Absolute pitch. Absolute, or ideal, hearing and inability to distinguish sound tones

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Ear for music

- a set of abilities necessary for composing, performing and actively perceiving music.

Musical ear implies a high subtlety of perception of both individual musical elements or qualities of musical sounds (pitch, loudness, timbre), and functional connections between them in a piece of music (modal sense, sense of rhythm, melodic, harmonic, and other types of hearing).

Among the various types of musical ear, distinguished by various characteristics, the most important are:

There is a widespread opinion that an ear for music is something almost unique - a gift from God, and a person who has an ear for music is very lucky. After all, he can sing, make music, and in general, he is, in a sense, the chosen one.

How many people experience a feeling of inferiority when it comes to music, saying: "I got a bear in my ear."

Is it really such a rarity - an ear for music? Why do some people have it and others don't? And in general, where did he come from in man? Why did it show up at all? Maybe it's some sort of psychic ability?

It is worth remembering that human abilities do not just happen. All our ability comes from a vital necessity. Man learned to walk on two legs because he needed to free his hands.

Approximately the same situation with the musical ear. This feature appeared when living beings needed to communicate using sounds. A person's ear for music developed along with speech. In order to learn how to speak, we need to be able to distinguish sounds by strength, duration, pitch and timbre. Actually, it is this skill that people call musical ear.

Types of musical ear

Perfect Pitch

The ability to recognize by ear any note (do, re, mi, etc.) and reproduce it with a voice without prior tuning. This also applies to sounds performed not only on musical instruments (siren, telephone call, knocking on a metal pipe, etc.).

Relative hearing

It differs from the absolute one in that in order to determine or sing notes by ear, tuning is necessary - a sound or chord, relative to which the scale will be mentally built.

melodic hearing

The ability to hear and understand the structure of a melody (pitch, direction of movement and rhythmic organization), as well as to reproduce it with a voice. At a higher level of development - write notes.

Develops in the process of learning music.

Harmonic hearing

The ability to hear harmonic consonances - chord combinations of sounds and their sequences and reproduce them with a voice in an unfolded form or on a musical instrument.

In practice, this can be expressed, for example, in the selection of an accompaniment to a melody by ear, even without knowing the notes, or singing in a polyphonic choir.

Its development is possible even in the initial absence of such an ability.

inner ear

Internal representation of the correct pitch intonation, without voice reproduction.

Internal hearing uncoordinated with the voice. First level.
In practice, it is expressed in the selection of a melody, possibly with accompaniment, by ear on an instrument or by understanding errors by ear in the work being studied.
Inner hearing coordinated with the voice. Professional level. The result of serious solfeggio training. It involves hearing and anticipating the musical text and the ability to work with it without a musical instrument.

Develops in the process of learning music.

foreshadowing

Mental planning with the inner ear of the future pure sound, rhythmic figure, musical phrase. It is used as a professional technique in vocals and for playing all musical instruments.

Is it possible to develop an ear for music?

We use an ear for music, and very accurate, all the time. Without it, we would not recognize people by their voices. But by the voice we can tell a lot about our interlocutor. It gives us the opportunity to determine what mood the person we are talking to has, whether we can trust him, and much more. Non-verbal, that is, non-verbal, characteristics of speech sometimes give us much more information than spoken words.

Is it possible in this case to say that someone does not have an ear for music? Yes, of course not! Every person who independently learned to speak has an ear for music.

Lack of ear for music is as rare as, for example, congenital blindness!
Of course, for someone it can be developed very well, and for someone it is worse, but for the vast majority of people, the ear for music is quite developed enough to make music and achieve excellent results without special enhanced training for the development of ear for music. The problem is that very often musical abilities are judged by a person's ability to sing. If you don’t know how to sing, it means “a bear stepped on your ear”, “no ear for music”.

But in order to sing, it is not enough to hear well. You also need to be able to control your voice well. And voice control needs to be learned in the same way as drawing, dancing or swimming.

And besides, if you hear that you sing badly, then your hearing is definitely all right!
And, finally, if you love music, listen to it, then you have a normal ear for music, you don’t have to worry about this.

