Perfect Pitch

For You
Alla Elana Cohen
Perfect Pitch For You
by Alla Elana Cohen

Len Rhodes Music

P.O. Box 7252
Colorado Springs, CO 80933-7252

Find us on the World Wide Web at http://www.lenrhodesmusic.com

Copyright © 2007, Len Rhodes Music

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America

Document design by Rhonda Spradling

Note illustrations by Alla Elana Cohen

First engraving—April 2007

ISBN-13: 978-0-9794269-0-2
ISBN-10: 0-9794269-0-1
Table of Contents

What her students say . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iii

"Music Fell from the Heavens" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
1. The Miraculous Bell-Ringer or 121 Sharps and 121 Flats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2. Perfect Perfect Pitch and Imperfect Perfect Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. Levels of Levers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4. Proponents of Ten Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5. To Have or Not to Have—That is the Question—
or How to Gather the Pieces Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6. Esthetics of Synesthetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7. Is There a Flaw in the Universal Law? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
8. Is There an Explanation of the Sense of Pitch Location? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
9. What Color is the Relationship, or What is the Relationship of Pitch Colors?. . 37
10. Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch—Allies or Enemies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
11. Perfect Pitch—a Servant or a Master? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
12. Memory Fusion—Problems and Solutions, or a Layer in Time Saves Nine . . . 48
13. All About Aural Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
14. Start Smart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
15. Grow a Row Stage I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
16. Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
17. Grow a Row Stage 2, Filling in the Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
18. Grow a Row Stage 3, or Territorial Expansion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
19. Grow a Row Stage 4, Putting on Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
20. Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
21. For People with Inborn Perfect Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
22. Selective or Universal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
23. For Teachers of Children and for Parents, but to be read by everyone
who holds this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
24. Go to the Limitless, Perceive the Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
"On Keys" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Appendix 1, Samples of Rhythmic Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Appendix 2, Samples of Volleys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Appendix 3, Dictations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Table of Contents i
 This book is addressed to the widest circles of musicians—
professional and amateur—to music teachers, to students of music
schools and colleges, to performers, composers, to music-lovers of
all levels of proficiency and musical background, to parents who
would like to help their children develop perfect pitch, to all who are
interested in this fascinating subject—developing the sense of pitch
and pitch memory.

This book is the result of many years of my pedagogical work with

adults and children. It is based on my observations and analysis of
my practical experience, the essence of which is the conclusion:
perfect pitch is necessary and perfect pitch is possible to develop,
both in grown-ups and children.

The book consists of two parts—the first one discussing the

mechanism of pitch perception and touching various important
questions in connection with developing perfect pitch. The second
part describes in detail the process of developing perfect pitch,
starting "from scratch," in stages.

To my readers—please, be patient, and read the first part of the book

carefully, everything in this book is interconnected,
so it is impossible to understand the second part of it without
reading the first.

Alla Elana Cohen

ii
 What her students say…

When I first started ear-training with Alla Cohen, I had no idea that I would soon be able to do
what I do now. In the beginning, I had difficulty identifying notes in the two octaves of the piano
—above and below middle C. I now have perfect pitch in all the octaves of the piano. I can not only
identify separate notes, but notes in the intervals and chords, and not only on the piano. I can now
tell what key the piece is in when listening to a recording. I now play cello with better intonation
and better tone, and it helps me in my composing.
Eleanor Bragg, 10 year old composer and cellist,
student of New England Conservatory, Prep. School
ASCAP Morton Gould Award winner
Pikes Peak Young Composers first place winner
MTNA National level winner (2nd place) 2006
MTNA National level winner (1st place) 2007

When I first started ear-training with Professor Cohen, it was hard for me to recognize all the
notes, especially the black keys on the piano, but as I learned more about each note, it became
easier for me to figure out all the notes.
Shanlyn Tse, 10 year old composer and pianist,
student of New England Conservatory, Prep. School
Pikes Peak Young Composers first place winner
ASCAP Morton Gould Award Honorable mention

When Professor Cohen proposed the possibility of learning perfect pitch, we highly doubted that
we would ever find ourselves recognizing notes instantaneously. However, she introduced the
notes strategically. First, she began with the white keys, and eloquently explained what sounds
and motions these keys denoted. Upon the start of every lesson, she added yet another note to the
ones we were already familiar with. Before we knew it, we were able to easily distinguish pitches
in all octaves of the piano, separate as well as in the intervals and chords.
Danielle and Arielle Galler-Rabinowitz, 15 year old twin
sisters, composers and pianists,
students of New England Conservatory, Prep. School
ASCAP Morton Gould Award winners
Carnegie Hall debut 2005
Pikes Peak Young Composers winners

Professor Cohen's teaching technique of perfect pitch is brilliant. I now listen and view music in a
way that I never thought was possible. Through her dedicated instruction and teaching methods,
she has allowed me to grow as a musician and composer.
Dayton Kinney
16 year old composer and pianist
student of New England Conservatory, Prep. School
Pikes Peak Young Composers first place winner

iii
Before the course, everything was in black and white, and when I started it, I could experience
hearing colors for the first time. It is not about hearing pitches only, but also about grasping the
deepest and richest meaning of music. It is a lot of fun to practice the exercises with a friend and
see how our ears mutually open up.
Frank Brody
Guitar performance major, Berklee College of Music

I was introduced to Professor Cohen's unique method in my first lesson with her and was
intrigued how each note could be discerned from the others by simply listening to what
"direction" the note went in, regardless of octave or instrument. This method helped me pro-
foundly with intonation, and continues to help me in all my musical endeavors.
Justin Burack, 16 year old violinist, composer,
student of New England Conservatory Prep. School

Professor Cohen's system opened my ears to a world of color and beauty. Her unique approach is
necessary for all people who want to make good music. Her discoveries in pitch recognition, and
her system of teaching them, should be known and used by ALL musicians. As a composer, (her)
help was indispensible to my career. A composer has only a set of good ears and a perceptive,
receptive soul behind them. That is what Professor Cohen gave me, and that is what I cannot live
without.
Joseph A. Bachour, composer

I had the chance to take a course with Professor Cohen at the New England Conservatory. She is
gifted with the ability to break down and communicate her perception of music to others. Hearing
about this book excited me since it is a wonderful opportunity for others to get insights into (her)
unique world of hearing music.
Johannes Berauer, composer,
graduate student of New England Conservatory

The Perfect Pitch course has transformed me into a completely different musician. My ability to
discern pitches, harmonies and intervals was dramatically enhanced. I am tremendously grateful
for the experience and guidance. Strongly recommended for any serious musician.
William Chan, composer and conductor
graduate of Berklee College of Music

I was extremely interested in the "Perfect Pitch "course and at the same time very hesitant—
wondering whether obtaining perfect pitch is in fact possible...Professor Cohen has truly opened a
new world to me... she has been a tremendous influence!
Michael C.

Names have been given to the Trees of the Forest. Thank You.
John D.

I am taking this perfect pitch class with Alla Cohen twenty-one years after graduating from the
New England Conservatory with a major in percussion performance…this class and her method
are amazing!
Jeff F., Boston Ballet Orchestra Member

iv
Having inborn perfect pitch, I attended Professor Cohen's class because I wanted to get
acquainted with her method, and to be able to apply it in my own pedagogical work. I was amazed
how (her) unique method worked with the students—professional and amateur musicians—who
attended the class, coming to it without any pitch recognition; all of them showed wonderful
results, doing something they were not able to do before. I am sure all musicians—teachers,
performers, composers—should get acquainted with this course; it will open for them a totally
new musical world.
Yoshiko Hiramatsu-Kline,
free-lance pianist, piano teacher,
and New England Conservatory graduate

The insight of approaching and studying perfect pitch coming from Professor Cohen's perfect
pitch course not only helped me in developing a sense of different physical characteristics of
pitches, but also in improved instant recognition of them.
Ho Man Tin, composer
student of Berklee College of Music

Through Professor Cohen's perfect pitch classes I discovered how meaningful every single note
can be.
Shirin H.

Professor Cohen's perfect pitch course is a labor of love. Besides being a gifted pianist and com-
poser, she is a dedicated and supportive teacher who believes that perfect pitch is AN INNATE
ABILITY IN EVERYONE, and that it can be developed with practice and training, which I have
experienced and witnessed in her class. Whether you are a skeptic or a believer, this book will
teach you about tones as color and motion, and you will never hear sound or music in the same
way again!
Paul LaRocca, DSM Productions
Arranger and Composer

Perfect Pitch can be learned (sometimes slowly), thanks for sharpening my ears, Alla!
Donald C.

Her approach of teaching pitch through tone color has immensely helped me. When I play the cello
now, I search for the pure color of each tone.
Michele M.

For me, Alla Cohen found a way for anyone to develop perfect pitch. She’s a MASTER!
Joao Marcos M.

Professor Cohen's approach to perfect pitch ear training opened my mind to combinations of
pitches I had not perceived before. Chords, which in the past left me unmoved, or I found to be
even abrasive, now become amazingly rich and beautiful blends of bright and mellow tones.
Eric Ranvig, composer

v
Professor Cohen is able to stimulate abilities that I didn't know existed. Her impressionistic
descriptions of the characteristic flavors of each pitch are profound; now when I sit down at a
keyboard to play along with a piece I haven't heard before, I start it on the right notes.
David S. Reiser

Professor Cohen's perfect pitch class has literally opened a new world to me. I am in a new
musical dimension as I learn how to distinguish pitches in all octaves. My ear is much more sen-
sitive to the nuances and colors of the notes.
Melinda R.

Professor Cohen's method is a comprehensive approach to ear training that extends far beyond
simply naming or singing pitches. This course has been a revelation for me in my approach to
listening and understanding music, not just practically but philosophically.
Michael Schachter, composer and pianist,
student of Harvard University

…this course…has totally opened new doors for me in terms of how I think about music.
Tanayi S.

Twenty five years after obtaining a Bachelor of Music in composition I attended Professor
Cohen's perfect pitch class at New England Conservatory, having spent a lifetime thinking that
the goal of spontaneous pitch recognition was not available to me. Under her guidance, subtleties
of timbre, attack, decay, phase shift, and even my emotional response to these sounds were
brought to the surface and allowed me to listen deeply and hear what I had never noticed before.
Most extraordinary was obtaining the ability to pick out all the pitches in the context of chords
and even clusters of closely spaced notes. Professor Cohen is an extraordinary composer, pianist,
teacher and author,who brings rare insights to the mysteries of the sonic world, communicating
its message in a language we can understand.
David Swerdlove, composer, saxophonist

Alla Cohen's course revealed an entirely new dimension of sound to me, a dimension of
brightness and hardness and movement within each individual pitch, similar to the complex qual-
ities of the human voice. Her teachings have touched all aspects of my musicianship, from listen-
ing, to playing, to composing. They fundamentally affect my awareness of sound and inform each
choice I make in composing.
Matthew A. Wright, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School

vi
 "Music Fell from the Heavens"

Joseph A. Bachour
to my teacher, Alla Elana Cohen
November 2001

Music fell from the heavens, my teacher told me.

Music before 1750 is about heaven. Our window to heaven.
Music through the Vienna classics is about humans trying to get to
heaven, and mostly making it.
Music in the Romantic age is about humans trying to find heaven
on earth, though not the right search.
Music in the 20th century is about humans discovering that heaven
is not to be found on earth,
and deciding that heaven does not even exist.
Humans are stuck with humans.
Music fell from the heavens, my teacher told me,
and thus: the heavens do exist, and music does exist,
and we exist, and music came from heights and must be high.
Music must now rebuild our vision of heaven.
A heavy heaven, or lofty heaven.
A heaven with weight from human faults,
though one is still able to soar with the highest inspiration of
human imagination.
Music fell, my teacher told me, but from the heavens.

vii
 About the Author

Alla Elana Cohen is a composer, pianist and music theorist.

She is on the faculty at Berklee College of Music, and the New
England Conservatory, where she teaches composition, harmony,
counterpoint and ear-training by her own method.
She received her education in Moscow, Russia, graduating from the
Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory
with the greatest honors of distinction.

As a composer, she works in all the genres of orchestral

and chamber music. Her compositions have been performed with
much success throughout the USA. Many composition students of
Professor Cohen have been winners of numerous
prestigious Young Composers' Competitions, at state,
national and international levels.

She has been recognized as a composer by ASCAP,

being a recipient of ASCAPLUS Awards, and has received
commissions from the Music Teachers National Association (USA).
As a teacher, she has been awarded for "inspiring,
educating and mentoring young musicians to become composers of
tomorrow" by ASCAP, as well as being the recipient of numerous
Certificates of Recognition and Awards as a teacher of MTNA
Young Composers' Competition National level winners.

viii
 1 The Miraculous Bell-Ringer
or 121 Sharps and 121 Flats
T
here was a unique musician in
Moscow, Russia, in the third and
fourth decades of the 20th century.
He was a composer and a church bell-
ringer, his name was Konstantin Saradjev-
junior. Legends were circulating about his
musical genius, especially of his super-
perfect ear for music. His life was tragi-
cally short. But he succeeded to write a
book in which he presented music theory
of his own, based on his unique sense of
pitch and on his art of bell-ringing. The
manuscript, unfortunately, was lost in
Soviet Russia; only several pages—the
preface—remained.
He wrote: The perfect pitch I have I
would call 'true ear'—the ability to hear with
every fiber of your being the tone that is issued
forth by any object, not only by vibrating
objects—to hear the tone of each stone, crystal,
metal. Pythagoras had such an ear, and, by
words of his students, had the tone clue to all
the mysteries of nature.
Each precious crystal has its individual
tonality and the color which corresponds to
this tonality. Every inanimate object and each
living being on the Earth and in the cosmos
issues forth its, or his or her own tone.
'True ear' can determine the tone of
each human being just looking at this person.
For 'true ear' there are no limits the same way
as the cosmos has no limits. Elements of 'true
ear' we can meet in many people, but in our
century they are not developed.
Acoustic gadgets during Konstan-
tin Saradjev's time were not so perfect as
to be equal to his super-perfect ear. When
this miraculous musician was asked
The Miraculous Bell-Ringer or 121 Sharps and 121 Flats 9
whether in the future gadgets will be more
perfect—to check his phenomenal ear—he
answered: In the future not gadgets, but peo-
ple will be more perfect—in a hundred years
all people will have perfect pitch and many—
such as mine.
Konstantin Saradjev-junior distin-
guished clearly in the octave 1,701 tones—
each pitch for him had a central tone and
121 flats and 121 sharps. He couldn't play
ordinary instruments—piano, violin—in a
tempered system. He played church-
bells—the only instrument that, by his
words, provided him with the opportu-
nity to reproduce those unheard-of com-
plex harmonies that were born by his
phenomenal ear and marvelous com-
poser's gift. His compositions for church-
bells were—for those who had the happi-
ness to hear them—like divine revelations,
even if the tiniest gradations of pitches
were lost on the imperfect ears of his lis-
teners. The story of Konstantin Saradjev-
junior gives us several important clues to
the essence of perfect pitch:
1. We perceive pitches not only with
our ears, we react on them with
every cell in our bodies.
2. Perfect pitch is not only a form of
auditory perception, it is a way of
life, a form of communication with
the outer world, a form of self-cog-
nition, of self-awareness, a way to
comprehend the world. To be able
to perceive and to keep in memory
a pitch is to be able to perceive
holistically a musical tone, to keep
 in memory a hologram of musical
tone—it is part of being able to per-
ceive the world holistically, to
imbibe impressions of the outer
world with every cell of our beings,
to live and to breath in harmony
with the Universe.
3. Perfect pitch is a multi-faceted,
multi-level phenomenon which has
no limits—it is possible to imagine
an ear even more phenomenal than
that of Konstantin Saradjev-jun-
ior—one day a person will be born
who will discern even a greater
amount of gradations in a musical
tone.

For those who read this book with

the goal to develop their own perfect pitch
let the story of the miraculous bell-ringer
be an inspiration and help in overcoming
an important psychological barrier—after
all, to learn to recognize and to keep in
memory twelve pitches in an octave is a
very easy task—in comparison with the
1,701 pitches in an octave I described!

The Miraculous Bell-Ringer or 121 Sharps and 121 Flats 10

 2 Perfect Perfect Pitch
and Imperfect Perfect Pitch

T
he phenomenon of perfect pitch is only a biologically determined phenome-
still almost untouched by scientific non, the same as it is impossible to explain
research.* But, first and foremost, from a purely biological point of view the
let us decide what ability deserves the def- gift of creativity. Why is the creative gift
inition "perfect pitch." Should we give the sometimes latent for half a lifetime, and
name "perfect pitch" only to the ability to why, sometimes, after displaying itself in
identify pitches from any instrument, childhood, does it disappear completely
voice, from the orchestra, chorus, and not later in life? Why does the same convolu-
only horizontally, that is, separate pitches, tion of human brain that is responsible for
but also pitches in various unbroken verti- the creative gift, sometimes gives us
cal combinations? Mozart, and sometimes, a mediocre com-
But then, how to name the ability to poser?
recognize pitches only from one instru- The same is with perfect pitch. Why
ment, usually the instrument a person is it so, that perfect pitch consists of many
plays—be it piano or bassoon? And some- levels and exists in many forms? If it is a
times not from any piano, but only from product of a certain circuit of the human
his or her own piano? How do you explain brain, why does the same circuit produce
what in Russia is called "dirty" perfect sometimes perfect perfect pitch and some-
pitch—when a person identifies the times—imperfect perfect pitch, "dirty"
pitches mostly correctly, but sometimes perfect pitch? And, by analogy with the
slides a half-step down or up? Is it perfect creative gift, why is perfect pitch some-
pitch or not? Or is it something intermedi- times latent for years—in people who
ate between having perfect pitch and not develop their perfect pitch spontaneously,
having it? that is, without any external help, any sys-
So, we deal with a many-faceted, tem of exercises, but only as a result of
multi-level phenomenon, that poses their general involvement in music, after
before us many unanswered questions. years of playing the instrument, compos-
Maybe, one day research on the biological ing, singing?
structure of the human brain will give us I personally know a number of peo-
all necessary answers. But today it is ple who developed perfect pitch sponta-
impossible to interpret perfect pitch as neously—some in childhood, some at
*Dr. Gottfried Schlaug from Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA, conducted research on a group
of people with perfect pitch and on another group without perfect pitch. The results of this
research are still not completely verified, but it seems that it is the left hemisphere of the
human brain that is responsible for causing perfect pitch. Dr. Schlaug thinks that people with
perfect pitch have a small area in the left hemisphere of the brain that is enlarged in compari-
son to the brain of those without it. Of course, this research is incomplete, being done on a
small group of people. It is interesting, however, to research the brain of people who develop
perfect pitch—whether this particular area in the brain Dr. Schlaug mentions changes in a cer-
tain way as a result of pitch ear-training.

Perfect Perfect Pitch and Imperfect Perfect Pitch 11

college level. And why is the gift of inborn
perfect pitch sometimes lost? I know
about such people who lost it in older age,
despite having it in their younger years
(among them the great Russian pianist
Sviatoslav Richter, and the great Russian
composer Sergei Prokofiev).
All these unanswered questions
long ago led enthusiastic musicians in var-
ious countries to the idea that perfect pitch
should be considered not only an inborn
gift, the idea, which, in turn, led enthusi-
asts to experiments and ultimately, to suc-
cessful results in developing perfect pitch
with the help of special exercises.
Among those enthusiasts let us
name Paul Hindemith, the great German
composer, who thought that every musi-
cian obligatory should develop perfect
pitch, if he or she is unable to do so, better
to change the profession. Also we can
name the Russian teacher Theodor Müller,
who developed his own perfect pitch at
the age of 45, using his own system of
exercises; Michael Kravets, also Russian,
who achieved amazing results working
with children; and American D. L. Burge,
who works with adults and children. In
Japan there are remarkable achievements
in developing perfect pitch in children.
I myself began to experiment in the
field of developing perfect pitch at the
start of my teaching career. As a teacher of
composition, ear-training and music the-
ory, I felt the necessity of developing per-
fect pitch in my students from the very
first steps of my teaching.
I always felt that pitch ear-training
is sadly neglected, and as a result, the
majority of students graduating from
music schools receive only relative pitch
ear-training, with the ear so conditioned
to compare pitches, that they are virtually
"pitch-deaf"—unable even to approxi-
mately name the pitch without comparing
it with the orientation point. On the other
Perfect Perfect Pitch and Imperfect Perfect Pitch 12
hand, those students with inborn perfect
pitch are also neglected within the existing
system of ear-training—their marvelous
ability being ignored, their ear never
receiving truly challenging tasks.
So I created my own system of
pitch ear-training, the goal of which is to
develop pitch ear in those who need to
develop it "from scratch," so to say, and to
give very advanced ear training in all
aspects of it to those who possess inborn
perfect pitch of any kind or level and to
those who developed pitch ear with my
system of exercises.
What is my concept of perfect
pitch? I am firmly convinced, and my
teaching experience confirms it, that per-
fect pitch is a skill, a technique, it is the
personal adjustment of the human ear to
the row of musical pitches in a way pia-
nism is the personal adjustment of human
hands to the keyboard of a piano. As with
any skill, any technique, perfect pitch can
be learned, can be mastered. Like any
skill, this personal adjustment can be easy
and swift and come naturally to some, and
for some it is a more lengthy and compli-
cated process, requiring patience, a wish
to transcend oneself, and a system of spe-
cial exercises. And as with any technique,
some people are destined to reach a high
level of virtuosity, and some—only a cer-
tain level of it. Those who wish to develop
perfect pitch "from scratch" should always
keep in mind—inborn perfect pitch in the
majority of cases is very imperfect perfect
pitch, that needs further development and
improvement—this thought will help
overcome difficulties one may encounter
while developing pitch ear.
3 Levels of Levers
H
ere is my classification of forms
and levels of inborn perfect pitch:
1. Universal perfect pitch. It is rarely
met: the ability to instantaneously
recognize pitches from any instru-
ment or human voice, from any
object producing pitches (clock,
church-bells), from any combina-
tion of instruments and/or
voices—from orchestra, chorus,
and not only the ability to recog-
nize pitches horizontally, but verti-
cally, in any combination, also to be
able to tell whether a pitch is flat-
tish or sharpish, and to recall
pitches from memory in any timbre
and register.
2. Selective perfect pitch. It is met
more frequently. This selectivity of
perfect pitch comes in various
forms:
a. Timbral selectivity: the ability
to discern pitches only on one
instrument or group of instru-
ments of one type—usually the
instrument one plays, for exam-
ple, piano, or cello, or the whole
group of string instruments.
Sometimes this timbral selectiv-
ity of the ear is so acute that a
person can recognize pitches
only on his or her own piano,
not on other pianos.
b. Range selectivity: the ability to
discern pitches in a certain
range, in a certain register. For
example, a person can easily
recognize pitches in three mid-
dle octaves of the piano, and
experiences difficulties or is
unable to identify pitches lower
and higher. For some people it
is easier to recognize pitches
only in the upper register of the
piano, or another instrument;
for some—in the lower register.
Perfect pitch can work horizontally
and vertically. Two more kinds of selectiv-
ity are connected with it:
c. Horizontal selectivity: the abil-
ity to discern only separate
pitches. If a person with such
perfect pitch hears an interval or
a chord he or she will name the
pitches that comprise this inter-
val or chord only when the
chord is broken—that is, when
all the pitches of a chord sound
separately, otherwise this per-
son is unable to identify them.
Sometimes horizontal selectiv-
ity assumes such an acute char-
acter that a person is able to
recognize the pitch only when it
is fully separated from other
pitches, that is, even when it is a
horizontal progression of
sounds, a melody, it is neces-
sary to stop on a certain pitch, to
separate the pitch from other
pitches for such an ear to recog-
nize it.
Levels of Levers 13
 d. Vertical selectivity: the ability developed and improved with the
to identify pitches only in the help of special exercises. But each
easiest chords-triads, and/or in lower level of perfect pitch is the
intervals. In other, more com- lever with the help of which higher
plex vertical combinations such levels of perfect pitch can be
an ear is unable to recognize reached.
pitches unless the chord is bro-
ken. This kind of selectivity is
always combined with the abil-
ity to excellently identify
pitches horizontally.

All aforesaid kinds of selectivity

may be combined—a person's perfect
pitch can be selective both timbrally and
horizontally, or can combine any three
kinds of selectivity.

