That’s why I can never get 20 in a row correct.

There have been times where I thought I detected some kind of color difference. Here’s the frustrating thing: no matter how hard I try, I absolutely can not tell the different between two pairs of intervals: the minor thirds D and F and E and G, and the major thirds F and A and G and B. I end up more often on an Ab, an A, or a B. In the meantime, I make no progress singing a C from memory. Failing so often is exhausting, dispiriting. The second attempt goes better: 12 in a row instead of three. The first attempt doesn’t go well, which I’m used to. He also says, “Something is continuing to unfold inside you.” “Some of you may find that these drills are too easy,” he says. If I hear a minor third, it can only be B and D, A and C, D and F, or E and G. The relationships between the notes also narrow things down significantly. Major and minor thirds sound obviously different, happy versus sad. 20 times in a row: first ascending, then descending, and finally harmonically.Įasy, I think. He calls it a “melodic thirds pitch identification drill.” I’m supposed to play white note thirds on the piano, again looking away or keeping my eyes closed, and identify them from the bottom up.

The next exercise he gives me is similar to the previous one.

“Alright, you’re doing very well,” David Lucas Burge says on the tape. Optimistically, I move on to Masterclass 8. Still, the notes somehow managed to burrow themselves in my brain, or maybe I just got lucky. (I didn’t cheat, I promise.) C and D were usually easy to identify F and G were hard. After several attempts, I managed it, closing my eyes or looking out the window. At the end of episode 5, I was supposed to identify the notes in the C major scale, without looking, 20 times in a row. Listen to the audio version of this story. Like the main character in Beckett’s play “Krapp’s Last Tape,” I despair about my life alone in my room, with a recording running. I’ve started hurling insults at my microphone. My ear training practice sessions now end after five minutes. The last time I made any progress with David Lucas Burge’s Perfect Pitch Ear Training SuperCourse was June 12-almost a month ago.

Perfect pitch ear training supercourse