Ear for music, like any function of our body (for example, the ability to swim), develops only when we actively use it. If you play a musical instrument or sing, it will help you quickly develop an ear for music. By the way, Dmitry Kabalevsky devoted his life to debunking the myth about the uniqueness of the musical ear. He developed a whole system that proved that every person can and should be taught music. And the results of his activities have shown that almost anyone can successfully engage in music.

Specialists are engaged in the development of musical ear. discipline - however, actively musical ear develops primarily in the process of musical activity.

One of the methods of developing intonation hearing is through movement, breathing practices and dance. Various manifestations of musical ear are studied in musical psychology, musical acoustics, and psychophysiology of hearing. Hearing is dialectically connected with general musicality, which is expressed in a high degree of emotional susceptibility of musical phenomena, in the strength and brightness of the figurative representations and experiences caused by them.

If you have a desire to make music in one form or another, cast aside any doubts about your abilities, act, study, and success will surely come to you!

It doesn't matter if you're going to sing in a punk band, dream of not getting punched in karaoke, or plan to serenade your sweetheart on her birthday, an ear for music is a very useful skill for any developed man. We figure out what it is in general, what exactly is its use and what exercises can drive a bear out of your ear.

Do you love music the way we love it at Men's Health? Surely yes, and that's great. After all, you and I have known for a long time that:

music can make physical labor easier, whether it's rowing a galley or tending a huge lawn;
in the office, listening to your favorite music can reduce fatigue that accumulates during working hours, calm your nerves and relieve irritability;
music increases enthusiasm and helps to relax;
music classes help in learning foreign languages;
music strengthens the mind: as Italian scientists found, fast music causes an additional rush of blood to the brain compared to slower or silence;
music has been proven to help runners and cyclists: the former feel that they spend less effort, and their endurance increases by 15%, while the latter use less oxygen when pedaling to the music;
pleasant music can effectively block the memory of failures, increasing the overall efficiency of the athlete;
Finally, scientists have noted the effectiveness of music in reducing pain in cancer patients, improving the response of their immune system, reducing their anxiety and other psychological and physiological symptoms.

And remember how often you imagined yourself on stage with a microphone performing a hit from your favorite team? Some of us are downright delusional about this vision and strive to use every opportunity to make it come true. But, alas, no matter how hard the unfortunate vocalists try, no matter how loudly they try to voice their favorite lines both in karaoke, and in a cheerful company, and even alone with the closest people, the maximum that they get is sympathetic looks, in which the plea is clearly read: “Dude, stop making these heartbreaking sounds with your mouth!” In especially severe cases, bar vocalizations ended in scuffles, after which the editorial singers, rubbing fresh bruises and abrasions, complained about the universal misunderstanding and human insensitivity. To help them, we decided to find out if it is possible to develop an ear for music at all. It turned out that it is very possible!

What is it anyway?

An ear for music is a person's ability to fully perceive the musical palette of a work and comprehensively and adequately evaluate it, as well as reproduce it. Determining how developed your musical ear is is very simple.

Choose your favorite song.
Listen to it once, and then try on your own, a cappella (that is, without accompaniment), to sing the melody of the song, while keeping in rhythm.
Neighbors banging furiously on the water pipe? Sorry, it looks like your hearing is not good. Wait, or did you perform something from Napalm Death?

But don't get upset. An ear for music is either given to a person by nature, or he is brought up over time by hard training. As scientists have established, in the auditory area of \u200b\u200bour brain there is a bundle of nerve endings responsible for musical hearing. And if it is regularly and correctly stimulated, then things will eventually go smoothly.

In addition, if you didn’t really distort the melody, but constantly fly out of rhythm and tempo, then you need to work on coordinating the auditory and vocal apparatus - yes, and this can be pumped.

Varieties of musical ear

Out of almost 20 types of musical ear, we will highlight the 6 most important for us in this article.

Perfect Pitch

A fairly rare innate talent that gives its owner the ability to accurately determine the musical note (pitch) of absolutely any sound without comparing it with a tuning fork (that is, a well-known ideal). With all its advantages, it can cause a decent amount of inconvenience, such as difficulties with learning foreign languages, and most importantly, it has nothing to do with musicality and does not guarantee the career of Svyatoslav Richter or Mstislav Rostropovich.

inner ear

But the ability to accurately represent a piece of music, its melody and the sound of individual instruments is much more important for your musical future. Let's say, if you suddenly (God forbid) go deaf, you can still compose songs for your group, just playing them in your head - remember our Ludwig van Beethoven.

