[ Back to AP Home Page ] My Thoughts and Experiences of AP Growth & Development: June 14, 2003 Saturday Received Burge's PP Super Course (www.perfectpitch.com) today and listened to the first two CD's this evening. I have the 80's tape version and wanted to hear the additional material; also it's fun to see how it's evolved over the last 20 years that I've been following it. I didn't actually purchase it until 1988 however; I also purchased the Relative Pitch course at that time and I'm glad I did considering the price tag on it now. I can see how Chris Aruffo's Ear Training Companion software (see my "Links" page) integrates with his new material. This will be invaluable practice. So now I have the following in my determination to develop AP: Ear Training Companion Functional Ear Trainer (see "Links" page) Absolute Pitch Power (see "Links" page) David L. Burge PP Supercourse For Relative Pitch development I have: Burge Relative Pitch Course (complete 41 lessons) Ear Master Pro 4.0 (See "Links" page) The best part is how, with all these resources from the tools, software, and CD's I'm using, it's all coming together now. I know I would not hesitate making a one-hundred dollar bet to be able to pull a "C" out of thin air. That's how confident I am about being able to sing a C. Okay, I'll try it now. (But I don't really have to check it because the pitch I have in my head now, I KNOW is a C!).....okay, I checked it with my piano, it's a C. Duh ;). It's a shame so many imediately pit one AP course/software/CD against the other. Go to any of the AP forums: Dumb Question #1: "Hey does this really work?" Dumb Question #2: "Is this course/software better than Burge's" Why do people do this? When learning any skill doesn't everyone generally study with more than one teacher? If I want to be a composer doesn't this mean I listen to many different composers? If I want to learn music theory, don't I go to the library and pick up all the theory books I can find? Am I not always looking for a new theory book each time I browse Amazon.com? So now all of a sudden, when I want to develop AP, I'm supposed to buy one book, read it and I'm done.... buy one tape series and that's it....buy one piece of software and my training and development ends there... Well not me. I get everything I can find on the subject. I'll have to address the flip side of that coin as well sometime in another journal entry: when people buy EVERYTHING and just do nothing. Or listen to one tape, or do one drill on the software and abandon it with, "Oh it doesn't work" or "I don't have the time" or "I think such and such a course is better than this one". These software/tape junkies apparently have the money to buy everything but lack the maturity or discipline to stick with anything. For example, on Graham's APP course on the first CD he instructs you in taking a journey and gives an assignment to do this. But how many actually do this, or do it consistently, or at all? Instead they naturally jump right to the "get me to the good stuff" i.e. the hypnosis part of it and leave the groundwork behind as boring or unessential. He stresses the importance of Visualizations; but how many actually do it and come back to it through the course of their day as he directs? Me? I can't wait to go to bed tonight and put on his sleep hypnosis exercise. I like the way he delivers it. I like how I can get the C before he gives it to me. And I'm looking forward to hearing all about Burge's explainations into the "delicacies" of PP on his CD's tomorrow. And I can't wait to launch ETC and work on my Acuity Drills; and I'm excited about getting in my car so I can hear my Relative Pitch tapes as I go through that course again. Do you want to be great? Then BE great. Updated the "Journey" page so that when you go to any "Pitch" page, that pitch imediately plays via MIDI file. Cool ;).....;) June 13, Friday, 2003 I am learning Absolute Pitch through Triggers. I'm using ETC™ to play Aural Recall drills and I test my pieces. I am using Absolute Pitch Power to absorb the pitches C,E,G,A. There are now at least 3 or 4 that are 90% accurate. The Fl.Quartet for "C"; The Poeme for "A" to "D"; Relax for "E" and Tannhauser for "B" to "E" and Dvorak's Cello Concerto for "B". I need to get a copy of "A Hard Day's Night" from the library because this is a strong trigger, yet I don't have the recording. Also, the bridge is in Bm which is another strong trigger. Here is the advantage. First, it really abolishes Relative Pitch in this sense: normally, once you know a certain pitch is say, C, for example, and then you hear the next note, you can almost not help yourself by going to relative pitch. But somehow with trigger pitches, you don't go there. Instead you go to the triggers. Now, once I have a trigger pitch in my head, I DO use RP to name the note. So what's the difference you ask? Because in the first scenario there is no AP. You've learned the answer is "C" and you get the 2nd note from that. But in the second scenario, even when you know the 1st