Is what you hear in music the same as
what I hear? It is much easier to test this than it is to test if
the same color of blue looks exactly the same to both of us. A song
is playing. It is a famous group. We both hear the same words and
the same music. We may feel differently about what we hear but we
both hear the same song, essentially. The words are the same and the
music is the same, no matter how many times we hear the song. It is
a recording and it is all set or fixed, unalterable.
If the articulation of the singer is
good enough, we will hear the same identical words. We both might be
able to sing the same melodic line that we hear. In your language,
you can write down what you hear but can you write down the notes
with the correct pitches, rhythms, and the correct duration of each
note? Can you hear embellishments and also pitches being bent?
Would you know how to notate that all on manuscript paper or in a
music manuscript software program, such as Encore?
You may listen to a song linearly in
sequential time. Do you also notice the structure of the song? You
have to take it in its entirety to discover the structure and the
form of the song. There are several song forms and not a right or
wrong way to write a song.
Looking deeper into the song, we notice
instruments we can hear. What are they? For the sake of discussion,
we can call a singer or singers instruments. Do we hear drums, a
bass, a guitar, keyboards an/or other instruments? Guitars,
keyboards and basses can play linear (melodic lines) or chords,
although chords are usually played less frequently using a bass.
Harmonic intervals may be played on bass at times, such as thirds or
fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, or octaves but three note chords
may sound muddy on the low notes of a bass.
The chords of the song are usually
played by guitars, keyboards, and/or strings. How many chords are in
the song and what are those chords? How are those chords voiced,
meaning how are the chord notes spread out? Is it close or open
voicing? Can you hear that? Could you correctly write down what you
hear? Could you play it on a keyboard or a guitar from just hearing
it? If I hear a chord, such as a Cmajor9 voiced a certain way, I
might describe it as a G6 in the right hand, playing 2 G's and in the
left hand there could be 2 C's, an octave apart lower on the
keyboard. Could it be what looks like an Em7 in the right hand and
the same C's in the left hand? Can you hear the difference and know
immediately without having to think about or analyze it? From years
of experience, some people can. We all hear the same thing, but do
we also know precisely what was heard? You absolutely do not have to
hear these things to appreciate music. You may want to be able to
when arranging, composing, or orchestrating a piece.
If you have the job of transcribing
music, you absolutely must hear and also analyze the music to
accurately write it down. Your job will be much faster if you just
“get it”, instead of having to think about it. Knowledge and
experience can lead to rapid perfect transcription of music. Having
great relative pitch helps. Having perfect pitch also helps but
contained within perfect pitch, there is the function of relative
pitch. Perfect pitch may or may not be taught. I was born with that
or maybe it developed along the way. I'm not sure which. It has
been put to the test, it was noticed by my college music theory
teacher, Dr. Paul Whear, who is a famous composer of the 20th
century. We did a lot of melodic and harmonic dictation in class,
which I found to be very easy but it was because of having perfect
pitch.
The placement test for music theory
class was to write out The Star Spangled Banner. I got it all right.
There were no musical instruments in the testing room. We were each
given a pencil and a sheet of manuscript paper. That is what got me
into Dr. Whear's class. It was the beginning of “hearing”.
