--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jst...@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], Bhairitu <noozguru@> wrote: > > > > authfriend wrote: > > > --- In [email protected], cardemaister <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > >> http://www.playpianotoday.com/updates.html > > >> > > >> I think, at 6:56 he sez octave is the toughest interval > > >> for him to hear. That's strange. For me it's by far the > > >> easiest! :0 > > > > > > That's what he says, and that is *very* odd. > > > > Ear training was taught poorly when I went to college. The > > students who depended on it to play their instruments were > > the best at it. But those who often wanted to compose and > > played fixed pitch instruments like piano it could be > > difficult. That's why I knew a lot of arrangers who were > > trombone players and could sit down at a sheet of manuscript > > paper and write out an arrangement they heard in their head. > > It was when I took voice lessons from a really good teacher > > and he simply put one through a bunch of exercises just to > > train the voice for interval jumps that I became better at > > recognizing intervals. > > All this seems very odd to me as well. The only instrument > I've ever played was the piano; took lessons for about three > years starting when I was around 8 or 9, never got beyond > the stage of obligatory performance at the music teacher's > students' recital. I'd been picking out simple tunes by ear > on the piano for years before that, though. > > What's weird is I don't remember ever *learning* intervals. > On the piano, it's pretty obvious what they are because > they correspond to the number of keys from one note of the > interval to the other: C to G is a fifth because G is the > fifth key above C. And I never had any trouble recognizing > sung intervals because they sounded like the ones on the > piano. > > *Chords* are a different story; I can recognize all the > basic ones that are used in classical music, but blues- > type chords or other fancy ones I'd have to do some work > on. > > I do a weird trick: I can whistle and hum in harmony, > including some really complicated (rhythmically and > harmonically) two-part harmony. (One of my showpieces > is whistling "Humoresque" while humming "Swanee River." > Also some of the Gilbert and Sullivan choruses in which > the men and women sing entirely different tunes, and a > Bach two-part invention.) > > Basically, I have a good ear, I guess. I don't have > perfect pitch, though.
Having a perfect pitch is admirable. But to play the piano at the concert level, one has to have a fantastic memory to know the entire score and playing it in real time with no mistakes. Music talent is hard work as much as a gift at birth.