note is "C", when a new note is played, I instead go to triggers. This forces me to make a conclusion: TRIGGERS ARE A FORM OF AP It's taken me a long time to admit this. Like Burge says, we often deny AP when we actually experience it. We say, "I was just lucky"; "I couldn't do it again"; "It's not AP unless you can do it consistently"; "Hearing a song in your head isn't AP, it's just because you've heard it so much in that key that you've 'memorized' it" etc. etc. etc. Although the development is taking place, we deny it for some reason. This should be reversed. We should instead be chanting to ourselves: "This is AP". "I'm getting it." "Each day I'm closer and closer to being fluent at feeling the notes and naming the notes with ease" etc. etc. This is what lines up with Absolute Pitch Power and the point Graham English makes in his approach to developing AP. The next goals is this: Work only on notes I have established strong triggers: A:Poeme B: Dvorak C: Fl.Quartet Eb: Elegy E: Relax G: Hard Day's Night (My Generation) Ab: Elegy Procedure: Using Functional Ear Trainer v1.1, set with "No Cadence" with the notes A,B,C,Eb,E,G,Ab. (Make sure Key is set to "C Major"). Now press 'Play' and listen. If the note doesn't come to you, begin going through your triggers. First A, then B, C, Eb etc. You'll see that RP does not come into play unless you "stop what you're doing" and really force it to come into play. You're busy going to the next trigger instead. I tried it just now. Played the pitch and went to A trigger; nothing. B trigger; nothing; but when I got to "Relax", the E Trigger, BINGO. That was the pitch. I hit the note "E" and see the beautiful Green "Correct!". Now that makes you feel great. Why? Because most of the time we're really thinking, "I really just don't know WHAT the note is". So this gives you hope ;). Now, I'd like to keep working on this all week and see if I can take it to the next obvious level. That is, when I hear a note, (say it's B) I don't go through all triggers, but rather know right away, "That's the first note of the Dvorak". Finally, there won't be any trigger relationship. I'll simply say, "That's a B." After working on this for 10 minutes, I'm finding it's better to limit the trigger notes to four. By limiting it to 4, you will not be able to help some RP sneaking in. If you get C and the next note is B, you're going to know it obviously. But if the next note is A a 7th higher, you will not necessarily know the note through RP imediately. You have only 4 triggers to go through in your head. Sometimes it will be the first one. You should aim for 100% accuracy out of 20 attempts. ********************************** 060703 A plesant breakthrough this morning after stumbling last night by accident on the ability of Functional Ear Trainer v1.1 to serve as an AP teaching software. I had previously only thought it to be Relative Pitch training software. Procedure: Set Key to C Major Check the "Random Key" Box Click "C Major Scale" under Presets (medium difficulty) Set Note range to "One octave" Set Cadence to [no cadence] Now, press play. A single note is played from a random scale. The choices are listed under Possible Answers. Using your trigger pitches, find by RELATIVE PITCH the correct answer. Obviously, if you can hear the note and determine the pitch directly from AP, so much the better. But if you can't, pull out a "trigger" pitch from your trigger pieces and then determine the test note from Relative Pitch. What this seems to do: You are using RP (Relative Pitch) to determine a pitch from AP. It reinforces your trigger pitch and AP in that area. The hope is that eventually RP will go away. As the trigger pitches on each chromatic scale become so friendly and familiar, the RP will become a superfluous step. Also, by chosing different Presets (easiest being 1,3,5 and most difficult being Chromatic) this program gives you the ability to limit your choices of correct answers (making it easier to determine the correct test pitch), to giving you all 12 tone possible answers (making it more difficult). When set on fewer choices, even if you get the "No, not correct" answer, you are probably only a step or 1/2 step off from the correct answer (if you have good trigger pieces), so you can pretty much guess what the correct answer is since you only have a limited number of choices and determine how close you were by your second choice. By the way, this is actually a great ability of the software: i.e. to be able to give you a 2nd chance at the correct answer. Often times in other ear training software, when you give an answer that's it. You're done and it's on to the next question. But here, you can simply hit another choice and try again. Good stuff ;). Finally, you have the encouragement of actually getting many correct answers. Psychologically, this keeps you motivated. Also, if nothing else, you're improving your RP ;). ********************************** June 5, 2003 'A' is 'trigger' established using the opening notes of the Poéme AP Home Page