Relative (interval) hearing

The ability to determine the pitch of musical sounds, comparing them with those already known, is possessed by most successful musicians, without having absolute hearing. And this is exactly the skill that can be developed.

Rhythmic hearing

In dry academic language, this is the ability to distinguish the duration of the sound of notes in their sequence, their strength and weakness, as well as to feel the tempo, that is, the change in the speed of the music. But in fact, the presence of rhythmic hearing means that you are able to catch the sensation that musicians call "pitch" or "groove", that is, to feel the emotional expressiveness of musical rhythm.

pitch hearing

If you possess it, then you hear the slightest difference in pitch: for example, the difference between adjacent piano keys or guitar frets. It is easily developed through training and will help you become, if not a musician, then a concert technician or piano tuner.

melodic hearing

The most important ability to perceive the melody of your favorite song as a whole, with all its expressive changes in the course of the piece, and to assess its expressiveness and intonation. As they say in solfeggio lessons, the melody either runs, then jumps, then freezes in place.

What to do to develop musical ear?

We will not touch here on the countless applications and programs designed to help develop your ear, learn to sing and master the basics of musical instruments. And let's talk about the good old analog exercises.

Learn to listen to music

Yes, it's that simple. But now you will not just mindlessly drive your favorite tracks in a circle - you have to delve into them. Figure out how many instruments sound in a particular composition, how the sound of electronic drums differs from real ones, what effects distort the sound of guitars, how intensely the bass player plays his part. We guarantee: having mastered thoughtful listening to music, you will get a new and tremendous pleasure.

By the way, direct and frequent listening to music is perhaps the main condition for the development of musical ear and, more importantly, musical taste. And here it is better to turn to boring audiophiles who like to get confused with high-quality equipment, rather than treat it with a disregard, since the price of the issue is your hearing. Inexpensive tweeters (which sound engineers call "shit-control" - understandable, right?) and cheap in-ear headphones will easily beat off your musical bundle of neurons completely and are certainly unlikely to make it possible to correctly decompose the composition into instruments. Therefore, approach the choice of a device for listening to music wisely - and especially for headphones.

Editor's Choice MH: Audio-Technica ATH-DSR7BT Headphones

This is just that rare case when almost everything is perfect in headphones: sound quality, quality of materials, convenience and price. The ATH-DSR7BT full-size wireless ears from legendary Japanese brand Audio-Technica feature the Pure Digital Drive system, which redefines wireless audio, delivering impressive sound quality without any of the effects of digital-to-analogue conversions. It works like this: the digital signal remains as such until it reaches the drivers. In most Bluetooth headphones, from this point on, multi-stage signal processing begins, which in the end often results in a noticeable deterioration in sound. Pure Digital Drive at the same time excludes strong signal processing, as a result of which the alignment is perfect: no distortion or additional sound coloration.

Get to grips with the instruments playing your favorite song with 45mm True Motion D/A drivers designed specifically for the DSR7BT, recreating every detail of the recording with a natural, balanced sound.

Although the headphones are wireless, they have a USB cable that supports high-resolution audio (up to 96kHz/24bit). In addition, the headphones support the latest aptxHD Bluetooth codec, which provides lossless wireless audio transmission.

Editorial tests - and we usually conduct them from the heart, to the maximum, often at the risk of simply breaking the device - showed impressive results.

Headphones sit quite comfortably on the head and are able to adapt to any ears thanks to the ear cushions with shape memory. They do not slip off the head either when playing sports (boxing was an exception), or when vigorously shaking the head to the classic Metallica compositions. Although, of course, the natural conditions for the Audio-Technica ATH-DSR7BT are peaceful and calm listening to music not only at home, but also at work. And since these are wireless Bluetooth headphones, you can not be attached to space at all.

Touch control deserves special attention. In order to receive or end a phone call, as well as start a song, just touch the special point on the right earcup with your finger. And of course, thanks to various switching options, the headphones are ideal for the player, and for the smartphone, and for the vinyl player.