Special forms of perfect pitch:

1. The ability to recall pitches from

memory which accompanies both
universal and selective perfect
pitch.
2. The ability to hear tiny gradations
within the pitch—to be able to tell
whether the pitch is flattish or
sharpish. This ability is usually
combined with universal perfect
pitch, and sometimes—with selec-
tive.
3. There exists such an interesting
form of perfect pitch as "dirty" per-
fect pitch (as it is called in Russia),
or maybe, more correctly, unstable
perfect pitch—when a person in the
majority of cases identifies pitches
correctly, but sometimes slides a
half-step down or up. It is always
unpredictable what pitches will
slide this time. "Dirty" perfect pitch
can sometimes be universal or,
more frequently—selective.
4. So, in many cases, inborn perfect
pitch is only raw material and as
such, is unreliable, unless further

Levels of Levers 14
 4 Proponents of Ten Components
L
et us now analyze the mechanism
of perception of the pitch. As you
know, the recognition of pitches by
people with inborn perfect pitch is instan-
taneous. And they are usually either
unable to explain how they identify
pitches, or are very vague in their explana-
tions: "I hear the pitch and the name
comes out by itself—G or D# or whatever."
The reason for it is not only in the fact that
people with inborn perfect pitch rarely
analyze their perception, but mainly in the
structure of their perfect pitch—in what
component of pitch perception is predom-
inant in it. We'll discuss it further on in
this chapter.
But in some cases the answer is dif-
ferent—"For me C and D, for example, are
just like red and green colors—so differ-
ent." This answer sheds some light on the
perception of the pitch—at least one com-
ponent of this perception is clear—I call it
"component alpha"—it concerns the indi-
viduality of the pitch or the pitch "color" (a
term, which I heard for the first time at
Moscow Conservatory years ago—in Rus-
sian, and encountered again in the manual
of D. L. Burge). We'll speak of this individ-
ual quality, of this "color" of the pitch later
in detail. For now let us mention that pitch
color is sometimes perceived as something
analogous to visual colors—listening to
musical tones a person can actually "see"
colors—red, yellow, blue, etc. But in the
majority of cases pitch color is only a cer-
tain individual quality of the pitch which
can be defined by ear and formulated ver-
bally, for example, bright or mellow, dark
or light, even round or flat, sharp or blunt,
heavy or light by weight.
If any person with inborn perfect
pitch analyzed his or her pitch perception,
it would be clear that there are compo-
nents in it besides the sense of pitch color.
Pitch is color, but it is also a place in a
twelve-tone row of pitches. So, the second
component of pitch perception, "compo-
nent beta," as I call it, is the sense of loca-
tion of the pitch. We shouldn't mix up the
sense of pitch location with the sense of
the register. Pitch location is only the place
of a pitch in the twelve-tone row, the ear
may perceive it in the great range of seven
octaves, or in a limited range of two or
three octaves in a certain register.
The sense of pitch location is
always blended with the sense of pitch
color, sometimes being dominated by it,
but often dominating subtly the sense of
pitch color in pitch perception in such a
way that a person is unable to tell how he
or she identifies pitches. In some cases this
domination of the sense of location over
the sense of pitch color is so drastic that it
leads to "dirty" perfect pitch—quite fre-
quent slidings a half-step up or down. To
cause "perfect perfect pitch" both compo-
nents—alpha and beta—should be
blended harmoniously. There is a resulta-
tive component which is connected at one
and the same time with the sense of color
and sense of location—I call it the sense of
the row. We can speak of the twelve-pitch
row in both aspects of pitch color and of
pitch location, perceiving the pitch row as
a moment of diffusion of each pitch color
Proponents of Ten Components 15
with the location of each pitch, given in
succession. It is the sense of correlation of
located colors or of colored locations—in
the twelve-tone row.
The perception of the pitch is also
tied to the timbre of the instrument or
voice which produced it.
So the third component of pitch
perception is timbre in which the pitch is
enveloped. In many cases the timbre
obscures the other components of pitch
perception so much, that the ear is unable
to identify pitches in more than one tim-
bre—it leads to the timbral selectivity of
perfect pitch.
The fourth component of pitch per-
ception is the sense of register, which
sometimes is so excellent that a person is
able to identify pitches without difficulty
in any register in the full range of the
piano. But sometimes a register obscures
other components of pitch perception, this
leads to range and register selectivity of
perfect pitch.
The fifth component of pitch per-
ception is connected with texture, with
horizontality or verticality of pitch units.
Vertical pitch units, giving blending of
colors, often obscure the perception of
separate pitch colors of which this chord
or interval is comprised, and interfere
with other components of pitch percep-
tion, unless the chord is broken, which
leads to horizontal selectivity of perfect
pitch.
Contextuality of pitch perception is
the sixth component. Music consists not of
separate pitches, but of certain logical
sequences of them. The context in which
the ear perceives the pitch—after what,
before what, together with what—makes
it more easy or more difficult to identify
pitches. For universal perfect pitch this
contextuality of pitch perception doesn't
matter, but for some types of selective per-
fect pitch it matters, for example, if a pitch
is taken by leap to a less convenient regis-
ter, or if in a certain chord, a particular
combination of intervals between pitches
is especially inconvenient—contextuality
of pitch perception is connected with tex-
ture, with register, with intervals between
pitches, with style and idiom. Further on
we'll speak of contextual "recoloring" of
the pitches.
The seventh component of pitch
perception is the sense of the overtone
row*. As we know, the acoustic structure
of each pitch is complex—each pitch
includes other pitches as partial tones,
thus each pitch becomes an acoustical
rainbow, and the twelve-tone row—a
rainbow of rainbows. Some people hear
only the first 2-3 overtones, some are able
to hear more. Not infrequently one meets
with what I call an "overtone mirage"—
when an overtone, usually one of the first,
sounds more real to the ear than the tone
that was really produced: a person most
often names the pitch a perfect fifth higher
than the given tone—for example, instead
of C names G.
The eighth component of pitch per-
ception is the sense of gradations within
the pitch, which gives the ear the possibil-
ity to tell whether a musical tone is flattish
or sharpish. This component is character-
istic of people with universal perfect pitch
and some kinds of selective perfect pitch.
The ninth component is what I call
memory fusion of all the other compo-
nents of pitch perception—the memory
binds, unites simultaneously all these
components in one instantaneous flash of
recognition. Perfect pitch is perfect mem-
ory. Memory is the true clue to perfect
pitch.
The tenth component—I put it sep-
arately because it isn't connected with the
ability to identify pitches by ear but is con-
nected with the reaction of all the human
Proponents of Ten Components 16
organism on the pitch that is heard. Espe-
cially pronounced is the muscle reaction.
Many musicians, mostly vocalists,
know how vocal chords react on the pitch,
and often a person can identify pitches
with the help of the tension of his or her
vocal chords, being unable to identify
them by ear. Each pitch causes certain ten-
sion of vocal chords and some people
become very proficient in identifying
pitches using their vocal chords. This way
to identify pitches can be helpful, but any
vocalist will tell you that it is not entirely
reliable, because different times of the day
causes different tension of vocal chords
necessary to produce a certain pitch.
There is also tension in the muscles
of human hands when one hears the pitch.
Some people can use this muscle tension
of the hands as the means of identifying
pitches in the manner of vocal chord ten-
sion.
I don't forbid my students to use
vocal chords as the means of helping the
ear at the first stage of developing perfect
pitch in those rare cases when they hum
pitches at our perfect pitch lessons, trying
to clarify for themselves a pitch: after all,
we react on pitches with every cell, every
organ of our bodies, but I don't encourage
them to do so.

*Each vibrating object (be it a string, or human vocal chord, for example) vibrates not only as a whole, but
also parts of it vibrate—each half of a string, each third of a string, each quarter of a string—it produces so-
called partial tones or overtones. The human ear can often perceive the first two or three overtones, some-
times—more, rarely we meet people who can perceive distant overtones.

The Overtone Row

Proponents of Ten Components 17

 5
To Have or Not to Have—
That is the Question—
or How to Gather the Pieces Together
U
p till now we analyzed only what
it means to have perfect pitch. But
the main goal for those who read
this book is to find the clue how to
develop perfect pitch. The knowledge of
the mechanism of pitch perception of the
people with inborn perfect pitch will be
extremely helpful for those who develop
perfect pitch—it will help explain certain
peculiarities, problems and difficulties
that arise on the way to developing perfect
pitch, it will encourage one to go from
lower levels to higher levels in one's
development, those levels analogous to
the types of selective perfect pitch.
Let us speak now as to what it
means not to have perfect pitch. The com-
mon point of view—with perfect pitch it is
either all or nothing—either you have it,
and then you have it all, but if you don't
have it, it means that you have not even a
rudiment of it. Our previous acquaintance
with the levels of inborn perfect pitch,
with selectivity of inborn perfect pitch in
so many cases refutes the first part of this
postulate. And now we'll refute the sec-
ond part of this point of view.
My pedagogical practice has con-
vinced me that people who don't display
perfect pitch in reality do have in them all
the components of pitch perception we
spoke about previously. Only those com-
ponents are disconnected, like pieces of a
Chinese puzzle that need to be assembled
to make a picture. To have the highest
level of perfect pitch is to have all ten com-
ponents in harmonious unity, to have
selective perfect pitch means that this har-
To Have or Not to Have—That is the Question... 18
mony is somewhat lacking in a certain
aspect or aspects. But in case a person
can't identify pitches it means that as in a
certain electric gadget you need to switch
something on to make it work, to connect
what is disconnected. In the future, the
research on the human brain will probably
shed light on the fact why some people
possess this harmony, while other lack it.
But my teaching experience showed me—
what is lacking are not the components
themselves, the components are there, the
only thing that is lacking is memory
fusion that would unite all the compo-
nents of pitch perception in the explosion
of recognition.
And could it be that some compo-
nents of pitch perception are switched on,
actually working, while other are simply
not switched on simultaneously with
those working?
So, how to gather pieces of the pic-
ture together?
First and foremost, we should be
aware of the fact that out of the ten com-
ponents of pitch perception three are the
most important—(i) the sense of pitch
color (component alpha), (ii) the sense of
pitch location (component beta) and (iii)
memory fusion to unite them. These com-
ponents determine perfect pitch—a flaw
in other components may lead to selectiv-
ity of perfect pitch, but still a person will
have a certain type of selective perfect
pitch, but a flaw in these three compo-
nents would lead to a person's inability to
identify pitches. And, as a result of my
teaching experience I have made a discov-
ery that became the basis of my system of
developing perfect pitch—I have discov-
ered that all people who can't identify
pitches actually have one of these most
important components actively working,
switched on—either the sense of pitch
color or the sense of pitch location.
The second component isn't
switched on together with the first
because of the absence of memory fusion.
A person himself or herself may be
unaware of the fact of having one of these
components of pitch perception working.
If it is the sense of pitch location that is
working, it is a clearer picture—a person
usually names the pitches quite near the
actual pitch—a whole-step or even a half-
step lower or higher, but only by chance—
correctly. This ability to approximately
name the pitch sometimes produces a
naive opinion that it is "almost perfect
pitch"—though in reality it is only one of
its components—the sense of pitch loca-
tion—and until the sense of pitch color is
switched on simultaneously, perfect pitch
won't appear.
It is a much more complicated pic-
ture when the sense of pitch color is a
working component, and is switched on. I
have discovered that universality of per-
ception of pitch color displays itself in the
phenomenon of this perception being
acoustically determined, that is, colors
group by fifths, and by thirds, the pitch
that is a fifth or a third apart is usually
perceived as belonging to the same group
of pitch colors. Some people group colors
in pairs, for some—it is alternately three
kindred colors—a pair of colors in a row,
etc.
I made this discovery, analyzing
my own pitch perception, the pitch per-
ception of numerous people with inborn
perfect pitch and of those who developed
or develop it, and, ultimately, studying
the chart of Alexander Scriabin's associa-
tions of pitches with visual colors.* So,
pitch colors group acoustically—by fifths
and also, by thirds, therefore, a person,
hearing a tone, can name a pitch, a color
that belongs to the same group of pitch
colors, but which by location is not near,
for example C instead of F. These mistakes
in location produce an impression, that
the person is entirely devoid of the sense
of pitch, though in reality it is only that the
sense of location is not switched on
together with actively working sense of
pitch color.
I want to describe now the test that
I always give my students at the very first
lesson:
I play separate notes on the piano
and ask each student to identify pitches
that are given to him or to her effortlessly,
in the most natural way. I give them the
following explanation: "Of course you'll
make mistakes, you as yet have no perfect
pitch. But there will be logic in your mis-
takes, that will show me what component

* Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) , was a great Russian composer and outstanding pianist. The chart of his
associations of pitches with visual colors:

C—red, C#—violet, D—yellow, D#—steel, E—pearly white, F—dark red, F#—blue, G—rosy orange,
G#—violet purple (alternately described as moonshine, frost color, bluish pearl), A—green, A#—steel
(the glint of metal), and B—pearly blue.

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Purple Steel

F C G D A E B F# C# G# D# A#

To Have or Not to Have—That is the Question... 19

of pitch perception you have as working
actively today—the sense of pitch color or
the sense of pitch location."
And it is immensely important for
students to realize that they actually don't
begin from scratch, that already today, at
the first lesson, they have in them half of
what is necessary to have in order to pos-
sess perfect pitch.
Usually at the test students who
have the sense of pitch location working
name pitches a whole-step or a half-step
higher or lower than actual pitches, and
those who have the sense of pitch color
working name pitches a fifth or a third
apart from actual pitches. And there are
"mixed" cases—students in whom the
sense of pitch color and of pitch location
work alternately—in some cases they
would name a pitch close by location to
the actual pitch, and in some—akin by
color—a fifth or a third apart from the
actual pitch.
Naming a pitch a tritone apart can
happen in cases, when a person has a keen
ear for overtones and hears not only the
first 3-4, but more distant overtones too,
and the "overtone mirage"—when an
overtone sounds for a person more real
than the pitch that was sounded on the
piano—causes a person's wrong answer.
Often students, especially those
who play the piano, display one of the
dimensions of the sense of pitch color by
being able to tell by ear whether the key
that was sounded on the piano is white or
black, without as yet being able to exactly
name the pitch. White and black keys of
the piano as groups sound different in the
terms of pitch color for the vastest major-
ity of students. This fact confirms the uni-
versality of the law of perception of pitch
color that is combined with the high indi-
viduality of this perception.
Another aspect of the sense of pitch
color I often notice in students and of
To Have or Not to Have—That is the Question... 20
which many are aware themselves is what
I call pitch—determined perception of
intervals and chords.
For such a student an interval or
chord is recolored when pitches that com-
prise it change, for example, such a stu-
dent after hearing C-F and then F#-B, asks:
"Is it the same interval?" For such a person
the perfect fourth F#-B doesn't sound the
same way as the perfect fourth C-F,
though the ear of such a person is yet
unable to identify the exact pitches. And
sometimes I meet students with aware-
ness of pitch color—awareness more often
of the color of the keys, rarely of separate
pitches. Such students usually say that
when they play, for example, it is very
clear for them that the piece in D major
sounds by color differently from the piece
in Eb major, but the memory doesn't keep
these differences, so if they hear sepa-
rately a triad, they are unable to identify
it—D major or Eb major.
So again and again we return to
memory fusion. The majority of those who
read this book can recollect how they or
somebody they know could sometimes
identify correctly a pitch or pitches, or a
key in which a piece is written—as if in a
moment of revelation, such memory
fusions happen either in the moments of
great excitement (mainly positive), of con-
centration—during a test, an examina-
tion, or, most often, in the moments of
great relaxation.
On the other hand, children, who
are considered to have inborn perfect
pitch, never display perfect pitch immedi-
ately after getting acquainted with
pitches—especially if they begin music
studies very young. Sometimes months, a
year or even years elapse since the begin-
ning of music studies until the moment of
a sudden memory fusion that unites all
the pieces of the picture together into per-
fect pitch.
And a question arises—if some-
times the memory fuses together the com-
ponents of pitch perception as to cause
recognition of the pitch, what prevents it,
or what blocks it other times? On the other
hand, if memory fusion ultimately comes
to stay always, what prevented it from
coming earlier?
I will try to answer these questions
on the basis of my teaching experience, in
the next chapters.
Here I would like only to mention
that to cause memory fusion I devised a
system of exercises that lead to gradual
but complete restructuring of the mecha-
nism of auditory perception. The human
ear is extremely malleable—it is well-
known truth, and my pedagogical practice
showed me that it is especially so in the
aspect of pitch perception—the ear can be
conditioned to identify pitches, the mem-
ory to keep pitches.
The main purpose of this chapter is
to give those who want to develop perfect
pitch "from scratch" the clear notion that
they actually begin not "from scratch,"
they already have one of the components
of perfect pitch actively working, that is,
they begin well, and "well begun—half-
done."

To Have or Not to Have—That is the Question... 21

 6 Esthetics of Synesthetic
L
et us analyze the component
alpha—the first component of pitch
perception, or so called pitch color.
There are several dimensions of what we
can call the individuality of the pitch or
pitch color. One of the most important of
them is the dimension one, as I call it—
subtle, almost elusive quality of the pitch
that in our auditory perception makes it
different from other pitches and which can
be formulated verbally by the majority of
people.
Definitions given to the twelve
pitches are vastly different and reflect the
person's musicality, his or her general
intellectual and spiritual level, imagina-
tion and ability to formulate verbally the
impressions of his or her musical percep-
tion.
If to put aside the most interesting,
individualized and exquisite definitions,
we see that there is a set of most common
definitions that are given to pitches by
both adults and children and which led
me to the conclusion—there is a universal
law of perception, a universal way to per-
ceive pitch color which coexists most
peculiarly with individuality of this per-
ception.
These most common, simple defini-
tions form two upper layers of dimension
one of pitch color—the first of them—
associations of mostly visual kind (this
way we usually describe visual colors)—
dark, light; bright, mellow, dull; warm,
cold; murky, dirty, clear; transparent,
opaque; the second layer brings about a
broader circle of life associations con-
nected with weight, form, etc.—heavy,
light by weight; sharp, blunt; round, flat,
pointed; liquid, solid, etc. If to go deeper,
one would seek poetical, mystical and
philosophical meaning in each pitch that
finds its expression in more complex defi-
nitions, and in the ultimate depths one
seeks in the pitches the expression of posi-
tive and negative, constructive and
destructive principles of Higher Forces,
interpreting the twelve pitches as an ideal
form which Higher Forces used to put into
it the concentration of the most important
contents, of most important information—
twelve pitches are the code, to decipher
which is to touch Eternity with its
unsolved mysteries.
On the deepest level one treats the
twelve pitches as symbols of known and
unknown entities, objects and abstract
ideas. And finally one uses the twelve
pitches as certain tools not only in a musi-
cal sense, but as sojourners on the way of
Karma—as certain tiny containers of
higher meaning that can bring about
either consolation, relief physical or spiri-
tual, well-being and even help from
above, or something negative—sadness or
even illness and destruction.
So, layers of dimension one of pitch
color—the first, upper, most obvious—
simplest definitions, associations are
mostly visual. The second, deeper layer
brings about a broader circle of life associ-
ations. Still deeper—the layers of emo-
tional and poetical associations—the first
of them—simpler definitions—happy,
sad, pleasant, unpleasant; beautiful, plain;
Esthetics of Synesthetic 22
then—the layer of more complex defini-
tions—elegant, mysterious, nostalgic,
cozy, sweet, bitter, bittersweet, plaintive,
majestic, etc. Deeper on—the layer of
more expanded poetic definitions; for
example, A—cool as a summer breeze.
The deepest layers of philosophical mean-
ing are connected with abstract ideas—the
first of these layers—abstract ideas as pos-
itive-negative, good-evil.
Yes, we can speak of positive or
negative energy, contained in each sepa-
rate pitch, in this sense we can define
musical tones as good or evil.
Then, layers connected with
abstract ideas which Higher Forces put
into each pitch making the twelve-tone
row a code.
To try to decode the essential,
deepest meaning of each pitch is a diffi-
cult, truly formidable task, requiring not
only highly developed general musical
abilities, and the ear first and foremost,
but also a high general spiritual and intel-
lectual level and poetically inclined mind.
Here is my perception of some lay-
ers of dimension one of pitch color of the
twelve tones:
• C—in the shape of a sphere, heavy
from inside, in between bright and
mellow on the bright side, the idea
of a heavenly body, of a planet, of a
meteorite, the idea of intellect, out-
side—the crust, outside—the shell,
inside—the core, inside—the con-
tents.
• C#—dark by color (brownish-red,
the color of a dark brick wall),
bright, it is a symbol of sorrow, a
mournful note, a symbol of evil.
• D—a mellow tone, light by weight
and light by color, the idea of light,
the idea of immortality of the
human soul.
• Eb—mellow, grayish, metallic by
tint, a symbol of the grayness of
everyday life, the idea of accep-
tance and of humility.
• E—mellow, a note-complaint, a
note-supplication, the idea of sor-
row of the earthly lot.
• F—on the mellow side, heavy, but
not from inside, as C, but from out-
side, F is a cornerstone, a note-
foundation, a note-mainstay, a
symbol of physical health and
strength.
• F#—very bright, hot, the idea of
protest, the idea of rebellion, of dis-
sent and discord.
• G—a bright, beautiful, sweet note,
transparent, liquid, the color of sea-
water, the idea of universal beauty,
of creativity.
• Ab—bright, a sweet, cool, fragile
note, a symbol of transient earthly
beauty, a tender, slightly sad note,
color of light lilac, with the aroma
of lilac.
• A—bright, sparkling, warm, the
idea of love, of God's mercy, a sym-
bol of consolation, of spiritual heal-
ing, of organic life, the idea of
protection from all evil, A is the
most complex, multi-semantic tone
for me, if to speak of deeper layers
of pitch color.
• Bb—on the bright side, warm,
sweet, soft, a symbol of simple
earthly joys, of domestic hearth, the
idea of coziness, peacefulness, con-
tentment.
• B—in the shape of an arrow, very
bright, piercingly intense, alarm-
ing, not very pleasant.
Esthetics of Synesthetic 23
 Yes, on the deepest levels one can
perceive for example, C—as the idea of
intellect, or the idea of heavenly body—
planet or meteorite—outside—the crust,
the shell—inside—the core. Or A—the
idea of spiritual health, of love, of consola-
tion, of organic life. As you see, one and
the same pitch can be the symbol of sev-
eral abstract ideas—each representing a
level within a level, so to say, or different
facets or sides of one and the same idea, or
a set of ideas with one uniting underlying
essential idea as the deepest layer of lay-
ers—which is at one and the same time the
transcendental essence and the higher
purpose of this pitch.
At first you should be glad to per-
ceive only the upper, more obvious layer
of dimension one of pitch color. But for
certain people sometimes deeper layers
may be more obvious than the upper. And
very rarely it happens so that the deepest
philosophical, transcendental meaning of
the pitch is clearer than the upper layers.
Usually upper layers determine the direc-
tion of our thoughts on the way of decod-
ing the layers. Also the upper layers
determine our ability to recognize pitches,
giving our memory something more defi-
nite, obvious and simple to rely on, while
fusing together all components of pitch
perception.
Sometimes people perceive pitch
color as directly analogous to visual color.
This rare phenomenon is called
synopsia or synesthesia—the cause of it is in
the unusual work of the two analyzers—
visual and auditory—which are switched
on simultaneously when one hears a pitch
unit, be it a separate tone or a chord. Such
people can give the twelve pitches the def-
initions of visual colors—blue, green, red,
yellow, etc. Often this phenomenon is
interpreted as a serious disorder of per-
ception, an ailment, but in my opinion, it
is just one of the individual ways to per-
ceive musical tones. Among the great
musicians this synoptical or synesthetical
perception was characteristic of the Rus-
sian composers Rimsky-Korsakov and
Scriabin, also the Lithuanian composer
and artist Cürlionis, and the French artist
Blanc-Gatti were known to possess this
ability.
Sometimes a person hearing the
pitches sees visual colors with his or her
mind's eye, so to say—these associations
with visual colors are of purely esthetical
character, a product of a highly impressive
mind and imagination of a poet. Such way
of perception of pitch colors was charac-
teristic of Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992), the
great French composer.
Let us discuss other dimensions of
pitch color.
The second dimension is con-
nected with timbre of the instrument or
voice which produces pitches, with pecu-
liarities of certain instruments—for exam-
ple, all the white and all the black keys of
the piano sound differently by color as
groups, and many people, especially pia-
nists, can tell whether the key is white or
black by ear even without being able to
name the exact pitch, perceiving only this
one aspect of pitch color. And the same
can be said about pitches produced by
open and stopped strings of the bowed
string instruments.
The third dimension of pitch color
is connected with register. Like tints of
visual colors, the same pitches in different
octaves, in different registers are per-
ceived as lighter, brighter (if it is the
higher register) or darker, duller, murkier
(in the lower register).
The fourth dimension of pitch color
is connected with vertical pitch units—
intervals and chords—which give blend-
ing of pitch colors in a manner visual col-
ors blend.
Some people think that pitches in
intervals and chords are merely superim-
posed and therefore, it is possible any
Esthetics of Synesthetic 24
moment to put mentally asunder what
was simply assembled. But in reality pitch
colors never coexist as separate entities
within the chord. Each interval or chord
gives such a blending of two or more pitch
colors as to bring about the third color—a
result of the blending.
It led me to the definition "pitch
unit" which I gave to any vertical element,
be it interval or chord—by ear it is per-
ceived as a unit, as one resultative color,
no matter how many sounds the chord
includes.
The fifth dimension of pitch color is
connected with contextuality of pitch per-
ception. There is such a phenomenon as
imaginary "recoloring" of pitches in
human perception—it is like visual colors,
for example, yellow, that is perceived dif-
ferently on a red or on a blue background,
the same is with pitches—a certain pitch
would be perceived differently depending
on the context, on the background of this
pitch. After what it came, before what—it
influences the perception of pitch color,
not in a sense of rendering it impossible to
identify the pitch, but in a sense of differ-
ent feeling of this pitch color—something
as if lost or maybe added to this pitch
color in our contextual perception of it.
At the initial stages of development
of perfect pitch sometimes this contextual
"recoloring" of pitches can cause difficul-
ties. Further on, when pitch colors are
clearer, this recoloring stops interfering
with the process of exact recognition of
pitches. This contextual "recoloring" of
pitches led me to the concept of the "color
of relationship"—that resultative color
which comes on the intersection of the
color of each separate pitch or each verti-
cal pitch unit and of the effect of "recolor-
ing" of each unit when they are taken in
succession: one serving as background
color for another.
The sixth dimension of pitch color
is connected with the complex acoustical
structure of each musical tone—the over-
tone row makes each pitch the blending of
other pitches—they are present in it as
overtones, thus making each pitch an
acoustical rainbow, the twelve-tone row—
a rainbow of rainbows.
We spoke about pitch colors group-
ing acoustically—by fifths, also by thirds,
that leads us to the concept of the univer-
sal law of perception of pitch color, which
is combined with the individuality of this
perception.
The seventh (the most important, in
my opinion) dimension of pitch color is
what I call the "behavior" of each pitch. In
my perception, each pitch has a certain
way to direct itself when produced—up,
down, straight forward or aside, and a cer-
tain shape ("wavy" or "straight"). These
qualities of pitches seem to me (and not
only to me—it was proven so many times
during my pedagogical work with stu-
dents) not to be connected to any particu-
lar timbre, but to be universal, displaying
themselves on any instrument, in any
human voice, in any timbre.
It seems that I discovered a dimen-
sion of pitch color that lies on the surface
enough to be perceived by every student
to whom I introduced it. But it is neces-
sary at first to show the way it is done.
Usually, after I describe to students the
first 4-5-6 pitches—where they go, how
they "behave," the students can them-
selves tell me where other pitches go, and
Esthetics of Synesthetic 25
their perception usually coincides with
mine. So something universal that works
for everybody lies in this, seventh dimen-
sion of pitch color. I happened to give my
students a truly reliable, easily perceived,
most useful tool for them to be able to rec-
ognize pitches and to keep them in mem-
ory, something definite and concrete.
So, the table below gives you what
is necessary to start to recognize pitches:

Note Description Visual

Goes down, at first having a curve;
then it falls down straight. The fall is
long.
C

or

Goes straight forward.

Goes aside. It is a “wavy” pitch.

Waves are not too small, and they are
or
E not very fast. For some, it goes
always to the left, for others—to the
right.
Goes down, but unlike the fall of C,
which is long, actually endless, the
F fall of F is short, as if it falls on your
lap and stays there.

Behaves in a more complex way—at

first it is as if it jumps just a bit; then
G it goes straight forward.

Goes up; it is a “wavy” pitch with a

shape of a narrow spiral that goes up.
A

Esthetics of Synesthetic 26
 Note Description Visual
Goes up precipitously, like an arrow;
it is a “straight” note.
B

Goes down, like C, but unlike C, it is

a “wavy” pitch. It goes down (for
C# some—to the right, for some—to the or
left).

Is also a “wavy” pitch. It goes for-

ward in small waves of this shape:
Eb the “waves” move (“hop”) much
faster than “waves” in E.

Behaves in a rather complex way—it

swirls on one plane in a way of rip-
ples in a pond where a stone was
thrown.

F# or

Goes up, but with an initial “scoop,”

goes up fast, almost as precipitously
as B. “Straight” note. or
Ab

Goes gradually up, as if climbing up a

small hill, not fast. “Straight” note.
Bb

Of course, all pitches are produced
by vibrations, so scientifically speaking,
all of them are "wavy." But in our percep-
tion it seems that some of the pitches have
these vibrations more pronounced for our
ears, and some pitches, in our perception,
have less pronounced vibrations so I call
them accordingly: "wavy" or "straight".

Esthetics of Synesthetic 27
 All "straight" notes on some instru-
ments can behave so as to repeat the pro-
cess I described several times while the
pitch lasts, for example:
Ab Bb
Don't mix this multiple-stage pro-
cess with "wavy" pitches. It is much
slower than "waves" in "wavy" pitches.
During the lifetime of a pitch it can be
repeated 2-3 times. Of course, vibrato on
bow-strings causes this process to multi-
ply itself a million times while the pitch
lasts, then it becomes truly a "wavy" pitch.
The eighth dimension of pitch color
is what I call the "aura" of the pitch. It
seems to be a very personal way of react-
ing to pitches, but it is not something that
is perceived only by me, my students react
to the aura of pitches, even being unaware
of it, naming the pitch of the same aura
instead of the given one, for example, A
instead of F#. There are:
• 3 'Fire' pitches, all of them are hot
or warm by my perception—A, F#,
Bb.
• 3 'Water' pitches—E, G, Eb, all cool
or cold.
• 3 'Earth' pitches—C, F, C#, all go
down.
• 3 'Air' pitches—D, G#, B, all light by
weight, going up or forward.
G F
Fire pitches go up, with the excep-
tion of F#, which is a strong subterranean
fire, that swirls, being contained, for a
time—before eruption. Usually for people
born under Fire Zodiac signs pitches with
Water aura are a bit more difficult to mas-
ter, and for people born under Water
signs—pitches that have Fire aura offer
some resistance.
All this makes sense—all people
are bundles of energy, and twelve pitches
are also bundles of energy! So we do
react—no matter, whether we are aware of
it, or not—to the kind of energy, that cer-
tain pitches contain, it maybe consonant
or dissonant with our energetic make-up,
and also it can influence us in a positive or
negative way. Especially children are sen-
sitive to the energy that the pitches exude,
some of them say, for example: "This note
is strong" (about F) or "This note is an
enemy, I'll fight it" (about C#), or "This
note is a dear friend; I want to hug it"
(about Bb), or "This note is like a murky
water; I don't want to come near" (about
Eb), etc.
More about what my children—
students say about the pitches will be in
the book Perfect Pitch for Your Child.
Esthetics of Synesthetic 28
 So to summarize all about the mine your pitch recognition as the most
"behavior" of pitches, we receive the fol- important component in your relationship
lowing picture (and this is what will deter- with pitches):

Note Description Visual

Heavy, round as a sphere, goes down
with a curve in the beginning, then—
straight. Fall is long. C is between
C or
bright and mellow, on the bright
side. Energetically positive. Earth
aura.

