Perfect Pitch Training

Perfect pitch ear training comes in a few different forms. For example, the method taught by Acoustic Learning Inc. whereby the abilities of the brain to pick out similarities and differences between objects or sounds is used. The idea seems to be to enforce a memory of a particular pitch by including it in various different settings. This method uses software in the form of a game to try to make developing perfect pitch as entertaining as possible.

Other, more confusing courses, such as Absolute Pitch Power, by Graham English, attempt to apply complex psychological techniques to the subject of perfect pitch, as well as a new-age type of positive thinking approach, “Imagine how good it will feel to have perfect pitch” etc. Some of these techniques cannot simply be dismissed off-hand. However, it seems like an odd approach to take. English is clearly qualified in some kind of psychological discipline and has thought to himself, “What skills do I have, that I can apply to the field of perfect pitch”, rather than studying the subject from within. He once remarked, “I don't think perfect pitch has anything to do with psycho-acoustics”.

The most popular course to develop perfect pitch is the Perfect Pitch Ear Training Supercourse, by David Lucas Burge. The course has been around for decades, having been sold as a set of cassettes and now CDs. When you order the set, you are covered by a money-back guarantee as long as you only open the first CD. The rest are sealed and, once hearing the first CD, most people will be too curious about what is on the rest to resist opening them too. This is clever but the course is, by no means, a scam. The CDs are recordings of Burge lecturing on the subject of how to learn perfect pitch. It seems that he gives all the knowledge he has on the topic in these lectures. There are only two main criticisms to be made about the course. Firstly, the content does not seem to have changed much in the twenty eight years it has been around and is really pretty thin. In this day and age, you would expect video and interactive media as part of the course but all it contains is a series of audio recordings, which could easily be saved onto a single DVD. The name “Supercourse” is a great exaggeration, considering the amount of material. Burge basically explains that there are individual qualities to the notes and that you should get a friend to play random notes to you and try to guess what they are from these qualities. The second criticism is the price, which is an astronomical $169. It is obvious that the course has been sold successfully for almost three decades now and Burge must have become extremely wealthy from it, so it has to be said that charging such a great amount for nine CDs is just plain greedy, or else his business is extremely inefficient.

Another option is the Pure Pitch Method by Ryan Cameron. This has many faults but, actually, this is the one that gets my vote. The main criticism is that it seems to try to mix relative and absolute pitch together in a rather strange way. Also, the idea of “trigger pitches” is used, which is something seemingly contradictory to the whole idea of absolute pitch. If you are trying to memorize a particular note and then count all the others from there, then you are not really employing perfect pitch, you are simply learning a trick. Ryan Cameron has been criticized for his lack of knowledge in musical theory. In his “blog”, Richard Bosworth pays great attention to point out Cameron's mistakes. For example:

”Ryan's chart says a Minor 6th is "C to G#." Ryan, please know that C to G# is actually an Augmented 5th - ... The correct interval of a Minor 6th is C to A flat.”

For goodness sake, this is Bosworth being a pedantic musical snob. In absolute terms, G# and A flat are the same note and we are dealing with absolute pitch. Bosworth goes on to claim that they are different and that this is important. He then plugs a relative pitch ear training course by Lucas Burge. He also recommends the Perfect Pitch Supercourse. This is, of course, because Bosworth is affiliated to Burge. We can tell he is earning a cut of the sales of these courses by the fact that he has Pay-Per-Click adverts on Google pointing to his “blog”.

Anyway, the Pure Pitch method will teach you the same kind of material that is in the Perfect Pitch Supercourse but it is much cheaper and, if you don't like it, you can claim a full refund. This refund is guaranteed because this is the policy of all digital products sold through Clickbank, including the Perfect Pitch Simulator. It is because of the price and the no-risk purchase policy that I would choose Pure Pitch over the Supercourse. The Perfect Pitch Simulator can be used along side one of these courses but this is not really necessary. It is also cheaper than all of them and comes with some great instructions and tips on how to get stuck in to developing your ear from day one. I believe the resources on this website, alone, are worth more than all these courses put together and the obvious course of action is to forget Burge, Cameron, and English, and get the Bryce Alexander Perfect Pitch Simulator!