Scales

Yes, just like in the movies. You approach the piano (well, okay, to the synthesizer), find the note C and play the C major scale from it - the “do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si” you know. And then you begin to sing every note. Ideally, you should get a clean gamma on the first try.

Sounds

When getting ready for work in the morning, try to get out ten minutes early so that you have the opportunity to take your time and concentrate on distinguishing the sounds around you: the rustle of tires on the pavement, the sound of heels, the clatter of dog claws, snatches of telephone conversations, the squeal of zippers, and so on. Learn to separate sounds from general noise and memorize them. Do the same while sitting at home: an apartment building is full of sounds that make up an incredibly interesting palette.

How many myths and delusions in the world! And in the musical sphere - in general, a dime a dozen.

One of them is the myth of absolute hearing. More than once I had to explain, argue, prove. Tired, it's time to write about it, so that later you don't waste time, but simply send it. Send follow the link and read the following.

This myth is so widespread that often people, wanting to make a compliment, ask with a breath: - "You play so well. Do you have absolute pitch?"

It's time to be clear. Absolute hearing is a serious pathology. Usually found in pianists (I came across such), constantly tied to 440 Hz. (If the tuners work fine). :) This is an occupational disease that greatly complicates the life of its owner.

Much more often, musicians simply "pound show-offs":
- "You know, I have an absolute!"

Some even reach complete, absolute insanity, arguing that they have "congenital absolute pitch" !!!

To understand how ridiculous and ridiculous these statements are, it is enough to take into account just a couple of points:

a historical moment - the note "la" sounded much lower 300 years ago, then it gradually rose;
the moment is geographical - in some countries another standard "la" is 435 Hz, and in some halls of America - the pianos, on the contrary, are tuned higher.

Absolute hearing develops as a result of binding the pitch system to a certain frequency - for example, 440 Hz. It is sometimes very difficult for its owners. When they get into a school or club with an out of tune piano, they experience real physical torment. But such people, thank God, are not so many. There are much more pontyarschikov (-shchits), following the lead of a common misconception, everywhere in a hurry to proudly declare - "I am an absolute (-nitsa)".

Everything is simple. :)

A normal musician has a relative pitch and is able to instantly build a pitch system from any "la" and feel comfortable in this system. That's all. The rest is from you-know-who...

There are people who remember well the pitch of the note “la”, adopted in their place and time of residence. But if at the same time they can easily take a different pitch "la" - this is not absolute pitch, it is frequency memory, the ability to memorize a certain pitch. Almost all musicians have this ability to one degree or another, but it does not interfere in any way in those cases in which real absolutists feel terrible discomfort.

There are also harmonic, melodic and other types of hearing - but these are already other, really serious and big topics, which it is unrealistic to cover in this small text. But in order for everything to become clear with the "absolutes" - the above is enough. ;-)

Absolute pitch is a special way of perceiving sounds. A person with absolute pitch determines the frequency of a sound without comparing it with others, without singing them to himself. This quality distinguishes perfect pitch from relative pitch, in which a person defines a sound by comparing it with others.

Absolute in translation from Latin absolutes means "unlimited". Distinguish between passive and active absolute pitch.

With passive absolute hearing, a person easily determines the pitch of a musical sound, but is not able to reproduce it with his voice. Active absolute pitch has no such limitation, the owner of this quality can determine the sound and sing with his voice.

People with active absolute hearing - absolutes, differ from each other in the speed of identification, the frequency range of perception of sounds, the ability to identify sounds of different timbres of sound.

Sound range features

A person distinguishes sound vibrations in the frequency range from 16 Hz to 20,000 Hz. High-frequency sounds are fully perceived in childhood, with age the upper limit decreases.

A person with absolute hearing perceives sounds in the usual range, but has the ability to accurately distinguish sounds of different frequencies, and not in the entire range of audible sound vibrations, but in a certain area.

The highest accuracy of sound recognition corresponds to the middle register, decreases towards the edges of the frequency range.

The middle register includes small, first, second octaves. The speech range also lies in the middle register, the middle part of the range is the first octave.

Sound standard

In 1939, at the International Conference in London, a standard was adopted for tuning musical instruments around the world. The standard of sound, by which even today all the musicians of the world compare their actions, is the sound of the note “la”, corresponding to a frequency of 440 Hz.

