Work on rhythm, character, fluency, memory, ear and voice with Solmization

[johnk]

I guess if you are familiar with lah minor, you would have come across the melodic ascending form, where instead of 5678 being "me fe se la", they say "me BAH se lah". The logic is that this is closer to the sound of "so lah te doh". The thing is, with the melodic ascending form, only one note is different to the major, the 3rd. And if you have a tierce de Picardie ending it totally becomes major.

I do understand your point. I use lah minor if it seems more modal than functional. To me , if I would call a chord the tonic, or I (one) , then I would call that note doh. To me, doh and one and tonic are synonymous.

If a piece is modal, it is like it is in a major key, using the usual chords, but it always ends on a chord other than the tonic.

If you look at my degree card, the yellow section , degrees 1 to 5, is drmfs in major, drnfs in minor. Me is the major 3rd, naw is the minor 3rd. I cant really imagine using it with students and when you put it in minor, having to relearn all 7 degree names. Doh is still the name for the first degree. I play a lot myself with the degree card sitting in the key I think makes the most sense harmonically at a particular point in the piece. When I can really see my way , I get very secure, because I can 'verify' that each note sounds like what it looks like. If it doesnt, I would move the degree card into another key, till I am satisfied that it looks like the card correctly represents the tonal centre. If you would agree that for a piece in A minor, that ACE is the tonic chord, and the card looks right with the yellow section on ABCDE, then I say the key is A, and doh is A. Its how I define what doh is. Doh is the name for the first degree on the degree card.

But, as they say, to each his own! 

[keypeg]

Well, you have to remember that I lived a different reality than everyone else for 45 years.  It is a marvelous advantage, because as I add the "conventional" awareness of pitch and pitch name, and come close to the real perfect pitch, I have both, and can then combine them instantly.  That card which you keep on your piano is mapped in my being since childhood.  This is why what Musicrebel4U describes of her education, and that one can hear a piece and transcribe it instantly relatively as well as in the correct key, is very plausible.  I always did have that ability relatively, but I had no pitch awareness.  When you are able to blend both simultaneously you practicaly have everything.

[johnk]

Hmmm, I thought Hellene wrote somewhere that she just found one day out of the blue that she had perfect pitch. It may not be something that her years of training produced. The people I know with 'active' perfect pitch can look at a music score and it plays in their head like a record. It is a rare ability. People with 'passive' perfect pitch can hear isolated sounded notes and name them, but from my experience have poor awareness of pitch relationships, and harmony. I have tested some.

My own ability is interesting. I can name any white key played on a live piano, but not on recordings. And I cant hear the black keys. There is no methodology involved. And Ive had this ability since the age of 5. But it is useless for anything except piano teaching.

Actually I leaned across to the piano behind me just now and played a random white key. For the first time in my life, the note didnt jump out and say its name for me! I had the strange sensation of not knowing what it was and had to guess. And I got it wrong! It is the middle of the night here. I got up for a drink and looked at my emails. It was a B. I think maybe a C would have been identified. It is more often the first note we piano teachers hear.

As Musicrebel is scientifically minded, she may have statistics on perfect pitch abilities. But the problem is defining what we think is a useful ability. I think I am a useful musician, but my perfect pitch, whatever is left of it and however limited it is, is no part of that.

This is debated in another strand. What qualities make a "professional" musician. I'll go now and see what has been added in that.

Buy for now.