so i have begun to learn how to play an ocarina, and something i've found that i assume would be helpful, are these videos called ultimate ear training method. it's basically a guy pressing random notes within an octave on a piano, and what i've been doing is listening to these, and when he plays a note, i will try to play that note on my ocarina. a lot of the time, i can get it right on the first attempt, but it's common that i'll play either one note too high or low and get it right on the second try. i'm very accurate within 2 or 3 notes of the top and bottom of the octave (it's tuned to C) and i feel that i've memorized what a C sounds like (and the fingering is easy to remember because it's either cover every standard hole for the low C, or both my thumbs and my left pinky for the high, it's very simple to remember, but i struggle a lot in the middle and i think it's because there's no solid reference. i've tried hard to memorize what a G sounds like with no luck. i repeat the sound to myself for a few minutes, but in the middle of the video when i've been focusing, i can't remember what a G sounds like and i'll accidentally play and A or an F, or i'll hear an F and accidentally play a G, or try to play an A and play a G instead. it really is just those 3 notes that are giving me a hard time consistently.
then i watched this video explaining why adults can't learn perfect pitch and i think he makes a compelling argument and i can't shake the feeling that what i'm actually trying to do with this self-training with these videos videos, is develop perfect pitch, but all i want to do is memorize the fingering for all the notes. i'm somewhat decent at playing a song by ear at this point, but i need the song in my head, and then i feel like that's a solid reference to remember on the fly what the fingering is that i need to do to play the next note in the song, but when i have these random aimless notes with no reference point that i struggle, and it just feels like a waste of time, and like i should be practicing in a different way.
Submitted September 27, 2019 at 10:48PM by smemmy https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/da9uen/am_i_wasting_my_time_with_pitch_training/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Friday, September 27, 2019