Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Perfect Pitch vs Relative Pitch - This Five-Year-Old's Head is a Piece of Music Technology! IDP004

Today is #TechTuesday so it's time to post something fun about technology and how it helps us in our lives. But as I was trying to think of something to post, I was having another one of those not very motivated days, just like I had yesterday. Do you ever feel like that? You're just like, "Ugh, I cannot get motivated!" and other times you're just rippin' and rearin' and ready to go?

What I do when I get in that situation is I kind of force myself to do a little routine. For example, I will let myself sit down and do something I enjoy, but I'll set a timer. When the timer goes off, I have to go do something productive from my list or change it up somehow. 

Now, if you have little children, you don't necessarily need to always do this, because the children themselves ARE the little timers! I mean, if the baby starts crying, you gotta stop and do something productive by helping the baby stop crying. Or you know little toddlers and their incessant cries: "Mom! Mom! Mom!" They ARE your timers.  🤣🤣🤣

But as your children grow (my baby is 13) they sometimes enjoy being left alone so they can go off and do their own thing. So you have to be a little more purposeful if you don't have kids or if they are older. You have to get yourself to do stuff by being your own parent again haha!

So there's a little tip for you - use a timer and give yourself little rewards. Just treat yourself like you are your own little kid. That usually helps me and I hope it will help you!

Anyway, so back to #TechTuesday . . . What I did this morning was that after I got myself dressed and ready for the day, I was like, "Okay, reward time!" So I decided to watch YouTube for a few minutes and got a little suggestion about another video, and you know how you get sucked in! But luckily I had my timer going, so I only watched a couple. It was a good distraction, too, because I found something I decided to talk about today in this post!

The video I wanted to share is called: PERFECT PITCH TEST! (5-YEAR-OLD CLAIRE VS DAD). This is on a channel called Claire and the Crosby's. I just found them the other day and they were singing some songs together, and the little girl is totally adorable and just sings beautifully. But the reason I was excited about it is because of this perfect pitch test.

If you are a musician, you probably know what perfect pitch is. It is when you can basically pick a note out of thin air and be able to sing the right note. For example, if I said, "Sing A above middle C" you would just go "Laaa!" and you'd get it right. It's something you have to be born with.

I don't have perfect pitch myself, but I do have what is known as good relative pitch, which most musicians have, and it can also be taught and improved over time. With relative pitch, basically, if you give me a note and tell me a song to sing, I can sing it in that key and it will sound correct. Then you can give me a different note and I can sing it in that key and it will sound right. But if you say "sing it in the key of C" or "starting on the note C," I won't be able to do that unless someone gives me the first pitch. Does that make sense? I explained it on the podcast HERE with a little bit of singing so it might make more sense if you listen to that. :)

So I know, you might be thinking, "Why are we talking about this?" But remember, Jumbled Sunshine is about making your life more successful, INTERESTING and FUN. And to me, this is super interesting, and here's why. This little girl is FIVE YEARS OLD, okay? And she has perfect pitch!

Well okay, her Dad's like, "I suspect that she has perfect pitch." So he does this little game with her. It takes less than seven minutes to watch this whole video. Warning: If you are a musician who is super jealous of people that have perfect pitch, maybe don't watch it! No, I'm just kidding, it is seriously amazing and worth watching! Here it is:

 

Oh my gosh, did that just blow your mind like it did mine?!? The reason this fits on #TechTuesday is because it's like this little girl's head is a piece of technology! I have to use technology to do what she does naturally. Most musicians are more like me in this way (with good relative pitch) and so it's worth explaining briefly.

For example, if I want to sing a song in the right key, I have to look at the sheet music to see what note it starts on, then go over to the piano and hit that note before I can sing the song. Even if I don't know the song at all, if I am given the first note, I can probably pick my way through the notes mostly by ear and figure it out fairly well while hitting a note on the piano here and there to keep myself on track. If I already know the song, just give me that first note and I'm good to go.

But this girl doesn't need anyone to remind her of the first note, or any of the notes for that matter. In fact, one of the songs she hadn't heard for months and she can sing it in the right key! How does your brain even do that?!?!? It blows my mind. ðŸ¤¯

I don't even know these people so I guess I'm just doing free advertising for them. (Although they have like a million subscribers and I have like ten, so it's not like my advertising means a whole lot at this point haha). But I just had to share.

I also promised on the podcast that I would give you some resources to understand the difference between perfect pitch and relative pitch. Whether you are a musician or not, this is something that is sort of interesting. So here is a link that explains it pretty well: Perfect Pitch vs. Relative Pitch How they work together to give you the complete musical picture.

You may also want to watch this video if you're still unsure of the difference between perfect pitch and relative pitch. I think it explains it pretty well.

So that's today's way of making your life more interesting and fun! I hope you enjoyed the perfect pitch game with Claire and her Dad. And if you don't have perfect pitch or relative pitch or any pitch for that matter, don't give up! I had an enthusiastic church choir director once who had something she would tell people who said they couldn't join because they weren't good singers. She would just say, "All of God's children can sing!" If you don't want to sing in front of others, no problem, just go somewhere alone and sing to your hearts content! After all, "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."


I invite you to join me every day (or ideally every day) as I share optimism and insight for everyday living. Have a wonderful day!
~JS~🌞

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