Heavy, unpleasantly bright, reddish-

brick color, “wavy” pitch. Energeti-
C# cally negative. Earth aura. Goes or
down.

Light by weight and color. Mellow.

Cool. Energetically positive. Air aura.
D “Straight” pitch, goes straight for-
ward.

Mellow, with greyish tinge, “wavy”

note, goes (“hops”) forward in small
Eb fast waves. Water aura. Energetically
negative. Cold.

In between bright and mellow, on the

mellow side. A “wavy” note, goes
or
aside in not so small slower waves.
E As a note—supplication, it is energet-
ically neutral, assuming whatever
energy a supplicant puts into it.
Water aura.

Esthetics of Synesthetic 29
Note Description Visual
Firm, on the mellow side, though less
mellow than D, and its mellowness is
different in character from that of E;
F
E—gentle mellow, F—firm mellow.
Energetically positive. Earth aura.
Goes down in a short fall.
Very bright, hot, swirls on one plane
as ripples swirl in a pond, in which a
stone is thrown. Fire aura. Energeti-
cally negative. There is something
unpleasant, too garish in its bright-
ness.
F# or

Sweetly bright. Energetically posi-

tive. Water aura. Goes at first a bit
up, then—straight forward. G is the
note that is the most complex by its
behavior among all the pitches; it
G
undergoes the greatest change from
octave to octave, losing a part of its
brightness in the lower octaves,
especially in the octave just below
middle C.
Cool, bright. Energetically positive.
Air aura. Goes up precipitously with a
scoop in the beginning. After scoop—
Ab or
“straight” pitch.

Very bright, brilliant. Energetically

positive. Very warm. “Wavy” pitch.
Fire aura. Goes up fast enough, like a
A
narrow spiral.

Esthetics of Synesthetic 30
 Note Description Visual
Sweetly bright, not overly bright.
Warm. Energetically positive. Fire
aura. Though opposite by aura, by
Bb the character of its brightness Bb is
nearer to G than to B or A. Goes up
slowly, as if uphill, but not a very
high hill.
Very bright, with something piercing,
pointed in its brightness. Air aura.
Goes up precipitously like an arrow. I
perceive it as neutral energetically—
B
for me it is just a pitch-carrier that
would assume any energy that was
put into it by the sender of a mes-
sage it carries up.

I described only the qualities of
pitches that lie on the surface enough to be
noticed by everybody. I again repeat and
emphasize, that these qualities—direction,
waviness or straightness, aura, energy, are
intrinsic, universal qualities of pitches that
I discovered, on every instrument and
human voice the pitches would have these
qualities. Vibrato only multiplies the pro-
cesses described by me a million times.
But direction—up, down, forward, aside,
also aura, energy—all will remain even
when a pitch is played vibrato.
I want also to emphasize again the
fact that "straight" pitches on some instru-
ments (for example, on some pianos)
would multiply the process described sev-
eral times while the pitch sounds, but it is
easy to tell, that it is just a couple of repeti-
tions of one rather lengthy process, not
"waves" in "wavy" pitches, which should
be very short and frequent. Some students
of mine tell me, that they perceive "waves"
in "wavy" pitches as a series of tiny inter-
ruptions in the sound while the pitch lasts.
Some perceive actually small "waves."
It is understandable, that the pro-
cesses I described—this going up, or
down, with "waves" or without them, will
be faster in the upper register and slower
in the lower register. This slowness con-
tributes to the phenomenon that the
behavior of each pitch is clearer for the
human ear in the lower octaves (with the
exception of the lowest, "muddy" octave).
Now you have in this description
all you need to start to recognize and
recall pitches. The initial stage is to start
perceiving those qualities in pitches I just
described. It is always a moment of great
joy for each student, when something that
was not clear or vague becomes clear—
"Yes, it does go up (or down, or aside)."
Gradually your correct way of per-
ceiving pitches brings about their recogni-
tion, and recall—your memory now has a
tool it didn't have before, and on what it
can truly rely.

Esthetics of Synesthetic 31
 7 Is There a Flaw in the Universal Law?
I
n the previous chapters again and
again we returned to the idea of uni-
versal regularities in the perception
of pitch color. Let us dwell upon this topic
more.
1. A more general level of universality
of pitch perception is the set of defi-
nitions most frequently used to
describe pitch colors, and the order
of those definitions that corre-
sponds to the levels of pitch color:
the upper level—usually defini-
tions from the world of visual col-
ors, then—definitions connected
with weight, form, etc., then defini-
tions connected with certain emo-
tional states, moods, and
ultimately—definitions, connected
with abstract ideas.
2. Another aspect of this universal
regularity of perception of pitch
color is in the fact that the most
important for us, the seventh
dimension of pitch color is per-
ceived the same way by the vastest
majority of people. Other dimen-
sions of pitch color give greater
variability of definitions. But how
come? Is there a flaw in the univer-
sal law of perception of pitch color?
No, the reason for it is in the inner
complexity of the characteristics of
pitch color, that gives many possi-
bilities of individual variants in
definitions—one and the same
pitch at one and the same time may
belong to the group of bright and at
Is There a Flaw in the Universal Law? 32
the same time warm, or light pitch
colors, for example. This inner com-
plexity is the cause why a certain
person perceives only one side, one
aspect of pitch color, other sides of
it stay unperceived by this person,
but may be perceived by other peo-
ple—one feels only that this pitch is
cool, another—only that it is dark, a
third—only that it is harsh, etc.
3. Universality of the law of percep-
tion displays itself in the phenome-
non of grouping of pitch colors in
our perception, and especially so in
the fact, that this grouping is acous-
tically determined—that is, pitch
colors group in our perception
mainly by fifths and thirds. Univer-
sal regularity here is combined
with individual interpretation of it
in the order of what groups with
what for a certain person.
4. White and black piano keys sound
differently as groups for almost
everybody, the same with stopped
and unstopped strings of bowed
string instruments.
5. When the register or the octave
change, the changes in the tints of
pitch colors are perceived in the
same way by everybody—the
higher the register or the octave,
the lighter is the tint of pitch color,
the lower the register or the
octave—the darker, duller is the
tint. Also as a universal rule—pitch
colors are generally clearer for the
 vastest majority in the middle difficulties for everyone, there are ways to
octaves, middle register. overcome them which are similar for
6. Another universal rule—generally everybody.
it is easier to perceive pitch colors What is possible to analyze from
horizontally than vertically (though the point of view of the universal rules is
sometimes one meets people with possible to develop.
whom it is vice versa), and contex-
tual recoloring of pitches displays
itself more drastically in certain
combinations of pitches for every-
body—for example, I have noticed,
that while developing perfect pitch,
the vastest majority of students
experience difficulties in perceiving
the pitch color of tones a seventh or
ninth apart from the previous and
also a tritone apart from the previ-
ous. We'll address this problem in
the next chapters.

Why was it necessary to speak at

length of the universal regularities and
rules in our perception of pitch color?
Because this particular sphere—seemingly
so individualized—the sphere of pitch
color—was the cause of perfect pitch
being considered for such a long time as a
mysterious, unapproachable, only inborn
phenomenon: the seeming absence or lack
of universal regularities here scared peo-
ple away from trying to develop perfect
pitch.
But as soon as the universality of
certain laws or regularities is discovered,
it becomes by itself a mighty tool in find-
ing a common treatment, a common
approach or a system in all spheres of life,
and in this particular field—in the sphere
of developing perfect pitch—it gives
everybody who wants to develop pitch
ear a clear notion—what and how one per-
ceives is the same as it is with others, the
difficulties one encounters are the same

Is There a Flaw in the Universal Law? 33

 8 Is There an Explanation of the
Sense of Pitch Location?
I
n comparison with the sense of pitch
color the sense of pitch location
seems to be less complicated. But I
emphasize—only seems. In reality it is
even a more elusive and inexplicable com-
ponent of our pitch perception—compo-
nent beta, as I call it. It is blended with the
sense of pitch color in a certain balance in
people with any kind of perfect pitch—
either in happy equilibrium with it, or
being slightly dominated by the sense of
pitch color, or dominating the sense of
pitch color, determining by it the type of
perfect pitch.
In people who can't recognize
pitches the sense of pitch location can be
actually working but without being united
by memory fusion with the sense of pitch
color, in this case a person can name
pitches near—a half-step or a whole-step
higher or lower than the actual one. Or the
sense of pitch color can sometimes domi-
nate the pitch perception, the sense of
location being not switched on simulta-
neously with it because of absence of
memory fusion.
So what is the sense of pitch loca-
tion?
First and foremost, don't mix it up
with the sense of register. If we have a
great range of several octaves everybody
is able to tell whether a tone is very high
or very low or somewhere in the middle.
Very often the perception of whether a
tone is high or low is tied to the timbre,
and timbre obscures it so that on some
instruments a person can't determine the
register of the tone, especially whether it is
Is There an Explanation of the Sense of Pitch Location? 34
middle, or middle-high, or middle-low. Of
course very low and very high tones are
perceived as such, no matter what is the
timbre.
But this is not the sense of pitch
location, it is the sense of register—
another component of pitch perception—
that is working here. The sense of pitch
location—a much more complex, refined
and subtle component of pitch percep-
tion—is the sense of the place of a tone in
the twelve-tone row regardless of the
octave or the register. Of course, the per-
ception of pitch location is connected both
with the sense of register and timbre thus
causing selectivity of perfect pitch.
Maybe, someday research on the
biological structure of the human brain
will lead to an explanation of the phenom-
enon—why is it so that the person who is
unable to name pitches exactly is never-
theless able to name them always approxi-
mately there by location—a half or a
whole-step lower or higher than the actual
pitch.
What is the mysterious mechanism
of it? With pitch color it is really so that
each pitch has certain individual qualities,
though maybe not all of these qualities lie
on the surface, but many—somewhat
deeper within. But these qualities seem
even less elusive, more understandable
even in their complexity, than this strange
ability to feel not whether a tone is low or
high, but to feel the place of a tone in the
tightly packed row of twelve pitches
which many times repeats itself and with
each octave changes the tints of pitch col-
ors—it is as if each pitch is hanging in the
infinity, it is like being able to find the pro-
verbial "needle in a hay-stack," or being
able to perform a juggler's trick or a mira-
cle. So the sense of pitch location today
defies explanations. But people do have
this ability, and like all the components of
our auditory perception, it can be devel-
oped, it can be improved and perfected.
Certainly, the sense of pitch loca-
tion is connected with the sense of pitch
color, at least some sense of pitch color is
necessary to cause exact recognition of the
pitch, the same way the sense of pitch
location is tied to the sense of register and
of timbre. But this component beta—the
sense of pitch location—does exist as a
separate component of pitch perception—
in those who being unable to name the
exact pitch always name the pitch a half or
a whole-step lower or higher than the
actual pitch.
And it is confirmed by the existence
of "dirty" perfect pitch and by the fact that
many people with inborn perfect pitch, on
the question how they recognize pitches,
either would just plainly say that it is loca-
tion that they perceive first and foremost,
hearing the pitch, or are unable to explain
how they perceive pitches.
As soon as there is a definite sense
of pitch color that dominates in pitch per-
ception, a person can easily analyze and
explain his or her mechanism of recogni-
tion of the pitches. But as soon as the sense
of pitch location dominates in pitch per-
ception, a person is mostly unable to tell
anything about how he or she perceives
and recognizes pitches. And it is really
impossible to describe how one feels the
location of the molecule that hangs liter-
ally in thin air.
On the intersection of the sense of
pitch location and the sense of pitch color
there exists also a no less mysterious sense
of the row of pitches. Sometimes students
Is There an Explanation of the Sense of Pitch Location? 35
with "dirty" perfect pitch would men-
tion—today all the row as if moved a half-
step lower or higher, this usually causes
persistently wrong answers—all of which
slide a half-step lower or higher than the
actual pitches, but absolutely correct
within the row, which is as if transposed
up or down a half-step.
Sometimes people who develop
perfect pitch may answer the first note
incorrectly—not only the sense of color
and of location of each pitch is unclear at
this time, but also the feeling of the row is
not firmly established—but as soon as the
first note is correctly identified with the
help of a teacher or a partner the row, as if,
restores itself and all subsequent answers
are correct.
This may persist even in the middle
stage of development of perfect pitch.
The sense of the row is fully estab-
lished only in the last stage of develop-
ment of perfect pitch. This explains the
phenomenon of sometimes losing the row
in the middle of the answer—as if for a
moment a person is thrown out of the
row—some students call it "temporary
blackout." The sense of the row is restored
again, after the mistake is corrected.
But don't think that this moment of
restoration of the row is actually a
moment of receiving a certain orientation
point with which to compare the next
note, though only involuntarily. It is not
so. The sense of the row is not another
name for relative pitch. It is a very com-
plex resultative component of pitch per-
ception which can be defined as a moment
of diffusion of each pitch color with loca-
tion of each pitch which forms a succes-
sion in our mind.
We perceive the twelve-tone row as
a succession and correlation of located col-
ors or colored locations.
Sometimes I think—these separate
located colors or colored locations are only
ribbons of the rainbow, only pieces of
stained-glass. The whole twelve-tone row
is a whole rainbow, or stained-glass win-
dow. To be able to keep in mind, in your
memory, this stained-glass window is to
have a sense of the row fully established.
Pitches are not isolated units. Nothing can
be identified and labeled as an entity in
itself, so to say. Even when we speak of
pitch color—of something that deals with
individual essence and meaning of each
pitch, we perceive those pitch colors at
one and the same time as being the color
of each separate pitch and in comparison
and in connection with other pitch col-
ors—the way colors group, the way we
perceive this pitch color, for example—B
is very bright, G, is not so bright compara-
tively, A is warm and G is comparatively
cool. The same is applicable to pitch loca-
tion—as soon as we pronounce this
word—location—we think about some-
thing that is near something, next to some-
thing, in-between something. Though the
location of each pitch is something unique,
pertaining only to this pitch, still we can't
help perceiving each location as a part of
the row, in terms of what pitch goes before
it, what goes after it.
There is a question—at what pitch
to begin and consequently, to end this
twelve-tone row? For many people the
pitch C is somewhat basic, and therefore,
the most convenient pitch to start the
count of the twelve pitches.
But for many this first point of the
row may be A or G or another pitch. In
people who develop their perfect pitch it
is especially often—to feel a certain pitch
as basic—this pitch may be singled out by
them as such a basic one because of the
greater ease with which they recognize
it—easier than other pitches—the memory
for some reason keeps this pitch better
than the other.
Is There an Explanation of the Sense of Pitch Location? 36
In time, when a person moves fur-
ther and further along the road of devel-
opment of perfect pitch, the amount of
these especially convenient tones will
increase.
I have noticed that tones such as B
and A, and also F#, Bb and Ab, D and F are
the pitches that are easier to recognize for
the vastest majority of students.
At the first stages of development
of perfect pitch in my students I try to play
them as the initial pitch one of those
pitches easier for them—this helps instan-
taneously and correctly to establish the
row. Sometimes if a person hears as the
first pitch a not yet convenient pitch for
him or her, a mistake occurs.
Some people think—if a person
didn't recognize the first pitch given, it
means that perfect pitch is not even at the
first stage yet. But in reality what hap-
pened is only that the row wasn't
switched on at that moment, the initial
pitch wasn't convenient for it, but as soon
as the mistake is corrected, the row is
restored, all the other answers can be cor-
rect.
At certain stages of development of
perfect pitch certain tones may serve as a
catalyst or, on the contrary, a hindrance in
the switching on of the row.
So, we keep in mind and in mem-
ory not only the separate color of each
pitch location, we also keep in memory a
succession of located colors or colored
locations—a veritable rainbow of pitches.
A phenomenon of hearing or see-
ing with our mind's eye all the rainbow
together, and each separate colored loca-
tion or located color on the background of
all the other located colors gives addi-
tional dimension to the pitch perception
and creates additional problems for those
people who develop perfect pitch.
 9 What Color is the Relationship,
or What is the Relationship of Pitch Colors?
T
hough perfect pitch and relative
pitch are two different functions of
the human ear, there is an unques-
tionable connection between the two—
perfect pitch is by no means separated
from other functions of our ear, and the
process of development of perfect pitch is
tied in many aspects to the level of devel-
opment of relative pitch, first and fore-
most in the aspect of its being developed
on cultivated soil, so to say, and also there
are other important aspects of this connec-
tion.
We spoke of the component of con-
textuality in the human perception of the
pitch. If the pitch is being perceived also
contextually, it means the tie between per-
fect pitch and relative pitch is greater,
deeper and more significant than it seems
at first.
One of the facets of this tie is the
happy balance between those two func-
tions of our ear that makes the ear really
versatile, all-rounded. The dominance of
perfect pitch without the necessary devel-
opment of relative pitch leads to perfect
pitch being the master of your auditory
perception instead of the servant, and
therefore, not much of a helper. This con-
nection between perfect pitch and relative
pitch displays itself as especially obvious,
multi-sided and significant during the
process of developing perfect pitch. Many
students with well-developed relative
pitch complain that they can't help com-
paring the tones they hear. I usually
answer them: "Your being able to compare
involuntarily the tones you hear and to
What Color is the Relationship... 37
instantaneously, effortlessly recognize the
intervals between them won't prevent
your ear from listening to the other
aspects of these tones—to pitch color and
location of the given tone. Do not try to
suppress this ability—to compare tones—
if it is done involuntarily, it won't harm
the development of perception of pitch
color and location, but of course, you
shouldn't specially make efforts to com-
pare. Your well-developed relative pitch
will do you a good service at the first stage
of your work at the development of per-
fect pitch—it will help you follow your
partner (or your teacher) and not to lose
the feeling of the pitch row."
How often students comment that
for a moment they, as if, lose the feeling of
the pitch row, as if they are thrown out of
it and for a second feel absolutely disori-
ented. After this small catastrophe the ear
recovers for the next few seconds, and
then normal perception of the pitch row
resumes. Such occurrences are more fre-
quent with students who can't follow their
partner, who gives them their pitches—
that is, with students whose relative pitch
is undeveloped or underdeveloped. What
I mean by following the partner—after the
first note is given, is to effortlessly notice
whether the next pitch is up or down from
the previous one, whether it is taken by
leap or is a neighbor, and if it is taken by
leap, whether this leap is big, medium or
small.
I have noticed that, strange to say,
the majority of students identifying
pitches easily in various other contexts,
experience difficulties as soon as the tone
is taken a minor or major seventh, or a
minor or major ninth, or a tritone up or
down from the previous note.
We spoke of contextual recoloring
of the pitches and pitch units, and in cer-
tain context two pitch colors played one
after the other obscure or even kill each
other, like sometimes flowers put in one
and the same vase do. In such cases rela-
tive pitch can help—after all, a neighbor
will always stay a neighbor, no matter in
what octave it is given, on what distance, a
second, or seventh, or a seventh four
octaves up, or a ninth—so actually the
pitches a seventh higher or a ninth lower
are both only neighbors from below, and
the pitches a seventh lower or a ninth
higher are both neighbors from above.
For well-developed relative pitch it
is easily comprehensible—instantaneous-
ly, when hearing one pitch after the other,
thus helping the newly-born sense of pitch
color that at first may fail in certain con-
texts.
For those whose relative pitch is
not developed enough I offer the trill exer-
cise:
Play on the piano different pitches
on the distance of a seventh and ninth up
and down and to try to mentally relocate
the pitch that is on the distance of a sev-
enth or ninth to the trill position towards
the first note—for example, to take C, then
B a major seventh higher, and then to relo-
cate B an octave lower and to trill mentally
or at first, singing aloud—you'll receive a
trill C-B—two nearest, neighboring
pitches, B in the trill will be below C,
though actually it was taken a major sev-
enth above.
The same is with a ninth—take, for
example, G, and then A, a major ninth
above, and then mentally relocate A to the
trill position towards G. It is even an eas-
What Color is the Relationship... 38
ier exercise—A in both cases remains
above G.
I emphasize—this is only an exer-
cise for the initial stage of development of
perfect pitch, for those with underdevel-
oped relative pitch—just to help the ear
cope with so many aspects of pitch per-
ception, especially with one of the tricki-
est—with the dependence of this
perception on the context.
Later on, there will be no necessity
for this or similar exercises—the ear will
get adjusted to the main components of
pitch perception—to pitch color and pitch
location, and the memory will keep the
pitch row. But in the initial, and some-
times, even in the middle stages of devel-
opment of perfect pitch one should use all
resources, everything at one's disposal to
make the ear adjust to the row of pitches,
including the ability to involuntarily rec-
ognize the interval between pitches and to
use it to stay in the pitch row, and to avoid
mistakes.
The same way well-developed rela-
tive pitch is helpful to follow the partner
when vertical units—intervals and chords,
are given. Sometimes for certain students
the moment of contextual "recoloring" of
the pitch units is so acute as to cause con-
stant mistakes when for example, the triad
is given on the distance of a tritone from
the first—acoustically these two triads are
antagonistic to each other.
So often I tell my students—there is
a color, a compound pitch color of each of
these triads, and there is, as if, a color of
relationship between them—a certain
complex individual quality of the succes-
sion of pitch units in time—not unlike the
color of separate pitch units, but infinitely
more difficult to formulate verbally. As if
it is the third, the most complicated aspect
of pitch color—first being the color of sep-
arate pitch, second—the compound color
of vertical pitch units—a blending of two
or more pitch colors that give us a third,
new color, and the third aspect—a very
complex category—the color of horizontal
relationship of horizontal or vertical pitch
units, when the compound quality of the
color is not a simultaneous blending, but a
successive demonstration of the color
components in time, that unite in the most
complicated manner in our ear not unlike
how a certain visual color unites in our
mind with the color of its background.
I offer the following exercise while
working at triads with my students:
Play and listen attentively to all
possible variants of relations between the
first and the next triads, for example, play
C major and then play an F# major triad,
trying to grasp the color of relationship
together with the separate color of each
triad. Then play C major and E major; C
and Eb major; C and A major; C and Ab
major; C and B; C and Bb; C and Db; C and
D major; and then C in combinations with
all minor triads of the 2nd and 3rd degrees
of kinship. The memory gradually will
learn to keep the color of relationship
together with the color of each separate
triad.
Of course, mainly there is no need
to do this exercise with triads the relation-
ship of which is simpler—relative major
and minor and other relationships of the
first degree of kinship. But in case of more
distant relationships between the triads
this exercise helps at the initial stage of
work with vertical units.
I have met students for whom con-
textuality of pitch perception was actually
helping in recognizing pitches. For these
students to write down a melody, a logical
succession of pitches was a much easier
task than to recognize separate, discon-
nected pitches. And I have met many with
the opposite way of pitch perception—
when a person was at a loss as soon as it
What Color is the Relationship... 39
was necessary, for example, to transcribe a
melody, at the same time most success-
fully developing recognition of separate
disconnected pitches.
So in this second case to overcome
this tie of pitch perception to the context
means to develop relative pitch first and
foremost—the instantaneous and involun-
tary recognition of the interval and func-
tion within a scale that will work
combined with the sense of pitch color
and location of each separate pitch.
My teaching experience proved to
me that if to have an inborn perfect pitch,
it not always means that all that is pertain-
ing to the relationships between the
pitches is easy. I have taught students
with such types of inborn perfect pitch
when the sense of the pitch was so domi-
nating in the balance of the functions of
the ear, that the pitch unit, for example,
interval, was perceived only as a combina-
tion of certain pitches, and if it was neces-
sary to recognize the interval, it was
impossible for such students to instanta-
neously, parallel with the pitches, recog-
nize the generic color of the interval, and
the painful process of calculation often
began—how many whole and half-steps
there were between the first and the sec-
ond pitch, how many degrees of the
scale... Especially it is painful when per-
fect pitch is "dirty," and, therefore unreli-
able—then it is very easy to name one or
both of the tones a half-step lower or/and
higher, and therefore miscalculate the
interval.
So it is necessary to make the ear
really versatile, able to recognize the inter-
vals and chords by their special generic
color, which is not connected with pitches
it comprises.
There is one more aspect of color,
connected with our auditory perception—
the generic color of each interval and
chord—which is considered a much
more obvious quality than pitch color.
One should learn to recognize it the same
instantaneous way as pitches.
In an inexplicable way sometimes
the sense of pitch color, as yet not fully
developed as to cause perfect pitch, but
which nevertheless is there, interferes
with the perception of the intervals and
chords. Such students after hearing the
minor third C-Eb and then F#-A will ask—
is it the same interval? Usually such stu-
dents are considered at the lessons of con-
ventional ear-training as having a tough
ear, because they persistently give unsta-
ble answers—for them the same intervals
or chords sound differently when pitches
change though they are as yet unable to
name the exact pitches. Such students as a
rule are those who develop perfect pitch
the easiest and swiftest way and who then
may develop excellent relative pitch when
the perception of each interval and chord
will be connected for them with pitches—
on the basis of being able to tell the exact
pitches.
So, you see, the connection between
perfect pitch and relative pitch, the inter-
action between these two functions of
human ear and the balance between them
are multi-faceted, deep and of paramount
importance.

