
How I learned to write music in real time - sideshowb
https://omnisplore.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/how-i-learned-to-write-music-in-real-time/
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baddox
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.

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wildrhythms
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.

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figurehe4d
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".

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brooklyn_ashey
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.

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brooklyn_ashey
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.

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sideshowb
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?

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brooklyn_ashey
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.

