The absolute ear is a relatively rare ability in which a person can identify or reproduce a note without any reference to a musical instrument, such as the piano, for example.
Although for a long time this ability was considered innate and almost impossible to teach, new studies indicate that it is possible to train the brain to develop an ear capable of identifying most musical notes.
How do I know if I have
To find out if you have heard absolutely you can do a simple test that consists of:
- Put another person on a piano; Stay inside the room, but unable to observe the keys on the piano; Ask the other person to play a random note; Try to correctly guess the note and repeat with other notes.
Generally, this ability is easier to assess in people who have studied music, as they know the diversity of musical notes better. However, people who have never studied music may also find it easy to immediately identify the note.
Another way to identify a possible absolute ear capacity is to try to understand if the person can sing a song while maintaining the correct tone, similar to the original song, for example.
How to train the ear
Although some people are born with an innate ability to identify musical notes, that ability can also be trained over time, regardless of age.
For this, a good technique is to choose a specific note, reproduce it and then try to identify that note along the sia, whether in the songs you make or listen to. A tip that can help you develop this ability faster is to listen to the same note several times during the day, murmuring the note in the correct sound.
Gradually, the note becomes easier to identify and, when that happens, you can move on to another note, repeating until you can identify as many notes as possible.
