Unison, Minor 2nd, Major 2nd: Lesson 1

Unison, Minor 2nd, Major 2nd

In this first lesson you will be learning how to identify three intervals, as well as beginning the process of embedding your primary anchor note.

Experience has taught me that students who learn how to sing have a much higher success rate with developing pitch recognition. This of course doesn’t mean you need to be a great singer, just someone who can sing each note in tune. The reason singing is so effective for pitch recognition is that it allows you to hear notes in your mind and translate the sound to how a particular note feels when singing.

Can you still use these techniques if you can’t sing? Of course! But singing will make the process easier. So the choice is up to you.

Below is an outline of each section of the lesson.

1. Interval Comparison

Step 1 of the exercises deals with identifying which interval is greater. These exercises are designed to condition your inner ear to begin hearing intervals as having values. After a short amount of practice you will be able to clearly discern which interval is greater.

2. Interval Identification

Step 2 of the Pure Pitch Method is learning how to identify intervals by name. You will be tested on how well you recognize various intervals.

Interval Identification Tips

1.     Always listen to how one note reacts to the following note. This will allow you to systematically assess each interval and name it accordingly.

2.     Pay attention to the unique character of each interval. This unique sound will never change, and will remain constant regardless of the root note. For example, a perfect 5th has a very unique quality which is unchanged when moving from one key to another.

3. Primary Anchor Note

The purpose of step 3 in the Pure Pitch Method is to learn how to start visualizing the sound of notes and embedding them into your mind. This is the secret to developing perfect pitch.

Embedding Tips

1.     When hearing the note it is important that you visualize it ringing in your ear as if you were actually hearing it.

When singing the note pay close attention to the way your vocal cords feel. When you visualize the note imagine you’re singing that same note, not only hearing it, but also feeling the same sensations with your vocal cords. 

What Are Intervals

An interval is the distance between two notes. Below is an interval chart designed to teach you all of the 23 musical intervals.

To read the Interval Chart start at the root note located in the left side column, then work your way across. The bottom row intervals are for the second octave.

What Are Chords

Chords are 3 or more notes played simultaneously. In this course you will learn how to identify chords by ear. Not only their type (i.e. major, minor, etc), but also their name (i.e. C major, D minor, etc.).

Chords are covered in section 2 of the course. Each chord will be accompanied by a piano diagram outlining how the chord is played.

Pitch vs. Tone (Key Points From Audio Lesson)

In order to master pitch recognition it is vital that you start listening to notes differently.

When listening to the notes notice how each instrument has a unique tone, but the pitch remains the same. The trick to pitch recognition is to look past the instrument’s tone, and listen directly to the frequency of the note.

A sine wave is very clean and is a great way to hear a note without the added tone.

Your goal should be to strip away the added tone of a note when you hear it and pick out the wave frequency instead. By doing this your brain will be able to visualize and recall pitches easily.   

Note Awareness (Key Points From Audio Lesson)

The first real step in pitch recognition is to train your ear to hear a series of notes and determine which one is higher or lower.

Audiation is the ability to hear notes in your mind. Now if you’re like most people you’ve experienced this sensation before. Have you ever listened to a song then for the rest of the day you couldn’t get the melody out of your head? Well, that’s audiation. 

Now, if you could imagine that note whenever you wanted and you knew it was a middle C then imagine what you could do by memorizing all the notes. You would have perfect pitch, and be able to name any note. This is why audiation is so important.

Each of the following lessons will outline various exercises which will allow you to start memorizing notes and naming them. So let’s get started. 

Pure Pitch Introduction

Hello And welcome to Pure Pitch: The Complete Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch Training Kit. We have designed this program for musicians wishing to take their pitch recognition skills to exciting new heights, without spending years in the process. This program is perfect for complete beginners, as well as advanced musicians


How This Course Is Structured

The Pure Pitch course is divided into 39 lessons, with each one building on the last. I recommend that each lesson be practiced each day before moving on to the next lesson. Of course if you’re a quick learner you can do more. However, if you’re a complete beginner then please only move on to the following lessons when you’re confident and can score perfectly with all the exercises.

Pure Pitch is broken up into two sections, Note Recognition and Chord Recognition. 

Below is an outline of how each lesson will be structured.

Note Recognition

1. Interval Comparison

Identify which interval is greater.

2. Interval Identification

Identify the name of the interval.

3. Anchor Note

Visualize and embed a note into your mind.

Chord Recognition

1. Chord Type Comparison

Identify the type of chord

2. Chord Identification

Identify the name of the chord.