David Lucas Burge's Perfect and Relative Pitch courses

[jazzmaniac]

Hi. I'm kinda new here in this forum thing, just registered some few minutes ago, and I thought I wanna start a forum on this subject.

I got this Perfect Pitch course from a guy named David Lucas Burge and I started doing the exercises a few days ago. I'm now doing the exercises in the Masterclass 7. So far, I'm doing quite fine with the last drills and I pass the "verification rounds", but now I think I need help with this exercise where you name white tones on the keyboard without looking. I think one should have a good relative pitch with this one too.

I just wanna know if there are some other guys here that tried and benefited with this course, maybe they can help me out and give some tips on how I can go about with the course. Also, are there some people here who have the complete Relative Pitch lessons by Mr. Burge? Where do I download them free? I'm broke and I can't buy it for now.

[silent-storm]

well I can't comment on downloading them, although your local library may have some ear training courses that you could borrow, maybe even his.

I can assure you that your questions have been answered about 10 times in previous threads. This topic comes up again every couple of months.

[jazzmaniac]

Hi there, silent-storm. Thanks for replying to my message. I never knew this forum, threading thing can be so, like close as having someone answer your questions in person.

Yeah, I've been reading some threads about this topic lately and I found some messages quite helpful. But I also wanted someone to help me out with my situation, someone who has been there too. I'm sure somebody will read this message and will write about his experience.

By the way, what's your instrument, silent-storm? Have you done some sort of ear-training before?

[silent-storm]

I play guitar and piano and I have done three years of college ear training as well as a lot of stuff on my own.

the reason why I said to read other posts is because I have answered your question on a number of occasions. I worked through his perfect pitch course. It worked, but you should really try to find a friend to test you. If not you can start to rely on muscle memory in order to name the notes, which is not good. With a friend it will make it far more challenging and benefitial. Also don't be affraid to develop your own excersizes. I worked through about half of it, decided the rest wasn't going in the direction I wanted, so I came up with my own stuff that worked a lot better for my particular needs.

I can't give you any specific info on specific lessons because there is nothing you can do besides listen to it 10000 times before your ear slowly starts to figure it out for itself.

good luck

[gersdal]

If you scroll down this page to similar threads, you'll find... exactly that. Maybe you'll find something interesting

[jazzmaniac]

So, you have perfect pitch now, silent-storm? How long did it take? Did you have a hard time doing the exercises? Perhaps you could tell me your experiences with it. When did all the "colors" started to become clear to you?

Right now, I'm on Masterclass 7 and just yesterday I was able to do 1 verification round on the drill. While doing the course, I'm also trying to strengthen my relative pitch since I found out a certain degree of it is needed to have p.pitch. Also yesterday, my girlfriend tested me on the keyboard, I got some wrong notes but mostly I got correct answers. I think my ear is beginning to open up a lot more than before. The unlocking technique helped me tremendously, and now I can do it with speed. I'm excited!

[jazzmaniac]

I just want to say that right now, I'm on Masterclass 8 and just a while ago I was able to do 1 verification round for each of the two drills. I'm working on the last two drills in this session. My ear is opening up more and more. I would also like to add that I'm beginning to sort of hear and recognize some tones. I mean, if I play a on the piano without looking, I can tell the pitch. There's a certain feel to a pitch, at least to me, I don't know to some of you guys. I'm not talking about the pitch's highness or lowness, but something more. Sometimes I would get it quickly but most of the times I need to listen closely to get it. I'm not correct all the time, I could get wrong of course.

[Nolly]

I did the course a couple of years ago and it does do what it says on the tin. It took me about two or three months if I remember rightly (while the information is valuable, the sheer amount of filler really began to piss me off by the end!) I found it best not to think about it too deeply but just let my ear open up on it's own. But it is a gradual process, and while you havn't yet fully developed your ear, you're obviously well on your way...
As for the 'feel'; it's something very personal and everyone chooses to describe it in a different way. I personally can't place what it is, to me it is almost subconscious, like an intuition, but I certainly can't allude the feeling to 'colours' like David does.
Anyway, the best advice I'd give is to relax about it and not worry about your rate of progress too much. Do the exercises he gives but don't think of them as 'practise' as such, rather as helpful ideas to aid your progress. I think the most important things are to listen to music as much as possible (actively, not just in the background) and transcribe and/or learn pieces by ear. I even used to sit with my guitar and pick out the ad jingles on TV and radio when I was waiting for a program to come on. This kind of thing will improve your ear no end and will greatly boost your progress and general musicianship.
Keep up your enthusiasm, and I hope you get the results you're after.

[jazzmaniac]

Thank you very much for your post, Nolly. I really appreciate that. I thought this thread is dead, because no one has posted any message for quite a long time. And I know some guys wish this thread on this topic will end soon. But if ever this thread will come up again next month or so, I'd offer help to those who came through this like me.

