recognition of notes just by listening

[drazh]

hi
Can you recognise  just by listening the name of note ?
Or determine the scale of a pieace  ?
Is that  a necessary  skill ?
Thank you

[omar_roy]

1. No.  You would need perfect pitch, which cannot be developed.
2. You wouldn't be able to determine the key of a piece, but you could certainly determine modality.
3. No,  it is not a necessary skill nor is it truly beneficial.

[drazh]

hi
How can you determine modality by listening a unknown pieace?
With practice or talent?
Thank you

[perfect_pitch]

Is that  a necessary  skill ?

3. No,  it is not a necessary skill nor is it truly beneficial.

Really??? Do you realise how quickly I can learn pieces just by listening to an audio file of them??? I'm incredibly sure that I can learn pieces faster, just by listening to them.

It's actually quite beneficial in fact.

[drorperl]

Just to make it clear, This recognition skill divides into 2 kinds. There's an absolute pitch/perfect pitch... the ability to name or sing a tone without reference to an external instrument. One hears a note and knows right away...this is a C or D etc. I don't think that this is a necessary skill, there are different opinions as to whether this skill can be developed or not at any rate there's quite a few legendary musicians that didn't poses this skill. The other kind is relative pitch, Which means being able to recognize just by listening the tonality, intervals, progressions, etc (without necessarily knowing in which key they're played). This is a skill that I think is very important for any musician, and can definitely be developed by practicing ear training, solfege, etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dror Perl. Pianist, Composer, Teacher.

https://www.sheerpiano.com/

Sheer Piano: The First Full Color Piano Music Books
simple jazz & contemporary compositions that are fun for beginner pianists & up

[omar_roy]

Really??? Do you realise how quickly I can learn pieces just by listening to an audio file of them??? I'm incredibly sure that I can learn pieces faster, just by listening to them.

It's actually quite beneficial in fact.

And any pianist who is adequately schooled in solfege has an even better advantage than a pianist who has perfect pitch but has no education in solfege.

Perfect pitch tells you only the pitch at hand, not its context.  Sure if you know the pitch and the one you're going too, you can work out that it's a 6th or what have you, but solfege teaches you to recognize the interval itself, and also mode/tonality, whatever.

THAT skill is useful, much moreso than perfect pitch, and is one that can be developed.

These are things that one can address of their own accord (buying a book and training oneself in solfege) or through being taught.  At most music schools, solfege is a requirement, but it's never too early to start training your ear.

Perfect pitch is a nice trick, great for vocalists, but i wouldn't say it gives a pianist any advantage over another pianist.  I know pianists that have perfect pitch, and I've never felt any disadvantage because I practiced my solfege and worked hard to develop my ability to recognize things.  This ear training combined with adequate musical theory training is what's important.

[ted]

My teacher had absolute pitch, which together with an even more amazing short term memory enabled him to play anything he heard right away - within physical limitations of course. Surely it is obvious that it must be a tremendous asset for certain musical functions, for example transcribing complicated piano solos. Something I have always wondered about is whether those possessing it think differently in the creative sense at the instrument; in particular do they improvise in fundamentally different ways to those who do not have it. I guess it's one of those questions about a quale which cannot be fully answered because neither side knows what it is like to perceive as the other does.

[richard black]

Perfect pitch tells you only the pitch at hand, not its context.  Sure if you know the pitch and the one you're going too, you can work out that it's a 6th or what have you, but solfege teaches you to recognize the interval itself, and also mode/tonality, whatever.

But all that stuff is only making up for perfect pitch anyway. If you have perfect pitch you know almost immediately what chord you are hearing, what intervals, what tonality etc. etc. But of course for most of a working musician's life this is all basically nice but irrelevant. Perfect pitch is extremely useful if you want to write down music you're hearing (though it doesn't necessarily make recognition of complicated chords instantaneous, that's a whole extra level) and handy if you want to be able to identify wrong notes in an ensemble, for instance, but overall it makes very little difference to anything practical.