M2M Day 214: My three-part plan to developing perfect pitch
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For June, my goal is to develop perfect pitch.
As I explained yesterday, this month’s challenge is to correctly identify 20 consecutive, randomly-generated musical notes without a reference tone, effectively demonstrating perfect pitch.
In order to develop perfect pitch (which I don’t have, as demonstrated yesterday), I’ve devised a three-part approach:
Part 1 — Develop ‘Relative Pitch’
The first part of my plan is to develop relative pitch, which Wikipedia explains like this:
Relative pitch is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note by comparing it to a reference note and identifying the interval between those two notes.
In other words, to demonstrate relative pitch, I would first listen to a reference note (for example, a C), then listen to another unidentified note, and finally try to identify the second note based on its relationship to C.
Using a reference note to identify a second note (i.e. relative pitch) is much easier than recognizing a single note without any reference (i.e. perfect pitch). In fact, relative pitch is fairly teachable, and most serious musicians have some semblance of relative pitch as a result of their musical training.
I’ll talk more about the common methods for developing relative pitch in future posts, but, in general, this is a skill that I should be able to acquire.
Part 2 — Internalize a reference note
The difference between perfect pitch and relative pitch is that relative pitch is aided by an external reference note. Thus, to transition to from relative to perfect pitch, I’ll need to figure out a way to remove the reference.
Here’s my plan…
If I can mentally produce a consistent reference note (that I can create and play quietly inside my brain), I should be able to combine this mental reference with my relative pitch skills to identify any other musical note without an external reference point.
I’m not exactly sure what it means to internally generate a reference tone, but I also think this is doable.
Part 3 — Practice (to reduce computation time)
If I just complete parts 1 and 2, the result won’t look very much like perfect pitch. Instead, after a note is played, I’ll sit there, hum to myself, do a quick mental computation, and then guess which note is being played.
While I may need this computation time in the beginning, my hope is that, in time, I can get faster and faster, until I’m not actually consciously thinking of my mental reference note at all.
Once the reference note becomes part of my subconscious, and my relative pitch skills become consistent, I should be able to instantly recognize any note being played without any mental computation.
I’m not sure if this counts as genuine perfect pitch (due to the unconventional process), but the result is identical, so I’d say it counts.
I have no idea if this process will actually work, but it seems like the best possible plan.
I considered some other options, like trying to associate different colors with different notes in some fashion, and then, seeing if a random note would mentally trigger the associated color. (Effectively, I would try to become synesthetic).
This approach may be possible (after all, I did start having some weird synesthetic experiences while trying to memorize decks of cards back in November), but it seems less controllable. So, I’m going to stick with my three-part plan.
Tomorrow, I’ll begin the first phase of my training, and start developing my relative pitch…
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
