Perfect pitch is often shrouded in mystery in the musical world, transcending the capabilities of traditional ear training. Some believe perfect pitch is simply a highly refined sense of relative pitch, yet they are very different skills. A fundamental element of perfect pitch is "color awareness," which is the ability to discern that a pitch inherently possesses qualities of color without needing to compare it to other pitches.
Color Awareness vs. Relative Pitch
Acquiring color awareness can be a significant challenge, particularly for those proficient in relative pitch, where the identification of pitches is dependent on their relationships to other pitches. For musicians with a highly-developed sense of relative pitch, the automatic and effortless use of relative pitch can become a significant obstacle to acquiring color awareness. Relative pitch and color awareness necessitate completely different kinds of auditory focus and the stronger one is relative to the other, the more difficult it can be to deliberately focus on the weaker one. HarmoniQ addresses the challenges of developing color awareness through an innovative training approach.
HarmoniQ incorporates visual color aids in training modules to facilitate the transition towards color awareness. These aids are not meant to induce synesthesia, where specific pitches are consistently linked to specific colors, but rather to prime the brain to search for color qualities in pitches. The color of C isn't red; the color of C is inherently C. Explaining this to someone who has not experienced it is as challenging as explaining what it's like to experience the color yellow to someone who has never seen color. Once a user has acquired color awareness, the color aids have served their purpose and can be disabled under Settings while the learner refines their ability to discriminate between pitch colors. In fact, if the visual color aids are distracting, the complete curriculum can be done with them disabled entirely.
HarmoniQ strategically structures lessons to minimize reliance on relative pitch and enhance sensitivity to pitch color. The curriculum is designed with mathematical convenience, utilizing the 12 notes of the chromatic scale divided evenly into intervals across multiple octaves to encourage recognition of pitch color over pitch relationship. Initial lessons involve two pitches set a tritone apart across two octaves, simplifying the task to identifying only two distinct pitch colors at a time. As learners progress, these intervals decrease to major thirds, minor thirds, whole steps, and converge on the entire chromatic scale across up to 5 octaves.
The great news is that acquiring perfect pitch does not diminish one's relative pitch abilities; in fact, at full strength, the two skills will complement each other. Developing perfect pitch can enhance one's overall musical perception and accuracy, while relative pitch remains a valuable tool for understanding musical relationships and structures.
Recall
Aural Recall, often referred to simply as "recall," is widely regarded as an advanced aspect of perfect pitch, enabling individuals not only to identify but also to produce specific pitches. While developing recall you might encounter some very bizarre and confusing situations that leave you unsure of how to move forward. It's an uncomfortable sensation to confidently conjure a particular pitch in internal thoughts but then find oneself unable to reproduce it vocally. This discrepancy highlights the complexity of recall and the challenges it presents.
HarmoniQ addresses this complexity by integrating recall exercises from the outset, rather than treating recall as a skill to be learned only after achieving perfect pitch. Recall involves two distinct challenges. Firstly, it's easy to overlook ambiguity of tones generated in thoughts, necessitating practice to consistently produce a precise, singular tone internally. Additionally, there can be a disconnect between the internal and external systems, a gap which can be bridged through repetition to achieve alignment.
HarmoniQ's innovative approach to teaching perfect pitch centers on developing a keen sensitivity to the intrinsic color awareness in pitches, supported by structured lessons and early integration of aural recall skills. By redefining traditional methods and challenging preconceived notions about perfect and relative pitch, HarmoniQ offers a comprehensive toolkit for anyone looking to deeply understand and master the unique colors of musical sounds.