What Color is the Relationship... 40

10 Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch—
Allies or Enemies?
N
ow we know that the connection
between those two functions of
our musical ear is obvious and
unquestionable—though relative pitch
and perfect pitch develop seemingly inde-
pendently, in reality they compliment
each other, they are close allies. The devel-
opment of one function is helpful in devel-
oping another. The more cultivated your
ear is by development of relative pitch the
more successful the development of your
perfect pitch will be. Relative pitch, as you
already know, helps when you develop
perfect pitch in all transitional stages—to
follow a partner, and, therefore, not to lose
the pitch row. You can also figure out rela-
tively the pitches that comprise a chord or
an interval after recognizing one of the
pitches, usually the lowest or the highest.
Perfect pitch, whether inborn or
developed, helps the ear handle the
sphere of relations between musical tones
by making it easier to transcribe a melody,
to write down music you compose, to
sight-sing, etc.
Perfect pitch and relative pitch are
interdependent. Contextuality of pitch
perception is the first aspect of this inter-
dependence. The "color of relationship"
we spoke about in Chapter 9 is one more
aspect of the interconnection between per-
fect pitch and relative pitch—this resulta-
tive color which comes on the intersection
of the color of each pitch unit and of the
effect of specific "recoloring" of each unit
on a certain background.
But perfect pitch and relative pitch
are allies only in case of normal harmoni-
Prefect Pitch and Relative Pitch—Allies or Enemies? 41
ous development of these functions of our
ear.
In some cases, as we know, perfect
pitch and relative pitch can become ene-
mies instead of allies. There are people in
whom perfect pitch suppresses all the
other functions of the ear, especially rela-
tive functions—such people can name the
pitches of the interval or chord easily, but
the generic color of the interval is not clear
to them—they literally figure it out,
whether D-Bb is a fifth or sixth, a major
sixth or a minor sixth. This inconvenience
persists for quite a time, especially so
when perfect pitch is "dirty."
And sometimes relative pitch is so
developed that it persistently interferes
when a person starts to develop perfect
pitch. Such people for a long time can't get
rid of the habit of comparing pitches;
though the pitch color is quite clear for
them, still they feel their relative pitch is
so entirely reliable and comfortable that
they continue to compare even when they
realize that there is no need for it.
Such cases can be difficult to han-
dle—sometimes the perfect pitch of such
people remains always underdeveloped
and incomplete. On the other hand, many
students while developing perfect pitch
try to artificially suppress all the relative
functions of their ear, being afraid to com-
pare pitches.
It is the wrong way to go.
The right way to develop a really
versatile perfect ear is to seek the balance,
the harmony between perfect pitch and
relative pitch, being able to sometimes sac-
rifice convenience of old reliable habits for
the sake of acquiring new concepts, new
ways of aural perception, and on the other
hand, being able to use all the means at
your disposal to reach the desired result.
But the main goal of this chapter is
to disprove certain myths concerning the
interconnection of perfect pitch and rela-
tive pitch and to shed some new light on
it.
Many people think relative pitch is
the lower level of perfect pitch, and if per-
fect pitch—the higher level of one and the
same aural perception—is only inborn,
relative pitch can be developed to the
highest level of proficiency in just every-
body. It is a myth.
Though interconnected, perfect
pitch and relative pitch are two different
functions of the human ear. My teaching
experience has proved to me many
times—relative pitch that is truly excel-
lent, that immediately or very soon after
getting acquainted with intervals and
chords will give you 100% exactitude and
marvelous speed in recognizing intervals
and chords, and especially, which gives
the same high exactitude and speed in
writing dictations of more complex kind
(chromatic, with big leaps, two, three, or
four-part) is as rare a phenomenon as uni-
versal perfect pitch.
People are somehow convinced
that good or even excellent relative pitch
is something that is given to almost every-
body, or that at least relative pitch is
something that is easy to develop. But it is
far from the truth.
In reality to develop truly excellent
relative pitch—such as would give you
the ability to recognize all intervals and
chords in any arrangement absolutely
exactly and instantaneously, and to write
excellently music dictations of any kind
relying only on relative pitch—takes more
Prefect Pitch and Relative Pitch—Allies or Enemies? 42
time and effort than to develop perfect
pitch.
People are remarkably patient and
tolerant with the results of their relative
pitch ear-training. Somehow the idea that
the highest level of relative pitch is avail-
able to everyone (though it is not a true
notion) helps people after years spent on
relative ear-training to put up with rather
modest results of their efforts. In reality
relative pitch, like perfect pitch, consists
also of many levels, and to climb this rela-
tive pitch ladder is not easier, in fact it is
harder to climb it, if to rely only on rela-
tive pitch (if you don't have the help of
perfect pitch) than to go from level to level
of perfect pitch.
Let us now speak of the intercon-
nection between these two kinds of audi-
tory perception.
The phenomenon of "recoloring" of
intervals and chords when pitches of
which a unit is comprised are changed (for
example, the perfect fifth will sound dif-
ferently—brighter or mellower, if it is B-
F#, or Ab-Eb)—is the reverse side of the
phenomenon of "recoloring" of pitches
depending on the context, on the back-
ground. That is—contextuality of pitch
perception is the same phenomenon as
pitch-determined perception of intervals
and chords. This pitch-determined per-
ception of intervals and chords we meet
sometimes in people who can't recognize
exact pitches as yet, in whom all compo-
nents of pitch perception weren't bound
by memory fusion, but who nevertheless
feel that the same interval sounds by color
differently if the pitches that comprise it
change.
The same can be said about the
"color of relationship"—we can reverse it
and receive "relationship of colors"—
which expresses itself in the resultative
component of pitch perception—sense of
the twelve-tone row.
 The rainbow of located pitch colors
tinges the rainbow of the degrees of the
scale. All this leads one to the conclu-
sion—all musical tones that are related are
pitches, and all the pitches that are used in
music are related, are in certain kinds of
relationships.
Music doesn't consist of separate
tones.
Therefore the idea that perfect pitch
deals only with separateness of pitch units
is absolutely wrong and in my opinion is
the main obstacle in the way of develop-
ing perfect pitch for so many people.
Perfect pitch is the kind of auditory
perception that also deals with relation-
ships between musical tones, only the
aspects of these relations are different
from those connected directly with rela-
tive pitch.
Relative pitch deals only with final
results of relationships between pitches.
Perfect pitch deals with all the pro-
cess of relations between musical tones,
beginning with the initial stage—deter-
mining the individual quality of each sep-
arate pitch, going through other stages—
the next—locating the color of each pitch,
as soon as we add location to the color we
begin to deal with relations between the
tones; because location means that some-
thing has its place below or above or
between something, that is, in a kind of
relationship towards something, thus on
the intersection of the sense of pitch color
and sense of pitch location the sense of
pitch row is born.
If to speak of contextuality of pitch
perception, which means that each pitch is
recolored depending on what is the con-
text, what is the background—again we
deal with the result of relations of a certain
kind between the tones—that is—with
horizontal correlation of their colors.
When we perceive vertical units—inter-
vals and chords—we deal with the blend-
Prefect Pitch and Relative Pitch—Allies or Enemies? 43
ing of pitch colors that unite in a new,
resultative pitch color of the whole unit—
and we also deal with a certain aspect of
relations between the tones—their inter-
blending, which gives generic color of the
unit—be it, for example, a major triad or
perfect fourth.
Function of the tones within the
scale is the final result of the relationships
between the tones, when artificially con-
structed sequences of horizontal inter-
vals—mainly seconds—create a certain
kind of interdependence and subordina-
tion between them. But this hierarchy
within the tonality is always pitch-col-
ored. On the intersection of tonality as
hierarchy of functions of musical tones—
and pitch position—pitch location of this
tonality—the key is born.
Horizontal sequence of intervals
creates a mode, a series, a major or minor
scale. It is a more general, abstract kind of
relationship. Pitch position makes the
relationships within the mode, the scale—
concrete. Instead of an abstract major
scale—the key of D major, for example.
Instead of algebraic symbols—concrete
figures.
All kinds of relationships between
musical tones belong at one and the same
time to both the spheres of relative pitch
and perfect pitch—only in different
aspects. For example, the direction of the
horizontal line—downward, upward; the
kind of motion—stepwise, or by leaps,
what kind of leaps—large, small, medium,
what kinds of intervals—a perfect fourth,
perfect fifth, major sixth, minor third—are
between pitches, repetitions within the
horizontal line—all this creates the con-
text, that can "recolor" pitches, influence
the perception: A after B in the same
octave is perceived by the ear differently
than the same A taken by a big leap after B
in another octave, or taken by a medium
leap, after D in the same octave. A pitch at
the distance of a perfect fifth from the first
is perceived differently than this same
pitch if it is the distance of a major sev-
enth or a tritone from the first.
A melodic line, which is a succes-
sion of certain intervals and certain func-
tions of the degrees of the scale from the
point of view of relative pitch, becomes
significant in the aspect of perfect pitch
not only because concrete pitches make an
abstract sequence of intervals and func-
tions a concrete melody in a concrete key,
but also in the sense of including all
twelve pitches or omitting some, of
emphasizing certain pitches by repetition,
rhythmically or metrically (on notes of
long duration, or on heavy beats).
The same is with vertical units—a
perfect fifth, or major sixth or minor six-
four in the aspect of relative pitch will
remain a general, abstract, algebraic unit,
with emphasis on something pertaining to
all perfect fifths, major sixths, etc. Only the
pitches that comprise the unit give it its
concrete character, its individual color—
the major sixth D-B or the minor triad F-
Ab-C.
Relative pitch deals with the sphere
of the abstract form of the relationship,
perfect pitch—with the concrete contents
of it. But—in both cases—with relation-
ship.
So never make an awful mistake
suppressing your sense of relations
between the tones while developing per-
fect pitch—perfect pitch also deals with
relations between the musical tones—giv-
ing them their concrete meaning, as if
breathing life into an abstract idea.

Prefect Pitch and Relative Pitch—Allies or Enemies? 44

11 Perfect Pitch—
a Servant or a Master?
O
ne of the questions the students
who come to me for the first time
most frequently ask: what are the
advantages of having perfect pitch? So
many musicians are without it and still do
very well.
Maybe perfect pitch is just a luxury,
something one can do without. And some-
times they mention those musicians who
complain that perfect pitch actually is a bit
of a nuisance for them: they can't play a
piano if it is out of tune and can't listen to
a recording of a piece if this recording
sounds a micron lower than the key in
which this piece was written.
I always answer them "yes, the
majority of professional musicians are
without perfect pitch because as an inborn
ability it is not so often met."
In Russia, in a musical encyclope-
dia, it is written that only 5% of all people
on the Earth are born with perfect pitch (I
always thought—what to consider an
inborn perfect pitch—as you already
know, there are many kinds of it, and
therefore, 5% only if to count those who
were born with universal perfect pitch),
and unfortunately, the idea of developing
perfect pitch was, and still is, not so popu-
lar because of the complete ignorance of
the majority of people—how to approach
this problem, what is necessary to do to
develop perfect pitch, because of several
fumbling, awkward attempts by certain
teachers who did more harm than good to
the idea of developing perfect pitch with
their hasty, immature approach to this
problem. Advertising din accompanying
Perfect Pitch—a Servant or a Master? 45
such attempts added even more negative
elements to discredit the idea of develop-
ing perfect pitch.
But always there were and there are
teachers who are really successful in their
work with students and whose students
do develop perfect pitch—many—selec-
tive perfect pitch, and some—universal
perfect pitch.
Perfect pitch is not a luxury, given
mysteriously to some lucky guys, with
which they themselves don't know what
to do, it is a necessity for any musician,
professional or amateur, because perfect
pitch is not only about how to tell F from
G!
Perfect pitch first and foremost
means perfect musicianship. Surely this is
the ultimate goal of everyone who comes
to music, no matter, professionally or as
an amateur. Piano teachers, whose stu-
dents attend my perfect pitch class, tell me
that they notice in their students great
improvement in memorizing, in tone-pro-
duction, in general ear alertness—of all
functions of the ear, improvement in gen-
eral musicianship, in the ability to sight-
read, to transpose. And of course, my sys-
tem of pitch ear-training helps in the same
way students who play string and wind
instruments, composers and vocalists.
For those who compose music, per-
fect pitch helps in imagining mentally and
in writing down their music, in choosing
the appropriate key for music of certain
character, in choosing the right pitch posi-
tion for each vertical and horizontal unit
they use in their pieces, in improvising.
 It is clear to everybody that perfect
pitch will give numerous practical advan-
tages to every musician. But also it will
help to reveal to you unimaginable, as yet,
depths and heights—leading you to the
realm of the transcendental, of great mys-
teries, tuning both your ear and your soul
in consonance and in unison with the
Higher Forces, that sent to us those tiny
containers of Divine Message—all this
through twelve musical tones, twelve
pitches.
One will ascend to an absolutely
different height of musicianship, penetrat-
ing into the deepest layers of philosophi-
cal and poetic meaning of each pitch, each
key, each vertical unit, etc. To purely prac-
tical advantages of having perfect pitch
we should add the ease in tuning instru-
ments for those who play string instru-
ments, in being able to say when your
piano needs tuning, and in stopping being
an "outsider" when you listen to music—
by being able to identify the key of the
piece you are listening to, you'll "enter in,"
you'll be "let inside" the music you listen
to!
But you should be able to make
your perfect pitch, even from the initial
stage of developing it—your servant.
Some people, even with inborn perfect
pitch feel that their perfect pitch is the
master, not a servant, this is the cause of
certain inconveniences such people expe-
rience—they simply don't know how to
use perfect pitch in a right way—making
it always serve them.
From the very first moment you get
acquainted with the concept of pitch color,
you should be able to use your newly
acquired awareness of individuality of
each pitch, of each key, adding to your
concept of the pieces you play another
dimension, which previously wasn't
there—it will help you throw in bold relief
all modulations, enjoying while you play
Perfect Pitch—a Servant or a Master? 46
the individual color of each key, it will
help emphasize certain details connected
with pitch color you didn't think of
emphasizing earlier, even if you are as yet
unable to identify by ear all those pitches
or keys—this will come later.
Even at this initial stage of develop-
ment of your perfect pitch you will
improve your tone production—it is
based on auditory imagination, and this
kind of imagination is being developed
from the very beginning of your pitch ear-
training.
Have you ever noticed the key of
the piece you play? Often a student is
unable to tell what it is when asked.
Have you ever done pitch analysis
of the pieces you play? After noticing
what is the key of the piece, have you
noticed, for example, what concrete
pitches are omitted, what pitches are
repeated and how—in a row or on a dis-
tance, in the same octave or not, what
pitches are emphasized rhythmically—by
notes of long duration, what pitches are
emphasized metrically—appearing on
heavy beats, how the horizontal line
moves—upwards, downwards, stepwise,
or by leaps? If there are leaps, then in what
direction, what is the range of the theme,
in what register it will sound?
All this pertains to the spheres of
our perception, connected at one and the
same time with perfect pitch and relative
pitch, as if on the intersection of these two
spheres.
After that, analyze what are the
functions of the tones of the theme within
the key in which it is written, what are the
concrete intervals between sounds—all
pertaining to the relations between the
musical tones. Notice not only the key sig-
nature—notice all the keys used in this
piece, all the modulations—in the choice
of the keys, in the choice of concrete pitch
units—horizontal and vertical—the great
composers showed that they sensed that
just those keys, those pitch units possess
certain qualities, certain meaning for
them—try to decipher this meaning!
Those who compose music—even
if you are as yet unable to always tell one
triad from the other by ear, but are already
aware that all pitches, all pitch units are
different essentially, that they possess cer-
tain individual qualities, you'll be able to
choose the key for your composition wiser
than, for example, the key Tchaikovsky
chose for the first movement of his First
Piano Concerto (I always thought that the
bright, majestic introduction would sound
much better in D major than in Db major).
You'll think: "Why do I use the fifth A-E,
not Ab-Eb, or G-D, or why the seventh C-
Bb, not B-A or C#-B?"
Or: "Am I right in beginning this
piece with the pitch position of my
twelve-tone row that starts on F#? Maybe
better to try another pitch position?"—the
problems, the questions you have never
thought about before, or if thought, then
these thoughts were never fortified by a
system, by the knowledge of this particu-
lar sphere. Now these problems, these
ideas begin to be in the focus of your
attention!
From the start of your pitch ear-
training, from the very first steps of devel-
opment of perfect pitch your compositions
will become more interesting, more logical
and diversified, with another dimension
added to them, the same way another
dimension is added to the pieces perform-
ers play.
So, I emphasize again—perfect
pitch is not only discrimination of pitches.
From the very first steps in developing
perfect pitch it can yield immediate practi-
cal results, adding to your performances,
to your compositions a new dimension,
Perfect Pitch—a Servant or a Master? 47
enabling you to feel and understand con-
cepts you weren't aware of before.
The process of developing perfect
pitch will awaken your general ear alert-
ness, improve other functions of your
ear—relative pitch, for example, improve
your musical memory, which, even with
only your awareness of individuality of
each pitch unit, each key, receives a
mighty help, a mighty support when
memorizing pieces.
Further levels of developing perfect
pitch will bring about still greater positive
changes in your general ear alertness and
in your musicianship. The advantages
you'll have are innumerable and unques-
tionable.
One should always keep in mind—
to have perfect pitch as a servant is to
develop it in harmony with all other func-
tions of your ear, with relative pitch, and
to be humorously tolerant to small incon-
veniences which you'll begin to experience
when you listen to an untuned piano, for
example, or flattish or sharpish intonation
when somebody plays a bowed string
instrument.
The great advantages and benefits
you will gain when you develop perfect
pitch out-weigh a million times some
minuscule inconvenience connected with
it.
 Memory Fusion—
12 Problems and Solutions,
or a Layer in Time Saves Nine
I
n previous chapters we spoke about
memory being the clue to perfect
pitch, about the ninth component of
pitch perception—memory fusion—that
binds together all the other components of
pitch perception in an instantaneous flash
of recognition.
What is the reason that sometimes
the memory keeps pitches effortlessly and
always—in people with inborn perfect
pitch; and sometimes the memory doesn't
want to bind together the components of
pitch perception at all, making them com-
pletely disconnected; and sometimes it
works erratically and unpredictably, one
day giving the person the possibility to
recognize pitches and another day, not?
In my opinion, the answer to this is
in the field of a holistic approach to our
body and mind.
Dr. Jacob Liebermann in his book
Take Off Your Glasses and See writes that we
see actually not only with our eyes—every
cell in our bodies takes part in this pro-
cess, every cell is equipped with its own
apparatus of vision.
The same is with our auditory per-
ception—we hear not only with our ears,
we perceive and analyze auditory infor-
mation with every cell in our bodies, not
only with our ears and brains, and we
store this information not only in the
recesses of our brains—but everywhere—
in every fiber of our bodies. But body and
mind form a unity in every aspect.
There is an old saying: we see
things not as they are, but as we are. We
can adjust this saying to our topic—we
Memory Fusion-Problems and Solutions, or a Layer in Time Saves Nine 48
hear things not as they are, but as we are;
and we remember things not as they are,
but as we are.
So what we are—our general physi-
cal state, state of mind, unresolved inner
conflicts, fears, uncertainties, peculiarities
of our way of thinking, of perceiving the
world—all this influences our ability in
principle to keep or not to keep pitches in
memory—if to mean the long-term layer
of the problem.
Your daily state—physical and
moral, your mood today, today's prob-
lems and conflicts—being tired, unwell,
upset, angry—or today's positive events
and feelings will influence your percep-
tion and your ability to memorize, and
will bring about those shifts in results, this
instability of memory fusion I mentioned
before—our pitch memory can be blocked
and unblocked depending on what we are
today—what we feel and think today—if
to speak of the short-term aspect of this
problem.
If the color of certain pitches is not
clear, and it is often the cause of memory
being unable to keep pitches, it means that
inside you something is not yet clear, not
resolved. One of the most important pre-
requisites of excellent and stable memory
fusion is the ability to relax, to put aside
today's worries and troubles in the short-
term aspect of the idea, and to restructure,
to clarify your perception, to get rid of
fears, to heal, to resolve inner conflicts,
uncertainties, to reinforce positive aspects
of your world outlook in the long-term
aspect of the problem.
 "Out of sight, out of mind"—this
saying is very well applicable to those
who can't memorize pitches.
Let us adjust the saying to "out of
ear, out of memory."
To keep pitches in memory is the
part of being able to perceive the world
and to react on it holistically—the way,
when we always carry effortlessly all the
world inside us. We permit the world to
enter us, and at the same time we are the
part of the world, the world lets us in, we
are in full harmony with it. Perceiving and
reacting on the world this way, we can
possess what I call "true knowledge" (by
analogy with "true ear" of Konstantin
Saradjev).
"True knowledge" is holistic knowl-
edge which will always stay with us,
because it is part of us, we permitted this
knowledge to become part of us, we, as if,
diffuse with the knowledge, and what is
an intrinsic, unalienable part of us that
cannot be forgotten! Whereas people who
don't yet practice this approach easily for-
get even what they well know at this
moment—all this is also applicable to
musical pitches.
To have an inborn perfect pitch
memory is to have a part of this "true
knowledge." In people who develop per-
fect pitch the ability to keep pitches in
memory gradually develops from short-
term (out of ear, out of memory), to mid-
dle-term, and then to long-term, through
several intermediate stages.
Memory reacts on different pitches
in a different way. Some pitches can be
kept in memory easier than the other for a
certain person, because in many cases
pitch color of certain pitches is clearer
than pitch color of other pitches. Those
pitches the color of which is clearer can be
retained by memory better even at the ini-
tial stages of developing perfect pitch.
Also memory fusion works better in the
Memory Fusion-Problems and Solutions, or a Layer in Time Saves Nine 49
more familiar, more convenient register
and timbre.
At more advanced stages of devel-
oping perfect pitch a tone not recognized
in a certain octave can be recognized if
given in another octave.
For example, I play for the student
Ab in the highest octave of the piano, it is
not recognized, then I play this pitch in all
the other octaves and usually it leads to
recognition of the pitch—memory fusion
begins to work in a more familiar, more
convenient octave and register.
So, how do you stabilize, smooth
out memory fusion in all octaves? What is
necessary to be able to commit pitches in
all octaves to long-term memory?
For it I use the method which I call
"the method of putting on layers." The gist
of this method: after all the pitches in all
octaves on the piano were mastered by a
student and certain individual instabilities
became clear—what register is less conve-
nient (for some—upper, for some—
lower), what pitches are more persistently
elusive than the other—we begin to put on
a second layer, that is, to work again with
pitches in each octave of the piano, but the
order of adding the octaves is different.
Usually we begin the second layer with
the second octave above middle C, then
we move up, taking two upper octaves,
then—two lowest octaves—at first the
lowest but one, and then, the lowest, this
way encircling the two most convenient
and familiar octaves, with which we usu-
ally start developing perfect pitch—two
octaves—one above middle C and one
below it.
After we took all those octaves, we
return back to those convenient two—
above and below middle C, thus locking
the circle, and beginning the third layer,
only this time, for the third layer, we move
down—we take at first two lower octaves,
then three upper, then return back to
those two middle octaves etc.—this cycle in a row, tonal melodies the way it will be
can be repeated as many times as it is nec- described in subsequent chapters), and of
essary to smooth out, to stabilize the mem- course, aural recall should be demanded
orizing of all pitches in all octaves for each from the student; to imagine, to recall
student, according to his or her individual pitches exactly in that octave or octaves
tempo of development. a student is currently studying as the sec-
Some students would prefer to start ond layer octave or octaves.
the second layer from lower octaves, then While working thoroughly in a cer-
to take upper octaves, in this case the tain octave (or octaves) on the level of the
order of octaves taken in the second and second layer a teacher shouldn't neglect
third layers will be reversed. other octaves—it is necessary to continue
For some students it is enough to to work at them as it is usual for the first
put only a second layer, for pitch memory layer. A detailed description of all exer-
to become long-term. But this is rare. cises follows in the next chapters.
For many it is necessary to put As regards to relaxation, necessary
three and more layers. Of course the next to acquire true stability of your memory
layers will require an absolutely different fusion, I advise to practice the technique
approach to pitches than the first one. of meditation, Ayurvedic or any other
The first layer is a beginning—a style or another relaxation technique, for
student gets acquainted with the concept example, Alexander technique.
of pitch color, ties pitch color to certain
pitch locations, learns roughly to keep
pitches in memory, to recognize them
with increasing accuracy and speed.
In the second layer a student starts
already being acquainted with the pitch
color of each pitch, being able to locate
pitch colors, to recognize pitches, separate
and in intervals and chords, being able to
keep pitches in memory, only not yet sta-
ble. So the second layer means that the
student goes deeper in his or her percep-
tion of pitch color and pitch location,
therefore it is necessary to introduce new
exercises—more complex than before.
In the octaves on which the second
layer is put, it is necessary to cause com-
plete and thorough committing of pitches
to the long-term memory, so in the octave
(octaves) a student is currently working
on, a teacher should give a student
together with separate pitches all kinds of
vertical pitch combinations, all kinds of
horizontal successions of sounds—tonal
and atonal (random "volleys" of pitches
(see Appendix II)—four, five, six pitches

Memory Fusion-Problems and Solutions, or a Layer in Time Saves Nine 50

13 All About Aural Recall
T
o be able to recognize pitches is
externalized perfect pitch. To be
able to recall pitches from memory,
to imagine them—is internalized perfect
pitch.
To recall pitches from memory is
one of the aspects of the inborn perfect
pitch—it is also an ability that can be
developed.
Some specialists consider aural
recall one of the highest levels of perfect
pitch. And really, the ability to recognize
pitches comes to people who develop per-
fect pitch, often easier and faster than the
ability to recall pitches from memory, to
imagine them in every octave, in vertical
units. This is especially true, if to speak
about the initial stage of developing per-
fect pitch.
It is evident for everybody, that
when one hears a pitch, one reacts on
what one hears immediately, but when
one tries to imagine a pitch one only tries
to revive in the memory how he or she
previously reacted on this pitch. But that
is precisely the reason that I usually start
aural recall with my students when all
twelve pitches are recognized (by them)
more or less accurately in 3-4 octaves, that
is, when the pitches are committed more
or less to the long-term memory, and
therefore, the attempts to recall them are
not so frustrating, as they can be, if to start
recall at the very beginning of the process
of developing perfect pitch. On the con-
trary, at this stage many students even
enjoy the recall of pitches that are already
quite familiar.
There is one more reason not to
hurry with the introduction of aural recall.
There is an aspect, that makes aural recall
of separate pitches quite an easy and com-
fortable process—the possibility to always
imagine the pitch in the register, in the
timbre, in the octave that is the most con-
venient and clear in terms of pitch color
for you.
Often for women—it is the octave
above middle C, for men—the octave
below middle C, sometimes convenient
octaves may be even in the low or high
register. But this feeling—what octave is
more convenient, together with clarity of
pitch colors comes not at once—not at the
very first stage of development of perfect
pitch, so I advise to begin aural recall not
at the beginning, but later on.
It is much more difficult to imagine
a pitch in a concrete octave, and still more
difficult to imagine it in a concrete timbre,
so aural recall is subjected to timbral and
registral selectivity the same way the abil-
ity to recognize pitches is.
Imagining pitches—aural recall is
the most mysterious part of perfect pitch
and can develop in the most inexplicable
way.
There are people with whom aural
recall is preceding many stages of devel-
opment of pitch recognition. Some stu-
dents can exactly recall pitches from
memory even before their newly-devel-
oped perfect pitch is expanded in the
terms of range and vertically.
There are also people, whose per-
fect pitch is entirely or partially internal-
All About Aural Recall 51
ized. Those people can recall pitches from
memory, can imagine not only separate
pitches, but pitch units—triads, intervals.
But it is much more difficult for such a
person to recognize pitches when he or
she hears them. It is as if their external
auditory perception is somewhat blocked,
whereas the inner function of the ear—
auditory imagination—is working excel-
lently. But such people are rare.
Much more often it is vice versa—it
is difficult for a student to imagine with
their inner ear even an interval or a triad.
This ability should be developed gradu-
ally—from being able at first only to imag-
ine a generic color of the interval or
chord—for example, how a major triad or
minor triad sounds, how a perfect fifth or
minor second or a major sixth sounds, no
matter what pitches the unit comprises.
Then, the next stage—to be able to
follow with your inner ear a musical score,
imagining how the music sounds, follow-
ing only the relations between the
sounds—at first only to imagine separate
parts—melody, then, accompaniment,
then trying to imagine how all parts sound
together, regardless of the pitch aspect of
it; again, following only the relations.
The next stage—to try to imagine
separate pitches in the octave easiest for
you.
Then try to imagine vertical pitch
units in this convenient octave—at first—
triads, for example, F-A-C, or D-F#-A,
then—all intervals and other chords.
At first you'll be able to imagine
vertical pitch units only breaking them
into separate pitches, but the goal is to be
able to imagine them vertically, without
breaking them—exactly how they sound if
all pitches are played together. To be able
to do so it is necessary to be very well
acquainted with how these vertical units
sound—to play them many times on the
piano, listening to the generic color of each
unit and to the pitch color of each of them,
to work at them with a partner. In time
you'll be able to expand your aural imagi-
nation in the terms of register—to be able
to imagine pitches and pitch units in all
octaves.
Then try to follow a music score,
imagining exact pitches in separate
parts—melody, accompaniment, and in
parts, combined together.
The difficulty students encounter
most often is that they slide a half-step or
a whole-step down or up, or even more
than that, "missing" the necessary pitch
color.
Only in time the memory begins to
keep exact location of each color, as a stu-
dent goes from stage to stage—from the
acquaintance with pitches—to "dirty" per-
fect pitch—to horizontally and registrally
selective "clear" perfect pitch in the range
of two, then three octaves, then expanding
it to four or five, etc., octaves—to verti-
cally selective perfect pitch etc. Both rec-
ognition of pitches and aural imagination
go through all these stages.
Another difficulty students
encounter quite often—the difficulty to
imagine vertical units purely vertically,
without at first mentally breaking them
into separate pitches.
At first I allow my students to men-
tally break the units, to imagine first the
separate pitches, but then it is necessary to
unite them mentally—to try to imagine
how the unit sounds vertically.
For some students it helps greatly
in developing their aural recall if they try
to recollect a certain triad, reviving in the
memory a musical piece they know well
or are playing now, which is in a certain
key, for example, in Bb major. That, for
one of my Russian students, was always
connected with Prokofiev's "Alexander
Nevsky"—with that chorus in Bb major.
All About Aural Recall 52
 One more consideration: when you
externalize your aural imagination by
singing the pitch, your vocal chords them-
selves often can prompt you, "correcting"
your purely mental image of the pitch.
As you already know, our vocal
chords react on pitches with certain ten-
sion, and this, maybe, is one of the reasons
people sometimes show better recall than
recognition of pitches—there is the possi-
bility of vocal-chord help for them in their
recall.
Every student should strive to
develop a harmonious balance between
pitch recognition and aural recall, usually
it is only a question of time—it comes
gradually.
I address more about exercises
developing auditory imagination, and the
inner ear in "Grow a Row Stage II," Chap-
ter 17.

