What is perfect pitch? Perfect pitch is the ability to identify the notes you hear without using any reference note. But what if a person can identify the notes without a reference note, but cannot identify them if they are sharp or flat, and what if this only works with instrumental sounds, and not human voice? Would that be still a case of perfect pitch? For some people this is still considered to be a kind of limited perfect pitch. I would call it a “not that perfect pitch”! That was my case, and this is my story. I am sure I am not the only person with a “not that perfect pitch” condition and I hope my story helps others.
When I was 7, I started piano lessons in a semiprivate class. The teacher mentioned that as a part of the musicianship training we would stand next to the piano, she would then play a note for us and we would have to tell her what note it was, without looking at the keyboard. To prepare for this, one day I sat at the piano and played some notes and listened to them very carefully, trying to figure out a way to identify them. Suddenly, I realized that when I played a note and listened carefully, it was like the note was telling me its name, like do, re, mi, etc. So I felt quite relieved, as I knew I was ready for that activity.
Fast forward to a couple of years after that, I started music lessons in a proper music school. I remember even though at the time I was unable to carry a tune or sing back a simple melody, my “not so perfect pitch” took me successfully through all my formal music education as an “A” student. And again fast forward to many years after that, I graduated with my master’s degree from a Canadian university as a violin performer with my “not so perfect pitch”. However my problem was that all through my graduate studies and even after that I played the violin out of tune and nobody could understand how or why that was happening. My violin teachers attributed the problem to the fact that I have small hands, or that I had to improve my left-hand technique, or that I needed a different violin, etc. but they never questioned my listening abilities. They thought it was more of a technical problem.
Reflecting on what had been going on during my studies with regards to playing out of tune, I think my main problem was to convince my teachers (musicianship, theory, violin, etc.) that I had a problem. Sometimes, when they learned that I sort of have perfect pitch they just stopped inquiring, saying that they did not know how it works, therefore they couldn’t help. Looking for a solution, I even explored the area of neuroplasticity, which are techniques of rewiring the brain, in an empirical way. That led me to a place for expensive treatments, which helped me with some listening problems but was not quite the answer I was looking for. At the end, it did not help with my playing out of tune. I did some more research and mostly through observation and inquiring with my classmates on how they manage to play in tune or do melodic dictations without perfect pitch, I discovered that such thing as relative pitch exists. However I didn’t quite know how it worked and with my “not so perfect pitch” I didn’t know how to develop it.
That was when I thought maybe a composer would have a deeper understanding of musical sound and might be able to help me. So I told my story to a composer/teacher friend, Ali Nader, and he was willing to help. I was lucky because he actually put me on the right track and guided me through a long journey into improving my aural skills. He suggested that the key problem might be in me relying on my “not so perfect pitch” and having no effective and reliable substitute for it, namely relative pitch. So he showed me how I can develop and work on my relative pitch.
It is now several years since I started working with him and today I see myself in a much better place in my music career, thanks to my new aural skills. Let me explain some of the things we have been working on during this time, as it might be helpful to others in a similar situation:
At first, I started singing scales using the movable Do system as opposed to the fixed Do I grew up with. This was quite confusing at the beginning as I had perfect pitch, but it was helpful. I remember at the beginning it was quite difficult for me to sing a major scale without forgetting the tonic, but gradually the notion of tonic got stronger in my mind.
I also worked on an exercise called the Centricity Formula in which I was singing a special melody that led every scale degree of the key (tonality) to the tonic in stepwise motion. This reinforced the sense of tonality in my mind and helped me perceive the different ‘functions’ of the different scale degrees in relation to the tonic. You can find more information about this exercise in a free web application for ear training at: https://www.ssomus.ca/free-online-ear-training-app.html
As human voice was the only kind of sound for me that didn’t carry any pitch name information with it, with my teacher’s help I created a small app (in Max) that allowed me to work on the Centricity Formula and do melodic dictations with human voice. This meant that I could only use my relative pitch skills, which is exactly what I wanted to develop.
Listening to music and transcribing popular rounds and simple melodies was another part of my regular practice.
Finally, composing diatonic chord progressions was one of the activities that made a big difference. I could suddenly see a significant improvement in my relative pitch abilities. Somehow listening very carefully to the chord sounds and their functions, and their sense of direction was extremely helpful in understanding the structure of a tonal system at a deeper level.
There was a period of confusion in which I did not know what was in charge, my “not so perfect pitch” or the relative pitch. After that period of discomfort and uncertainty, things started to get clearer. It has been a long journey (almost 4 years) and there is still more work to be done. But the important thing is that now I know what was missing in my practice and I know how to improve on it.
Before going through with this process, I played without really knowing if what I played was in tune or not, now I can hear when something is out of tune because I can hear the notes in my mind before playing them. After all music should come from within.
If you have any questions for me you can contact me at (roberta@robertachkas.com). I would be happy to help. And if you want to know more about my friend, teacher, and guide in this journey you can find out more about him at (https://www.ssomus.ca/).