Pseudo-absolute, harmonic, inner ear

In addition to the absolute, there is a pseudo-absolute pitch. With this method of sound recognition, a person compares the external sound with the sound of his own voice. The reference for determining the sound can be the highest or lowest sound of one's own voice.

Another feature of people with perfect pitch is the ability to recognize sounds when they sound simultaneously. Such hearing is called harmonic. Absolutists accurately name the number of sounds in a harmonic chord, recognize each of them.

It is important for a musician to have not only a good absolute and relative perception of sounds, but also a developed inner ear.

This quality is based on musical experience, the ability to think in musical images, to represent the harmony of a musical work as a whole.

Inner hearing is based on musical talent, it is improved throughout life. Such well-known composers as Beethoven, Smetana, suffering from deafness at the end of their lives, wrote music using only their inner hearing.

Perfect pitch and musical ability

The absolute ability to recognize sound frequencies is always innate, but in order for it to manifest itself, a person must first hear sounds. The frequency of the sound heard is stored in memory unchanged for life. W. A. Mozart is considered to be the first known absolutist.

With age, absolute pitch is not lost, and according to some reports, it improves. There is an innate ability to absolutely recognize sounds with an average frequency of 1: 10,000. Among professional musicians, this ability is noted more often, in about one in several dozen people.

The number of absolutes is higher among peoples with tonal languages. These languages include Japanese, Vietnamese.

The inhabitants of these countries are musical, they love and understand music. However, the number of composers in these countries is on average no higher than in European countries.

The fact is that absolute pitch is not a guarantee of musical talent. By analogy with literature, it is not enough to recognize colors in order to draw, to know letters in order to become a writer.

Is it possible to achieve perfect pitch by training?

The absolute differs from a person with a relative ear for music by the ability to store the frequency of a sound in memory. The external sound entering the auditory analyzer is compared with the frequencies available in the memory of the absolutist and the closest value is selected.

Absolutely perfect sounding of external sound is difficult to achieve. In fact, even the standard - the note "la", is reproduced not at a frequency of 440 Hz, but with a small error. The error range or sound-height zone is 435-445 Hz.

With special training, an ordinary person, if desired, is able to get as close as possible to the ability to distinguish sounds with absolute accuracy.

Perhaps not everyone will be able to achieve the speed of recognition and accuracy of sound definition, characteristic of absolute pitch, but everyone can bring their musical ear closer to the desired ideal.

A prerequisite for starting classes should be the presence of a relative ear for music. This method of sound recognition can be developed to perfection and correspond to the level of absolute sound recognition.

There are special programs - Ear Power, Earope, which allow you to improve your hearing on your own. Those wishing to improve their absolute pitch are offered courses where, under the guidance of a trainer, the mastery of recognizing musical sounds is mastered step by step.

There are a large number of successful, outstanding composers who did not have absolute pitch from birth and honed their skills in their professional activities.

Disadvantages of absolute pitch

Not always outstanding qualities bring the owner only one benefit. Absolute pitch in ordinary life even creates some inconvenience.

So, absolutes hear any false note. Dissonance cuts the ear, distracts, brings a shade of displeasure to the lessons. Absolute pitch catches false notes in the sound of an orchestra at a concert, church singing in a temple, the sounds of ordinary singing in karaoke cause shock.

In addition, pure absolute pitch without developed relative pitch will allow a person to play complex pieces of music from a sheet, perfectly tune instruments, but will not allow him to write music. The owner of absolute pitch with undeveloped relative pitch perceives musical sounds separately, does not feel their mutual attraction and harmony.

Absolute pitch is discovered when playing music, trains and develops throughout life, does not weaken with age. The musical abilities of a person consist of the ability to accurately distinguish the pitch of a sound, the ability to determine the timbre, duration, relative pitch and intensity of sounds.

If you think that “an elephant stepped on your ear” and you will never be able to perceive the sounds around you the way people who are gifted with an ear for music from birth perceive them, then you are deeply mistaken. Developing an ear for music is not as difficult as you think. And today we will give you some tips to help you do it.

First, let's look at the types of hearing. To develop an ear for music, we need to hone:

Rhythmic hearing. That is, learn to hear and feel the rhythm.
Melodic ear - the ability to understand the movement and structure of music and hear its subtleties.
Relative - hearing, which allows you to understand the magnitude of musical intervals and pitch.
Inner hearing - that is, hearing that allows you to clearly represent music and individual sounds in your thoughts.
Intonation ear, which allows you to understand the nature and tone of music.