All About Aural Recall 53

14 Start Smart
V
ery often those who come to my
class to develop perfect pitch ask
me at the start: "Will my devel-
oped perfect pitch be exactly like inborn
perfect pitch?" I always answer: "And
what kind of inborn perfect pitch do you
mean—horizontally selective or timbrally
selective? Or selective in the terms of
range? Or all three? Or maybe you mean
"dirty" perfect pitch? This you will have
for sure. If you want higher levels of per-
fect pitch—it depends on your persever-
ance, courage, patience, and your desire
to reach this higher level."
Yes, reaching the higher level of
perfect pitch is for patient and courageous
people—for those who are not afraid to
plunge into the unknown and for those
who work persistently and patiently,
expecting not an immediate result, but a
deep and complete though gradual
restructuring of the apparatus of their
auditory perception.
The main enemy of many who wish
to develop perfect pitch is skepticism,
which makes some people impatient with
their progress—they seek immediate
proof that it is, indeed, possible for them
to develop pitch recognition, and they
want the results to come in the shortest
possible time.
Instead of a system of exercises,
such students expect to find a sort of
"philosophical stone" with the help of
which they will be able to wake up the
next morning and find themselves trans-
formed into entirely new beings, endowed
with full-blown universal perfect pitch!
But to approach the development
of perfect pitch realistically, one should be
ready to work for some time—to work dil-
igently, using the offered system of exer-
cises, going patiently from level to level,
gradually accumulating the necessary
skills.
How much time you will spend on
developing your perfect pitch is always
individual, and it depends on the level of
perfect pitch you decide to reach.
There are people who develop per-
fect pitch fast and harmoniously, some
progress by fits and starts, some—over-
coming difficulties in the beginning, then
progress fast, some—move faster at the
initial stage, but then begin experiencing
difficulties, and ultimately overcome them
and progress fast again at the later stages
of the process, some accumulate skills at
first slowly but steadily for quite a time,
and then have a sudden qualitative leap
and move very fast. To cut the long story
short, there is an infinite variety of indi-
vidual ways and tempi of developing per-
fect pitch.
I want to be absolutely honest with
those who are familiar with the advertis-
ing: "Perfect pitch in a month!" I do not
believe it is possible to develop perfect
pitch in a month! Minimal time for the
happy few is two semesters—that is, a full
school year. For the majority, however, it
takes a longer time—three, four, or more
semesters of study.
But ask yourself, if you want per-
fect pitch at least at the level of vertically
Start Smart 54
selective, isn't it the process, analogous to
learning to play an instrument?
Perfect pitch is a technique, and to
develop a really good technique of, for
example, piano playing, you need years.
Yes, years of adjustment of mind and
hands to the keyboard.
The same is with perfect pitch—to
adjust your mind and your ears to the key-
board of pitches takes time. Of course, less
time than one needs to become a virtuosic
piano performer. But, nevertheless, much
more time than some advertisements pro-
fess. Some of you who master the system
of exercises offered in this book will be
able to achieve the highest level of pitch
recognition and recall.
But for some to develop perfect
pitch would mean to have only selective
perfect pitch as a result, because perfect
pitch is virtuosic auditory technique and,
as with playing an instrument, some reach
the highest level of virtuosity, others, only
a certain level of it.
Still it is wonderful to have perfect
pitch even on a selective level! Much
depends on your own aspiration towards
a higher level, but in many cases your
impatience, lack of belief in the possibility
of reaching a higher level, and also lack of
diligence in practicing at home will hinder
the progress.
So—"How do you begin?"
What do you need, when you start
your perfect pitch exercises—no matter
whether you attend perfect pitch class, or
start this system of exercises with a part-
ner or on your own?
First and foremost you should
leave behind three things—your skepti-
cism, your fear and your tension—three
main obstacles that blocked your ear until
now.
From now on your motto will be—
"patience, courage and relaxation." Add to
it joyful inspiration and you will have the
necessary frame of mind to start your jour-
ney to perfect pitch.
Your physical and emotional state
always influence your perception—so if
today you are upset, unwell, tired, preoc-
cupied, or angry, agitated, unhappy, or
happy, joyful, jubilant—all will tell nega-
tively or positively on your perception
this day. Of course, often you can't help
being upset, or tired or whatever, but I ask
you not to be discouraged by the result of
such a day. You should know—in a differ-
ent emotional or physical state you will do
much better.
What else will you need? A piano
at home for practicing.
Electronic keyboards are out of the
question, if they are not touch-responsive.
You can, however, use a digital piano that
is touch-responsive.
The piano is chosen as an instru-
ment for developing perfect pitch by the
majority of teachers who teach pitch rec-
ognition. The reason for it is in the fact
that the piano is acknowledged as one of
the instruments on which the individual
qualities of pitches—pitch colors—are the
most obvious to the human ear. The piano
also gives all possible registers in the great
range of more than seven octaves, and
gives all possible vertical combinations of
pitches—thus a student using only one
instrument can gradually develop perfect
pitch in all octaves, in all registers used in
music, and go from horizontal to vertical
perfect pitch.
Of course those who play instru-
ments other than piano, will want to iden-
tify pitches on those instruments. That
will be much easier—but not a single
other instrument gives such an infinite
amount of vertical combinations (with the
exception of the organ and harpsichord)
and such a great range.
Practicing at home with a partner is
the best way to practice. You can also
Start Smart 55
practice at home yourself the way it is
described in the next chapters, working
with a partner or a teacher at least once a
week.
It is very important to organize
home practicing correctly and on a daily
basis.
It is much easier for children as
they will always have a parent or a sibling
as a partner, and they have time for their
studying.
For adults it is much more diffi-
cult—to find time every day to practice at
home, but it is best to organize it.
Time spent on these daily home
sessions will vary—some will need 5-7
minutes, some—10-15, at the first stage. In
the later stages it will be from 20 to 40
minutes, depending on your general level
of musicianship, your background in ear-
training, your personal difficulties and
peculiarities of development of pitch rec-
ognition and recall.
Also, it is desirable to have at least
some background in ear-training, at least
somewhat developed relative pitch, this
will facilitate the process of development
of pitch ear.
For those who never had any ear-
training it is better to begin with some
time (at least one semester) of relative
pitch ear-training before starting develop-
ing perfect pitch. You can start your per-
fect pitch lessons at any age—there are no
limitations in this aspect.

Start Smart 56
15 Grow a Row Stage I
S
o how do you correctly begin the
process of developing perfect
pitch? How do you start to grow a
row of pitches, gradually changing your
auditory perception, committing pitches
to memory? All exercises I give my stu-
dents I unite in several groups, with exer-
cises on developing the following:
i Sense of pitch color.
ii Sense of pitch location.
iii Aural recall
iv Auditory imagination.
v Pitch perception in a context.
My students develop perfect pitch
with the help of the piano (I remind you—
you shouldn't use an electronic keyboard
that is not touch-responsive), as I have
already mentioned in Chapter 14, "Start
Smart."
We start with getting acquainted
with the individuality of each pitch. Many
students experience a moment of great
inspiration and joy when they at the les-
son start to notice how each pitch
"behaves"—usually I explain the behavior
of 4 or 5 first pitches, and students them-
selves figure out the rest.
Some students, after realizing that
there exists something within each pitch
they previously didn't perceive, didn't
notice, will usually ask me: "How come
that we have never perceived all this
before? Maybe, you just explained to us
this concept and we ascribe to each tone a
meaning, a color, a behavior which is in
reality not there for us?"
I answer always this way: "Up till
now you have never perceived the twelve
pitches as I explained. The reason for it is
the same as for everybody who starts
learning something new—only after some
time, learning more and more, you can
show all your latent abilities for it.
For example, when you start play-
ing the piano, only very few would have
an inborn, natural hand position. All oth-
ers must be taught, must be shown what
to do, how to hold their hands on the
piano. But later on a person with inborn
hand position and the person who was
taught how to position the hands on the
piano may show equal progress. Only the
gift of the second person was latent, till the
teacher awakened it.
The same is with perfect pitch—
some naturally, without help from outside
perceive everything that should be per-
ceived in the pitch, but many need help
from outside to awaken their latent ability
to perceive the pitches the way I just
described."
The initial stage of the work begins
with four pitches—C, E, G, B, and only in
two octaves—above middle C and below
middle C.
Why those four pitches?
My pedagogical experience con-
vinced me that these pitches are the easiest
pitches to begin with: C is being perceived
as somewhat basic by the majority of peo-
ple, all four pitches are on an approxi-
mately equal distance from each other,
and the bigger the distance the easier it is
to locate the pitch—bigger distances facili-
Grow a Row Stage I 57
tate the perception by giving better indica-
tion as to the location of each pitch, it is
the closeness of spaces in the row of
twelve pitches that is the main obstacle to
perceive exact pitch location, also these
four pitches are so different in their behav-
ior:
• C—goes down
• E—aside
• G—after a small jump goes forward
• B—up
I remind you—
• C—heavy, in-between bright and
mellow, more on the bright side,
the fall is long
• E—"wavy," mellow and gentle, also
plaintive
• G—sweetly bright
• B—very bright, piercingly so, going
up precipitously
Read again attentively Chapter 6, "Esthet-
ics of Synesthetics."
So we start with four pitches with
the distance of a third from each other.
There is only one place where there is a
half-step between pitches—the space
between B of the octave below middle C
and the middle C itself. But as the pitch
colors of these two pitches—B and C are
drastically different, this closeness pre-
sents a very small or no difficulty.
At the first lesson a teacher, how-
ever, should present all 12 pitches to the
student(s), to play them to the student(s)
on the piano and to explain the "behavior,"
the color of each of the 12 pitches: "This is
C, it is heavy, it is in-between bright and
mellow, more on the bright side, it goes
down like this..." Then draw the pitch C
on the blackboard:
C
Also show it with a gesture. I have stu-
dents, who develop gesture reaction on
pitches, and this is very helpful at the first
stage of developing their pitch ear.
Then play C#, explain, draw on the
blackboard and show with a gesture its
behavior, etc.
C#
This way you will explain the
"behavior" of the half of the pitches, (4-5-6-
7 of them in the lower part of the octave
above middle C, the exact number will
depend on how the students react on your
explanation) and all the rest of the pitches
just play, for students themselves to try to
figure out the "behavior" of each pitch, but
you should immediately help, if you see,
that the student(s) have some difficulty,
especially with such pitches as F#, G, Ab,
the "behavior" of which is more compli-
cated.
Help the students, asking ques-
tions: "Is it wavy or not? Does it go up or
down, or stay on one plane? If on one
plane, does it really stay, or does it move
in a certain way—does it swirl? Is it bright
or mellow?" etc.
Grow a Row Stage I 58
 How does the student work cor-
rectly with C, E, G and B?
First and foremost, clear for your-
self the seventh dimension of pitch color
of all four pitches.
Some colors may be quite clear for
you from the start, some will be persis-
tently unclear, in some cases—at first
you'll perceive a certain pitch color not in
a way I explained, but then, after getting
acquainted with pitches better, your per-
ception of this pitch color will change, to
the direction I showed.
So concentrate your efforts on four
pitches—C, E, G, B, play them on the
piano, listening attentively to each of them
only in two octaves mentioned above,
while listening, try to penetrate the indi-
vidual character of each pitch, its behav-
ior, where it goes, whether it is wavy or
straight, and what is its individual
essence.
Then compare these colors, this
way you'll begin to group them, to estab-
lish a row of them. This way you'll begin
to also perceive each pitch contextually—
on the background of what preceded it,
and thus from the very first steps encoun-
ter the problem of contextual recoloring of
pitches and learn to overcome it.
Perceive the location of each pitch
in the row, try to diffuse mentally both
feelings—of pitch color and of pitch loca-
tion, play pitches at first in the octave
above middle C, then—in the octave
below it, perceive the difference in the
tints of pitch colors when the octave
changes—this way you'll encounter and
begin to overcome another difficulty—the
tie of pitch perception to the register, to
the octave.
For some the octave above middle
C will be easier to work with, for some—
the octave below it. In time it should not
make a difference. Let your partner play
these four pitches on the piano, in both
octaves, in all possible horizontal succes-
sions, for you to recognize them.
Also you should work with all pos-
sible vertical combinations of the same
four pitches—there will be a small number
of intervals and chords:
• two perfect fifths C-G and E-B
• two perfect fourths G-C, B-E
• two major thirds C-E, G-B
• a minor third E-G
• two minor sixths E-C, B-G
• a major sixth G-E
• a major seventh C-B
• a minor second B-C
• two triads—major (C-E-G) and
minor (E-G-B)
• major major 7th chord (C-E-G-B)
and their inversions.
Listen attentively how each of these
intervals and chords sound, paying atten-
tion to the third, resultative, color that
comes up as a result of blending: how, for
example, the presence of heavy C in the
fifth C-G makes it much more solid and
substantial that the fifth E-B, in which the
piercing brightness of B that goes up
makes this interval bright and very light
by weight. Some of you will be able from
the very first steps to perceive the inter-
vals and chords vertically; that is, when
the interval sounds unbroken.
Sometimes one of the pitches will
be clearer than the other (others), and it is
possible to figure out what is the second
pitch using relative ear. But many will
have difficulty in discerning the pitches in
unbroken intervals and chords. In such
cases it is necessary to break the interval
(chord), that is, to play the sounds of it in
succession for the student to perceive it
horizontally.
Many people at first can only
develop a horizontal perception of
pitches, only later on moving to vertical
combinations, to unbroken intervals and
Grow a Row Stage I 59
chords. So let your partner play the inter-
vals and chords comprised of these four
pitches in a way that is convenient for
you—unbroken, or broken, vertically or
horizontally.
What you can also do yourself,
without a partner, is listen to each of the
four pitches—you play the keys at first,
closing your eyes (switching off this way
your visual analyzer, concentrating only
on aural perception) and then—opening
you eyes, playing these keys again and lis-
tening with open eyes, thus checking and
reinforcing your perception, always pay-
ing attention to whether you still perceive
with open eyes all that you perceive when
your eyes are closed.
But in all cases it is necessary at
least once a week to meet somebody who
can play the keys on the piano for you—to
check your progress.
If you are a teacher who intends to
develop pitch recognition in your students
with the help of this book—tell them at the
end of the first lesson that their home-
work will start with only four pitches—C,
E, G, B—in the range of two octaves,
above and below middle C.
At the next lesson(s) play for your
student(s) at first separate pitches C, E, G,
B in one octave, then in another, then leap-
ing—giving pitches, alternating the
octaves—one pitch in one octave, one in
another.
Next give the student(s) horiz-
ontal progressions—random "volleys" of
sounds, or small melodies—as oral dicta-
tions. Then—give intervals and chords
comprised out of the four pitches C-E-G-B
in a way convenient for the student—ver-
Rhythm Line
tically or horizontally. Finally give a writ-
ten dictation—a melody comprising these
four pitches.
If you teach a group, ask each stu-
dent to recognize separate pitches, playing
for each student the full set, so to say—as I
described above, then—give each student
1-2 oral dictations, that consist of 4-5
sounds, then—intervals, chords—better to
give each student one interval or chord at
a time, going through many "rounds" of it;
this way students will stay more alert and
attentive even towards the end of the les-
son.
I again emphasize—horizontal suc-
cession can be just random, the way for
each pitch to sound as if it is separated
from others, or it can be a short melody,
utilizing only these four pitches—C, E, G,
B, or it can be a "volley" of three, four, or
five sounds only—3-4-5 pitches given in
rapid succession—for a student to listen to
it 2-3 times, to memorize it and to name
the pitches in it (examples of such "vol-
leys" are in Appendix II).
Parallel with this I always offer stu-
dents a creative exercise—to compose
small melodies from only these four
pitches—C, E, G, and B, using rhythmic
patterns. Even the simplest patterns, such
as the Rhythm Line shown at the bottom
of this page can give a great variety of
combinations—pitches used only in one
octave, pitches used in both octaves—
leaping to and fro etc.
While playing the pitches, singing
them in the process of filling in the rhyth-
mic pattern, try to pay attention to pitch
color, to the pitch location of each—this
Grow a Row Stage I 60
exercise will help commit pitches to mem-
ory.
At first, using only four pitches,
you'll be able to compose very simple mel-
odies, but gradually, when you add more
and more pitches, your compositions will
become more complicated. Those who are
gifted creatively, can compose, using only
the pitches they currently study, pieces in
any style, any level of complexity, treat-
ing 5-6-7-8 etc. pitches they study as, for
example, a mode, or a pitch row, that con-
sists of 6-7-8-9- etc. pitch-classes, compos-
ing pieces in serial or modal techniques.
Rhythmic patterns also can be
increasingly complex and intricate. But
this exercise can be more time-consuming,
only those who can afford some time for it
should do more complicated types of it,
those who can't spend much time on it
should work only with the shortest, sim-
plest rhythmic patterns, spending on this
exercise not more than five minutes a day.
Another exercise I obligatory give
at the start is the exercise on pitch location.
Each octave (which I count from C
to C) is divided into three parts with four
notes in them—bottom part, middle part,
top part.
The bottom part includes pitches C,
C , D, D#; middle part—E, F, F#, G; top
#
part—Ab, A, Bb, B.
The student identifies the place, the
location of the tone that was played, with-
out naming the exact pitch, only telling to
what part of the octave—bottom, middle
or top—this pitch belongs.
Don't ask what is the octave, it
doesn't matter, pitch location is only a
place of a pitch in a row of twelve pitches.
This exercise, as you understand,
from the very first day is not limited to
only two octaves in which we study four
initial pitches—C, E, G, B. We should give
pitches throughout the keyboard, thus
developing the sense of pitch location, and
at the same time a sense of register.
Usually I remind the student of the
pitch C during this exercise many times,
playing it again and again.
At first students just compare the
location of the given pitch with C, thus
accumulating the sense of pitch location at
first in comparison with the given tone,
but gradually, especially for those whose
sense of location is naturally good, it is
possible to stop reminding, that is, play-
ing, the C, students will be able to answer
correctly without needing the orientation
point. This exercise rivets the attention of
the student to the place of each tone in the
row of twelve pitches—something that
they never paid attention to before.
Sometimes students experience dif-
ficulties in recognizing the place of so-
called borderline notes—Eb-E; G-Ab; chil-
dren may experience difficulty in under-
standing the concept of how a tone low in
terms of register can be at the same time in
the upper part of the octave and vice
versa.
Later on, when the feeling of pitch
color will unite with the sense of pitch
location, when perfect pitch is expanded
in terms of range, to other octaves there
will be no necessity in this exercise.
Even at this initial stage, working
with four pitches, some students may
experience difficulties with a certain "stub-
born" pitch—most often it is G, then E,
rarer C, almost never B.
To help this pitch settle peacefully
in the ear and memory of the student I
offer what I call the "cat and dog" exer-
cise/game. The persistently, stubborn and
difficult pitch is renamed "cat" or "dog," a
teacher or a partner plays the pitch in suc-
cession with the other three, constantly
returning to it, playing it as every third or
even second pitch, the student then identi-
fies the pitches, calling the difficult one
Grow a Row Stage I 61
"cat" or "dog" instead of E or G, the sense But I want to emphasize that my
of this game—what is renamed, as if this own pedagogical experience shows, in the
changes its significance—the attention is majority of cases, these four initial pitches
riveted to the pitch which should be will be mastered in 1-2 weeks. If you are a
renamed much more than if it were teacher, much depends on whether you
named the usual way—E or G. are a teacher of ear-training and music
Out of these four pitches G is the theory, who can dedicate the whole lesson
most difficult. A student should be most to developing pitch recognition and recall
attentive to the initial little jump up, in your students, or you are a piano (vio-
before G starts to move forward—if this lin, clarinet, etc.) teacher, who can spare
little jump is missed by the ear, the pitch only 5-10 minutes of the lesson to play
will be perceived as only forward—going pitches for a student.
pitch, and later on could be easily mixed
with D, which goes forward without this
initial jump.
A student should practice at home
daily, starting with 5-10 minutes practic-
ing, then, when we add pitches, the time
of home practicing will increase.
What exercises out of those offered
in this book, each session will involve
depends on many factors—whether you
have a partner for home practice or not,
whether this is the home practicing of a
child or of an adult. It all depends on you
or your student(s) individual needs and
the peculiarities of your/his/her develop-
ment; the tempo of your/his/her progress
and the difficulties you/he/she encoun-
ter.
How much time usually one
spends on four initial pitches—most often
it is just one week, sometimes two weeks,
sometimes—less than a week.
I intentionally didn't present this
process as a succession of lessons—Lesson
I, Lesson II, etc., because much depends
on who reads this book—a teacher, a stu-
dent, or a musician of post-college age;
and if a musician—whether professional
or an amateur, and what are the possibili-
ties of the student to work with a partner.
I presented it as a succession of
stages—how many lessons each stage will
take—will be determined by many indi-
vidual factors and circumstances.

