People with absolute pitch are who they are. Berezhansky P

Surely many have heard the expression “absolute pitch”. In everyday life it is often attributed to people who are well versed in music, musical notation with extraordinary vocal abilities. However, being a highly skilled musician does not automatically mean you have perfect pitch. Moreover, only a few percent of the world's population can boast of this gift.

Mysterious phenomenon

Absolute ear for music refers to rare phenomena whose status is difficult to even determine. Is it the result of certain natural factors or a physiological (hereditary) feature? The result of a unique personality development or a consequence of the influence of the social environment (family, society)? Or a complex combination of all factors? This mystery, even after centuries of study, is shrouded in darkness.

Presumably, most babies have this gift, but it is quickly “overshadowed” by other skills that are more important for survival. The main question, thanks to which an element of mystery arises, is the following: why in the same environment of upbringing, under the same conditions for musical development, one of the children develops absolute pitch, and the other does not?

Statistics

Over the years of in-depth research, scientists have accumulated rich statistical material. It turned out that absolute pitch is formed exclusively in childhood, moreover, precisely in preschool, during the period of dominance of involuntary acquisition of skills. This fact is unanimously confirmed by all researchers absolute pitch. At the same time, the formation of a rare skill requires quality mandatory condition presence of a child in the family musical instrument, whose pitch is fixed. For example, keyboards, a number of wind instruments (accordion, accordion) and others. The reasons for this, presumably, lie not so much in the field of psychology of human abilities, but in the psychology individual differences(differential psychology).

Absolute musical ear steadily retains its status as a phenomenon as an outstanding, exceptional phenomenon in a certain respect. This is due to its relatively low prevalence. According to researchers, 6-7% of people have absolute pitch. professional musicians and no more than 1% of all music listeners.

Definition

Absolute pitch is the ability of people to determine “by ear” absolute altitude sounds. Musicians with this gift remember the absolute pitch scale of the 12-semitone octave scale. They are able to accurately determine the pitch of any sound without outside help. In turn, absolute pitch is divided into:

• Passive - the ability to match the pitch of an audible sound.
• Active - the ability to reproduce a given sound with the voice (the owners of “active hearing” are an absolute minority).

There is also the concept of relative hearing - not an innate, but a learned skill, when people are able to correctly determine the pitch of a sound using “cues” (a comparison object, such as a tuning fork).

Development of absolute pitch: pros and cons

For more than a century, there has been debate about whether this rare natural ability can be developed and trained. Theoretically, this is possible, because under the influence of some factors it is formed in children. However, critics of teaching methods argue that there is no mass “influx” of musicians trained in absolute musical ear.

IN different time different people Methods for artificially acquiring absolute pitch were invented, but they were not widely used in practice for a very simple reason: they were not in demand among professional musicians. By all accounts, absolute pitch, although it greatly facilitates the implementation musical activity, but does not guarantee its success, and sometimes even complicates it. In addition, numerous reliable facts, indicating that not all famous musicians had absolute pitch, confirm the thesis that this ability is not obligatory or decisive.

Moral aspect

And yet the problem of absolute pitch claims to be an eternal problem, since it consists in the division of all participants music community into two “camps”: people who have a gift and those who do not. This confrontation cannot be avoided.

In other words, the possession of absolute pitch is not a matter of conscious choice, but of some kind of “blessing from above.” At first glance, people with relative hearing seem to be disadvantaged: in comparison with “absolute listeners,” they need the help of a tuning fork or any other source of sound standards. In addition, when performing one or another operation related to determining the pitch of sounds, “absolute speakers” demonstrate unconditional superiority, which cannot but affect the self-esteem of those with relative hearing.

The most striking consequence of this situation is the formation of a kind of professional inferiority complex in persons with relative hearing. This happens despite the widespread assertion that highly developed relative hearing is quite adequate, and sometimes even more effective, when performing musical activities.

Scientific approach

Musical hearing today is considered differentiated in the following gradation of levels: melodic, harmonic, tonal, polytonal, modal, internal, orchestral, polyphonic, rhythmic, physical (natural), singing-intonation, subtle, sharp, absolute, choral, operatic, ballet, dramatic. , stylistic, polystylistic, poetic, ethnic and multiethnic (absolute pitch).

