CHAPTER 2 – Learning Relative Pitch & How To Memorize it!
Learn how to sing in pitch from memory – most of the time (“almost” as cool as “perfect pitch”)
The objective here is to improve your musical memory – ESSENTIAL to your rapid improvement as a singer and musician. To achieve this, we will focus on developing your pitch memory and recognition. You probably won’t learn perfect pitch, but you’ll get some invaluable tools anyway.
HOW TO PRACTICE THIS CHAPTER: You have committed to X minutes (up to an hour) per day. You need to do Chapter 1 (listening to great but unfamiliar music) every day for the full duration during the first week of this course. After that first week, you can slash the chapter 1 listening time by half and use the rest of the time on this chapter – daily, for a week. Some of the upcoming chapters will only need to be covered once or twice, but both chapters 1 and 2 should be revisited throughout the duration of the entire course.
So what is “Relative” and “Perfect” (or “Absolute”) pitch?
When you hear a piece of music and can correctly name each chord that you hear as well as each note on each instrument or voice – that’s what we call “perfect pitch.” It’s a bit like being able to immediately tell which color you’re looking at. No hesitation. That’s green, that’s red, that’s blue, and so on. Perfect color recognition! 🙂
Only very few people have perfect pitch. It can only be learned when very young (same as learning the PERFECT pronunciation and spirit of a language can only really be done when very young).
While you’re so young, to develop perfect pitch you must be constantly exposed to “high information music” – such as jazz or classical. Similarly to learning a language, you must be surrounded by people who speak it perfectly in your presence. They speak many words you don’t understand – but you register them anyway. “High information” music means there are a lot of complex notes and harmonies which you don’t understand – but they sink in anyway!
“Relative pitch” means that if you can give yourself a reference note, THEN you can tell what all the other notes and chords are.
The vast majority of musicians, including even many of the greatest classical composers “only” had “relative” pitch.
Here are some famous musicians known to have (or have had) perfect pitch: Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Paul Schaffer, Jimi Hendrix, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson…
And here are a few famous ones who you might THINK they have/had perfect pitch, but don’t: Wagner, Tschaikovky, Ravel, Stravinsky, Paul McCartney, Elton John…
Having perfect pitch does NOT make you a great musician. It’s a useful tool if you’ve got it – but you can do just fine without it. Still – it’s worth trying to learn it if only because it enhances your overall musicality.
What aids you in recognizing the notes you’re hearing is the knowledge of intervals and harmonic relationships between notes. More on that later.
In this section my aim is not to teach you how to have “perfect pitch” bur rather to just give you a way of memorizing all the notes so that you may APPEAR to have perfect pitch!
Why? Because it’s FUN. And because it will turbo-charge your musical abilities – very quickly.
There are a few ways to attempt this, but here let me focus on just one method. Memorizing by association and repetition.
UNSTRUCTURED APPROACH:
- Find your favorite line in one of the songs you listen to regularly and really love.
- Play just that line and then pause the recording. Sing it slowly note by note. Now, go to your keyboard (or guitar, or a virtual keyboard) and find those exact notes (hunt and peck if you can’t play).
- NAME these notes – by checking on your keyboard. Is it a C, D, E, F, G, A or B? Is it a sharp or a flat?. Remember your favorite melody as note-names. Write it down.
- Now, go back to the recording and play just that tiny bit. Play the notes along with the melody – did you get them right? Repeat until 100% correct.
- Listen to the next song and do the same. And another one.
- At end of each day’s workout, recall those sections of the songs. Sing the remembered notes and check if you’re right. If you are – you have a great musical ear!
- Can you sing a C (or any other note you can remember) when you’re NOT practicing? Try it and then quickly find an instrument and check if you were right!
- When you hear a piece of music and hear a particular note – do you recognize it as “your” C or A or whatever? You will, with regular repetition. And people will think you’ve got perfect pitch! 🙂
STRUCTURED APPROACH:
There are 12 tones in Western music, so let’s go ahead and find a cool song to associate with EACH of them.
Note 1: For various traditional reasons even though the notes are named from A to G, these days when we learn to play music we usually learn scales starting from C, especially when we start on the piano. The reason is because of the so-called “flats” and “sharps”. The C major scale has NO flats or sharps and is thus treated as the “easiest” (only white keys on the piano).
Note 2: There are a few different scale “modes” (to which we might get to later) as well as “qualities”. The main such qualities are the so-called “major”, “minor”, “diminished” and “augmented” ones. Here, we will only look at the major (“happy”) and minor (“sad”) scales.
