Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
Photo: Mariana Montrazi
.01% A commonly cited number is that approximately one in 10,000, or . 01% of people, are thought to have perfect pitch.
Middle C is designated C4 in scientific pitch notation because of the note's position as the fourth C key on a standard 88-key piano keyboard. But...
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A: The word “pianist” has been pronounced both PEE-a-nist and pee-A-nist since the 19th century. Today, American dictionaries include both pee-A-...
Read More »People can, indeed, learn to identify musical notes by ear, but there are some caveats. Previously it was thought that acquiring perfect pitch depended on a “critical period” early in life during which children could acquire perfect pitch with training, or that only some children with a specific genetic endowment could acquire perfect pitch during this period. Adults, it was thought, could not acquire perfect pitch once that developmental window closed. However, a 2013 study argued that a drug called valproate could ‘re-open’ this critical period, allowing some adults to learn to identify notes by ear with training. Later research conducted at the University of Chicago by Prof. Howard Nusbaum, Shannon Heald, Stephen Van Hedger, and Rachelle Koch showed that drugs may not be necessary: With only brief training, some adults learned to remember notes, and could correctly identify them even months later with higher accuracy than they had been able to beforehand. While only a few individuals may become as accurate as individuals who have had absolute pitch their entire lives, according to Nusbaum, ‘perfect pitch’ may be more malleable than previously thought. Having perfect pitch is likely related to a person’s auditory working memory—in other words, their ability to remember and assign meaning to sounds such as musical notes. Other research by Van Hedger, Heald and Nusbaum demonstrated that even those with absolute pitch can be re-tuned, or ‘tricked’ into thinking that music is in tune when it is in fact out of tune, if they first listen to a piece of music that is gradually detuned by a third of a note over the course of several minutes. A person’s first language and previous experience with music and sound may also influence their ability to identify musical notes and their likelihood of having perfect pitch. For example, some evidence suggests that speakers of tonal languages—such as Mandarin—in which the same word can have different meanings depending on the tone in which it is spoken (where tone refers to sound frequency or pitch, rather than emotional quality), may be more likely to develop the ability. Those who learned to play instruments from an early age may also be more likely to have perfect pitch. The best predictor of perfect pitch, according to recent research from Nusbaum’s lab led by doctoral student Katherine Reis, is a brain response measure called the “frequency following response,” which provides a snapshot of the overall integrity of a person’s ability to process and classify sounds. The caveat, however, is that the frequency following response itself is not immutable. Though it might seem “fixed,” individuals can improve this response with practice, and both individuals with and without perfect pitch are better at naming notes produced on a piano, as opposed to computer-generated sounds, suggesting that familiarity with the timbres of musical instruments is important.
The 65% keyboard has become more popular than the 60% keyboard because it is both compact, and more functional. Some find it more functional due to...
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Intermediate pianists have around 3 – 5 years of experience at this point and have probably been through several method books. At this point, the...
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Some people tend to think that Casio is still making toy-like instruments, and that their products are sub-par compared to Yamaha's. In reality,...
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The 5 Best Instruments For Adults To Learn Piano. The piano is one of the most popular musical instruments that people often try to master. ......
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In general, spending 45 minutes to an hour every day is a sufficient amount of time to improve your piano skills. If you wish to practice for...
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While propagating in water is probably the most common method, propagating plant cuttings in soil is the most highly-recommended way to go about...
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