3 ms·
> ... listen to modern jazz and modern classical music, where unexpected pitches often show up. That innately trains them to think of individual note pitch as
by nescioquid 3y ago
> ... listen to modern jazz and modern classical music, where unexpected pitches often show up. That innately trains them to think of individual note pitch as an important detail to listen to.
I don't think the absolute value any pitch class carries is of much intrinsic musical interest. Musical comprehension is not aided by knowing the pitch-class of a specific note, but in perceiving its relationship to other tones.
I'm guessing you picked those two genres of music because they are often referred to as "dissonant" or "noise". As far as modern classical music is concerned, much of the material has a unity between the foreground, background, and middle-ground details. Imagine you've been listening to an orchestra busily sawing away on pitch set [0 1 4] (in all its permutations) and then you realize the lonely glockenspiel's three disembodied notes over the last minute and a half spelled [0 1 4].
Training someone to listen to such a piece so that they might tell you the glockenspiel's second note was an e-flat does not improve anyone's musical comprehension. Training someone to listen to such a piece so that pitch-relationships in the foreground can be heard to form relationships at different scales of the composition does greatly aid in musical comprehension (and is routinely accomplished -- pretty much anyone can do it).
- pclmulqdq 3y agoI think the big thing to note here is that kids don't intuitively do Schenkerian analysis on the music they listen to. I agree with you that a lot of music has a lot more internal structure than most people think, but it's reductive to say that dissonant music contains only "expected" pitches (as heard by an untrained ear).
- nescioquid 3y agoYes, children can learn to hear pitch-relationships at different scales of a composition. Schenker wouldn't have much to say about post-tonal music, but really we are talking about a matter of perception, not analysis, even if I used analytical notation to explain. Musical comprehension depends on the relationships between pitches. A modest investment in ear training will pay handsome dividends in comparison to absolute pitch acquisition (even if the later worked).
- pclmulqdq 3y agoI agree completely. Absolute pitch is extraneous for musicians at any level, and not worth the effort from the original article. IMO if you want your kid to have absolute pitch, you should expand your own musical palate by listening to some Schoenberg or Stravinsky with your child. If you want your children to be musicians, you don't need to do that but you should give them some theory and ear training lessons.