by ear to the notes I was singing. Then I've compared with my fretted bass that was in-tune for sure and it turned out I was right! Fretless was semitone flat. After playing for a while on fretless I was amazed how easy it was to be in-tune. I heard the notes in my head and it was much easier to play them. No serious intonation problems I've encountered before. Somehow I just know if I'm playing the right note or not.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

After Christmas I encountered something strange - I couldn't hear Xness any more, no jumping out, no nothing. I thought it's just a bad day. But after two more bad days (and growing frustration) I've decided to start Cadet levels once again. I got through red levels without almost any problems but Blue levels were still two hard. I couldn't keep both C and G in my head and I had great difficulties with getting to Warrior level.
Since red levels seemed easy I've decided to find old version of APB and try octaves. Middle C was very easy, C3 was a bit harder but still it was easy to hear it. I've got some problems with C5 and got up to Avenger levels. After a week or so playing only with C levels (on Admiral and Avenger levels) I've noticed why C5 was causing some problems. I just heard G instead of C! There was only one note to work so every time my brain noticed familiar note I answered "yes"
Then I switched back to latest version of APB. I still had problems with Cadet levels - sometimes I could get only to Cadet 2nd or 1st. After realising that being stuck means that I will learn all these sounds much better and I will have less troubles later I was motivated to just play from Cadet 4th every day. Now Cadet levels seems to be quiet easy but still I play them in the fast mode. It's much easier to hear Xness in Warrior levels after playing from the beginning of the Blue levels.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

I've noticed strange thing today. I was playing Interval Loader and suddenly I've realised that I no longer hear minor sixth - I hear C and A. I couldn't name the A (got to think about it) but it was definitely hearing two separate notes, not interval (or at least this absolute way of hearing was much stronger then relative). Other intervals were "normal" - I was hearing intervals with C standing out a bit. Only minor sixth was different.

In APB still working on Blue Warrior. It's getting easier and easier now.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

Yesterday I've been listening to a CD of Rafal Blechacz with Chopin compositions. When I was listening to Mazurek in Cmaj and Mazurek in Cmoll I was able to hear C in chords clearly! I knew that these pieces are in C because I've checked the titles but still being able to recognise the note was a great feeling.
Second observations - I make less and less half steps errors. Instead more perfect fifth errors show up. Especially when I hear chord blue sound with C5 it's quiet hard for me to decide if it's C5 or G4

[Frank]

Is "Mazurek" Polish?
"Mazurka" must be French or English.

[KosciaK]

Ahh, yes... Mazurek (polish name) in English is called Mazurka. It's a kind of polish folk dance

[KosciaK]

After almost 2 months of struggle with Blue Cadet ans Warrior I'm back on Blue Colonel with around 170 only on blue levels (after getting to Blue Commodore I had to get a revision so I started from scratch, get through red levels without problems and was stuck on blue Warrior; I have no idea how many waves I've made in total, probabely around 400).

Blue Warrior was a nightmare. I still can't spot G on some tricky chords with G and Ab next to each other.... That's why Captain 4th was a bit hard - there were aproximately 50% arpeggios and 50% these wicked chords I have so much trouble with. Fortunately the rest of Captain and Major rank was piece of cake.
I hope that after struggling for such a long time with Warrior other ranks won't cause me such problems and I will be able to get to next note.

And here's another observation. In the beginning of the APB playing after 15-20 minutes of playing I was so concentrated on the game and sounds that I was falling into some kind of trance state (similiar to meditation states). Now no such things happens.

Greetings!
KosciaK

[KosciaK]

Hello!

After reinstalling the system I've encountered NilsSomethingErrors when I tried to just copy files (these sitting in the Documents and settings folder) - probabely it's because the letter of the disk changed. So I was forced to do another revision.
Red levels - piece of cake. Even Fast settings seemed soooo slow. It was quiet boring - just clicking space button and X, almost without any errors. Only these fast melodies at two last rank were a bit challenging.
Blue levels - again Warrior levels are pain in the ass. Was a bit easier, but still very hard. These chords with G and Ab next to each other are hardest to hear so far. Now I've got to General level. Captain and Major ranks were very easy, got to switch to Fast notes, with Normal it was just too easy. Commodore (with random melodies) was just OK, had to switch back to normal to hear all the notes correctly.
And I've noticed that I make no more these half steps errors.

Maybe it would be a good idea to mix captain, major with Warrior levels? Arpeggios are easy (especially those with target note as forst or last note) so it would be easier to hear target note inside these hard chords when you can compare them with arpeggios.

Can't wait to get to next pitch!

Greetings!
KosciaK

[aruffo]

They are mixed, but the weighting is very heavily on the new sound structures. It's funny.. when I'm playing APB, I find chords ridiculously easy compared to arpeggios. With chords, all I have to do is listen for the X-ness inside the sound mass; with arpeggios I have to actively ignore the melodic information.

Although ETC does advance you more quickly when you make zero errors, and the octave rounds advance you faster still, now that you mention it APB should probably keep a cumulative no-error count so it can keep moving you forward even more quickly still if you consistently answer without errors. Boredom = bad.