Thanks for your suggestions, Nolly and I'm happy for you, now that you actually have perfect pitch and I'm sure that's helping you a lot in your musicianship. Right now, I'm on Masterclass 10, and I'm happy to say that I'm able to recognize most of the white tones. I mean, if I hear a C, I'd know it's a C. I'm also trying to develope what Mr. Burge called "aural recall", like when I wake up in the morning I'll try to sing a C, and check myself on the keyboard. Most of the times I can nail it, but of course I could get a little flat or sharp at times. I'm excited! I'm doing a lot of listening, not just on the background but also analytic - appreciating intervals, timbre and stuff. I'm a composer and I'm doing a lot of writing and transcribing too, but not always without my instrument with me, though. I'm looking forward for the day when I can write music and transcribe a song without my instrument beside me.

Hope to hear from you Nolly and you, guys.

[c_n12]

Hey there!

Quick question to all Burge users who have advanced reasonably into the course. I am on Master Class 7 and am unsure about moving forward...Is it really of vital importance to follow Burge's "15 or 20 minutes and no more!" rule or are there those of you who have found it better to practice extended amounts of time and seen better results?

[jazzmaniac]

Hi there, c n12. That's a nice nick, though. Do you have a name I can call you other that that?

Well, congratulations and you're now on the 8th masterclass. So, how's it going? As for you question, I suggest you don't have to follow strictly to what Mr. Burge said about doing the drills 15 or 20 minutes. Do what suites you as long as you're relaxed and not straining and giving yourself a headache. I do the drills for 20 to 25 minutes, and since I've got a lot of time this time of the year, I do them more that once a day. At most three times a day. Right now, I'm secured enough to identify all the white tones on the keyboard - whenever I hear it, I immediately know which tone it is. The ear training meditation helped me tremendously, I should say. I coupled that with relaxation techniques I've learned before. You see, it's really important to be relaxed and "open" whenever you're doing the course. So, take it easy man, I'm sure you'll get to your goal in time.

[Nolly]

Heya c n12, welcome to iBreathe!
Working towards perfect pitch is a very personal thing, so you should never feel unsure about whether to try things out for yourself when doing the course. Try doing more. It may work for you, or you may not get any benefit from it, and from that you can adjust how you practise. Put it this way, you're never going to lose the progress you've made so far by practising more than 15-20 mins. Good luck mate

[c_n12]

Thanks! I really appreciate your advice. I do not generally as a rule ever try to force myself to hear anything. If anything, I will generally listen sort of half-heartedly trying to hear the colors. Maintaing a relaxed mindset knowing that my mind will eventually naturally coordinate itself in the correct manner. I was just unsure whether extended practice, Even relaxed and easygoing practice may render my training ineffective because I'm unkowingly overworking my inner ear and not realizing it. Also, this feels like a hard lesson because it essentally is expects me to learn to recognize all the colors in the preparatory stages so I sometimes feel a bit like this course is going to take forever and sometimes even that I'm never going to get past the first step because I feel like I've been stuck on Master Class 8 for weeks now. I've tried everything. If someone plays C and D but even the moment you add even one more note (E) I stuggle even after practicing for 3 days. And to JazzManiac...the name's Chris Nosal hence the nickname.

[jazzmaniac]

Cool, Chris Nosal! It's really nice to hear people's different experiences on this course.

This is my experience: Earlier in Masterclass 7, I got a bit discouraged to know that the drill is to identify any white tone on the keyboard. I mean, I was doing great with the other masterclasses before that, but identifying a pitch just by listening to it?! I thought, then what's the point of doing the course, since identifying a pitch just by listening is actually perfect pitch. Then why would this guy have me do it if I don't have it yet? Then that's when I started this thread and asked other guys who had done the course themselves. I learned that you should have a certain degree of relative pitch to be able to get through it. I have a good sense of relative pitch, but I was trying to block that when doing the first few courses until I discovered that you shouldn't really try to block relative pitch, in fact you need it. Probably the reason why you got stuck on Masterclass 8 is you're not conscious of the relation of the pitches or the interval. I just thought that, maybe I'm wrong. Right now, I still have that sense of relationship whenever I do the white tone drills, but while doing that I'm also noticing the "colors". There are certain feelings to a tone whenever I hear it, that's how someone with perfect pitch remembers a tone.

By the way, what's your music genre and instrument, Chris? Hope to hear more from you again next time.

[c_n12]

Thanks again for the advice as always it helps! My main insturment of 9 years is actually percussion and I am a vocalist looking to learn to play piano and guitar by ear so I decided to learn Perfect Pitch first. But I'll keep you posted on how everything's going!

P.S - What would you suggest I do in an effort to get through Master Class 8?