Relative Pitch
Relative Pitch
www.trainear.com claims to train relative pitch and seems like a beefed up version of the musical interval. It is free, browser based program and is coupled with an instructional video on relative pitch at and using trainear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3kC_lYLAZw&feature=channel
I have basically no musical ability so I've come here asking questions (and not preaching this time).
Does anyone here know anything about absolute pitch or relative pitch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3kC_lYLAZw&feature=channel
I have basically no musical ability so I've come here asking questions (and not preaching this time).
Does anyone here know anything about absolute pitch or relative pitch?
Whoopska | 3 years ago
Reply
That looks like very interesting software. You can train tone perception and musical ability to a degree.
Regarding absolute pitch (AP) and relative pitch (RP) though, this is still a topic being studied. So far it seems that there is a significant dependence on early music training, *and* a predisposition to be detail-oriented regarding individual pitches.
In terms of age, there seems to be a "critical period" for developing AP of around 5-7 years of age. That is to say, if musical training does not begin before this age, it is unlikely (statistically) to find AP ability.
But that also isn't to say that anyone who receives early training can develop AP. RP is an ability that is somewhat mathematical in nature; you are required to understand the contrasting "quantities" of pitches, and perform some kind of addition/subtraction on them. On the other hand, AP is a straight frequency-to-name mapping, a direct memory retrieval. It is thus possible that if a child undergoing training is more attuned to the relationships between tones, which is probably indicative of more developed cognitive functions, they will be "losing out" in terms of AP.
As far as AP trainability in adults is concerned, the bad news is, more likely than not it remains an exclusive club of lucky people (if you consider that ability lucky, because there are downsides as well -- some people who possess AP find it utterly painful at the slightest deviations in frequencies, or even just key switches in songs... but, yeah, it's quite nice to have, isn't it!). In AP, the absolute pitch perception is automatic, unambiguous, and probably happens before any higher-level processing, much like how you automatically recognize colors. Miyazaki et al. (2005) did auditory Stroop tasks (pitch name congruence and incongruence) on AP and RP possessors, and those with AP were almost twice as fast on either case!
In terms of neural correlates, AP seems to be traced to asymmetries in the "planum temporale" (PT) in the auditory cortex. People with AP seem to have more asymmetrical PT sizes between the left and right hemispheres (Keenan et al., 2001).
AP could be a case where nature and nurture both need to meet specific requirements to come out right. In any case though, as with all abilities, whether you have natural advantages or not, you are always able to improve your performance relative to your current baseline by practice, so I'm quite sure that the ear training program can be useful to many people.
Regarding absolute pitch (AP) and relative pitch (RP) though, this is still a topic being studied. So far it seems that there is a significant dependence on early music training, *and* a predisposition to be detail-oriented regarding individual pitches.
In terms of age, there seems to be a "critical period" for developing AP of around 5-7 years of age. That is to say, if musical training does not begin before this age, it is unlikely (statistically) to find AP ability.
But that also isn't to say that anyone who receives early training can develop AP. RP is an ability that is somewhat mathematical in nature; you are required to understand the contrasting "quantities" of pitches, and perform some kind of addition/subtraction on them. On the other hand, AP is a straight frequency-to-name mapping, a direct memory retrieval. It is thus possible that if a child undergoing training is more attuned to the relationships between tones, which is probably indicative of more developed cognitive functions, they will be "losing out" in terms of AP.
As far as AP trainability in adults is concerned, the bad news is, more likely than not it remains an exclusive club of lucky people (if you consider that ability lucky, because there are downsides as well -- some people who possess AP find it utterly painful at the slightest deviations in frequencies, or even just key switches in songs... but, yeah, it's quite nice to have, isn't it!). In AP, the absolute pitch perception is automatic, unambiguous, and probably happens before any higher-level processing, much like how you automatically recognize colors. Miyazaki et al. (2005) did auditory Stroop tasks (pitch name congruence and incongruence) on AP and RP possessors, and those with AP were almost twice as fast on either case!
In terms of neural correlates, AP seems to be traced to asymmetries in the "planum temporale" (PT) in the auditory cortex. People with AP seem to have more asymmetrical PT sizes between the left and right hemispheres (Keenan et al., 2001).
AP could be a case where nature and nurture both need to meet specific requirements to come out right. In any case though, as with all abilities, whether you have natural advantages or not, you are always able to improve your performance relative to your current baseline by practice, so I'm quite sure that the ear training program can be useful to many people.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
I stumbled across that applet a few weeks ago in an attempt to train elsewhere and not score so pitifully on the interval test... ^_^;;
It's really rather interesting, and allows pretty rapid play. I've been making good use of the (somewhat clunky) saving and loading ability... I've definitely identified a number of my own deficiencies. Impressive customizing/options.
All this ear-training stuff is great; I was classically trained and developed such a dependency on sheet music that I'm not sure I'd say I really understood my instrument and appreciated the sounds I made. When I got to college and took a music theory class, I was astounded at poorly prepared I was. It's great to build that back into my cognitive/perceptual workout with the hopes to pick one of those instruments in the future and maybe get some better use out of it!
btw Will subitizing ever go over 9 dots? Just curious...
It's really rather interesting, and allows pretty rapid play. I've been making good use of the (somewhat clunky) saving and loading ability... I've definitely identified a number of my own deficiencies. Impressive customizing/options.
All this ear-training stuff is great; I was classically trained and developed such a dependency on sheet music that I'm not sure I'd say I really understood my instrument and appreciated the sounds I made. When I got to college and took a music theory class, I was astounded at poorly prepared I was. It's great to build that back into my cognitive/perceptual workout with the hopes to pick one of those instruments in the future and maybe get some better use out of it!
btw Will subitizing ever go over 9 dots? Just curious...
bizarrojenkz | 3 years ago
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