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In music, ear training is the study and practice in which learn various aural skills to detect and identify pitches, intervals, melody, chords, , , and other basic elements of music, solely by hearing. Someone who can identify pitch accurately without any context is said to have perfect pitch, while someone who can only identify pitch provided a reference tone or other musical context is said to have relative pitch. Someone that can't perceive these qualities at all is said to be tone deaf. The application of this skill is somewhat analogous to taking dictation in written/spoken language. As a process, ear training is in essence the inverse of reading music, which is the ability to decipher a musical piece by reading musical notation. Ear training is typically a component of formal musical training and is a fundamental, essential skill required in and the mastery of music.
Many musicians use functional pitch recognition in order to identify, understand, and appreciate the roles and meanings of pitches within a key. To this end, scale-degree numbers or movable- do solmization ( do, re, mi, etc.) can be quite helpful. Using such systems, pitches with identical functions (the key note or tonic, for example) are associated with identical labels ( 1 or do, for example).
Functional pitch recognition is not the same as fixed- do solfège, e.g. do, re, mi, etc. Functional pitch recognition emphasizes the role of a pitch with respect to the tonic, while fixed- do solfège symbols are labels for absolute pitch values ( do=C, re=D, etc., in any key). In the fixed- do system (used in the conservatories of the Romance language nations, e.g. Paris, Madrid, Rome, as well as the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute in the USA), solfège symbols do not describe the role of pitches relative to a tonic, but rather actual pitches. In the movable-do system, there happens to be a correspondence between the solfège symbol and a pitch's role. However, there is no requirement that musicians associate the solfège symbols with the scale degrees. In fact, musicians may utilize the movable- do system to label pitches while mentally tracking intervals to determine the sequence of solfège symbols.
Functional pitch recognition has several strengths. Since a large body of music is tonal, the technique is widely applicable. Since reference pitches are not required, music may be broken up by complex and difficult to analyze pitch clusters, for example, a percussion sequence, and pitch analysis may resume immediately once an easier to identify pitch is played, for example, by a trumpet—no need to keep track of the last note of the previous line or solo nor any need to keep track of a series of intervals going back all the way to the start of a piece. Since the function of pitch classes is a key element, the problem of compound intervals with interval recognition is not an issue—whether the notes in a melody are played within a single octave or over many octaves is irrelevant.
Functional pitch recognition has some weaknesses. Music with no tonic or ambiguous tonalityFor the cognitive foundations of atonality, see Humphries, Lee. "Atonality, Information, and the Politics of Perception", Enclitic, Vol. III, No. 1 (Spring, 1979). does not provide the frame of reference necessary for this type of analysis. When dealing with key changes, a student must know how to account for pitch function recognition after the key changes: retain the original tonic or change the frame of reference to the new tonic. This last aspect in particular, requires an ongoing real-time (even anticipatory) analysis of the music that is complicated by modulations and is the chief detriment to the movable-do system.
In addition, there are various systems (including solfeggio, sargam, and numerical sight-singing) that assign specific syllables to different notes of the scale. Among other things, this makes it easier to hear how intervals sound in different contexts, such as starting on different notes of the same scale.
Gro Shetelig at The Norwegian Academy of Music is working on the development of a Microtonal Ear Training method for singers The Concrescence Project Artistic Director Professor Lasse Thoresen, Norwegian Academy, Oslo and has developed the software Micropalette, Micropalette from Concrescence a tool for listening to microtonal tones, chords and intervals. Aaron Hunt at Hi Pi instruments has developed Xentone, Xentone at Hi Pi Instruments another tool for microtonal ear training. Furthermore, Reel Ear Web Apps have released a Melodic Microtone Ear Training App based on call and response dictations.
Another way to practise rhythms is by muscle memory, or teaching rhythm to different muscles in the body. One may start by tapping a rhythm with the hands and feet individually, or singing a rhythm on a syllable (e.g. "ta"). Later stages may combine keeping time with the hand, foot, or voice and simultaneously tapping out the rhythm, and beating out multiple overlapping rhythms.
A metronome may be used to assist in maintaining accurate tempo.
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