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    All About ABRSM Grades & Support

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Music, Singing, Dancing, Speech & Drama
    279 Posts 65 Posters 398.8k Views 1 Watching
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    • K Offline
      kathyh
      last edited by

      Hi,


      The same here for my child, the accuracy to identify the single could be very high, be it black or white keys. However, when it comes to melody / short phrases, only 3~4 notes of the beginning part can be recalled, when the melody is replayed, maybe 3~4 notes of the other part can be recalled while the first 3~4 notes cannot be recalled and joined with the newly recognized notes.

      Our teacher said it is not simply due to poor memory , but she also has not developed any effective way to solve this yet.

      Any comments on improving one this?

      pirate:
      sunflower:

      Yes, agree that there are people like that. Most likely either Suzuki trained, have perfect pitch or very good relative pitch. Some are born with very good ear and can play by ear very well. But for a normal average kid, having good sight-reading skills will not only shorten the time to learn new pieces, but will also enhance the student's musical experience, and make playing the instrument an enjoyment.

      Sorry, OT a bit. What is a \"good ear\"? My 6yo dd can tell me correctly without looking which white key I pressed anywhere on the piano 99% of the time, and the black keys maybe more than 75%. Is that a good ear? Can they forget this if they don't touch the piano for some time?

      My dd seems to be more interested in and be able to learn a piece much faster after hearing it on a cd. How to get kids like that to do more sight reading and not rely on their ears so much?

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      • W Offline
        waiyean
        last edited by

        kathyh:
        Hi,


        may I know your suggestion on singing of sharp or flat notes?

        As when you sing say, a D major, \" Re Mi Fa# So La Ti Do# Re \", the correct pitch of, say, \"Do #\" will be always hidden/distorted by the pronunciation of \"Do\" and \"Sharp\".
        We usually sing first note of D major as Do, ie. movable Do.

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        • K Offline
          kathyh
          last edited by

          Ah! Cannot!

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          • D Offline
            Dreamaurora
            last edited by

            kathyh:
            Hi,


            The same here for my child, the accuracy to identify the single could be very high, be it black or white keys. However, when it comes to melody / short phrases, only 3~4 notes of the beginning part can be recalled, when the melody is replayed, maybe 3~4 notes of the other part can be recalled while the first 3~4 notes cannot be recalled and joined with the newly recognized notes.

            Our teacher said it is not simply due to poor memory , but she also has not developed any effective way to solve this yet.

            Any comments on improving one this?
            The reason why many students find it hard to recall melody from memory is because they perceive the melody as a sequence of notes and not as musical 'words'. For example, CDEFG can be treated as a 'musical word' that consists of a 5 rising scale notes. What I do with my students is giving them exercises involving random orders of these 'musical words' that they have to sing or play back to me.

            So for example, you can make up an exercises consisting of these 'musical words'

            In C Major:
            Word 1: 12345 i.e. CDEFG
            Word 2: 123 i.e. CE
            Word 3: 1323 i.e CEDE
            Word 4: 171 i.e. CBC
            etc

            Then can get the students to sing the solfege or play out the these words on the piano first. And then afterwards I will play a random melody made up of these 'words' in various types of rhythms. The student will sing back in solfege or play back the melody on the piano. This exercise can be transposed to other keys as well.

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            • S Offline
              sunflower
              last edited by

              waiyean:
              kathyh:

              Hi,


              may I know your suggestion on singing of sharp or flat notes?

              As when you sing say, a D major, \" Re Mi Fa# So La Ti Do# Re \", the correct pitch of, say, \"Do #\" will be always hidden/distorted by the pronunciation of \"Do\" and \"Sharp\".

              We usually sing first note of D major as Do, ie. movable Do.

              Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.

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              • W Offline
                waiyean
                last edited by

                sunflower:
                Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.

                For people with perfect pitch, is it important to also train on relative pitch? I would think that relative pitching will be useful for transposition, etc.

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                • D Offline
                  Dreamaurora
                  last edited by

                  waiyean:
                  sunflower:

                  Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.


                  For people with perfect pitch, is it important to also train on relative pitch? I would think that relative pitching will be useful for transposition, etc.

                  If main instrument is piano, relative pitch is optional. For transposition, a stronger grasp of theory and chords are more important. But more or less can get by if have good perfect pitch. Though it is still recommended to learn relative pitching to express music better i.e. students with only perfect pitch often have more difficulties feeling the tension and release of pitches and harmony.

                  If main instrument is not piano, relative pitch may be necessary. Let's say for example I play violin and I need to perform a sonata with a piano accompaniment. Let's say the piano is quite out of tune and not in concert pitch. If I only have perfect pitch I will have problem adjusting to the piano. Same problem may occur also if I play in an orchestra and the conductor request for non concert pitch tuning.

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                  • S Offline
                    sunflower
                    last edited by

                    Dreamaurora:
                    waiyean:

                    [quote=\"sunflower\"]Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.


                    For people with perfect pitch, is it important to also train on relative pitch? I would think that relative pitching will be useful for transposition, etc.

                    If main instrument is piano, relative pitch is optional. For transposition, a stronger grasp of theory and chords are more important. But more or less can get by if have good perfect pitch. Though it is still recommended to learn relative pitching to express music better i.e. students with only perfect pitch often have more difficulties feeling the tension and release of pitches and harmony.

                    If main instrument is not piano, relative pitch may be necessary. Let's say for example I play violin and I need to perform a sonata with a piano accompaniment. Let's say the piano is quite out of tune and not in concert pitch. If I only have perfect pitch I will have problem adjusting to the piano. Same problem may occur also if I play in an orchestra and the conductor request for non concert pitch tuning.[/quote]Yup! People with perfect pitch has difficulty adjusting to \"out of tune\" performances. They will \"see\" sharps and flats all over the place on the \"score\" in the head! Some really can get headache. It's a \"curse\" and \"blessing\" at the same time.

                    I'm really not sure whether it's possible for people with perfect pitch to \"train\" for relative pitch. It seems that they don’t really feel the necessity for it as they could already hear everything they see and vice versa. It's usually those without this gift that need to depend on relative pitch to help them in the various aspects of musical learning.

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                    • K Offline
                      kathyh
                      last edited by

                      sunflower:
                      waiyean:

                      [quote=\"kathyh\"]Hi,


                      may I know your suggestion on singing of sharp or flat notes?

                      As when you sing say, a D major, \" Re Mi Fa# So La Ti Do# Re \", the correct pitch of, say, \"Do #\" will be always hidden/distorted by the pronunciation of \"Do\" and \"Sharp\".

                      We usually sing first note of D major as Do, ie. movable Do.

                      Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.[/quote]
                      So we sing Fa sharp or Fa when come across black key notes?

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                      • D Offline
                        Dreamaurora
                        last edited by

                        kathyh:


                        So we sing Fa sharp or Fa when come across black key notes?
                        Fi.

                        Just search for solfege in Wikipedia. There is a chart of solfege there.

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