How do you do it? learn it?

How do you guys (those of you that can) develop perfect pitch to where you don't need an instrument to compose and can just write down the melodies and such on the paper with the tune in your head? if you have the slightest idea please tell me.

Developing Perfect Pitch doesn't necessarily mean that you can compose in your head. However it is definitely a helpful skill.

People here will tell you that you have to be born with Perfect Pitch, and that's not true. I've developed Perfect Pitch (not Relative Pitch, it's Perfect Pitch - yes I can wake up and randomly play a note and name it without any reference point).

I used this series of lessons:

http://www.perfectpitch.com

It's been proven successful by 2 independnet university studies, and people thousands of people like me who have used it with success.

With Perfect Pitch you'll be able to know what the notes are in your mind, and thus write them down "without an instrument", like Mozart.

;)

Connor

that's what I meant. to be able to write down the notes in my head. I'll check out that site. I also found www.good-ear.com, which is pretty helpful to me. I just found it, today.

That's a good site, I use it sometimes, but it doesn't tell you how to develop PP. It only tests you.

You need www.perfectpitch.com to learn how to develop PP.

For your situation, relative pitch (hearing interval and triad qualities) is actually more important and more helpful than perfect pitch. Perfect pitch may be nice, but relative pitch is much easier to develop. Any ear training course will help you develop a better relative pitch. The key for most newbies is to figure out an association, such as the beginning of a song, for each of the eleven intervals. Here are some good ones, though you may not be familiar with them:

Minor 2nd - think the 'Jaws' theme.

Major 2nd - like starting any scale!

Minor 3rd - Brahms' famous lullaby, if I'm not mistaken.

Major 3rd - oh, when the saints... go marchin' in...

Perfect 4th - the first thing that comes to mind is the theme from Star Trek: First Contact.

Aug 4th/Dim 5th (Tritone) - the melody on the word 'Maria' from a song in The Sound Of Music.

Perfect 5th - the first few notes of John Williams' Superman theme.

Minor 6th - you may have to think perfect 5th plus minor 2nd for this one.

Major 6th - the first jump in that little three-note vibraphone line that NBC used for a while.

Minor 7th - the first jump in the original Star Trek theme melody. Yep, I'm a geek!

Major 7th - you may need to think up an octave and down a minor 2nd.

I did all that from memory; feel free to correct me or provide better, more well-known examples!

I have both perfect and relative: since I have the violin A by memory, I startd to use it as relative pitch, and now can name any note played to me.

I find relative pitch to be just as useful as perfect pitch. I can find pitches relative to C, B-flat, and F. Therefore, I can tune a timpani by ear, and a guitar by ear. I think that's good enough.

Thanks for the site though, Vissequ. I've been looking for one like that.

perfect pitch can be great to have but if you want to compose it is almost unimportant. Relative pitch is what you really need because a song still keeps its identity in any key. There are many great composers (sorry for not naming any but their names aren't coming to me) who choose the key after they have composed the piece in order to make the piece fit the range of the instruments composed for.

I almost have perfect pitch and I haven't once used it to help compose.

Perfect pitch does indeed help you to compose. Once you hear a piece in your mind, you will know exactly what key it is in. Every key has it's own identity and when it is transposed, it is the same piece, but it loses a little of the identity.

I have perfect pitch and the way I "learned" it was by practise. I would keep asking people to run to the piano and play a note for me to guess and eventually I didn't name everything flat anymore, I got the right notes...

If you don't have an instrument, my mind is boggled and I'm not sure how to help you. For relative pitch, I'm almost certain all the intervals appear in the old Marine Land jingle. (There's a place I know in Ontario...) If you're not in Canada (EVERYONE LOOOOOOOVES MARINE LAND...!) maybe the Goldfish Jingle. :laugh: Commercials are so helpful for intervals.

Minor 2nd - think the 'Jaws' theme.

Major 2nd - like starting any scale!

Minor 3rd - Brahms' famous lullaby, if I'm not mistaken.

Major 3rd - oh, when the saints... go marchin' in...

Perfect 4th - the first thing that comes to mind is the theme from Star Trek: First Contact.

Aug 4th/Dim 5th (Tritone) - the melody on the word 'Maria' from a song in The Sound Of Music.

Perfect 5th - the first few notes of John Williams' Superman theme.

Minor 6th - you may have to think perfect 5th plus minor 2nd for this one.

Major 6th - the first jump in that little three-note vibraphone line that NBC used for a while.

Minor 7th - the first jump in the original Star Trek theme melody. Yep, I'm a geek!

Major 7th - you may need to think up an octave and down a minor 2nd.

I did all that from memory; feel free to correct me or provide better, more well-known examples!

Major 2nd - Happy birthday

Perfect 4th - duh! Bridal March by Wagner

Tritone - Ok that was West Side Story, not Sound of Music :laugh: (wrong Maria)

Minor 6th - I had one, where'd it go

Minor 7th - West side Story again 'There's a Place for Us'

Major 7th - 'Ain't it a pretty night' from Susannah by Floyd works for me

Anyway aside from that! Translating from ear to paper is something that will only get easier in time! The great composers can do it without using a piano, but I'm quite sure they had a lot of practice. That's all it is, it'll come eventually.

Honestly, relative pitch is way better. It provides all the benefits with none of the liabilities. All my friends who have perfect pitch get so thrown off when a note is introduced that is not part of the semitonal series. Give them a quarter-tone, and they freak.

Major 2nd - Happy birthday

Perfect 4th - duh! Bridal March by Wagner

Tritone - Ok that was West Side Story, not Sound of Music :wub: (wrong Maria)

Minor 6th - I had one, where'd it go

Minor 7th - West side Story again 'There's a Place for Us'

Major 7th - 'Ain't it a pretty night' from Susannah by Floyd works for me

Anyway aside from that! Translating from ear to paper is something that will only get easier in time! The great composers can do it without using a piano, but I'm quite sure they had a lot of practice. That's all it is, it'll come eventually.

Minor 6th - "have you driven a ford----- lately?"

Minor 2nd- like jaws but Dvorak symphony No. 9 4th movement