Recognizing the Key

Generally, when studying "musical dictation," a reference "A" is given and then the chord. The student must derive the tonic and see how far it is from the reference "A." Having perfect pitch, one can avoid giving the reference "A." Difficult!!!

I quote what was said by the legendary PIANOEXPERT; furthermore, you should train your ear through intense study of musical dictation....and little by little perhaps you will become familiar with the legendary keys.

Happy studying

greetings

saverio

On the internet, I once saw a gentleman talking about perfect pitch... According to his studies, perfect pitch is a potentiality that must be developed in the early years of age and kept in practice until maturity. He emphasized the ability to recognize notes by associating them with colors and the sensations that each note can provoke within us. He said that it can nonetheless be practiced even at an advanced age and, assuming there is a good ear and a certain sensitivity, it is possible to train it to achieve excellent results. If I find the video again, I will post it.

In my opinion, furthermore, there is a middle ground between perfect pitch and relative pitch. Just last week, at an invitation, I played a piano in a restaurant; the harmonic ratios were correct, but it was completely flat. How does it feel... Does this not happen to you too? As soon as I played the first note, I immediately realized that the piano was out of tune, even a whole tone low. When we practice a piece, we grasp the color of certain harmonic ratios, so playing on a transposed instrument makes it immediately apparent that something is wrong. Returning to playing on a piano tuned to A 440, or playing the same piano by transposing the piece up by the number of semitones that the piano is lacking, one immediately feels at home. Is it just my impression?

TheSimon wrote:

On the internet, I once saw a gentleman talking about perfect pitch... According to his studies, perfect pitch is a potentiality that must be developed in the early years of age and kept in practice until maturity. He emphasized the ability to recognize notes by associating them with colors and the sensations that each note can provoke within us. He said that it can nonetheless be practiced even at an advanced age and, assuming there is a good ear and a certain sensitivity, it is possible to train it to achieve excellent results. If I find the video again, I will post it.

In my opinion, furthermore, there is a middle ground between perfect pitch and relative pitch. Just last week, at an invitation, I played a piano in a restaurant; the harmonic ratios were correct but completely flat. How it feels... Does this not happen to you too? As soon as I played the first note, I immediately realized that the piano was out of tune, even a whole tone low. When we practice a piece, we grasp the color of certain harmonic ratios, so playing on a transposed instrument makes it immediately apparent that something is wrong. Returning to playing on a piano tuned to A 440, or playing the same piano by transposing the piece up by the number of semitones that the piano lacks, one immediately feels at home. Is it just my impression?

I don't think it's just your impression. Playing a tone below the notes and therefore the associated frequencies, there will be a "similar" behavior, but not identical:

1 - the physics of sound ---> the internal frictions of all materials are non-linear and different (e.g.: two identically built pianos, with the same pianist and the same piece, will sound slightly different)

2 - color ---> even when playing the same piece on the same piano, transposed by a tone, it does not give the same sensations because the ear, if I am not mistaken, perceives frequencies logarithmically and therefore there is no linearity between transpositions.

Perfect pitch perhaps notices it sooner, but even those who do not possess it notice it in a very short time. Do you possess it?

I don't think mine could be defined as absolute pitch, even if when I hear certain particular keys I recognize them because they make me feel at home. But absolute pitch is something else entirely...

My personal experience: since I was a child, I have always had it.

Regarding single piano notes, I remember that I used to guess them, but when I grew up and started listening to music and wanting to play it, I realized that I didn't recognize the notes easily (various combinations of notes and rhythms): one also needs to develop a harmonic ear and recognize certain structures.

This involves, I think, developing the relative ear, and now I recognize song keys quite quickly.

A tip for dictation: memorize a note. For example, A. Find a song that has A as its tonic. By repeating it over time, it will stick in your head. Once the note is more or less internalized, compare the notes being played with the A.

Another tip: learn to recognize major and minor keys given a tonic that is assumed to be known.

Example: C E G ---> feeling of "happiness", major triad;

C Eb G ---> feeling of "sadness", minor triad.

It is a somewhat coarse and simple example, but in my opinion, it is very useful for distinguishing major scales from minor ones: it's either soup or soggy bread.

And here I was thinking that perfect pitch was something else entirely! I thought that perfect pitch had the ability to remember even after a long time the precise frequency of sounds, just like someone who "And as a good painter myself, I know this" memorizes a color and succeeds in recreating it every time. Relative pitch, on the other hand, is more fleeting and therefore needs a sonic pivot, which is A. What do you think?