Remember these opening lines and their pitches/tones:
Key of C major
- “OURS” (Taylor Swift) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is a C (elevator), followed by D (buttons and mor…) and C (…ning air)
Key of C minor
- “ROLLING IN THE DEEP” (Adele) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is a G (there’s a), followed by F-D#-C (fire)
Key of C# major (a.k.a. “Db” or D-flat)
- “UMBRELLA” (Rihanna) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is a C# (you), followed by D# (had) and F (my heart)
Key of C# minor
- “COUNTING STARS” (One Republic) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is F# (late…), followed by G# (…ly), B (I) G# (been)
Key of D major
- “I’LL STAND BY YOU” (The Pretenders) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is D (oh, why), followed by E (you) F# (look) G (so) A (sad)
Key of D minor
- “LOCKED OUT OF HEAVEN” (Bruno Mars) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is F (oh), followed by Bb (Yea) A (yea)
Key of D# major (a.k.a. “Eb” or E-flat)
- “FREAK OUT” (Avril Lavigne) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G (try to), followed by G# (tell) G (me) F (what i…) D# (…I)
Key of D# minor
- “SUPERSTITION” (Stevie Wonder) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is C# (ve..), followed by D# (..ry su…) C# (…per…) F# (…sti…) D# (…tious…)
Key of E major
- “THE CLIMB” (Miley Cyrus) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G# (I can al…), followed by B (…most) E (see) B (it)
Key of E minor
- “LIVIN ON A PRAYER” (Bon Jovi) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G (Tommy), followed by F# (used) E (to work) D (on) E (the) E-D-B (docks)
Key of F major
- “I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE” (Sam Smith) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is A (you), followed by C (and) D (me) C (we) A (made) G (a) F (vow)
Key of F minor
- “HELLO” (Adele) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is Bb (hel…), followed by C (…lo) D# (it’s) Bb (me)
Key of F# major (a.k.a. “Gb” or G-flat)
- “ALL STAR” (Smash Mouth) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is F# (some…), followed by C# (…bo…) Bb (…dy once) G# (told) F# (me)
Key of F# minor
- “SO WHAT” (Pink) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is E (I), followed by F# (guess) E (I) F# (just) A (lost) F# (my) E (hus…) C# (…band)
Key of G major
- “YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG” (AC/DC) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G (she), followed by Bb (was) G (a) Bb (fast) G (ma…) Bb (…chine)
Key of G minor
- “7 YEARS” (Lukas Graham) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G (once), followed by F (I was) D (se…) F (…ven) C (years) Bb (old)
Key of G# major (a.k.a. “Ab” or A-flat)
- “ALL OF ME” (John Legend) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is Bb (what), followed by C (would I do)
Key of G# minor
- “SING” (Ed Sheeran) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is D# (it’s late), followed by G# (in the eve…) D# (…ning)
Key of A major
- “ALL RIGHT NOW” (Free) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G (there), followed by A (she) C# (stood) D (in) E (the) C# (street)
Key of A minor
- “ANGIE” (Rolling Stones) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is E (Angie), followed by E (An…) D (…gie)
Key of A# major (a.k.a. “Bb” or B-flat)
- “ROCKET MAN” (Elton John) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is G (she), followed by Bb (packed) G (my) Bb (bags)
Key of A# minor
- “BURN” (Ellie Goulding) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is F (we), followed by D# (we don’t have to worry bout no…) C#-Bb (…th…ing)
Key of B major
- “I’M YOURS” (Jason Mraz) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is D# (well you), followed by B (done, done me)
Key of B minor
- “DIAMONDS” (Rihanna) – Click to listen
- First note of lyrics is B (shine), followed by F# (bright) B (like a) F# (diamond)
The method above works well – but it can be made to work EVEN BETTER. The problem with what we did above is that these are (in some cases at least) NOT the “most memorable” lines within these songs. And in some cases, we might not even particularly like some of these songs!
So, to improve on the above method, you need to pick something REALLY CATCHY and SUPER MEMORABLE to you. For example, I clearly remember the “I want my MTV” line at the end of “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits. It’s so strident and characteristic, that I can (almost) always sing it from memory at the correct pitch. And it gives me not one but 5 notes for the price of one! (Click to listen )
In this case, it’s Bb (I) A (want) F (my) D (M) G (TV)
So, only being able to remember these notes, you may be able to quickly name any other pitch you hear by quickly working out the intervals.
But this method doesn’t always work either. Often, when OTHER music is playing, the brain will “transpose” the notes you think you have memorized and you’ll sing them in the wrong pitch!
The cure? More repetition. Eventually it should stick. 🙂
To solidify what you’ve learned above, why not take each of the above songs and play the NEXT line of each song and transcribe it as above.
Better still – why not write down a few of the MOST EASILY MEMORABLE lines in songs you know and then work out what each note is (like I did with “I want my MTV”). Write them down and practice remembering them each and every day!
Recommended resources:
- INCREDIBLE perfect pitch ability: producer Rick Beato’s son, Dylan – Click to listen
- Absolute pitch (brute-force) programming: Click to listen
Previous Chapter (Music Immersion) – Next Chapter (Keys, Chords & Scales)