How I learned to write music in real time | Hacker News Reader

How I learned to write music in real time

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Perfect/absolute pitch fascinates me. I have fairly solid relative pitch and knowledge of music theory, so I can pretty quickly work out most popular western music by ear and play along on the piano or guitar, but only in rare circumstances can I hear a pitch and recognize it as being the same absolute pitch as some other known pitch that I haven’t heard recently. When it happens, it’s usually when I hear the beginning of a song and immediately recognize that it’s in the same key as some other song that I have heard many times. The recognition seems to be stronger if both pitches are played with the same timbre (i.e. the same instrument with similar tone and effects).

This leads me to believe that absolute pitch is probably nothing more than excellent pitch memory, which further leads me to believe that it is probably learnable and not genetic (beyond any genetic predisposition for general musical skill). That said, I suspect it Is vastly easier to learn at a young age, just as are human languages.

Supppsedly people who speak tonal languages are more likely to have perfect pitch.

Perfect Pitch is 30% more likely in societies with tonal language. Kids who are exposed to complicated music at an early age also have a higher chance of having perfect pitch.

Here's the best video[0] on Perfect Pitch I've seen. It starts at 4:25 because he spends the first four minutes responding to indignant youtube commenters. Then he digs into the science.

[0]: https://youtu.be/816VLQNdPMM?t=267

I am surprised about the 1 in 10,000 number, but I can attest to what he is saying. I grew up hearing music even while in the womb. My mom was a musician. And I wound up having perfect pitch.

I can describe what it's like, but I honestly feel anyone can learn it with enough practice. (Never put it to the test though.) It's simply like reinforcement learning of being able to hit a note in a certain position. When you hit it too high or too low, you correct yourself, until you have a memory of where you are supposed to hit it properly. With children I am sure a lot of the "tuning" happens over multiple repetitions due to being exposed to the combination of "fa", "sol" or "the start of star wars" always referring to the same thing.

I think you could teach your kids the perfect pitch by having them sing songs with "do re mi" terminology (or possibly ABC-G but that's a bit worse because it's not a natural major scale) and having them do it over time adjusts their brain's "predictions" of where they should hit the note. If they deal with music all the time they'll be able to do it. It's similar to picking the right vocal tone for a situation or a basketball player knowing how to shoot a ball after many tries. A tennis player hitting a ball is a bit harder because the action must be a function of the input.

Now, as I got older, switched careers and have been away from singing / playing music for a few years, I can report that my perfect pitch is still there but "modulated down" almost a half-step. So when I want to sing "do re mi" or a theme that I know is with D minor, I sometimes do it a half step lower. When I listen to that piece, it sounds a half step higher. (I am 34.) However, a few seconds of reinforcement learning that "no, this is D minor" and suddenly everything snaps back and I have perfect pitch again.

I believe that reinforcement learning across perfectly tuned instruments and songs all around is is what causes perfect pitch. So I always thought that, with enough exposure to music and having to sing the songs using do re mi instead of the words etc. anyone can form those associations and "tune them". Well, anyone who isn't lacking the brain capacity for tuning their pitch or actions or whatever. I would say that's more than 1 in 10,000 people. It just needs similar skills to motor coordination.

There was a kid in my orchestra that had synesthesia. He was born associating colors with musical notes. When he heard a D he might have seen the color green and so on.

https://musescore.com/rebeccayang/no-14-rainbow People with this condition can write so called "rainbow songs" that look like a rainbow to them.

I've been fascinated by perfect pitch. I studied theatre before a bizarre turn of events eventually settling into software engineering, so I got to meet a lot of extremely musically talented individuals, and out of those I've met only one with perfect pitch.

I peppered them with questions- I asked how long they've had it and they explained that they learned music (piano) at a very young age. They can recognize a single note, even chords. They can also be given a note to sing. I asked if they needed to hear other notes in order to distinguish it and they said no, they can hear a single note and know exactly what it is. I have always been fascinated by this.

Not related to perfect pitch, but I've trained myself to somewhat replicate this through relative pitch. I quitely hum to myself the lowest note I can (which just happens to be a C natural), and from there I can mentally step up and down the scale chromatically to find whatever note I need. I'm accurate to about a half step but no more than that, sad to say.

You can train yourself to have perfect pitch too, it's a lot like relative pitch but you use music you know well as the starting tone. "This note sounds like the opening chord in x song, so it must be A major".

I can attest to this being true. That is how it started for me. But it isn't like relative pitch (all practicing musicians have well developed relative pitch) -- it is more like seeing colors or feeling textures. I have noticed that most of my colleagues with perfect pitch are pianists. I think it helps to have that same pitch always be reluably the same. Few string or horn players have perfect pitch on all instruments, but many do have it for their own instrument only.

Perfect pitch is very common, can be developed by training. My daughter said once she was the only one in their class who didn't have perfect pitch (she was on music program at university). Musicians don't agree whether perfect pitch is necessary, or even whether it's beneficial. What you do need is 'absolute relative pitch' - the ability to identify intervals. I don't have perfect pitch, but I can play any melody from the first listen right away, transposed into key of F major (or G minor for minor keys). I just know these keys very well. The secret of learning how to play by ear is: transpose everything into the same key, and play it there. Never try to master all keys - it's impossible (very few people, even among world-class musicians, can play in all keys equally well). (I'm speaking about piano. On other instruments, the situation can be different).

why was this down voted. as a career musician, I'd agree with this- but maybe not the transpose it into the same key part. Perhaps that is a piano related issue? (although f major is a horn player's key, so the key confused me) It is true that even world class professional musicians hate playing in certain keys because the key itself does not sit well under the fingers on a particular instrument. For example, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto sits great under the fingers of every pro level violinist, and that is because it sits great on the violin. That's why he wrote it in D!

Some years ago I spent a few weeks trying to develop absolute pitch, and I made enough progress to see that it was possible, but that it would also take a lot of time and effort better spent improving other aspects of musicianship. To have absolute pitch early and effortlessly is a huge help no doubt, but it would add little value for an already proficient musician with strong relative pitch.

Perfect pitch is definitely learnable. I can tell you the exact pitch of anything played on the two instruments I play (learned at age 13) but not on other instruments or if sung. It is so severe, i can't un-know what they are- happens with film scores- my brain just starts saying the pitches to me. It's like when you pass a bilboard while driving-- you don't mean to read it, but your brain does it without your asking. I didn't have this ability until after I'd practiced these instruments for around ten years.

I love the OP's definition of "cheesy". Spot on and well said! Still, the article didn't really talk about how to write music in real time. Anyone at all can do this. It is simply improvising a collection of sounds.

Thanks :) Can you elaborate on what you mean by improvising a collection of sounds? Do you mean building a library of musical building blocks and putting them together ad hoc?

I guess I'm wanting people to realize that they already have a library of building blocks in their own imaginations. "writing music" is a vast thing to say. Writing music in the manner of Mozart or LMFAO or Bruno Mars is narrower. But you have to study those exact folks to do that and then immitate their vocabulary of chords, rhythms, forms, orchestrations, styles... even to say "writing jazz in real time" isn't narrow enough. Jazz is too vast. I think people limit themselves when they get vast unknowingly like this. Better to improvise as one's self than to immitate someone else. If you want someone else to play it back as you wrote it... record yourself.

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