I've just started in music and I'm wondering how difficult it is to be able to identify notes. ie you hear a note and know it's a c, d etc. I've noticed most people go through a quiet scale and find the one that fits but I'm wondering how hard it is to identify a note just by hearing it.

What you're talking about is called perfect pitch: the ability to tell right away whether a note is a c or d etc. Some people seem to have this innate ability, there are also training courses but I doubt if they're effective.

However, identifying a pitch is of very little use in music. Much more important is relative pitch: the ablility to tell what the inyterval is between a certain note and the 1 of the scale. I.e. do you hear that it's the fifhth or sixth step of the scale? This can be trained through ear training and memorizing certain melodies that include certain intervals. It is relative pitch that defines your ability to play what you hear, not perfect pitch.

rainman1985 said:

You're describing "Perfect Pitch" - where you can hear a note and know what it is. While the feat seems impressive, in and of itself, it's not that useful in playing/writing music.

What's more important is learning the relation from one note to the next.

For instance, on a guitar, the difference between the first string and the second string is 5 notes. I don't have to have perfect pitch to know what that sounds like - because, those two notes also happen to be the opening chords to "Wild Thing" by the Troggs, or, "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen. For whatever reason, that's how I identify that jump in notes now.

Schooled musicians, (or, uh, classier than myself musicians) will tell you that the jump between those notes is a 5th (I think? a 4th? somebody help a cracker out here...)

There's some very useful sites out there that can help to train you to learn those differences, also known as intervals (I think? again, I'm ignint so, get the real words from a schooled musician).

I did a google on intervals, notes and music and got these: (some may be a bit more advanced for you, but they're worth checking out)
http://www.songtrellis.co...s/interval (loooks pretty good)
http://www.emusictheory.com/
http://www.dolmetsch.com/...heory1.htm

I hope this helps. Perfect Pitch is a great bar trick but within music, it's about as useful as being able to identify a letter of the alphabet by the sound. "So you know what a K sounds like. You'd need a lot more tools to write a sentence, don't you think?"

But let those with the formal education tell you more.

EDIT: DAMN! BEATEN BY THAT HECTIM AGAIN! SNAP!
[Edited 2/23/05 5:21am]

Thanks

There are two sides to listening

perfect pitch and relative pitch. Both are important to develop in my opinion.

What is important to develop is your "inner ear" . i.e. singing in your head, If you can talk in your head than you can sing in your head, imagining what the note is in your head. This will help you learn music that you hear easier as well as compose.

If its something that you want to develop than do this.

Take two notes,

if you use the piano

C and D
listen to them for about 2 minutes a day, singing them in your head and outloud. Have someone test you on those two notes. When you can do 20 in a row without error add on the next note in this order C, D, E, F, G, A, B, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb .
Going about it in this process you will develop both relative and perfect pitch. After you can do one octave add another octave.

Your ear is like a plant, you have to water it and give it sunshine so to speak. Too much water and you'll flood it, too much sunshine and you'll scorch it. So just spend a few minutes a day on this, you don't want to strain your ear and get frustrated.


Dirt &Earthyvibes
http://www.dirt.bz
Dirt Music3

A friend of mine has perfect pitch, and he was telling me that it's not only not so useful in music, it's sometimes even annoying; he told me that when he listens to a song that's been pitched a little, it all sounds out of tune to him.
I don't really have perfect pitch hearing so I couldn't say.
Only when I'm putting on new string on my bass, I usually tune it at first by ear and most of the time it's tuned okay. But I wouldn't mind if I was always way off; I don't change my strings that much

erikd said:

Your friend is flattering himself.

Both perfect and relative pitch are something that is learned.

Nobody comes out of the womb saying , wah wah thats a F#


Dirt &EArthyvibes
http://www.dirt.bz

Dirt said:

Heh, I kinda suspected that