It is possessed by composers, conductors, folklorists, the first violinist of an orchestra, arrangers, piano and organ tuners. Many researchers agree that absolute musical ear is a product concentrated on the basis of versatile natural phenomena, human genetics. It should be developed by capturing the voices of nature, birdsong, animal cries and even man-made (industrial) sounds.

How to develop absolute pitch

Whether it is possible to develop 100% hearing through training is a controversial issue. Usually people who achieve good results are called owners of pseudo-absolute pitch. It is advisable to develop talent in preschool children if they are capable of music. It has been proven that the most favorable time for a full perception of music is childhood, when the family learns the basics from the parents. musical culture, the ability to perceive, understand, feel, and experience musical images is cultivated.

Models of development of absolute pitch

Several development models are practiced in Russia. They are based on two principles for controlling intonation and hearing:

• oral (by text);
• associative (by notes).

The process of mastering comes down to the fact that at each lesson the entire scale with words is sung, then each student sings it during breaks, on the way home, after completing homework, at leisure. He has it constantly in his head. When basically the text of the model is fixed in memory, which is not difficult by analogy with poetic lyrics of songs, the text is sung broken down in the most various options. In the future, you should change the tonality and try to sing the text already in new key, as a result of which the student begins to operate and modulate in any key.

Regular singing exercises develop an internal ear for music. The student begins to hear and determine what sound is being made - mi, sol, fa, la, etc. By analogy with what composers, folklorists, ethnographers, and conductors with absolute pitch have learned.

History lessons

What can a person with perfect pitch do? There is a famous incident in history that happened to the great L. Beethoven. It so happened that his physical hearing disappeared while conducting a piece at a concert, but his absolute, internal musical ear helped, helping the composer to conduct symphony orchestra(310 participating musicians).

Physical deafness did not hinder another opera composer- N. S. Dagirov (operas “Aigazi”, “Irchi-Cossack”, in collaboration with G. A. Gasanov “Khochbar”, ballet “PartuPatima”), who did not hear the production of his monumental works, but felt and perceived them with an inner absolute hearing. With the loss of the physical, the inner hearing does not disappear. A person with absolute pitch will be able to syntonize quite accurately, display, and beat out the rhythm closest to what was heard.

Conclusion

Seeing, remembering, recording, learning to catch and hear the music living around us is the goal and task of the model for the development of absolute pitch, first in preschool, then in school upbringing and education. The development of musical hearing into an absolute one leads to a differentiated perception of the timbres-voices of folk, symphonic, jazz and other groups. After all, the main goal human society on Earth is study and improvement surrounding life in space and time on a new turn of the spiral of evolution.

In this article we will talk about such a concept as ear for music, and how to develop it.

So, musical ear is the ability of the brain to determine the pitch of notes and generally recognize notes; it has nothing to do with ordinary hearing. There is a misconception that there may be no ear for music. Surely you have heard people say: “I have no hearing.”

So, every person has an ear for music, some have it better developed, others less well.

Development of musical ear

Development of musical ear, this is not a myth. It is better to develop it from childhood, but this is also true for adults. If a person is able to learn new things, then the development of an ear for music will not become an insurmountable obstacle.

If a person has a well-developed ear for music, then he can distinguish notes; there is even an exercise when playing a melody - you need to write down the notes by ear. But if the ear for music is poorly developed, then this is very difficult to do.

To check how developed your ear for music is, you can use the following scheme. Several different notes are played, for example three, then one of these notes is played and you need to answer which note this is, the first second or third.

The higher the development of musical ear, the easier it is to guess the notes. A person with a poor musical ear will not be able to guess one out of five notes, but with a good ear, nine out of ten are easy.

Also, a criterion for the development of musical ear is the ability to distinguish the tonality of notes. Between notes there is a space, a semitone or tone. As a result, the better this distance is felt, the better the musical ear.

It's hard to find a person who doesn't love music. At the same time, many not only listen to it, but also try to perform their favorite songs. Some people do it almost perfectly, while others are better off never doing it. Moreover, the quality of performance in most cases depends not only on the voice, but also on the musical ear that the singer has. However, how can one determine its presence?

What is absolute musical ear?

Essentially, this is a person’s ability to accurately recognize the pitch of a sound and determine which note it corresponds to, as well as recognize its other characteristics. Some musicians who have bad hearing speech recognition, there is an amazing ability to distinguish sounds and accurately reproduce them. At the same time, any musician knows how to determine the presence of an ear for music. Thanks to this article and tips from the cover band Orange VINIL, you too will know.