Grow a Row Stage I 62

16 Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation)
A
s soon as these first four pitches
are recognized well enough in the
two octaves we start working
with, a student should add the fifth
pitch—A in both octaves—above and
below middle C.
The ear acquires a first barrier it has
to overcome—after A is added, there will
be a place in the pitch row that is compar-
atively densely packed with pitches, there-
fore the sense of pitch location should
ascend to the higher level, the sense of
pitch color should become more acute—in
G, A, B, the ear will deal with three pitch
colors in a row that are perceived as
"bright," and it is necessary to discern the
individual character of the "brightness" of
each of those pitches.
I remind you—A goes up, it is
"wavy"—goes up as a narrow spiral. Add-
ing A takes from one to two weeks usu-
ally, sometimes less, sometimes more
time.
A
As soon as the pitch A is incorpo-
rated by ear, and is securely recognized in
both octaves, the student adds another
pitch—D, filling in the gap in the lower
Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) 63
part of the octave. D goes forward and is
mellow.
D
I have noticed, that students per-
ceive and commit to memory the pitches
in the upper part of the octave much eas-
ier, than in the lower part of it. D may
present more difficulties than A. Gener-
ally, the more the gaps are filled, the more
difficult it is to incorporate each new
pitch—the process of addition begins
often to shake all the newly built edifice.
For some this process would be smooth
and painless—all are individual.
After D is incorporated, the next
pitch should be added—F.
F
F goes down, the fall is short, F is
firm, on the mellow side, though less mel-
low than D and E.
With the addition of this pitch all
the white keys of the octave will be taken,
all the seven pitches of the diatonic row.
Details concerning all dimensions of pitch
color, and especially, the most important
seventh dimension are included in Chap-
ter 6.
Some students, having all seven
diatonic pitches may begin to slide up and
down a whole or half-step because the
color of each pitch is not quite clear yet,
the memory isn't quite trained to keep
pitches—it is not able as yet always to
unite all the components of pitch percep-
tion in memory fusion.
But for many students with well-
developed relative pitch it is a very pleas-
ant time—together with listening to pitch
color, to pitch location, they also can easily
perceive those seven pitches relatively.
Many such students tell me that it
is blissfully easy for them—they perceive
the pitches as degrees of the C major scale.
This is, as if, an intermediate stage that
exists between relative pitch and perfect
pitch—students can't help comparing
pitches, having only seven "white" of them
that form the C major scale, but at the
same time they already began to perceive
the individuality of each note—relative
pitch doesn't prevent the sense of pitch
color from developing.
I always warn my students: "Don't
try to suppress relative functions of your
ear. They won't harm your sense of pitch,
quite the contrary—your ear at this initial
stage receives mighty help that is essential
in coping with so many difficulties it has
to overcome."
If such a student with developed
relative pitch can correctly name the first
pitch that is given to him or her, it is an
indicator that perfect pitch is appearing.
Sometimes it is necessary to con-
stantly struggle with students who try
mentally to isolate each pitch they hear,
being afraid to compare. Violating their
natural and involuntary process of com-
paring pitches by making an effort not to
compare, such a student also blocks out
and hinders his or her perception of com-
Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) 64
ponents of the pitch—such as pitch color
and pitch location.
Of course, students shouldn't make
the opposite effort to compare pitches, but
if the interval between the pitches or the
function of this pitch as the degree of C
major scale is clear effortlessly, involun-
tarily to a student—it is only a help, not a
hindrance on the way to developing per-
fect pitch.
I emphasize again, one shouldn't
try to suppress this ability.
To master seven pitches—C, D, E,
F, G, A, B—usually takes six to seven
weeks, sometimes longer. There are peo-
ple for whom it takes the whole semes-
ter—and there are people—mainly with
excellent relative pitch, for whom this
stage can be very short—less than six
weeks.
Practicing at home should also
increase to fifteen minutes.
Of course, it is understandable that
it is necessary to work at these seven
pitches as I described in the previous
chapter—to work at them the way you
worked at C, E, G, and B. It is necessary to
listen and to identify separate pitches,
working with a partner; to identify pitches
in mini-dictations, "volleys" of pitches, 4-
5-6 sounds in succession and in melodies
comprised of the pitches students cur-
rently study. "Volleys" should be
answered orally, melodies can be given as
a dictation to write or as an oral dictation.
You should work with intervals
and chords comprised out of the pitches
you or your student(s) currently study the
way I described in the previous chapter.
For the vastest majority of students
at this stage it is necessary to break every
interval and chord for them to be able to
identify the pitches in it, but there are stu-
dents, for whom the verticalization of
their perfect pitch is easy, they can be
given unbroken intervals and chords of
any structure out of the pitches they cur-
rently study.
If you are a teacher, you may incor-
porate into your perfect pitch lesson rela-
tive ear-training, by explaining to your
students intervals and chords parallel
with adding pitches. With the initial
pitches C, E, G, B—explain major and
minor triads, the major major 7th chord,
and m2, M2, m3, M3, P4, P5, m6, M6, and
M7.
When adding A, add m7 and minor
minor 7th chord; adding D and F, add
dim. triad, the tritone, and dominant 7th
chord, half-diminished 7th chord. Of
course, give triads and 7th chords with
inversions, explaining the mechanism of
inversion to the students.
There is an easy way to tell what is
the inversion of a triad, by noticing what
part of the chord sounds larger—bottom
part or upper part—in the 1st inversion
bottom part is smaller (a 3rd) and upper
part is larger (a 4th), in the 2nd inversion
bottom part is larger (a 4th) and upper
part is smaller (a 3rd).
To describe the inversions of the
7th chord I use the concepts of a migrating
interval of a 2nd:
• In the 1st inversion (6-5) of any 7th
chord 2nd will be above, at the top
of the chord (example—in D6-5; B,
D, F-G-2nd).
• In the 2nd inversion (4-3) it will be
in the middle of the chord (D4-3 D,
F-G-2nd, B).
• In the 3rd inversion (4-2) it will be
at the bottom of the chord (D4-2; F-
G-2nd, B, D).
Also continue exercises on pitch
location; and continue working with
pitches, composing short melodies, using
rhythmic patterns the way it was
described in the previous chapter (for
those who compose music it is possible to
Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) 65
write more complex pieces, using pitches
that are currently studied).
I remind you again—to work at
seven pitches only in two octaves—above
and below middle C.
Of course, continue games such as
"cat and dog," and the inventive teacher
can offer students, especially children,
many games of such kind.
Parallel with this—add new exer-
cises:
Take all "white" triads—major and
minor, as vertical units as soon as seven
pitches—C, D, E, F, G, A, B—are mastered.
It is possible to introduce the triads
gradually—taking at first C major, A
minor, E minor, then adding G major,
then—F major and D minor following the
order of the pitches added.
A diminished triad B-F-D is easily
identified among all major and minor tri-
ads.
It is an easy exercise, because the
choice is very narrow—all in all—three
major and three minor triads, and it is
easy because the majority of students with
developed relative pitch are able to per-
ceive them relatively—functionally within
C major. Also many students tell me that
the color of each triad—that "third" resul-
tative color, that comes as interblending of
colors of the three pitches of a certain
triad—is much clearer to them, than the
color of separate pitches.
If to speak about the "7th dimen-
sion"—about the "behavior" of each triad
as units—I would like to emphasize, that
if in a triad one pitch goes down, two stay
on one plane, like in a C-E-G triad, it will
produce an impression of something that
goes down.
If there is a triad like E-G-B, one
pitch goes up, two stay on one plane, it
will produce an impression of going up.
If in a triad like A-C-E one pitch
goes up, another goes down, and the third
is on one plane, pitches going opposite
directions counterbalance each other, and
the triad will produce an impression of
staying on one plane.
If in a triad like F-A-C two pitches
go down and one goes up, it still will pro-
duce an impression of going down.
Make sure that the direction, and
other dimensions of the color of each triad
are clear to you—play each triad many
times on the piano yourself.
How do you work with triads?
The way you work with separate
pitches, at first—yourself, then—a partner
plays a triad, you try to recognize it as a
vertical unit, in an unbroken form.
More about vertical units will be in
the next chapters, but for now I want only
to mention that for many it is a rule: all
vertical units are more "colored" than sep-
arate pitches, the more sounds there are in
the vertical unit, the more evident is the
color, this is mainly because vertical units
are so numerous that it is difficult to verti-
calize one's perfect pitch, not because the
color is not clear.
I usually play for my students those
"white" triads in both octaves—above and
below middle C. This way G major and A
minor triads in the octave above middle C
will include upper pitch that will be in the
next octave, even before a student begins
to add this octave in terms of separate
pitches.
Mastering "white" triads, students
encounter this "color of relationship" I
mentioned in previous chapters, and learn
to perceive it together with the color of
each triad.
It is possible to start, together with
"white" triads, certain "white" intervals as
vertical units—I usually begin with per-
fect fifths—they, as a rule, are the easiest
pitch units among intervals for the vastest
majority; begin only with fifths, I empha-
Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) 66
size, comprised of the seven pitches—C,
D, E, F, G, A, B.
The diminished fifth B-F should be
easily recognized as different to perfect
fifths; then to add thirds—major and
minor, also "white," sometimes it is possi-
ble even to add "white" sixths—major and
minor, but an average student usually can
only take fifths and thirds.
I again stress—all intervals and
chords are taken as units—each having its
own pitch color, which is a result of blend-
ing of two or more pitch colors that are
included in this unit, by no means you
should consider a vertical unit to be a sim-
ple superimposition of pitch colors. I
remind you—if one pitch in the interval
goes up, another down—they counterbal-
ance each other, the interval stays on one
plane, if one pitch goes up (or down),
another stays on one plane, the interval
produces an impression of going up (or
down).
It is very interesting to witness the
process—how each student perceives this
blending in each unit—what color domi-
nates in the blending in the perception of a
certain person: the definitions of pitch
color of vertical units are much more indi-
vidualized, than of separate pitches.
But for some students verticaliza-
tion of their pitch ear is extremely diffi-
cult, and at this stage it may be even
impossible for them to master many verti-
cal units if to perceive them truly verti-
cally.
So the work at intervals and chords
goes by two tracks—one track is to give a
student (partner) intervals and chords in a
way convenient for him/her—for the
majority it will be necessary to break
them, and this way it is possible to give
students any combinations—intervals and
chords.
Another track would be to try to
master some—for many students a very
limited amount of—truly vertical, unbro-
ken units—triads and some intervals.
I again would like to remind you,
that there are students, who can easily rec-
ognize pitches in unbroken intervals and
chords, in this case give them any vertical,
that is, unbroken, combinations of the
pitches they currently study.
Another type of exercise that is nec-
essary to introduce at this stage is not con-
nected with recognition of pitches, but is
directed to help recognize pitches in cer-
tain contextual situations—I mean the
exercise "whole-step—half-step."
As soon as five, six, seven pitches
are introduced in two octaves, the prob-
lem of perception of pitches on the dis-
tance of a seventh or ninth begins. For
some reason for many students this con-
textual situation leads to mistakes. So it is
very important for students, first and fore-
most, to master the "trill technique" I
described earlier. But to master it truly
well, one should excellently discern
between half and whole-steps.
So I play a sequence of half and
whole-steps, starting from one and the
same pitch, downwards, or upwards—for
example, A-G-F#-E-D, then I change the
sequence of half and whole-steps, A-G#-
F#-E-D#, then change it again, A-G-F-E-
D#, then again, A-G#-G-F-E, then, A-G#-
F#-F-Eb, etc.
When this exercise of half and
whole-steps starts from one and the same
pitch—it throws into bold relief the differ-
ence in half and whole-steps, and repeti-
tions of the same half and whole-steps that
occur help keep in memory this differ-
ence.
Then I play such an exercise
upwards, for example—E-F-F#-G#-A, then
E-F#-G-G#-A#, then E-F#-G#-A-A#, etc.
Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) 67
A student should only tell whether
he or she hears a half or whole-step,
regardless of pitches. Pitches are not iden-
tified by students in this exercise. The sec-
ond variant of this exercise is to play a
succession of major and minor ninths in
one direction—downwards, then up-
wards, starting from the upper or from the
lowest octave. The student answers a half-
step if it was the distance of a minor ninth,
a whole-step if it was a major ninth.
Then play a succession of minor
and major sevenths the same way—
upwards and downwards, the student
answers a half-step when the seventh is
major, a whole-step when the seventh is
minor. Then mix together sevenths and
ninths—downwards, then upwards.
Now make these distances even
larger—ninth in four octaves, then sev-
enth in two octaves, etc., alternating the
directions.
Gradually students will be aware
that a whole-step remains a whole-step,
no matter whether the pitches that com-
prise it, are in the same octave, or one of
the pitches is taken by the leap of five
octaves. And that a pitch a half or whole-
step apart is always a neighbor, no matter
whether it is in the same octave, or taken
by leap.
"Trill technique" is a skill to instan-
taneously bring mentally to trill position
towards the first pitch any next pitch at
the distance of a seventh or ninth, or a
compound seventh or ninth at a distance
of any amount of octaves.
I described it in detail in Chapter 9,
"What Color is the Relationship."
Together with these exercises it is
possible to start to develop auditory imag-
ination, at first giving students the task to
imagine not pitches, but only elements,
pertaining to the sphere of relative pitch—
to imagine how a major or minor triad
sounds, how an interval—be it perfect
fourth or minor seventh—sounds, to be I'll describe in detail such exercises
able to follow the relations between the as "volleys" of pitches and dictations in the
tones in the musical score, regardless of next chapter.
the pitches. Here I want only to mention that
Some students even at this stage sometimes it is possible even at this stage
may try to imagine pitches they currently to give students broken clusters of pitches,
study—after all seven white pitches were when at least five, six, and of course seven
taken; usually it goes with great difficulty, pitches are taken. This exercise brings
so it is better not to ask them in the class- nearer the verticalization of perfect pitch
room, but give it as a home-task, for a stu- which at first develops only as horizontal.
dent just to try, and not to be frustrated if Usually I play eight-nine-ten
pitches persistently slide up or down, for pitches together, only those we study, and
many it is too early to do it on any level in both octaves, doubling some pitches.
other than a mere attempt. After hearing a vertical cluster for a
I want to dwell more on the hori- couple of times, a student usually is able
zontal elements students master at this to name the lowest or the highest pitch—
stage. for some the lower notes are clearer, for
Playing for a student pitches at first some — the upper.
in one octave and then in another is only Then I break this vertical combina-
the first part of the exercise. It is necessary tion of pitches, playing them in succes-
to also give pitches alternately—one pitch sion, a student already knowing the upper
in one octave, another pitch in another or the lower tone, identifies all the rest of
octave. the pitches, going up or down.
Though we at this stage have only This exercise is especially good in
two octaves, still the ear will have a small helping develop the sense of pitch row.
barrier of register to overcome, when the
leap from octave to octave occurs.
And also it broadens the choice of
pitches—within one octave a student
moves in some cases by the method of
exclusion—"it may be only this, it can't be
that"—because all the tones are so near
each other, and the location of each—top,
bottom or middle part of the octave—is so
clear, but as soon as we leap from one
octave to the other, it is absolutely a differ-
ent picture, some students lose the sense
of location—it is not so clear for them,
what is top, what is bottom or middle—
after D in the octave below middle C, F in
the octave above middle C may seem
something that is in the top part, because
it is so much higher than the previous
pitch.

Grow a Row Stage 1 (Continuation) 68

17 Grow a Row Stage 2
Filling in the Gaps
T
he horizontal perception of the
pitches will continue to develop
further when you add "black"
pitches—one at a time, in the same two
octaves above and below middle C.
The first pitch you add will be F#. It
is the easiest of all the "black" pitches to
take as the first—by pitch color it is one of
the brightest, its behavior is very peculiar,
also it is in the middle of the octave—on
the background of all "white" pitches it
sticks out in such bold relief! But still it is a
tremendous qualitative leap for the ear of
many students to incorporate it.
The diatonical bliss of the C major
scale, which previously was so enjoyed by
many students with developed relative
pitch comes to an end—with the first black
key added it becomes much more difficult
to compare, though involuntarily, the
pitches. The addition of the first chromatic
element for some students may shake the
edifice of their developing perfect pitch
for some time.
If such is the case, you should give
the ear a couple of weeks to get accus-
tomed to the new chromatic element, to
the loss of the ear's facile ability to com-
pare pitches within C major.
But for many students this note is
incorporated easily and painlessly, swiftly
too—it seems to many too conspicuous by
its pitch color to be mixed up with any of
the "white" pitches. From the time you
take F# you begin real transition from the
intermediate state of your ear, in between
relative and perfect pitch, to real perfect
pitch.
Grow a Row Stage 2, Filling in the Gaps 69
I offer the following exercise to help
incorporate F# and to develop the percep-
tion of the difference in colors of all white
and black keys as groups. Play at first in
rapid tempo a C major scale upwards in
one octave—above middle C, and then—
immediately after the scale—play F#, and
hold it for a moment, then repeat the pro-
cess several times—F# will stand out in
bold relief on the background of all
"white" pitches. Then repeat the exercise
in the octave below middle C.
For all details concerning the sev-
enth and all other dimensions of pitch
color of F# and all other "black" pitches—
see Chapter 6, "Esthetics of Synesthetic."
After F#, add one by one all other
"black" pitches in order: Bb, then C#, then
Eb, the last will be Ab.
Bb, after F# is incorporated, is con-
sidered a very convenient, easy pitch, the
same is with Ab (many students say that
Ab is the most pleasant, easiest tone to
add), C# and Eb are the pitches that offer
resistance—though C# is considered "on
the bright side" by the vastest majority,
also students agree that it is not a pleasant
pitch, that it emanates certain negative
energy that interferes with the perception
of this pitch for some people; Eb is resis-
tant not only because of its negative
energy, but also because of the mellow-
ness of its pitch color (I would say—grey-
ish mellowness), this mellowness added to
fill the gap in the area tightly packed with
mellow and mellowish pitches—D, E, F
are mellow or "on the mellow side," that is
the reason that at the first stage, before the
behavior and specific aspect of the mel-
lowness of each of these pitches are clear,
before a person also starts to perceive by
ear always which key is white which is
black, this pitch—Eb may be mixed up
with D, or E, or even F. Or sometimes—
with C#—for those who feel already the
difference between black and white keys,
but for whom the behavior of these
pitches—Eb and C#—is not very clear yet,
though the feeling of location is already
approximately correct.
From the time the first "black" pitch
is added the tempo and character of your
development will become even more indi-
vidualized—for some, after having diffi-
culties with F#, all other "black" notes will
be added easily, for some—it will be easy
to incorporate F# and Bb, but then there
will be difficulties with C# and/or Eb,
though Ab will be easy again; for some—
F# and Bb will be more difficult, then,
unexpectedly, C# or Eb will be easy, etc.
But at the end of your work with
"black" pitches in these two octaves—
everything smoothes up for everyone.
Generally, people perceive "black" pitches
as more "colored,"—the pitch colors of
"black" pitches seem more clear, more
obvious than those of "white" pitches, so if
to speak of time spent on black keys—you
will, in most cases, spend not more but
less time on "black" pitches, than on
"white."
Work at "black" pitches the same
way you worked at "white," doing the
same exercises I described in the previous
chapter.
I want here to dwell a little more on
"volleys" of pitches, or oral mini-dictations
of 4-5 notes.
Grow a Row Stage 2, Filling in the Gaps 70
This exercise I especially like to
give to my students, because it combines
the contextuality of the pitch perception
with the autonomy of each pitch—it is not
a tonal melody, it is an atonal succession
of pitches, actually a random succession of
them, but the effect of "recoloring" of a
pitch on the background of what preceded
it exists here too.
Sometimes, depending on the com-
bination of these four or five pitches, the
"volley" is more convenient for one's ear,
and sometimes certain pitches, succeeding
one another, create a very inconvenient
context for the ear, as if the color of a pitch
after a certain pitch, on a certain back-
ground, seems obscured or changed.
Volleys should include pitches in
both octaves—above and below middle C,
sometimes two pitches in one octave, and
two in the other, sometimes three in one
octave, one or two in the other, sometimes
going only upwards or downwards,
sometimes two sounds upwards, two
downwards, etc.
I want to stress—the student
should listen to the "volley" not more than
3-4 times, then answer. Some will need for
the "volley" to be played for them in slow
tempo. Examples of volleys—see Appen-
dix II.
In full-size, one-part written dicta-
tions (I compose them myself) I usually
use only the pitches students currently
study in the melody embracing the range
of two octaves—above and below middle
C, at first only "white" pitches, utilizing
them in dictations in order of how they are
added, then I gradually add into the melo-
dies all the "black" pitches—in the order
we add them, so only when the last
pitch—Ab—is added, I use in dictations all
twelve pitches.
Together with tonal melodies from
the beginning I give as dictations melodies
that are not tied to tonality, further on dic-
tations are mainly atonal, though I also
give densely chromaticized tonal melodies
too (see examples of dictations in Appen-
dix III).
When I dictate a melody, I never
tell the students what is the key if the dic-
tation is tonal, and I never tell what is the
first note of the atonal dictations—stu-
dents must identify it themselves.
However, I always give students a
tonic triad before I start to play a tonal dic-
tation—for them to identify what is the
key and to recognize pitches in this triad.
And I ask my students—what is the first
note (or notes in 2-3-4-part dictations ) if
the dictation is atonal, they identify the
first note (notes), then I start playing the
dictation.
Full-size dictations are more time-
consuming, so I recommend "volleys" for
home-practicing with a partner, and full-
size dictations for classroom work, and for
those who can spend more time practicing
at home.
I also want to describe here certain
difficulties, common for many students,
and connected with imaginary pitches:
"overtone mirage." I mean by this term,
the situation when the student mixes up
the pitch that was actually played with the
one a perfect fifth apart from it; for exam-
ple, hearing C, a student names G, or hear-
ing B names F#. Such tones—a fifth
apart—are in close kinship acoustically.
Some students even in the begin-
ning have a keen ear for overtones—in
time the ear of such a student gets accus-
tomed to what is an overtone and what is
the "real" pitch that was given, but at first,
and for some—even further on—some-
times an overtone would sound more real
for the ear than the actual pitch.
Sometimes there is a difficulty
which I call "the filling in of a triad" or
"completing a triad." This phenomenon
once more confirms the contextuality of
Grow a Row Stage 2, Filling in the Gaps 71
pitch perception—a person hears for
example C then G, but names E instead of
G, thus filling in mentally the triad, and
naming the imaginary pitch—the missing
middle tone of a triad.
Or one hears C then E, but names G
instead of E, completing the triad, naming
the imaginary upper tone of it (reversing
the process, one hears G then E, names C
instead of E, completing the triad with
imaginary lower tone).
When all the twelve pitches are rec-
ognized accurately by ear, the very impor-
tant stage in the development of perfect
pitch is reached—you'll now have perfect
pitch that is selective horizontally, tim-
brally and in the terms of range.
For some people to cope with these
twelve pitches means to be for some time
in the state of "dirty" perfect pitch—as the
twelve-pitch row is densely packed, and
the feeling of pitch color is not yet fully
established.
Some will experience for a time this
instability of pitch perception which
expresses itself in half-tone slidings up
and down from the actual pitch and in
unpredictability—what pitch will slide
today. It is connected with the phenome-
non that at this stage pitch colors "come
and go"—as some students express it, in
time the perception of pitch colors stabi-
lizes, those who had "dirty" perfect pitch
acquire "clear" perfect pitch.
But some students develop their
perfect pitch from the very beginning as
"clear," exact one.
How much time will this stage
take? Many students will cope with black
pitches in 7-8, sometimes 10 weeks. For
some it will take less, for some, more.
Usually the majority of my stu-
dents are able to cope with all 12 pitches in
the range of 2 octaves in a 15-week semes-
ter, for some, however, it takes longer.
 You should continue to work with Add to your fifths and thirds those
intervals and chords by the 2 tracks I with "black" pitches—in order of the
described before—broken and unbroken. pitches taken. Add gradually sixths—
For those who develop their relative pitch major and minor, starting with "white"
together with perfect—learn the minor sixths, adding sixths with "black" pitches
major 7th chord, and the augmented 7th in order of the pitches taken. Remember at
chord after adding F# and Bb. (You will be this stage all triads and intervals are taken
able to build chords like the mM7th chord only in two octaves—above and below
middle C, but it is inevitable to touch
G-Bb-D-F# or the aug7th chord Bb-D-F#-
some pitches beyond this range—for
A).
example, if you build a triad on A, or a
When you add C#—learn the fully
sixth on Bb above middle C.
diminished 7th chord (like C#-E-G-Bb). For some, the most gifted students,
I remind you—in broken form, it is possible also to take fourths, but it is
work with any combinations possible rare; the majority of students will take
comprised of the pitches you currently fourths when the horizontal expansion of
have. their perfect pitch will take place, that is,
You should also add some chords for them it will be the next stage in the
and intervals to those that you study as development of their pitch ear.
purely vertical units, with its own pitch A reminder: there are students,
color (result of blending in our ear of those who are able to easily recognize pitches in
pitch colors that comprise this unit). truly vertical, unbroken, intervals and
After taking all "white" triads you chords, they can add as many vertical ele-
should add triads with "black" pitches, ments, as they wish to add, practically all
adding them at first a couple at a time: vertical combinations of the pitches they
1. Take F#. currently study.
2. After taking F#, add D major—B
minor triads.
3. After taking Bb—add Bb major—G
minor.
4. Take C#—add A major—F# minor.
5. Take Eb—add Eb major—C minor.
6. Then add F# major—D# minor
7. Then add one triad at a time,
though Ab—the last pitch—will be
added earlier than all the triads
with Eb are taken.
8. Add E major, then C# minor, Ab
major, F minor, B major, G# minor,
Db major, Bb minor (some students
would prefer to take first Db major,
Bb minor and then B major, G#
minor).

Grow a Row Stage 2, Filling in the Gaps 72

18 Grow a Row Stage 3,
or Territorial Expansion
A
fter the twelve pitches in the two
octaves—above and below mid-
dle C—are mastered the way I
described in the previous chapter, it is
time to expand your perfect pitch in the
terms of range by adding another octave.
Usually my students add the sec-
ond octave above middle C as the next,
then the second octave below middle C,
then the octave upper but one, then the
lowest octave, then the upper octave, then
the lowest three notes—A, Bb, B.
For some students this order may
be reversed: at first the second octave
below middle C, then the second octave
above middle C, etc.—for those students
who feel that the lower octaves are more
comfortable than the upper.
Generally the upper register, the
upper octaves are clearer for students than
the lowest octave, because the lower regis-
ter presents for many certain difficulties—
"sounds muddy"—students say. Usually it
is possible to add octaves not by single
pitches, as before, but at first—taking all
"white" pitches in this octave, then all
"black," that is, adding pitches by big
groups.
Later on, when one comes to the
last octaves—it is possible for the vastest
majority to add an octave at a time instead
of a pitch at a time! This is the stage when
pitch colors begin to settle in a quite stable
way in one's ear and memory, the changes
in tints of color of one and the same pitch
when the register and the octave change
are usually perceived very well by every-
one and don't present a hindrance.
Grow a Row Stage 3, or Territorial Expansion 73
It may be, however, advisable for
some students to "translate" mentally the
pitches given in the inconvenient register
(octave) to the register (octave) they are
comfortable in. Sometimes, when the ear
is only getting accustomed to the sound of
the lowest register, I play a student a pitch
in the lowest octave, and then immedi-
ately in the octave with which the student
is very well acquainted—above middle C,
for example.
I also allow to use vocal chords to
"translate" such a pitch.
For some students all this still may
be difficult—"muddiness" of those tones
interferes with the correct perception of
the pitch.
For a person it may seem that the
pitch sounds a certain way, he or she men-
tally or aloud sings it two or three octaves
higher, but what he or she sings, and con-
sequently, identifies—is not the real
pitch—it is a half or a whole-step higher or
lower than the actual tone, "muddiness" of
the lowest octave being the cause of this.
At first one should learn simply to
perceive correctly a tone and to sing it in a
convenient octave without even naming a
pitch, as soon as it is clear that a person
perceives these low tones always cor-
rectly, sings them correctly, he or she
should start to identify pitches in the low-
est octave.
Work with pitches, doing all the
exercises, described in the previous chap-
ter.
Especially important at this stage is
the work at identifying random pitches.
 I usually give my students at first
all the pitches in each octave in the range a
student currently has—for example four
or five octaves going from octave to octave
in the sequence of them—upwards or
downwards, or starting above middle C,
going then upwards and downwards, and
then I give random pitches, leaping from
octave to octave, if the range is big
enough, such leaps can be gigantic.
By this time students should
roughly be able to identify pitches this
way—for some it is quite easy, but for
some it is difficult because of the necessity
to overcome the barrier of register. Espe-
cially difficult are contextual situations
with the sevenths or ninths on a big dis-
tance of several octaves, and tritones on a
distance.
The "trill technique" I described
before should be obligatory mastered at
this stage.
It is interesting that at this stage,
usually, in all the students relative pitch is
developed parallel with pitch ear to such
an extent that even those who came with-
out any previous background in ear-train-
ing begin to easily and involuntarily
recognize intervals between pitches; and it
is a mighty support for the ear in its strug-
gle with register barrier—thus perfect
pitch and relative pitch interact, develop-
ing parallel, helping each other.
In developing perfect pitch the aim
justifies the means—I always remind my
students not to try to suppress the relative
function of their ear—it helps avoid mis-
takes. In time the barrier of the register is
overcome successfully by everyone.
But it is necessary to practice at
home "random" pitches with a partner. It
is necessary to make "volleys" of sounds
longer and more complex—expand the
range of a "volley," giving 8-10 sounds,
that embrace the range of several
octaves—three, then four, five, etc. (see
Grow a Row Stage 3, or Territorial Expansion 74
examples of such "volleys" in Appendix
II).
It is also possible to start two-part,
full-size dictations—at first of a simpler
type, then more complex, not very
expanded in the terms of range—embrac-
ing the range of not more than three
octaves (see dictation examples in Appen-
dix III).
At the same time, exercises on
developing aural recall should start.
Already preliminary exercises on
developing auditory imagination were
introduced in the previous chapters. Now
it is time to start more complex exercises
of this kind.
Try to imagine separate pitches,
then check yourself on the piano, imagine
pitches only in the most convenient octave
for you, for example, in the first octave
below middle C. Then try to imagine how
a certain pitch (or pitches) sounds in
another octave, for example, in the first
octave above middle C.
In the beginning it will be difficult,
so at first try to imagine the pitch in the
octave that is convenient for you, and then
transfer the pitch mentally an octave (two
octaves) higher (lower), check the pitch
with the piano, trying to perceive and to
memorize the tint of pitch color of this
pitch in another octave.
Then, gradually, you'll be able to
do it without transfer—you'll be able just
to imagine the pitch exactly in the octave
you wish. For those who compose music it
is especially important—to internalize
their perfect pitch—to be able to imagine
on as high a level as it is possible.
After being able to imagine sepa-
rate pitches, it is time to start imagining
pitch units—intervals and triads—at first
breaking them mentally, and doing it in
the convenient octave, then breaking
them, but imagining them in any octave,
then doing it in any octave without break-
ing the units, being able to imagine the And of course, your "first track"—broken
interval or triad as a unit. units—should now expand into all
Now start mentally following the octaves and registers you master—you
score, imaging how pitches sound in a can work with any broken combinations
convenient octave, separate parts, then of pitches even in the upper or lowest
parts united together, then to imagine octaves.
pitches in the actual octaves they are writ- How much time this stage will
ten, separate parts, then parts united take?
together. It is highly individual—from 1-2
Vertical expansion also continues, semesters for the most gifted to much
to your "second track"—unbroken units— more for those who encounter difficulties
add fourths, add dissonant intervals—at and problems in the development of their
first sevenths, then seconds, and then tri- pitch recognition and recall.
tones. Add them in this way—at first
"white," then with "black" pitches.
As a rule, if to speak of the percep-
tion of vertical units, consonances are eas-
ier for the majority of students than
dissonances, and larger intervals in both
groups are easier (with the exception of
thirds) than smaller—fifths and sixths are
easier than fourths, sevenths are easier
than seconds, tritones are the most diffi-
cult intervals for the vastest majority as
acoustically the notes that comprise this
interval are very, very far from each other,
and besides, it is not for nothing that this
interval was nicknamed in the middle
ages—"diabolical interval"—it exudes cer-
tain negative energy.
Work at the intervals as described
in the previous chapter, without as yet
expanding the range in which the inter-
vals are given, that is, work at them only
in two octaves—above and below middle
C.
Also add inversions of major and
minor triads—at first "white," then with
"black" pitches, one or two at a time, also
only within the two octave range.
Sometimes it is possible to add
dominant 7th chords with inversions, but
mainly dominant 7th chords and other 7th
chords, as well as diminished and aug-
mented triads as unbroken units belong to
the next stage.

