Superhuman ear abilities - This guy was amazing

[Chan]

I started taking piano lessons this summer and as an added bonus they give you a free ear training seminar. So I just got back and all I could say is OMG. I started with the group that had never done ear training before, but then the teacher found out I'd done most of that stuff before, so he sugested I go with the advanced group. The first thing I did when I got there was transcribed rhythems. He clapped his hands and I had to transcribe 4 bars or 5 bars of the rhythem and put it in the right key signature. This wasn't to hard, but it did prove to be a little tricky since he only repeated each example 3 times. Then we moved on to melodies. He had us try to transcribe pitch this time using solfeg(sp). This proved to be a little harder. He sang quarter notes at about 90 bpm, which made it hard for me to remember the notes. Then he started taking to us about perfect pitch. He said that you can develop perfect pitch if you spend time trying. I know alot of people here said you can't, but he said he has know people who have and he himself has done it. He said he can identify the sound of buzzes, tapping and other noises. He mentioned the Burge method and implied that it worked, but he said he never used it. He didn't give us a demonstration of his skills, because we only had about 15 min left. From here things really started getting hard. He played chords and had us identify them as either major or minor. This was easy at first then he started playing them in weird inversions and really wide voicings. Last, but not least he played 6 chords. He gave us the bass note and the highest note of the first chord. Next he had us find the bottom note of each chord, followed by the top then the 2 middle notes. Figuring out chord voicing is hard. Here is the amazing part. He told us this story about when he went to Yale and flew out there to do a tryout. He said before he even touched a paino they gathered everyone into a large room, gave them pencil and staff paper and started playing music. They told everyone to transcribe the music playing, which was Mozart. After they got done with that they had to do the same thing with a song by Bartok(I think String quartet no3 or something like that). Needless to say alot of people just started yelling and threw their pencils in the air. They had to trtanscribe all the voices not just the melody and they only played it twice. No slow speed software, no looping. My teacher said he thinks he transcribed it 90% correctly :shocked: *I didn't think anyone was that good. He gave me some advice about ear training afterwords, but even if I'm only half as good as him I'll be happy

[Devine]

What was his advice?

My teachers at college can do that stuff; they went to Julliard and are absolute machines.

-Devin

[Chan]

He advised me to get this software program that helps you with transcribing. He says it gives you the first note and then it plays a melody and you have to transcribe it. It progressivly gets more difficult until you can transcribe 4 part harmonies. The other advise he gave me was to transcribe little kids songs. Just get out a sheet a staff paper and transcribe it from memory when you have time, then once you get home play it on your insturment to check yourself. After you have that mastered, turn on the readio and transcribe the melody to a song you've never heard before(I might listen to the radio for once). He said once I really think I'm good I should listen to some boy-band stuff. You listen first and try to get the time signature, then get the drum pattern and once you have that get the bass. Most pop songs repeat the same bass and drum patterns though the whole song, so once you have it you can be done with the rhythem section. Then the first time the verse comes in transcribe the lowest voice, when it repeats get the highest voice. Next the chorus will come in. Do the same thing you did for the verse(lowest voice then highest). The next time the chorus comes in get the middle notes in the chords they're singing. By now you should have 2 lines, 1 line for the chorus another for the verse. Now just arrange the sections and you're done. He also said that alot of times he can't get all the notes fast enough, so he just makes sure he has the lowest and highest notes, plus the rhythem. If he's missing something on the inside of a chord he just goes over the song in his head, determines if the chord is major, minor, ect and uses theory to fill in the wholes. He said it doesn't really matter if you change the inside because most people won't notice the diffrence(even Mozart did it). I'm going to find that software and get too work. Just think, with a skill like that i could make hundreds here on jemsite transcribing the Ultrazone

[Devine]

Huge "if", Chan, that'll take a really long time to master. *Plus, you'll find once you can do that, you'd probably make more as a Jazz guitarist.

-Devin

[Chan]

You're right it might take me a few years, but I have alot of time for music. For the next 4 years I'll be doing nothing, but studying music. The guy that I learned this stuff from was pretty young, so I figure if he was only about 27, it can't take 20 years to develop.

[chilln2music]

do you remember the software? I'm quite interested.

[Devo]

I used to hate ear training, as for years it was just transcribing 16 bar melodies and some two and four part.

but recently It has become somthing I look forward to quite a bit. just before end of term (start of june) we had begun to notate more obscure things like note clusters and melodies in unusual (once even alternating) time signatures without prior warning. this stuff has finally been put to use transcribing some Liquid tension stuff.

Ive heard alot about people being able to learn perfect pitch, have you any info at all on different courses or companies that offer this sort training?

it would make my life considerably easier, I have always dreamt of having perfect pitch

Steve