Functional Ear Trainer vs Absolute－Develop Perfect Pitch

Have you (or maybe one of your friends) ever wanted to learn to transcribe or play music by ear? It is so important for a musician to know what you are hearing. A good musical ear helps when you are composing, improvising, transcribing melodies, or playing with others. Most likely you have already tried different programs to learn to recognize intervals or even to acquire perfect pitch. However, although such programs develop your ear, but can you actually play any melody you hear as soon as you listen to it? Imagine you could understand music... It is like when somebody is talking to you, you not only hear pleasant sounds, but you recognize words and their meaning. One day I came across Alain Benbassat's program called "Functional Ear Trainer" and have been using it ever since. It is based on Alain's method to learn to recognize tones. The main difference between the Functional Ear Trainer and other methods is that it teaches you to distinguish between tones in the context of a particular musical key. You begin to recognize the role (or function) of each tone in this key, which is incredibly similar to its role in other keys of the same scale. And it is *guaranteed* anyone can gradually develop this skill. It does not matter: - who you are - an absolute beginner in music or a virtuoso professional musician; - how old you are - a 3 yo kid or a 90+ adult; - what musical instrument you play (you don't even have to play one). The only requirement is to practice for 10 minutes a day. I was so excited about this ear trainer that I have developed a mobile app based on the Alain Benbassat method. I hope you will find it useful.

Absolute is an app that helps you to develop Perfect Pitch - the ability that allows you to identify and recall musical pitches quickly and accurately. WHO CAN USE IT? The widely accepted position is that Perfect Pitch can be developed only by kids within the so-called critical period of learning. However there are some studies that show that some adults also could acquire this ability with appropriate and consistent training. So it is not guaranteed that you acquire a genuine Perfect Pitch, but there are very good chances that with sufficient practice you will develop a good tonal sense and the ability to identify and recall pitches without any reference pitch. HOW IT WORKS? The app provides a well structured plan of exercises. The plan consists of 22 levels. Levels differ from each other by the set of pitches(notes) they include. Number of pitches in a level gradually increases as you progress through the plan. There are 4 types of exercises in a level: 1. For each note, you learn tonal mnemonics, called resolutions. A resolution is a short melodic phrase which always leads from the original note to the root note (note C). Resolutions allow you to form a unique mental picture for each of the 12 notes. The app plays you the resolution and visually indicates which notes are being played. You play the same sequence of notes in response. 2. You develop the ability to identify the resolutions by ear. The app plays you a resolution but doesn't show you which notes are being played. You try to identify the resolution and play it back. 3. You build up the association between a pitch and it's resolution. The app plays you a single pitch. You try to recall and play the resolution. 4. After you have sufficiently practiced the previous exercises you are given the task to identify pitches. The app plays you a pitch or a series of pitches and you play the same pitch(pitches) in response. There are two properties of your performance that allow you to advance through the plan: Accuracy and Tempo. Accuracy is the percentage of the correct answers in a given exercise session. You need to gain at least 90% to pass an exercise session. You also need to complete an exercise at a specific tempo (passing tempo) to unlock the next exercise. The key idea behind the increasing tempos of the practice sessions is that the shrinking time constraints force your brain to internalize the mental processes involved in the pitch identification activity. In other words, the brain moves the processing from the conscious to the unconscious realm. And as the result, at some point, the process of pitch identification is optimized to a level where you don’t need to use the resolution mnemonic any more. You just hear and immediately recognize a unique image of a musical pitch. A NOTE FROM THE DEVELOPER: I am a musician myself. I play and teach fingerstyle guitar. I don’t have perfect pitch. So partially, I developed the app for myself and my kids. I made a lot of research on the subject and investigated multiple methodologies used for developing perfect pitch. The method used in the app looks the most promising for me. My kids and I have just started to practice using the app and I already see some good results. So, happy practicing! Dmitry PRIVACY POLICY: We take your privacy very seriously. Absolute does not collect any user data. All your practice progress data is securely stored in your private iCloud data storage.