Grow a Row Stage 3, or Territorial Expansion 75

19 Grow a Row Stage 4
Putting on Layers

T
his stage in your development begin, as a result of greater clarity of pitch
should begin when you have mas- colors.
tered all the pitches in all the I again remind you—take at first
octaves horizontally, and when you are only four pitches—C, E, G, B, in this
able to recognize them with increasing octave, then—all other "white" pitches—
accuracy and speed; not only when they A, D, F, then add all "black" pitches—at
are given within one octave, then within first F# and Bb, then—all the rest—C#, Eb,
another, then within the third, etc., but
Ab, as before.
also when they are given randomly, leap-
At this stage I also start to give stu-
ing from octave to octave, the leaps being
dents pitches staccato and softly or even
any size, as big as seven octaves, for exam-
very softly, that is, instead of "full" color—
ple; when you are able to recognize
when the pitch sounds loud enough and
pitches in certain unbroken vertical ele-
long enough for student(s) to get the full
ments—in intervals and some chords—
impression of how this pitch "behaves"—I
major and minor triads, their inversions,
give only partial color; at this stage it is
in dominant 7th chords with inversions;
possible for many students to hear this
and when you start doing aural recall
pitch staccato and identify it by only a par-
exercises, and are able to imagine pitches
ticle of color that remains when we play
at least in an octave convenient for you.
the pitch this way.
Now it is time to put on layers.
It is necessary to also give oral
I described the method of putting
mini-dictations—"volleys" in this octave,
on layers in the Chapter 12, "Memory
and full-sized dictations, and to give inter-
Fusion—Problems and Solution." The
vals and chords by both "tracks" in this
octave you start your second layer with is
octave, using in them the pitches, that are
the one that will bring about an absolutely
currently studied. This will help your ver-
different level of mastery over pitches—
tical perfect pitch ascend to a higher level,
you'll begin to perceive differently pitch
towards this time your general level of
colors.
perfect pitch will be such as for you not to
Students usually tell me that in this
have the need to study a family of chords
octave of the second layer pitch colors
for your second—purely vertical—"track"
seem to them much clearer, much more
the way at first you studied fifths, or
obvious than before, as if they reached a
thirds, or sixths.
certain greater depth, or ascended to a
There will be no need, for example,
greater height in this aspect.
to start studying the family of minor-
With this octave of the second
minor 7th chords, or half-diminished 7th
layer, another, higher level of commitment
chords—you'll be able to answer the
of pitches to long-term memory will
pitches in such a unit from the level of the
different way of pitch perception—clearer,

Grow a Row Stage 4, Putting on Layers 76

deeper perception, and memory fusion
towards this time will be much more sta-
ble.
However, there are students who
would like even at this stage to work at
vertical units the way they worked
before—taking at first, for example, all
"white" minor-minor 7th chords, then
adding gradually those with "black"
pitches—till all 7th chords of this kind are
taken; and in the same way work at the
inversions, at all the other 7th chords:
• major-major
• minor-major
• half-diminished
• fully diminished
• augmented-major and their inver-
sions.
I want to emphasize, that for some
reason diminished and augmented triads
are difficult for the majority of students,
that is why I usually introduce them at
this stage. Of course, the work at triads of
all kinds with inversions, at 7th chords of
all kinds with inversions shouldn't be lim-
ited only to the octave with which you
start your second layer—all the intervals,
triads and 7th chords you can answer ver-
tically should be given as before—mainly
in two octaves—below and above middle
C.
In the octave of the second layer it
is necessary to give all kinds of chords for
the first "broken" track: chords of non-ter-
tial structure, clusters, etc. Vertical ele-
ments for many may be resistant to such
an extent, as for such people to stop in the
development of their vertical perfect pitch
at a certain stage, and therefore, to be able
to identify pitches at other, more complex
pitch units only when they are broken to
separate pitches.
Some would persistently go for-
ward with the goal to achieve higher lev-
els of verticalization of their perfect pitch.
Grow a Row Stage 4, Putting on Layers 77
By this time "volleys" and full-size
dictations should become more complex.
I introduce two-part and four-part
dictations of ever-increasing complexity,
then add three-part dictations of the most
complex polyphonic type, dictations tonal
and atonal, tonal dictations with dense
chromaticism, sudden modulations, etc.
(see examples of dictations in Appendix
III).
The reason I introduce three-part
dictations later than four-part dictations is
in the fact that in four-part dictations the
voice-leading is governed by the estab-
lished rules of harmony—it is easy to fill
in the middle voices as soon as you have
the bass and soprano, and know the rules
of harmony; but in three-part dictations
voice-leading is free, which makes it more
difficult to follow the middle voice.
Chords that I give students at this
stage are not only in narrow arrangement
in one octave, but mainly in four-part
arrangement, open and close, that may
embrace two to two-and-one-half octaves.
Students answer at first what is the
chord, for example, major-major six-five,
or half-diminished four-three, then—what
note of the chord is at the top—root, third,
fifth, or seventh, then the pitches it com-
prises: major-major six-five, root at the
top, D-A (octave below middle C) F-Bb
(octave above middle C), if to gather them
in narrow arrangement—D-F-A-Bb.
There was a time in my life when I
undertook to classify and name all exist-
ing chords of non-traditional structure. I
usually introduce those chords one by one
to my students, they first learn chords,
that is, to discern the generic color of a
chord, then they learn to identify pitches
in them.
This way an all-rounded, versatile
ear is being developed, not only pitch ear.
These chords will be described in my next
book In the Vertical Realm.
At this stage I usually give my stu-
dents not only separate intervals and
chords, but progressions of intervals—
sometimes tonal but mainly, atonal: 4-5-6
intervals in a row, for students to answer
orally after listening to it two or three
times—at first what are the intervals,
then—what are the pitches in each inter-
val.
Chords at this stage should also be
given not only separately, but in progres-
sions, tonal and atonal, for students to
answer at first what are the chords, what
tone of the chord is at the top, then—to
answer pitches, in tonal progressions—
what are the functions of the chords in the
key.
Remember to work at progressions
of intervals and chords by two "tracks."
For some students it will be necessary to
break every chord or every interval in a
progression.
These exercises on intervals and
chords, separate and in progressions of
intervals and chords of traditional and
non-traditional structure, in progressions
tonal and atonal develop not only vertical
pitch ear, they develop simultaneously
relative functions of the ear, bringing forth
that virtuosic versatile ear that is the
dream and the necessity of each musician.
The exercises on progressions of
chords or intervals also develop musical
memory.
Aural recall should be continued at
this stage—proceeding from recall of the
pitches in the convenient octave to being
able to recall pitches in any octave.
Usually octaves are added to the
second layer in very fast tempo—in 3-4
weeks you will embrace five octaves of the
piano, only the two octaves that you mas-
tered at the very beginning—above and
below middle C—will not be added.
Grow a Row Stage 4, Putting on Layers 78
One more week—and you will add
these most familiar octaves and will have
full range of piano as a second layer, till
the end of the semester you should work
with the full range.
But in some cases it will take more
time—a semester, to embrace all the
octaves of the 2nd layer, adding them one
by one.
With putting on the second layer,
you will reach an absolutely different level
of memory fusion—some will have such
stability of their pitch ear, as not to need
another layer, some will need the third
layer, so the procedure will be repeated
once more, or as many times, as it is
needed by the student.
I want to remind the teacher that
with the expansion of the second layer
you should continue to give all chords and
intervals in each added octave the way
you did with the very first octave of this
layer.
For the majority of those who wish
to reach higher levels in verticalization of
their perfect pitch, there will be endless
possibilities to expand your vertical per-
fect pitch further and further till you are
able to name pitches in practically any
vertical combination—consonant or disso-
nant. However, for some, there may be
limitations in this area.
After putting on the amount of lay-
ers that is needed to reach the level of sta-
bility in recognizing pitches in all octaves,
and to be able to recognize pitches in any
vertical combinations and to recall all
pitches from memory—you will have per-
fect pitch that is only timbrally selective.
How much time will it take to reach
such a level?
All this seems a formidable task,
you would ask.
The answer is—at this stage all is so
individualized, especially the tempo of
your development—there are people who,
reaching the stage of putting on layers,
move forward especially fast, and there
are some who will experience certain diffi-
culties that will slow down the progress.
For some, it is verticalization of their per-
fect pitch, for some, it is aural recall, etc.
Your ultimate result will, however,
depend not on the tempo of your
progress, but on your perseverance and
desire to reach still a higher level.

Grow a Row Stage 4, Putting on Layers 79

20 Vertical Units—
A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick?
W
hen a student starts to work at
vertical units he or she encoun-
ters the problem that, in my
opinion, is one of the main obstacles in the
way of developing pitch ear—verticaliza-
tion of perfect pitch is the most difficult
thing to achieve.
There are students, for whom it is
easy to verticalize their perfect pitch, who
from the start can recognize pitches in
unbroken intervals and chords and who
sometimes tell me that it is even easier for
them to recognize pitches in the vertical
units than separate ("horizontal") pitches.
But, alas, this does not happen
often.
The majority of students who excel-
lently recognize pitches in all kinds of hor-
izontal successions of tones, experience
difficulties with vertical units. To answer
pitches in intervals and chords truly verti-
cally—that is, when the tones of a chord or
an interval are taken together, is difficult
even for many people with inborn perfect
pitch: we already spoke of inborn perfect
pitch being horizontally selective or verti-
cally selective, that is, a person with such
perfect pitch is able to discern only sepa-
rate pitches, or pitches only in certain sim-
pler chords, and in intervals.
Still it is possible to achieve the goal
of verticalization of perfect pitch if you
work persistently at intervals and chords
as vertical units, that is, if you take all
intervals and all chords of traditional (ter-
tial) structure in a system, one group after
the other, gradually adding to what
you've already taken.
Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick? 80
You should treat each interval or
chord as a pitch unit, that is, as something
whole, with its own peculiar pitch color
which is a result of the interblending of
two or more pitch colors in this unit, not a
mere combination, a mere putting
together of two or more pitch colors, that
can easily be put asunder.
You should gradually condition
your ear to perceive this color of an unbro-
ken vertical unit. For many it is truly a for-
midable task, many students are able to
answer the pitches in the chord or interval
only when it is broken into separate
pitches, and the ear of such students may
offer great resistance on the way to verti-
calization of their perception of pitches in
intervals and chords.
The first step is to analyze pitch
color of each unit in the group you cur-
rently study, for example, the first of all
vertical elements that my students usually
work at is the group of triads—major and
minor.
Each of the triads has its own indi-
viduality, its own pitch color, the way
each separate pitch has its color, its own
behavior.
We already spoke about how the
pitches that go opposite directions—for
example C—down, A—up—counterbal-
ance each other. So the direction of a triad
will be determined by:
1. The presence of two pitches in a
triad that go one and the same
direction—up or down (for exam-
ple, F major triad has two pitches
that go down—F and C, and one
 that goes up—A, F and A counter-
balance each other, but the triad
will go down, as there is also the
third pitch, C, that goes down.
2. The presence of pitches that stay or
move on one plane; if there are two
pitches in a triad that are on one
plane and one that goes either up
or down, the triad will give an
impression of going up or down—
for example C-E-G produces an
impression of being a heavy triad,
because C pulls it down.
G-B-D produces an impression of
going up, because B lifts it up, also
it as if moves at the same time for-
ward, as both G and D are forward-
moving pitches, especially this for-
ward-moving effect is pronounced
in G-Bb-D, as Bb goes up at an
angle, adding to the moving-for-
ward effect.
3. The presence of the pitches that go
in three different directions, one—
up, another—down, the third—on
one plane, for example Ab-C-Eb, the
triad will produce an impression of
being on one plane, because Ab and
C counterbalance each other, Eb is
on one plane.
If to speak of other dimensions of
pitch color, for me for example—
• C major is festive, majestic, on
the bright side
• Db major—mellow, subdued,
with some sadness in it, a
hushed nocturnal key
• D major—bright, majestic
• Eb major—mellow, with a
metallic greyish tint, cool
• E major—bright with some-
thing disquiet, alarming, too
intense in it
Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick? 81
• F major—robust, strong, cheer-
ful, a bit blunt, not very bright
• F# major—on the bright side,
but the tint of it is not entirely
pure (some of my students
describe this triad as murky)
• G major—bright, beautiful,
gleeful, full of light
• Ab major—elegant, tender, cool,
on the mellow side
• A major—very bright, warm,
sparkling, spiritual
• Bb major—noble, warm, sweet
• B major—very bright, but
unpleasantly so, with some-
thing too glaring in this bright-
ness
• C minor—nobly mournful
• C# minor—dark, but not mel-
low, wrathful, desperate,
mournful—one of the darkest
triads
• D minor—very sad but with
inner restraint
• Eb minor—subdued, dark
metallic grey, the key of resig-
nation and indifference born of
despair
• E minor—bright color, light too.
Among minor triads E minor,
together with A, B, and F#
minor—is one of the brightest,
there is even something cheerful
in it (some students without
ear-training background at first
may call it a major triad)
• F minor—soft, cool, on the mel-
low side, triad of sadness and
deep melancholy and thought-
fulness
• F# minor—very bright, brash,
glaring, a bit impudent
 • G minor—elegiac triad, tender,
melancholy, soft, there is light
and elegance in it
• G# minor—a tragic key, very
dark, cold, subdued, the key of
hopelessness
• A minor—bright, noble, there is
something neutral about it—as
if no sadness in it, characteristic
of other minor triads, and like E
minor, it is often called "major"
by students—beginners
• Bb minor—the key of deepest
melancholy, mournful, on the
mellow side, subdued by tint
• B minor—very bright, openly
tragic, the triad of wrath, of
strong, dark emotions.
There is a lot of what is subjective
in our perception of resultative color of
vertical units—depending on what pitch
color dominates for you in the blending of
colors—not always it is the root of the
triad, sometimes it is the fifth, or even the
third of the triad, that will tinge the whole
triad for you in more bright or mellow
tones, or will make it cool or warm, etc.
If to speak of the energy that is
characteristic of each triad, the unit that
has two out of three pitches energetically
positive, one neutral or negative—will
remain energetically positive, a unit with
two pitches energetically negative, one
neutral or positive—will remain energeti-
cally negative.
It is more complicated when one
pitch is energetically positive, another—
negative and the third—neutral.
In principle two energetically
opposite pitches will counterbalance each
other, and the triad will be energetically
neutral. But in our perception one pitch
will always dominate the unit and deter-
Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick? 82
mine its energy for you, being "stronger"
than other in your perception.
For example, A major is perceived
by some people as energetically positive,
by some—as negative, depending what
pitch—A or C# seems to a person stron-
ger, more dominating in this blending.
If to speak about the "aura" of each
triad—we notice that some of them are
comprised of pitches that are in harmony
with each other if to speak of aura—for
example, in C-E-G, C is Earth aura, E, G
are Water aura—perfect harmony.
D-F#-A, D is Air aura, F# and A are
Fire aura—perfect harmony.
But there are triads which are com-
prised of pitches with conflicting, dishar-
monious auras.
That same A-C#-E—A is Fire aura,
and E is Water aura in this combination.
This inner disharmony influences in a cer-
tain subtle way our perception of such tri-
ads, causing more individualized
reactions to them, and adding more often
than not certain negative tinges to the way
we perceive them.
For many students the color of each
major and minor triad is even clearer than
that of separate pitches. But for many—at
first it is necessary to break the triad into
separate pitches for them to answer.
Gradually even those students
begin to perceive triads vertically—in time
the color of each triad settles in the mem-
ory the way the color of each pitch does.
I described in previous chapters
how to add triads—starting with all
"white," then adding several "pairs" of tri-
ads—a pair—relative major and minor,
then adding them one by one—following
the order of pitches added.
But if triads were the only vertical
element! What a blissfully easy life that
would be!
 But after the triads are mastered,
the same time-consuming work should be
done with all other vertical units, with so
many of them: that is the reason that many
students lag behind in the development of
their vertical perfect pitch.
Of course, the general level of
development of pitch ear matters
greatly—the higher a level of horizontal
perfect pitch a person acquires, the easier
it is in principle to cope with vertical units.
Some of the students develop the
ability to discern separate pitch colors in
the intervals and chords, but not always
both (or all) notes, most often just one, all
the rest they figure out relatively.
Such students often tell me, that
especially clear for them are the bright
pitches on the background of mellow(er)
ones, some put easily asunder in their
mind any vertical unit, no matter whether
it is comprised of bright or mellow
pitches, some just easily remember pitch
color of intervals and chords as units.
But for the majority of students
their ability to excellently identify sepa-
rate pitches helps only to cope with "bro-
ken" vertical units.
To be able to identify pitches in
unbroken units one should study and
commit to long-term memory the pitch
colors of all those units—it is gigantic
work, though definitely if one could com-
mit to long-term memory the colors of all
horizontal pitches and of all triads, it is
possible to do so with all other pitch units,
and the more accuracy and stability one
shows in answering separate pitches, the
more accuracy it is possible to achieve
with vertical units.
As you know from previous chap-
ters, next I give my students fifths, then—
thirds, then—sixths, and the last conso-
nant interval—fourths.
Then I give dissonant intervals—
sevenths, then—seconds, then—tritones.
Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick? 83
Parallel with dissonant intervals it
is possible to give students inversions of
triads—six-threes and six-fours, and dom-
inant 7th chords with inversions.
Then—it will depend on the indi-
vidual way of development of each stu-
dent—some of them towards this stage
will show spontaneous development of
vertical pitch ear and will begin easily to
perceive and effortlessly to keep in mem-
ory all vertical units they study, and gen-
erally will begin to recognize pitches in
any vertical unit.
But for some it will remain a grad-
ual process of quantitative accumulation
of pitch units in their pitch memory, and
therefore, certain limitations are inevitable
for such students.
At this next stage I give my stu-
dents all other 7th chords:
• major-major
• minor-minor
• half-diminished
• fully diminished
• minor-major
• major-augmented and their inver-
sions
Then I add chords of non-tertial structure.
A reminder—it is necessary to
work at separate units at the first stage,
and at units, connected in progressions—
tonal and atonal—and later on, to write
two, four, and then three-part tonal and
atonal dictations at later stages.
Difficulties in verticalization of
pitch ear are the reason of the difficulties
in developing universal perfect pitch.
Read the chapter "Universal or Selec-
tive"—though the majority of instruments
other than the piano (with the exception of
the organ and harpsichord) can't give such
a variety of vertical combinations, those
instruments on which it is possible to play
vertical units—intervals or even chords—
can be resistant to a certain ear in this
aspect, and of course, the orchestra,
instrumental ensembles, and chorus pro-
duce all kinds of vertical combinations.
For some it may be very difficult to
master, though definitely not impossible,
if one is ready to work at it.
The main difficulty here is that, lis-
tening to "live" music, it is impossible to
stop it at the right moment—to "break" the
unit, if the pitches weren't recognized in
that unit.
I have noticed an interesting phe-
nomenon—if in the classroom I begin to
ask a student questions about the separate
pitches he or she listens to—"Where does
the pitch go? Was it a white or black key?
Was it a bright or mellow pitch?"—this
talk about the pitch, this analysis of the
pitch usually brings about an absolutely
correct identification of this pitch, as if
when one begins to analyze his or her per-
ception aloud, it helps to gather together
disconnected, or connected in an unstable
way components of pitch perception.
The same is with vertical units—it
helps to analyze them the way I described,
when working at them with the student:
• Does the interval sound as if com-
prised of two bright or two mellow
pitches?
• Or maybe one pitch in it is bright,
another mellow?
• Does the interval go up or down?
• Do both pitches go down (or up) or
does one go down (up), another
stays on one plane?
• Does it stay or move on one plane?
• Does is move forward?
Such questions direct the student's
perception the right way. But the goal is to
be able to identify pitches—in horizontal
or in vertical units—in "live" music.
This is a task of immense magni-
tude and difficulty, though by all means
not impossible, if to persistently work at
Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick? 84
listening to music played by an orchestra,
chorus, or ensembles as well as by sepa-
rate instruments in recordings, stopping
every time the listening and checking
yourself on the piano when you hear a cer-
tain chord, for example, and then—resum-
ing listening.
But in general, treat all the difficul-
ties you encounter while working at verti-
cal units not as a stumbling block, but as a
nasty little trick that pitches play on you—
and repay in kind!
Overcome the difficulties, also
using cunning tricks—helping yourself
using your relative pitch, for example, in
those cases when one of the pitches—usu-
ally upper or, rarer, lower, is clear in a cer-
tain chord, you may figure out all the
other pitches relatively; analyzing aloud
in the classroom the perception of those
units you hear; using jolly games to mas-
ter vertical units—the "cat and dog" game
I described earlier and other games of this
type—to emphasize the most resistant
units.
I usually give students at the les-
sons unbroken intervals and chords in
groups—at first all triads, then all fifths,
then all thirds—at first all major, then—all
minor or vice versa, etc.
When a student listens to several
fifths or sixths in succession all pitch col-
ors seem more obvious—on the back-
ground of other pitch colors of the
intervals of the same kind.
A more advanced stage is to give
students "mixed" intervals and chords—it
requires greater penetration into the
sphere of pitch color of each vertical unit
and a higher level of committing them to
long-term memory.
The next stage will be progressions
of intervals and chords, where contextual
"recoloring," which is inevitable even
when "mixed" units are separate, assumes
a much more drastic form.
 I want to again emphasize: To ver-
ticalize your perfect pitch if you are truly
committed to the task, you will need only
time, going from stage to stage, ascending
higher and higher on your way.

Vertical Units—A Stumbling Block or a Nasty Little Trick? 85

21 For People with Inborn Perfect Pitch
O
ften students come to my class,
already having a certain kind of
selective perfect pitch—most
often, "dirty" perfect pitch, which is also
sometimes selective in terms of range—
only in middle octaves, and most often
timbrally selective—a person is able to
discern pitches only on the piano, or on
the instrument he or she plays, and
often—horizontally selective or vertically
selective.
My task in such cases is to "fix" this
instability which is the characteristic trait
of "dirty" perfect pitch.
Sometimes it does not take much
time to introduce the concept of pitch
color to students, who already possess a
marvelous sense of pitch location.
As soon as the sense of pitch color
is added as a much clearer component to
the excellent sense of pitch location (some
sense of pitch color that is switched on
together with the sense of pitch location
such students already possess, otherwise
they wouldn't have even such, unstable
kind of perfect pitch)—these students
begin to recognize pitches always in a sta-
ble way—acquiring stable, "clear" perfect
pitch.
But sometimes to fix "dirty" perfect
pitch may take more time—the inertia, the
habit to perceive the pitch location first
and foremost, and the habit to answer
instantaneously, without analyzing their
perception may lead to persistent slidings
of a half-step down or up from the actual
pitch—among so many correct recogni-
For People with Inborn Perfect Pitch 86
tions and, what pitch will slide today is
unpredictable.
Eventually, even such a resistant,
unstable ear is stabilized by the same set
of exercises I give to those students who
start the second layer (see chapters "Grow
a Row, Putting on Layers" and "Memory
Fusion—Problems and Solution")—giv-
ing random pitches in all octaves, espe-
cially emphasizing the octaves that are the
most unstable (usually the upper and low-
est register), giving all kinds of vertical
elements to those whose perfect pitch has
no vertical limitations, and giving vertical
elements, adding them in the usual order I
described in the previous chapters for
those whose perfect pitch is limited verti-
cally.
In some cases there are range limi-
tations—then it is necessary at first to
expand the perfect pitch of such students
in terms of range, adding those octaves in
which such students can't recognize
pitches the way they are added for those
who come to perfect pitch class, without
being able to tell C from E even in the first
octave above middle C, and then to pro-
ceed the way I described in previous chap-
ters.
Such students, of course, develop
much easier and swifter, than students
who came without any pitch recognition.
The tasks for them should be much
more challenging and they are able usu-
ally, to write much more complex dicta-
tions, so I give them most often the kind
that is more difficult for them—it is a four-
part dictation with obvious verticality of
the texture.
For any kind of inborn perfect
pitch, but especially so for horizontally
and/or vertically selective, it is very con-
venient if the texture of the dictation is
polyphonic—in such texture all pitches of
several parts stand more or less in bold
relief.
But as soon as the texture is such
that a vertical element is heard every
moment—it is a challenging task for such
students to write everything correctly,
especially chords, where there are dou-
bled notes.
I give such students more complex
"volleys" of pitches, more complex pro-
gressions of chords and intervals, such
students, as a rule, quickly learn all the
chords of the non-traditional (non-tertial)
structure I introduce in my class, and it is
possible to give them also multi-toned
vertical clusters in quite a big range, with-
out breaking them.
Aural recall is not a problem for
such students, even if there are at first
range limitations. Usually, after some
training, they easily imagine any pitch in
any octave, and are able to follow a score,
imagining exactly every pitch.
If there are several such students in
a class, it is possible to give them the task
of singing Bach's Inventions—two and
three-part, then the fugues from the
"Wohltemperierte Klavier," then fugues
by Reger, Hindemith, and any other kind
of complex polyphonic pieces—in two,
three, four, etc., voices, for them to start
without being given an orientation point.
Those students who wish to
develop universal perfect pitch already
having a timbrally selective one, should
proceed as it is described in the chapter
"Selective or Universal," usually for them
it is a comparatively easy and swift pro-
cess.