Almost everything music teachers They believe that there are no people who have no ear for music at all, as well as the ability to develop it. It’s just that for most people, voice and hearing are not fully interconnected. Wherein a real musician a professional will differ from a person not associated with music not only in the ability to determine the pitch of a sound, but also in the ability to reproduce it. Although, sometimes even people who are not close to music have excellent inclinations.

Determination methods

To begin with, you can ask a friend to play some melody consisting of several notes. In this case, your task will be to repeat the combination as accurately as possible. It is not necessary to name the notes, because reproducing the exact intonation already says a lot.

If you fail, don't despair. After all, there may be several explanations for incorrect interpretation and recognition of sounds. For example, an acquaintance could perform a melody simply in an uncomfortable position for the examinee. As practice shows, many people without experience in music may not accurately determine pitches outside the range of their voice.

If a friend produces a sound on an instrument that you couldn’t reproduce, don’t worry. Most likely you have an ear for music, but it needs to be coordinated with your voice. A few exercises and the problem will be resolved. Having perfect musical ear initial stage is not a requirement.

If the subject was able to not only determine the pitch of the sound, but also find its musical notation, then this is absolute pitch. Some people are born with this type of hearing, while others develop it over the years. At the initial stage, it is even a little more difficult for those with such hearing in terms of recognizing chords, because they hear only a set of different sounds, and only after training “absolute students” can systematize the intonation of various musical chords. Our team has such a unique person, oddly enough, he is a drummer))

Hearing development

It is believed that only a few people have absolute pitch, while others believe that everyone can develop such hearing. The presence or absence of such hearing is not a criterion of a musician’s professionalism. After all, there are a lot of wonderful composers, singers, instrumentalists and whole musical groups, who are not the lucky owners of absolute pitch, but this does not prevent them from filling the halls.

Like any human skill, ear for music develops! Try to play yourself the note C or any other note several times every day, and after a couple of months you will be able to identify it without any problems, and after a few more months you can freely play it with your voice. For “absoluteists” this is an innate feeling, but for ordinary people developed.

If you are unable to independently understand what your hearing is capable of, the musical group for a corporate party - Orange VINIL will try to give you some advice and help with this. The band's musicians have musical education and will be able to easily determine your abilities and inclinations!

Absolute pitch is the ability not only to hear different sounds and distinguish notes, it is also a whole world inaccessible to the average person. There are not many creatures in nature that have such capabilities, and bats primarily belong to them.

Their absolute hearing helps them see even in pitch darkness through emission and reception, which, after traveling a certain distance, are reflected from objects and return back. This phenomenon has been scientifically defined as acoustic vision; it is the idea behind the film about the blind superhero Daredevil, who, having lost one of his senses, developed the rest.

Why is this necessary? Absolute pitch will give the one who owns it not only the ability to “see blindly,” but will also increase his sensory capabilities significantly. Such a person would be extremely accurate, fast and intelligent as a result of constant processing of auditory information. It's simple.

Development of absolute pitch

There are several techniques through which you can develop these abilities, and now we will talk about one of them. Not long ago, the creator of the world of superheroes, Stan Lee, organized own group on finding people with unusual abilities, he made a full-fledged film about it

As it turns out, there are people who can bend metal objects without having huge muscles. A person who can be run over by a car without consequences. A samurai cutting a bullet from an air pistol in half with a sword, and many others. Among them also stood out a man who was blind from birth, but could see the world no worse than any sighted person. He can drive a car and even ride a bicycle on a par with full-fledged people, just from time to time making clicking sounds reminiscent of clicks.

From this we can conclude that a common person is able to develop absolute pitch if he trains day after day and deprives himself of vision for several hours by wearing a regular blindfold. Thus, soon the body gets used to using our brain and learns to use no worse than visual images.

The bandage should be from thick fabric black, best with special foam pads for the eyes. The ideal option would be to use a special sleep bandage. At first, don't try to do too much complex actions, just walk around the apartment or in the yard, identifying objects by echoes of sound. In order to make sounds, you will have to choose the best method for you: you can use a stick, a cane, or click your tongue, whichever is more convenient for you.

Development of musical hearing in children

By the way, the same technique will help develop in a child. If we exclude from it music lessons(be it a violin, piano or guitar) factor of vision, the child’s brain will begin to adapt to the conditions external environment, due to which not only musical ear will improve, but also auditory memory, as well as the accuracy of sensory sensations.

