Dotson Piano Lessons

This post will provide a summary of relative pitch and perfect pitch (absolute pitch) and will enumerate the different scale degrees with methods to hearing their relation to the fundamental pitch (“Do”). This post uses the movable “Do” solfège method, where we assign “Do” to the root of any key that we are in. The end of the post will include an effective app to practice your relative pitch acuity.

– Thomas H. Dotson

Defining Relative and Absolute Pitch

Before we can understand the advantage of both of these concepts, we must define them first. Relative pitch is the ability to detect pitches relative to other pitches —viz. the root of the scale— contrary to absolute pitch, which is the ability to detect pitches absolutely without a reference. While many musicians become dismayed when they discover that they do not have absolute pitch, I am here to posit that relative pitch is superior. If you had to choose one over the other. Many musicians with an acute absolute pitch develop a partiality to the original keys of songs. For someone with disproportionate absolute pitch, transposing a song can be obtrusive, as each note deviates from the original pitch. Another pitfall of absolute pitch is the physical discomfort that out-of-tune or pitch adjacent instruments cause. Detuned music and performances are not just discordant, but are physically irritating.

Tendencies of the Diatonic Scale Degrees

While you may not be able to detect the alphabetical note name with relative pitch, you can detect the numerical note function based off of its tendency in movable “do” solfège. Before we proceed, I should explicate the tendencies of all the pitches in solfège. First off, we have “do,” which functions as the home of all the pitches in our key. The very first skill that you want to acquire is locating the “home” pitch of a tune because we locate all of our other scale degrees relative to this “home” pitch. Next, “Re” relates to “Do” by a full step. Practice singing your major and minor scale to hear this relation between “Do” and “Re.” “Mi” should sound pretty stable. Start hearing “Mi” as a walk down to “Do”: “Mi” “Re” “Do”, emphasizing the major tonality of that “Mi”. The pitch of our perfect fourth, “Fa” resolves nicely to “Mi”. Keep in mind that you also need a referential “Do” as your anchor to your key center so that you can hear this suspended resolution relative to the root. Perhaps the strongest scale degree in the series, “So” will sound open and closely related to “Do” because of it exists as the second partial of the fundamental (“Do”) in the harmonic series. I hear “So” as descending a fifth to “Do” like cadential relationship of dominant and tonic chords. However, I would recommend hearing it as tending to resolve up by steps while you are still a relative pitch novice: “So” “La” “Ti” “Do.” The next pitch, “La” also has a stable sound and distinctly indicates a major tonality. I hear the “La” as wanting to move to “Ti” and finish on “Do”. Also, many students find “La” particularly difficult to detect out of the diatonic major pitches. Therefore, I would recommend practicing hearing the difference between a major scale and a pentatonic scale. The more associations we make in our brain, the more accurately we will be able to recognize anything new. The last diatonic major scale degree is “Ti.” This pitch has a desperate bias to resolve up to “Do.” This scale degree will only be obvious if you can retain that referential “Do” in your internal ear. 

Tendencies of the Chromatic Scale Degrees

Now, we are missing four pitches. The b2 or “Ra” will want to resolve down to “Do.” Hearing “Sa” resolve chromatically to “Do” will only naturally occur —again— if we keep the referential “Do” in mind at all times. The next pitch, b3 or “Me,” will strongly establish a minor mode tonality. The resolution of “Me” Re”  “Do” should be strikingly minor in quality. If you know your blues scale (minor pentatonic with a b5), you will also hear this “Do” to “Me” relationship better. For our tritone; the #11, b5, or “Fi;” we should tune our ears to hearing it as having a desperate bias to resolve upwards to “So.” This pitch will have the least tonal relationship to our referential “Do,” so it will have the furthest relation to our home key, along with “Ra.” Probably the hardest to hear for me personally is the b6 or “Le.” It resolves up to “Do” with the same three note ascension like “La” but it has a minor tonality. The minor version, “Le” “Te” “Do” has become iconic with the Super Mario cadence. Please familiarize yourself with that cadence on your instrument to better hear this pitch. Lastly, “Te” will also sound like “Ti” but minor because it has a bias towards “Do.” If you can fit a chromatic pitch before “Do,” then you are hearing “Te.” Again, if you know your blues scale and natural minor scale, hearing this relationship will become easier. 

How To Practice This Skill

Please practice hearing these pitches with the app “Functional Ear Trainer: The Alain Benbassat Method.” With enough practice, you will start to intuit the scale degrees with acute relative pitch. You will develop an intimate understanding of these scale degrees and create your own associations. As not to impose my associations, I kept the scale degree relations theoretically objective (mostly :). To internalize this skill of hearing the tendencies of all the pitches in the scale.

The Advantage

This skill will become more and more vital for your musicianship as you progress in your music studies. I apply this skill whenever, I am playing melodies from ear. It feels amazing to know what the starting pitch is for a song before you even touch your instrument. Also, this skill has made me much more confident in hearing large leaps. If you can hear the interval between two notes, and you can also hear the scale degree of the target note, then you cannot hit a wrong note. I cannot recommend developing your relative pitch enough. In my next post, I will disclose how to apply this skill of hearing functional chords and what those functions are. In part 2, I will outline a practical method for hearing the chords in a song.