For People with Inborn Perfect Pitch 87

22 Selective or Universal
S
o after mastering the pitches on the
piano in the range of more than
seven octaves you acquired perfect
pitch that is selective only timbrally (for
those who mastered all the piano range
but the lowest one and a quarter octaves, it
is also selective in terms of range), or per-
fect pitch that is timbrally and vertically
selective (if you had difficulties in master-
ing more complex vertical elements).
Is it possible to develop perfect
pitch to such an extent as to acquire uni-
versal perfect pitch—to be able to recog-
nize pitches on any instrument, voice,
from the orchestra, chorus, and not only
horizontally, but in all vertical combina-
tions too?
Yes, it is possible to develop uni-
versal perfect pitch.
Some people show spontaneous
development of their universal perfect
pitch while developing their perfect pitch
on the piano—towards the last stages of
the work on the piano they begin to spon-
taneously give recognition of pitches on
other instruments on the same level of
exactitude as on the piano they work with.
More often one meets people with
spontaneous "breakthroughs" in the realm
of universal perfect pitch. Such people,
during the development of their perfect
pitch on the piano, from time to time rec-
ognize pitches either from other instru-
ments, or from voices, or even from car
horns—but these recognitions are not sta-
ble, they are not systematic: one time this
person might recognize the pitch in a cer-
tain timbre, another time this timbre will
obscure pitches for this same person.
For such people timbral "walls"—
imaginary walls, actually, are fragile
enough to later on stabilize the universal-
ity of their pitch perception and to begin
to recognize pitches accurately on all
instruments and voices.
Often such people play an instru-
ment other than piano, and parallel with
developing perfect pitch on the piano they
develop it on the instrument they play, let
us say, on the oboe.
Students often tell me that on their
own instrument it is even easier for them
to recognize pitches than on the piano—
the range is smaller, the timbre is familiar,
no vertical combinations, or they are not
so numerous—depending on the instru-
ment.
This is already one of the very
important steps in acquiring universal
perfect pitch—to master two timbres,
instead of one, at one and the same time.
So in principle, it should be abso-
lutely possible for everyone to develop
universal pitch perception—if one could
master one timbre or two timbers, if one
wishes, who can prevent this person from
mastering other timbres the same way
they mastered the piano or the piano and
oboe?
But one should always keep in
mind—there are people for whom the tim-
bral wall is truly a stone wall, to overcome
it is a difficult and time-consuming task—
for such people each timbre so heavily
envelops the pitches, that this timbral bar-
Selective or Universal 88
rier may seem to them almost insur-
mountable if to speak of the necessity to
master many timbres—all bowed strings,
all woodwinds, all brass instruments, all
percussions with definite pitches, harp,
organ, all voices—female and male.
To be realistic, would such a person
want to spend so much time and effort on
this truly gigantic task?
There are timbres more or less con-
venient—some of them may offer more
resistance than others even for people
with prerequisites for developing univer-
sal perfect pitch. It is three times so for
people with a high timbral barrier.
This phenomenon—a high timbral
barrier—is the reason why there are so
many people with inborn selective perfect
pitch—who can excellently all their lives
identify pitches on one instrument, never
being able to do so on other instruments—
the timbre of other instruments com-
pletely obscures other components of
pitch perception for them.
So, if you are one of such people—
with a timbral barrier that seems difficult
to overcome—you should be prepared to
cope with the formidable task if you want
to develop universal perfect pitch—to
master each timbre, each pitch in each
octave in each existing timbre.
If you want to do it, if you are
ready to do it—then go ahead!
You already know how to work
with pitches, developing perfect pitch on
the piano.
The same way work with other tim-
bres, with the help of partners—friends
who play those instruments, with the help
of tapes and listening to recordings and
music on the radio or television.
Some (e.g., bowed strings) will give
you vertical elements—intervals and
chords—try to master them the way you
mastered vertical units on the piano, the
amount of such units on bowed strings
seems limited in comparison with the
piano.
Work at pitches on wind instru-
ments taking them not by octaves, as on
the piano, but by registers—for example,
the oboe—lower register—from Bb below
middle C to G above middle C, middle
register—from G above middle C to G in
the second octave above middle C, and the
upper register—from G in the second
octave above middle C to the end of the
oboe's range.
Each register on wind instruments
has its own timbral peculiarities which
can be easily recognized even by an
untrained ear within the general timbre of
the instrument.
On bowed strings it is necessary to
master the pitches not only when they are
played arco—that is, with the bow, but
when they are played pizzicato—that is,
when the strings are plucked, and col
legno—when the pitches are produced by
the wooden part of the bow, or when har-
monics are produced.
What seems to be a difficulty for so
many in these instruments with compara-
tively small range is that the notion of
upper and lower register doesn't coincide
in many cases with actual upper and
lower register of pitches in the whole
range which the human ear can perceive:
the range that the piano embraces.
So here, not only the timbre of the
instrument in general terms obscures the
pitch color and other components of pitch
perception—different degree of tension,
with which this note is played if it is in the
upper, for example, register of a certain
instrument adds to this phenomenon—of
the pitch being obscured.
For example, it is a great differ-
ence—A in the second octave above mid-
dle C, played on the piano, or played by
the flute, or played on the cello—for the
cello it will be upper register—the pitch
Selective or Universal 89
will have the specific great tension of an
upper note.
Of course, the ear in time can get
conditioned to perceive all these peculiari-
ties of the timbre and register of different
instruments—simply it will take time, and
it is not always easy to organize regular
daily sessions with people who play these
instruments.
With voices the difficulty is in the
fact that timbre of them is always highly
individualized—there is no such thing as
"general" timbre of, let us say, a soprano,
like it is with piano or violin or clarinet or
trumpet. Each person who sings has his or
her own timbre of the voice—soprano or
bass is much more the range than timbre.
So the ear should get conditioned
to overcome in time this infinite timbral
variety of human voices.
The orchestra and chorus will
present other difficulties—mixed timbres
are usually easier to master when you
have already mastered at least several
individual timbres of orchestral instru-
ments, and when you have overcome the
barrier of individuality of timbres of
human voices.
Another difficulty—when a person
feels very uncomfortable listening to
tapes, to music on radio, to recordings—
timbre that is not "alive" seems to obscure
pitches even when they are recognized in
"live" timbres. This can also be overcome
gradually—by doing it on a constant
basis, but it may be time-consuming.
I want here to give some useful tips
to those who decide to develop universal
pitch recognition.
All wind instruments and the
organ will give you a very clear picture of
what we spoke about regarding the sev-
enth dimension of pitch color—many stu-
dents who play these instruments
consider these qualities of pitches, their
"behavior" even more pronounced on
winds, than on the piano.
All bowed string instruments
would give you the impression that every-
thing is brighter in comparison with
piano.
But the brightness of B or A for
example, will still be greater than that of D
or E or Eb; that is, in comparison, still what
is brighter, what is mellower will remain;
still D, Eb, E, F would seem on the violin
mellower than F#, G, G#, A, Bb, B.
Of course, the direction—up or
down, or aside, or forward—will remain,
even during vibrato.
Everything will seem mellower on
guitar, harp, harpsichord, but "within" the
timbre, comparative brightness or mel-
lowness of the pitches will remain, the
direction will remain.
A couple of words about gradation
pitch-ear—the ability to hear whether a
pitch is sharpish or flattish, the ability to
hear tiny gradations within the pitch.
My pedagogical experience shows
that some acquire this ability, some do
not.
If you are one of those who are not
naturally predisposed to it, and therefore
this skill doesn't come together with other
skills you acquired just leave it be—this is
something people with inborn perfect
pitch complain about sometimes, if it
comes by itself (in many cases it is so)—
good, if not—it is just as good.
Working with a partner who plays
a bowed string instrument can help
develop gradation pitch ear.
Selective or Universal 90
 For Teachers of Children and for Parents,
23 but to be read by everyone
who holds this book
F
irst and foremost, I would like to
mention the fact that many people
who are considered to have inborn
perfect pitch actually go through all the
stages of its development in childhood,
but this process very often is not noticed
from outside, because the child can't ana-
lyze his or her aural perception, and is not
attentive enough to notice when and how
this process of discerning pitches began
for him or her and through what stages it
went.
Most often perfect pitch in children
is noticed by grown-ups much later than
the actual beginning of the musical studies
of the child—sometimes years after the
child started to play an instrument.
It is especially so in America, where
solfege and music theory very often are
not studied by the child parallel with play-
ing the instrument, and at the lessons of
piano (or flute or cello) it is very rare that
an American teacher is interested whether
a student can recognize pitches or not.
So in reality many people who are
considered to have an inborn perfect pitch
developed it spontaneously in childhood
during the first one, two, or sometimes
more years of studies.
But many children need help from
the outside, need someone—a teacher, a
parent—who would help them awaken
their latent gift of pitch ear.
Who are these children?
My teaching experience has proved
that children with inborn universal perfect
pitch mainly are happy, healthy, well-
loved children from harmonious families;
For Teachers or Children and for Parents... 91
children, that are curious about the sur-
rounding world—who are open to the
world, children that are of sanguinic tem-
per—who are cheerful, active, alert, lively
as well as innerly harmonious, innerly bal-
anced.
Often such children are loving,
kind, warm-hearted, and always self-
assured, with a high feeling of self-worth.
On the other hand, children, who
are unhappy, sickly, traumatized, who are
abused, or pressured too much, always
under stress, who are afraid constantly of
something or somebody, those from dys-
functional families, those who feel
unloved by their parents, whose feeling of
self-worth is low, rarely display inborn
perfect pitch, as well as very shy, passive
children, and children emotionally imbal-
anced, negative, morose, aggressive.
Such children may later in life show
spontaneous development of perfect
pitch—when outer and inner conflicts are
resolved or stop playing a drastic role in
their lives.
Konstantin K. came to me in Mos-
cow at age 6, his parents were divorced
and he lived for two years in an apartment
with a cruel step-father and step-grand-
mother, who used to beat him.
The boy couldn't recognize pitches.
After two years of studying with
me, and after moving with his mother and
little sister into another apartment—thus
removing the cause of his sufferings—he
at age 8, began to display universal perfect
pitch of the highest level.
 This ability was latent in him, but
for a time suppressed by his unhappiness,
his fears, and revealed itself as a result of
emotional healing—he was free from his
fears, and also as a result of the right sys-
tem of ear-training combined with the sys-
tem of emotional relaxation at our lessons.
Often, if a child displays perfect
pitch earlier than stress or a traumatic
event in his or her life begins to suppress
this ability, this child retains perfect pitch,
but somewhat "imperfect" perfect pitch—
selective or "dirty," unstable.
Alexandra P., age 10, displayed
perfect pitch at the age of 6 in Russia, then
when she was 8, the family emigrated to
the USA. The stress of emigration, of a
new way of life, and new linguistic sur-
roundings, made her perfect pitch selec-
tive and unstable. Now her perfect pitch is
stabilized, after a year and a half of our
lessons and after getting accustomed to
her new surroundings.
Always when a child (or an adult)
comes to me with an otherwise excellent
ear, and with general excellent musical
abilities, but who is unable to recognize
pitches (or doing it in an unstable way),
behind it always stands an unresolved
inner or outer conflict, trauma, stress, fear
or uncertainty.
The perfect pitch of many people
can be suppressed for years till the spiri-
tual and emotional healing takes place
and brings it forth to life.
Some would ask—why is it so, that
perfect pitch is suppressed, and not some
other musical ability—the performing or
creative gift, for example, or relative
pitch?
The answer is that the traumatic
experience always hits the most vulnera-
ble spot, and recognition of pitches is such
a subtle, refined auditory perception that
it is more than any other musical ability
influenced by mood, the current state of
For Teachers or Children and for Parents... 92
mind and body, or by the circumstances of
one's life.
But sometimes trauma or stress can
strike other musical abilities, leaving per-
fect pitch intact—I know such cases, when
as a result of traumas, the creative gift was
suppressed for years, perfect pitch being
left intact.
So the task of every parent who
wishes for his or her child to have perfect
pitch, is to attempt to create at home such
an atmosphere as for the child to be happy
and relaxed, and to always encourage the
child so as for him or her never to feel
uncertain.
The task of a teacher is to help the
child relax at the lessons, using games,
interesting and funny stories and fairy-
tales to gradually introduce to the child
the world of pitches.
What is the optimal age for a child
to start?
It is individual.
Children are different not only in
temperament, but in the level of general
intellectual development. Some children
can start as early as age 4 or 5, some at 6 or
7.
The development of pitch ear in
these younger children is extremely indi-
vidualized—this process sometimes is
very slow, much slower than in older chil-
dren and in adults.
Sometimes even an inborn perfect
pitch can be "asleep" in a very young child
for some time (for months, for a year or
even more), until general intellectual
development reaches such a level as to
awaken it.
Though I constantly work with
these younger children, still my opinion is,
that the best age for developing perfect
pitch is not before 7, but after 7—when the
general intellectual and musical develop-
ment of a child is high enough, when a
child's ear is cultivated by general musical
studies, by playing an instrument for
some time, and by some relative ear-train-
ing.
Very young children cannot under-
stand why it is so desirable to have perfect
pitch, so they lack motivation in compari-
son with adults and older children.
Therefore, a teacher should be very
inventive in order to constantly maintain a
child's interest in the perfect pitch lessons.
Perfect pitch in children is developed the
way it is with adults—on the piano. If a
child plays an instrument other than
piano—on it too.
I usually use for younger children
the following fairy-tale to introduce
pitches.
Once there lived a little princess
(prince). Her (his) name was Jane (Tom).
She (he) had a kingdom of her (his) own—
a magic forest in which magic animals and
birds lived in beautiful houses Princess
Jane (Prince Tom) built for them. This
kingdom was rather small—only twelve
families lived in it. Some of the houses
were of shining, immaculate white color,
some of them—of practical black color—
easy to keep, but all houses were very
cozy and comfortable. All families were
quite large—mother, grandmother, father,
grandfather, and in all families—not less
than three children, and in two families
there were even great-great grandfathers,
and in one family—a fourth child—a new-
born baby. The first families that moved
into the four white houses were families of
C, E, G, B. Then a teacher should describe
the families to a child—Mommy C—mid-
dle C, Granny C—C an octave lower,
Daddy C—C two octaves lower than mid-
dle C, Grandpa C—the lowest C, then three
children—three pitches C in the three
octaves above middle C, and a baby—the
highest C.
For Teachers or Children and for Parents... 93
A teacher should ask the child—
what animals were the family of C, who
will live in the first white house?
What do you think, hearing C—is it
mellow, or bright, heavy or light by
weight, dark or light? Where does it go—
up or down?
Usually children answer these
questions willingly, sometimes giving
unusual definitions to pitches, almost
always being able to give the pitches defi-
nitions of visual colors, even though these
definitions are rarely the sign of synesthet-
ical perception, which I described in
Chapter 6, "Esthetics of Synesthetic."
On the basis of these definitions the
child will choose the animal for the house
of C (it may be a bird, or a fish). Don't curb
the child's fantasy, even if it seems to you
that definitions are too far-fetched for a
certain tone—pitch colors as yet are not
clear for a child. The same as you did with
pitch C should be done with pitches E, G,
and B at the first lesson.
Then, further on, at subsequent les-
sons, a teacher and a small student create
a fairy-tale together, giving houses—white
and then black—to more and more fami-
lies (adding pitches in the order described
in the "Grow a Row" chapters), inventing
interesting stories about those animals—
pitches—parties, adventures, music
school for children of those animals, pic-
nics, visiting, etc.
This is preliminary work—the child
is only getting acquainted with pitches
without trying to recognize them. A
teacher should always choose the appro-
priate moment in a child's development to
start the pitch ear-training—that same
way, as with adults, as I described in the
"Grow a Row" chapters—in the two
octaves—above and below middle C and
adding pitches gradually—C, E, G, B; then
A, then D, the last white—F; then all
"black" pitches—F#, Bb, C#, Eb, Ab.
 To younger children it is possible to More about developing perfect
give only horizontal pitches, vertical ele- pitch in children will be in my next book:
ments will come later on—when a child is Perfect Pitch for Your Child.
older, and when his or her relative pitch is
also developed parallel with horizontal
pitch ear.
With older children—after 10 and
of high-school age—it is possible to work
the way I described for adults.
Children, in comparison with
adults, having lack of motivation, have the
great advantage of having a parent or a
sibling as a partner at home, to play the
keys on the piano.
It is necessary to have a piano at
home for pitch ear-training.
If a child plays a instrument other
than the piano, it is possible to develop his
or her pitch ear on this instrument with
the help of that teacher who teaches the
child violin or flute for example, allotting
five minutes of each lesson to listening to
and identifying the pitches on this instru-
ment.
The expansion of a child's perfect
pitch in the terms of range goes the same
way as with adults. Aural recall should be
introduced the same way I described in
the "Grow a Row" chapters.
Children usually love to work with
rhythmic patterns, filling them in with
pitches they currently study. For many
children this exercise is the awakening of
their creative gift—they begin to compose
music.
The development of pitch ear in
children seems to me of the greatest
importance—it will enhance the general
musicianship, general ear-alertness of a
child, it will improve memorizing, sight-
reading, tone-production, it will also help
develop creativity in a child.
It will boost up the general intellec-
tual development of a child . . . Teachers
and parents should exert all efforts to help
the child develop perfect pitch.

For Teachers or Children and for Parents... 94

24 Go to the Limitless,
Perceive the Whole
H
uman possibilities and abilities are
limitless if we think of ourselves as
of inseparable parts of Eternity.
You, probably, have heard of the
phenomenon of multiple personality dis-
order, when one person, unconsciously,
from time to time turns into different per-
son, or even several different persons—
each of which will have distinctive traits
of character, different abilities, even state
of health.
Often a person stricken with this
disorder will display an outstanding gift
for something—be it music, visual arts,
poetry, etc., which he or she wouldn't dis-
play in their natural state.
If a person can display certain out-
standing abilities, impersonating some-
one else unconsciously, why not unlock
this potential on conscious level?
Have you noticed, that sometimes
musically gifted children, playing the
game—imagining that they are outstand-
ing musicians, can do miraculous things,
playing a piece many times more difficult
than it is expected from them to play, and
many times better than they usually play?
For traumatized people their world
crumbled and is smashed into pieces.
They are prisoners of this divided world, a
world separated into bits.
Only those who perceive the world
as a whole entity can easily perceive sepa-
rate parts, separate elements of it, such as
pitches.
Others, who are in the bondage of
separateness, paradoxically can't perceive
and recognize well separate elements,
Go to the Limitless, Perceive the Whole 95
such as pitches—for them they are too dis-
connected to be kept in memory.
But in reality it is not a paradox—
what is connected, united into something
whole keeps in memory and is recognized
better than just a disconnected particle.
For example, we easily recognize a
nostril when seeing a nose on a human
face and the whole face. But try to recog-
nize a nostril if you see just a drawing of
this opening—we wouldn't probably
understand what it is.
The same is with pitches—there is a
primary feeling of the pitch row—of a ver-
itable rainbow of pitches, and like a rain-
bow of visual colors, it gives us
simultaneously the feeling of each sepa-
rate pitch, of each color in a rainbow, and
the feeling of all the rainbow at once—we
recognize pitches as parts of the whole.
Those who can't recognize
pitches—you didn't lose your rainbow; it
only became obscured by the dark clouds
of your circumstances, by the peculiarities
of your way of perceiving the world.
Now it is time to clear, to set free
your rainbow of pitches.
If you are reading this book now it
means that this moment came—you
would never want to have what is not
already yours.
On this way there are no limita-
tions—you can start developing perfect
pitch at any age, with any musical back-
ground, playing any instrument.
All that prevents people from per-
ceiving and recognizing pitches is the illu-
sion of separateness; different timbre
prevents a person from recognizing So, go to the limitless, infinite,
pitches on the instruments other than the become part of it and let it become part of
one he or she plays. Different registers you.
prevent another person from recognizing Let go of everything that brings
pitches in a register other than the middle. separateness in your perception, let go of
Different texture—prevents a person who doubts, of memories and concepts that
easily recognizes horizontal, separate make you feel uncertain and insecure.
pitches from recognizing them in vertical Who are you, seekers of perfection,
units—chords and intervals. readers of this book?
But this separateness of timbres, No matter, whether you are a pro-
registers, texture is only a mirage, a capri- fessional musician who wishes to develop
cious play of our perception. There is a perfect pitch to be able to penetrate the
flow of vibrations, produced by musical deepest mysteries of the essence of music,
instruments, human voices and other or an amateur who wishes to develop per-
material objects—an indivisible field, fect pitch to know when to tune your
which is part of the cosmic flow, and at the piano, you are welcome to start the fasci-
same time—part of you, and you—part of nating quest—to regain back your twelve-
it. pitch rainbow.
We ourselves divide, chop into bits
called pitches, this indivisible field—we
actually touch Eternity here—this division
can go on infinitely (see Chapter 1).
As soon as you acknowledge the
field of musical pitches as part of you, and
yourself—part of it, you'll begin to move
along the way to be able to recognize, to
catch in this flow separate bits of it—sepa-
rate pitches.
That the field of pitches is part of
each human being was proved by the
Gandharva therapy of Ayurveda—based
on thousands of years of experience that
certain combinations of pitches and also
the way an instrument is tuned (sharpish,
flattish) cause reaction of human organ-
ism; no matter who listens to this thera-
peutic music, whether the patients have
any musical background or not—the
patients can be absolutely unaware of
what pitches were played, but all would
experience beneficial changes—lowering
their blood-pressure, getting rid of pain,
lowering their cholesterol level, etc.,
because the field of pitches is the intrinsic
part of us, and we—of it.

Go to the Limitless, Perceive the Whole 96

 "On Keys"

Joseph A. Bachour

Sometimes I think D major is the secret of the Universe,

while C major is the gloriously beautiful and brutal existance of life on earth.
Of course, G major is the heaven's mysteries—a glance for us.
E major is a cry to beauty. E minor will never be answered.
F major and minor are grounded in the robust pleasures and trials of man's pre-electric,
purely mechanical world—happy to put bulky contraptions to work
—a windmill, a watermill, even the steam engine.
b major can be elegant, not delicate and never fragile, but large, round and profound.
B
C# major is delicate, almost ready to break, or ready to break you.
Its effect can be subtle or crushing. Be careful.
#
C minor is already dead. It's just not living anymore.
Eb major pretends to be very alive and robust,
but it is only keeping its back to its neighbor: C#.
Eb minor has turned around and is facing back. The outcome is not clear.
C minor will eventually win—not to be hopeless.
It is Ab minor that should despair.
Bb minor has seen tragedy,
but D minor has either never known it, or offers noble consolation.
Maybe D minor could know of the secrets of it's parallel major. It has hope to cope.
Ab major is sometimes regal, usually full and grand.
It is this worldly joy, though, not the deepest kind.
A major is stunning glory that knows what is above,
and has both head and hands already there.
Heels are lifted off the ground.
A minor is the same, the other half, though. Those toes are still touching.
For encouragement, I would never look to B minor.
It can only be, or usually be brutal and painful.
#
F major would take me for a ride, and a seemingly very pleasant one and exciting,
but is all this so very lasting and fulfilling?
#
F minor was alive and pumped a heart, but the heart dried up and became brittle.
It might be collected by science as a specimen now,
but carefully, and needs to be protected by glass.
B major is alert with eyebrows up and nerves ready to receive stimulation.
It also cries out (but to what?) and could even be brash.
G minor—a little bit sleepy. It is healthy, but tired—
still young, not jaded, but worn some.
It probably will have troubles and trials ahead, and is beginning to know it.

97
 Appendix I - Samples of Rhythmic Patterns
1.


          

            

2.


                  

3.

                    

4.


          

           

5.

   
                  

6.
  
                     

7.
     
                            
98
8.

                     

9.

                         

10.
      
                              

11.

                                    

12.

                           

13.

                                   

14.


                 

15.


                           

                     
99
 16.
      
                          

     
                      

17.

                        

    
              

18.

                     

19.


3 3 3 3

                         

3 3 3

                     

20.


3
 3 3 3

                           

3 3 3

                    
100
 Appendix II - samples of "Volleys"
  
  
2 3 4

   
         


  

 
5

6  7
 

8

   

       
    


 
9
 
10
   
 11
 
   12
   
    
 


         
13 14 15 16

       
  
 
  

       
   
17 18 19 20

     
     

    

    
 
      
21 22 23 24
 
      



 

25
   
26
    
27
 
28
  
       


      
  
        
29 30 31 32
   

   

101
 
 
       
33 34 35 36

        

      

37

38  39
   40  

      
       


    

 
41

 42 
  
43
 
           

 
44
   45

46  
  
    
   

  

47  

48
    
   
  

 
49
       
 50
    
 

   

   
          

51 52

   



  
  
            
53 54 55

 
   

    

    

 
56
     
57   

     
    


 

102
 Appendix III
1-part Dictations - tonal


    
    
1.
   
         



          
2.

               


3.

           

 

 
  
   
   
    

4.
      
     
      

   
        
  


5.
  

             
     
    

 
      
6.
      
  
 
  

   
        
     
 
103
 7.
   
                   


        
        
 


             
8.

          

    

            
         
 
  

   
9.
    
                    
     

 

          

 

      
        

 

                   
10.

         



         
          

   


      
     
 
  



          
11.
   
                
     

104
    
             
                   


              
12.
          
     


   
                 
      

   

   
        
            
    

  
        
13.
 
           
   

14.
     
      
 
 
    
 
 

  
15.
   
        
 

16.
   

      
   
  
         
  

   
17.
    
       
   


           
18.
      
     

105
        

19.
              
   

20.
    
   
    
    
  

    
        
21.
  
          


        
22.

        
  
     

23.

    
          
    
  

24.

         
         
 

25.

                   
        
106
 1-part Dictations - atonal
1.


       
 
           
 

             
2.


  
 
      
 
     

  
3.
              
    
 

      
      

     


  
4.
      
    
 

     

       
5.
    
          
 
 
    
  

        
6.
     
    


   
   

7.


    
          
   
 
   

107
 8.
 
                     
 

     
9.
   
         
  
                 

        
10.

      

     
  

   

11.
         
         
         


        
  
           
12.

  
       

   
13.

 

            
  
  


      
14.

           
     
108
   
  
15.

       
   
  
  
      


16.
                      
  
     


        
17.
        
    
 


18.
      
   
 
  
      
  

       

            
   
19.
  
    

 

 
 
     

20.
        

    





   
 
21.
   

  
   
 

  

   

 

109
 2-part Dictations - tonal
1.
            
    


   
           
  

           
     

          
  
 

2.
 
               
       

   
           
       
             


  
3.
         
      

                  
 

                
 

       
           

110
  
            
 

      
         
 

    
4.

  
           
 
                
      
    

         
          

                       


   
    
5.
   

     

3

                

        

3 3

              
 
  

     
          
     

111
6.
        
   
   
      

       
    
  

              
   

 
    
 
    

2-part Dictations - atonal

           
   
1.
      
             
 
 
            
                 
     

 
2.
         
             

            
                 

   
      
3.

           
  
 
 

              
          
      

112
               
4.

     
      

      
   
    
             
 

5.         
        
          

                
          

             
 
6.
     
      

      
                
 

   
                    


              
          

               
       

  
       
   
 

113
 3-part Dictations - tonal

    
1.

               
    
             

   
    


            


                       
      

       
      


           
2.
   
  
       
         

         

          


                              

  
  

               


 
3.
 
                        
      

               


114
   
                          

   
        
    

             
4.
      

    
            


         
  
 
       

   
     

      
               
   

         

      
 

    
5.

             
     
   
     
      
     


               

              


 
          

115
         
                  
6.
  
    

       

    
            
     

         
     

  
               
   
 
   

              
  

       
      
        
7.

              
     

       

             
    

      
 
       
       
       


        
 
    
   


116
 3-part Dictations - atonal

1.
    

               


 


                 

 
 
    


       
      

      
     

    
  
2.

      
 


  


    
    
     

  
 
         
 
 

 
     

     
   
    

      
3.

       
   

                    

   
             
 

117
   
   

     
         


 
            

4.
 
          
            

      
      

        
      
   
   
    
    



    
5.
               
             
         
        

          

      

             

118
 4-part Dictations - tonal

  
1.
    
          

         
        


      
     
   

      
     
  

2.
 
     
        


   

    




 

   

    


            

   
   
      


3.

  
     



    
   


            
      
119
  
    

  
         

            
       

4.

       

    
    
 
      

      
        
   

 
          
    
 
                 
   

5.

      

  
         
   
        
              


 
             
           
                   
   
120
6.

                

          
    
   

  
 
  
          


         
    
  

7.

            



  
       
        
       

       
           
 
  

  
  

     

   

121
 4-part Dictations - atonal

            

1.
      
      

         
   
  
    
    
  

           
            
     
                  

        

   
  
2.

         
 
   

  
             
   


 
       
 


     
      
    
 

           

     
  
3.
       
      

                  
      

122
   
            
 
         
   
       
    

 
 
4.
   
            



                


     
          
 
 


          
  

    

5.
  

    
      
     
 
 

           
         

    
     
         

           
         


123
Bibliography

David Lucas Burge The Perfect Pitch Ear-Training Super Course, American Educational
Music Publications: Fairfield, Iowa, 2002

Almut Rossler Contributions to the Spiritual World of Olivier Messiaen, with Original
Texts by the Composer: Gilles and Francke, 1986

Faubion Bowers Alexander Scriabin. "Poem of Ecstasy" and "Prometheus: Poem of Fire,"
in full score. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995, p.114

Gottfried Schlaug Science, 3 February 1995, pp. 616 and 699

Bibliography 124