Absolute pitch Etymology.

Comes from Lat. absolutus - unlimited.

Characteristics of musical hearing.

Ability to precise definition the heights of sounds without correlating them with other heard or sung sounds that have a known pitch. The accuracy of absolute pitch is greatest in the middle registers and lowest in the extreme registers. Most often appears in preschool and early childhood.

Kinds:

With passive absolute pitch, the pitch of an audible sound is correctly determined, but it cannot be reproduced by voice according to a given name;

Context.

Different from pseudo-absolute pitch. Psychological Dictionary

. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.

ABSOLUTE HEARING (English),absolute pitch perfect pitch

) - the ability to correctly determine (name) and reproduce with a voice the pitch of individual sounds without correlating them with other sounds whose pitch is known. A. s. - this is not absolute development musical ear in general, but special shape perception of sounds. Persons without A. s. at certain conditions can recognize the pitch of tones well, for example, by comparing a given sound with the highest or highest low sound

own voice (so-called pseudo-absolute pitch). Persons with A. s. can recognize and correctly name musical tones without auxiliary pitch relations and “internal singing.” According to researchers, the determination time pitches

in people with A. s. significantly shorter than those who do not have this ability (from 0.4 to 0.7 s for the former and several seconds for the latter). Accuracy A. s. maximum in the middle registers and minimum in the extreme registers.

A. s. usually detected in early school years, sometimes in preschool age.

Large psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .

See what “absolute pitch” is in other dictionaries:

. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.- ABSOLUTE HEARING, the ability to recognize A. the pitch of an audible sound. With this A. s. differs from relative hearing, the owner of which correctly recognizes the intervals between audible sounds, i.e. their relative location in the scale, but not in ... ... Great Medical Encyclopedia

absolute pitch- musical talent, musicality, hearing Dictionary of Russian synonyms. absolute pitch noun, number of synonyms: 3 musical talent (3) ... Synonym dictionary

. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.- see art. Musical hearing... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

absolute pitch- (music) – hearing, immediately, directly determining the pitch of any tone. Big dictionary foreign words. Publishing house "IDDK", 2007 ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Absolute Pitch- the ability to accurately determine the pitch of sounds without correlating them with other heard or sung sounds that have a known pitch. Most often appears in preschool and early school age. Absolute pitch accuracy... Different from pseudo-absolute pitch.

Absolute pitch- Absolute hearing ability to determine absolute height musical sounds. It is expressed in the ability to determine the pitch ( musical note) of any given sound without resorting to comparison with sounds of a known pitch. Most often... ... Wikipedia

absolute pitch- see Musical hearing. * * * ABSOLUTE HEARING ABSOLUTE HEARING, see Art. Musical hearing (see MUSICAL HEARING) ... encyclopedic Dictionary

. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.- (auditory memory), a term to denote a person’s ability to perceive tones, and more specifically, the ability to recognize the pitch of each tone, i.e. the frequency of these sound vibrations. Often absolute or quasi-absolute pitch are... ... Collier's Encyclopedia

absolute pitch- (auditory memory) a term to denote a person’s ability to perceive tones, and more specifically, the ability to recognize the pitch of each tone, i.e. the frequency of these sound vibrations. Often absolute or quasi-absolute pitch are... ... Russian index k English-Russian dictionary in musical terminology

absolute pitch- absoliuti klausa statusas T sritis švietimas apibrėžtis Įgimtas gebėjimas skirti ir atkurti muzikos garsų aukštį. Absoliuti klausa ypač reikalinga pasirinkusiems dainavimo specialybę. atitikmenys: engl. absolute ear; perfect ear vok. das absolute... Enciklopedinis edukologijos žodynas

Books

• Absolute ear for music. Essence, nature, genesis, method of formation and development, Berezhansky Pavel Nikolaevich. This book gives scientific explanation the phenomenon of absolute pitch. Analysis of the results of previously conducted research and the author’s own theoretical and experimental work led to... Buy for 498 rubles
• Absolute ear for music. Essence, nature, genesis, method of formation and development: textbook. 2nd edition, corrected and expanded, Berezhansky P.N. This book provides a scientific explanation of the phenomenon of absolute pitch. Analysis of the results of previously conducted research and the author’s own theoretical and experimental work led to...