Perfect Pitch Test for Ear Training Practice

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What is "perfect pitch"?

Before you even start practicing with this tool, you may be interested in what the perfect pitch is.

Perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch, is a human ability which includes several levels:

1. The most basic level is pitch awareness. You may have had the following experience. You know a musical piece which is written, let's say, in the key of C-major. You listened to it a lot of times. And then later you hear it in another key, maybe in E-major. And right away you feel - something has changed, it's not the same piece anymore! This pitch awareness is a very good sign, actually - it means that with practice you will be able to achieve the next level.
2. When you achieve this level, you will be able to identify musical notes played on one musical instrument without having a reference note. This level requires a lot of practice for most people.
3. A higher level of perfect pitch will allow you to identify musical notes on different instruments.
4. The highest level is called tonal memory, or "aural recall". It's when you can sing a musical note, again without having a reference note.

Sometimes these levels overlap. For example, after certain amount of practice you may learn to identify one or two notes on several instruments. Or maybe you will learn to sing correctly one particular note before you fully develop the ability to identify all 12 notes of the chromatic scale.

This online perfect pitch trainer is designed to help you develop your ear no matter on which level you are right now.

Tips for developing perfect pitch

1. The right environment

Doing exercises to develop perfect pitch can be compared to meditation.

This practice is very personal experience. You need to listen deeply into each sound, connect with it, let it come into your ears. So the right environment is crucial.

Ideally, you should find a place where nothing will distract you. In this place you will feel at ease with your body relaxed and comfortable.

2. Practice always with the same instrument

We recommend starting with just one instrument. If you play yourself, pick the instrument which resembles most closely the sound of your own instrument. For example, if you play piano start by checking all piano sounds from our collection of virtual instruments and choose the one that you like most.

If you are a vocalist, pick the instrument which sound you are most familiar with.

3. High-quality headphones

The sound quality of our virtual instruments is high - 256 kbps. Don't ruin your experience with cheap 2-dollar earphones. Use high-quality equipment and enjoy every moment of your practice!

4. Use middle range

Some exercises require you to sing a note. If you are a beginner, we recommend selecting the pitch practice range that would match your singing range. This online perfect pitch trainer easily allows you to do that.

Once you get used to the notes that you can sing, you can gradually expand your pitch practice range.

5. Practice every day

Your ear training session doesn't need to be very long. 15-20 minutes a day is usually enough for most people.

6. Make sure you are in the right state

Remember how we compared the practice with meditation? Your state is also extremely important!

Before you begin your ear training session, take a moment, sit comfortably, reconnect with your body, make sure you feel good and relaxed.

Pay attention to your breathing for a minute or two. Extending the exhale has a relaxing effect on the body. You may want to use this little trick to prepare yourself for the exercises.

Exercises for development of perfect pitch

The basic idea behind developing perfect pitch is that each of 12 chromatic notes has its own "flavor", its own "color", so to speak. This flavor, or color for the note "A", for example, is the same in all the octaves. We can say that the lower notes have "darker" flavor/color, the higher notes are "lighter".

Here are some exercises that you can do to develop the ability to sense these flavors/colors and eventually develop perfect pitch:

1. Relaxed listening

Start with 2 notes in 2 octaves. Some experts, such as David Lucas Burge, recommend starting with the notes F# and D#. The flavors/colors of these notes are usually easier to identify for an untrained ear.

You can either click the notes on the virtual keyboard or set the activity to "practice", select the allowed notes and let the program generate the notes for you randomly.

Remember all the tips that we discussed in the previous section. In order to sense the flavor/color of the note, you need to listen deeply in a relaxed manner.

2. Test your sense of perfect pitch

Once you get used to your 2 notes, set the activity to "test" and check whether you can identify 20 notes in a row.

If you can do it without any problem, add another note, for example, A. Or expand the pitch practice range to 3 octaves.

3. Pitch matching

Up until now you didn't sing anything, you just listened. Another important exercise for perfect pitch development is pitch matching. It will help you develop your tonal memory.

Start with several notes within your singing range. Again you can either click the notes on the virtual keyboard or set the activity to "practice" and let the program generate notes for you.

Your goal is to reproduce the pitch of the note as closely as possible. Use a tuner to make sure you are singing each note correctly. Obviously, you will need headphones, so the tuner would pick up only your voice, and not the sound of the virtual instrument.

If you are serious about singing, we highly recommend the book The Singing Athlete by Andrew Byrne.

Once you are comfortable with singing a single note, start practicing with 2 notes played harmonically (simultaneously). Select the exercise "2 white keys: major and minor thirds". After listening to the notes, first sing the bottom note, then the top note. Again check yourself with a tuner!

Built-in tuner - instant feedback for your ear and voice training

This online perfect pitch trainer has a built-in tuner. There are a multiple ways how you can use it. First of all, choose the option "Answer using microphone" and set the activity to "test". Then you have several ways to practice:

1. If you are a beginner, you can do the pitch matching exercise described in the previous section - when you sing the note that you have just heard. Start with "one single note" exercise, then move on to 2- and 3-note exercises. Once you are comfortable with these exercises within your singing range, you can expand the pitch practice range, for example, add one octave at the bottom. If a note is too low for you, sing it one octave higher. In this case, uncheck the option "Wrong octave is considered as an error". This way the note you sing will be considered as the correct answer.
2. You can use the tuner, even if you select the option "Answer using virtual keyboard". Turn on the option "Show tuner". This way you can "cheat" for practicing purposes - in case you can't guess a note, you can sing it in your microphone. If you practice this way, we highly recommend you to spend additional time with notes that you can't identify easily.
3. If you play a musical instrument, you can answer the questions using your instrument. Start with the sound of your own instrument. For example, if you play guitar, choose the virtual instrument "guitar". Once you are comfortable identifying the notes played on a guitar, you can switch the virtual instrument to "piano", for example, and answer the questions using your guitar. This exercise is especially useful in case you want to learn how to play by ear or improvise with other musicians.