Of course, there are many more types of hearing, but we will focus on these five, as there are enough of them to gain an ear for music.

So, what do we need to do to train these types of hearing.

1. Musical instrument

The ideal way to “pump” all kinds of hearing is to start learning how to play an instrument. In this way, you will remember how each note should sound, train your sense of rhythm and, in general, begin to understand music better. But since you probably don't have time to learn how to play musical instruments, let's move on.

2. Singing

If you don’t have a piano at home, find an online version on the Internet and every day play scales on it several times and sing them along with the piano. Once you're comfortable with scales, move on to intervals, chords, and simple melodies. The main thing is not to be shy. If you are afraid that someone will hear you, try to train at a time when you are alone at home. But really, there is nothing to be ashamed of! Remember only karaoke bars, where people, to put it mildly, without a voice and hearing, sing so loudly that they can be heard outside the bar.

3. Meditation

We named this item so because the exercise that we are going to tell you about is very similar to meditation practices for beginners. It will help you develop mindfulness for sounds.

Walk on the street without headphones, trying to catch snippets of conversations, the noise of trees, the sound of cars, the sound of heels on the pavement; the way a dog shuffles its paw on the ground; the way someone shakes out a blanket on the balcony .... you will notice that you are surrounded by so many sounds that it's hard to believe. At home, spend five minutes a day listening to the buzzing of the refrigerator from the kitchen, the sound of water in the pipes, the conversations of neighbors, the noise from the street.

4. Voices

When talking to a person, try to remember his voice. You can also watch movies, memorizing the actors' voices, and then listen to certain parts of the movie and try to name the character based only on his voice.

Try to notice the manner of conversation of your interlocutor, the timbre of his voice; remembering a conversation with someone, try to pronounce the phrases of the interlocutor in his own voice in his head.

5. Learn to hear the music

Of course, it's very nice to listen to music and not think about anything. But if your goal is to develop an ear for music, then try to delve into the music you listen to. Learn to separate one musical instrument from another; study how the guitar sounds under different “bells and whistles” so as not to confuse it with other instruments; also learn to distinguish different modes of the synthesizer from other musical instruments; listen to how real drums and electronic drums sound.

This practice will help you not only develop an ear for music, but also teach you to hear music more subtly, which in turn will give you even more pleasure from listening to it. There is one side effect of this practice - most likely later you will not want to listen to what you are listening to now, you will want something more complex and voluminous. And this is great, because isn't this the main indicator of your progress?

6. Rhythm

There is such a cool thing called a “metronome”. You can purchase it for yourself or find an online version on the Internet. Practice every day with the metronome by tapping with your finger (hand, foot, whatever) the rhythm it gives you.

When you feel comfortable with the metronome, move on to recognizing the rhythm in the music. Start with the music in which there are drums, it is easier to determine the rhythm from them. And then move on to work with music that does not contain noise instruments that allow you to easily determine the rhythm (classical music, for example).

Another fun way to improve your sense of rhythm is dancing. Enroll in a dance studio or dance at home to your heart's content.

7. Sound source

If you have an assistant for this task, great! Close your eyes and ask someone to walk around you in and out of the room and make sounds (voice, clap, ringing a bell, etc.). And every time your assistant makes a sound, you should try to understand from which direction it comes. Pretty easy task if you're in the same room with a helper, but once he starts walking around the apartment, you'll notice that it's harder to tell where the sound is coming from.

If you do not have a person who can help you with this, then you can do the following. Go outside, sit somewhere on a bench and listen to the sounds around you, as in the third exercise. Only this time you will also need to understand from which side this sound is coming.

Programs and Applications

Of course, there are many programs for developing an ear for music, and we have collected the best of them.

1. Earteach

An excellent application containing exercises for scales, chords and intervals. Perfect for those who already have a more developed ear for music. You can also download the PC version.

The principle is very simple - you need to play the melody that you just heard. The app can also be downloaded for Android and iOS.

A simple game that will help you memorize notes. Also on the right you can find many more games for the development of musical ear.