absolute pitch program

Which absolute pitch program? As far as I know, no one has divined a way to train adults to have absolute pitch. The most promising research on the topic that I know of is at http://www.aruffo.com/eartraining/ . A page debunking myths about it is there; it's good reading for anyone interested in the topic.

The good news is that you don't need absolute pitch to play what you hear in your head. With good relative pitch, and a feel for the instrument (which you get from playing a lot), you can play whatever you hear in your head.

that's a cool site...

the program i was referring to is http://absolutepitchpower.com/

Im interested b/c all i did was put down my email and they send you these sort of teachings--dont really know how to call them--but theyre interesting and seem as though they can actually work.
So i was interested in knowing if when you buy the program the rest of the stuff they offer is worth anything...

In my opinion it's not worth the money, there are no secrets that will give you absolute pitch. There are quite a few programs on the web for pitch training that are free. If your interested in training your ear I'd try one of those.

Every musician should work at developing a good sense of relative pitch - once you hear the relationships, figuring out tunes is a piece of cake (ask Corbind about the time he brought over a CD and I worked out the progressions of about 9 tunes for him in 45 minutes!)

But perfect pitch? What a drag that would be!

I used to have to learn a lot of songs off vinyl. In the 60s and 70s a lot of producers would 'tweak' tape speeds to get the sound they wanted. The result was a whole lot of recordings that were a little bit off in pitch.

Having only relative pitch, that didn't bother me a bit. I got a variable speed turntable, and I could dial the albums up or down so I could learn my parts without having to retune (and retune and retune).

Now, if I suffered from the affliction of perfect pitch, I imagine all those albums would sound awful. I mean, they'd be wrong - not quite C, not quite C# or Bb. So I see a big downside to learning perfect pitch... it shouldn't matter to you if the original is in E or Eb; the audience will never know the difference. It should matter a lot to hear the ii-V-I or I-IV-V changes, though, because that's what really makes a tune.

I agree that all musicians need to develop their relative listening skills. In fact, that may be even more important for those who have perfect pitch - if the initial tone is off by 50 cents, to me it's still just the initial tone. I have no problem hearing the relationship to the next pitch as a minor third. If my mind recognized the initial tone as halfway between C and Cb, and the next tone as halfway between D and Eb, I've put labels on those tones - and the immediate labels lead to an augmented second. Enharmonic, to be sure... but a possible hindrance to immediate recognition of a chord tone.

In addition, interviews I've read with brass players possessing perfect pitch point to another downside: if they play an instrument that's not in C (sax, clarinet, horn, whatever) they must transpose all their parts. A sax player possessing relative pitch will see a note on a page and relate it to a fingering... when he puts down the Bb instrument and picks up the Eb one, he relates it to the same fingering. Sax players with perfect pitch can't do that - because the note they play clashes with what's on the page. Instead, they must mentally transpose the chart to concert pitch, and then learn TWO sets of fingerings for the two horns.

Perfect pitch can clearly benefit some folks, such as a capella singers. Put them in ensemble, though, and they may be forced to 'think flat' or they'll be the one out of step with the choir!

So don't dismiss my comments as a case of "pitch envy". From my perspective, those who brag about having perfect pitch are speaking from a viewpoint of "ha ha, I'm better than you are!" without truly possessing any skill that makes them better musicians. Relative pitch is the key to performance.

Just FYI I have a neighbor and a friend who have perfect pitch. The neighbor, although a musician, can no longer go to the symphony, can't play anyone else's piano and can't go Christmas caroling. She classifies it as a curse.

ARRRGH! Sorry whoever it was that posted the post between noteboat's. I clicked the X to close the page and I accidentally deleted your post. That was a first.

Please post your comments again. My apologies.

This is very true...Ive heard all of these annoyances of having perfect pitch.

However, i think when i wrote my initial post i didnt explain myself that well. What Im really seeking is te abililty to hear a note and say with confidence "that's a C. Or very close to a C." I know i dont have perfect pitch, and cant achieve it b//c youre born with it. However if the program were to be truly useful, id hope it would better my ear tenfold.

For example, Id like to hear the beginning of a song and immediately know the key and octave by mentally imagining where the note is on the fretboard instead of guessing i think its around here (and usually im very off).

If what im describing is perfect pitch, then sorry...but i think a few of you may have gotten the gist of it.
If any of you have suggestions to do ear training, please post away.

Isn't that a GN sponsered site?? Last time there was a thread like this, I ruffled somebody's feathers by saying it wasnt worth it. I've tried other programs like this, and they didn't work for me....

We don't do that here.

If you have constructive comments, negative or positive, you should feel free to post them.

Now we don't do the "this sucks" thing or post negatives about something you've never seen, used or played. That kind of irresponsible posting will ruffle feathers.

We have to maintain some sort of ethical standard otherwise what can you believe?

Yea , nick is right.That's what is the difference in the Gnoise forums and hundreds different out there.(What about ruffling of feathers , pretty funny :wink: IMHO)

when i've been practicing a lot, my hands will often naturally go to the correct notes the first time i try to play something. whether that's absolute pitch, or just relative pitch combined with a little bit of memory, i don't know... but i don't read much music, or think about keys much.

I think theres's a difference between having perfect pitch to the nth degree that it's a curse, and being able to hear a note and figure out what that note is easily.

Developing some ability to tell absolute pitch helps. Developing it (or being "cursed with it") to the degree that you can't ignore the subtle imperfections that come from being human beings playing analog instruments and not robots playing midi keyboards is almost certainly a problem.

I do work on my absolute pitch skills and find it helps my greatly in being able to "hear" scores in my head. But I can still stand listening to slightly out of tune instruments without going nuts.

Other people's milage may vary.