Re: reading/dictating by ear, tips pleas
Bert Ligon ( BLigon@mozart.music.sc.edu )
Thu, 15 May 1997 15:24:26 -0400
>On 14 May 1997, Pedro Batista wrote:
>
>>
>> Not trying to improve on Reed's comments, theres a little trick I find
>> useful when trying to categorize an interval just by memory. It is to
>> memorize bits of familiar tunes where you know the interval occours. You can
>> have a tune bit for every interval (2nds are trivial, but wider intervals
>> become trickier). For instance if you need, say, a perfect 4th Beethoven 9th
>> has some well known parts you can use as mnemonic. The #4th is more uncommon
>> but I have one: the first two notes of The Simpsons theme... (The
>> Siiiimp...).
>>
>>
>I use the first two notes of 'Here comes the bride...' for a perfect
>fourth... :)>
The trouble with this concept is that there are six perfect fourths in a
major key and only one of them is "here comes the bride."
In C major P4= C-F, D-G, E-A, G-C, A-D, B-E. They all sound different and
yet are all perfect fourths. Only G-C is "here comes the bride" if we are
in C. I tend to hear pitches related to the tonic.
_______________________________________
Bert Ligon
Director of Jazz Studies
_______________________________________
School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Voice: (803) 777-6565
Fax: (803) 777-2151
http://www.music.sc.edu/Departments/Jazz/
bligon@mozart.sc.edu
_______________________________________