The time between the notes relates the colorto the scenes. . .

—Yes
(Close to the Edge, Atlantic
Recording Corp.)

PERFECT
PITCH
COLOR HEARING
FOR EXPANDED
MUSICAL AWARENESS

DAVID L. BURGE
PERFECT PITCH:
Color Hearing for Expanded Musical Awareness
Copyright © 1983 by David L. Burge and
David J.O'Reilly
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission.
Printed in the United States of America.

This composition is dedicated with deepest love and respect to

ISBN: 0-942542-97-5 my teacher, Helene Rynd Vinograd, who opened my ears to the
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 81-85963 color and fascination of music.
First printing: February 1983
Second printing: October 1984
A special note of appreciation goes to David J. O'Reilly for his
assistance in the preparation of this book.

This work comprises the original teaching material

directly from the author's hand. It has not been edited,
abridged, or changed in any manner whatsoever.

Comments on this book may be sent to the author at the

publisher's address. Though all letters will be forwarded
to Mr. Burge, we regret that it is not possible to respond
to each one.

Published by Innersphere Music Studio, a divi-

sion of American Educational Music Publica-
tions, Brandywine Valley Headquarters, P.O.
Box 7333, Wilmington, Delaware, 19803, USA.
Other works in David L. Surge's perfect pitch series: CONTENTS
THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THE
PERFECT PITCH WORKSHOP
Full transcript of the remarkable workshop now being conducted by
I. THERE'S COLOR IN YOUR E A R ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
David L. Burge at colleges, music schools, and summer music camps.
II. THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOR H E A R I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Contains elaborations of handbook material with actual questions and
III. WAVE FREQUENCY AND C O L O R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
answers with workshop participants. A concise, clear explanation which IV. COLOR HEARING AND T I M B R E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
anyone can understand on the practical benefits of perfect pitch and the V. COLOR HEARING AND S Y N E S T H E S I A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
secret behind developing it. Includes original chalkboard illus- VI. COLOR HEARING AND COLOR ASSOCIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
trations. ISBN 0-942542-98-3 VII. PERFECT PITCH AND RELATIVE P I T C H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
VIII. LEVELS OF PERFECT P I T C H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THE Level
One: Color A w a r e n e s s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
PERFECT PITCH MASTER CLASS Level
Two: Color D i s c r i m i n a t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Level
Three: Refined Color D i s c r i m i n a t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Discussion: How and why do the Color Hearing Technique exercises Level
Four: Universal Color Discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
work? Mr. Burge gives a detailed analysis of the practical development LevelFive: Spectral D i s c r i m i n a t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
of perfect pitch. Advanced material for students who wish to study Level
Six: Aural R e c a l l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
perfect pitch in greater depth. Easy to understand. Includes questions IX. VOCAL TENSION P I T C H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
and answers with Master Class participants. For use with Mr. Surge's X. THE PRACTICALITY OF COLOR H E A R I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
handbook on perfect pitch. ISBN 0-942542-99-1 XI. TUNE U P ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
XII. COLOR HEARING T E C H N I Q U E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
To order transcripts, send $10 for each copy desired to: American Educa- General P o i n t s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
tional Music Publications, P.O. Box 7333, Wilmington, DE 19803. Add Exercise 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
$1.50 per order for postage and handling. Please specify quantity of Exercise 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
WORKSHOP TRANSCRIPTS and MASTER CLASS TRANSCRIPTS Exercise 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
desired. Exercise 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Exercise 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Exercise 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Exercise 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Exercise 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 1 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 1 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 13 ....................................................... 49
 Exercise 14. 49
Exercise 15. 50
Exercise 16. 51
Exercise 17. 51
Exercise 18. 51
XIII. EAR TEASERS FOR SUPER E A R S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
XIV. PERFECT PITCH, MUSIC AND HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS..... 55

I. THERE'S COLOR IN YOUR EAR!

Almost everyone has heard of the supernormal hearing ability called perfect
pitch. The musician with perfect pitch is a constant source of fascination and
wonder for knowing the pitch of any musical tone by ear alone. Just as most
people can name different colors of thread within a multicolored fabric, the
musician with perfect pitch can name the various tones in a piece just by hearing
them.
The musician with perfect pitch can tell what a note is without looking at
the instrument playing. He or she always knows the keys in which pieces are
being played, can discern whether a band is sharp or flat, and can name all
the chords to your favorite song as it plays on the radio. The musician with
perfect pitch seems to display an expanded perceptual awareness which he
can apply to practical musicianship.
Musicians lacking development of perfect pitch generally assume that it
is difficult to develop or that one either "has it" or one does not. Many consider
perfect pitch a musical "gift" and associate it only with exceptional and prodi-
gious personalities.
Mozart, for example, was particularly noted (among other things) for his
highly acute sense of perfect pitch. A story is often told of a time when he was
seven years old and a friend lent him a violin he especially liked. Young Wolf-
gang enjoyed this violin for its pleasing sound, but after playing it for some time
he discarded it and sought out his own little one. Later while practicing his own
instrument, his friend remarked about this. The child paused in his playing and
complained that the other violin had been "half a quarter of a tone flatter" than
his own. To have detected this by ear alone without direct comparison of the
two instruments seemed ridiculous. Even so, his father insisted that both violins
be brought forth to test the boy's accuracy, which of course proved impeccable.
(Why young Wolfgang didn't simply retune the violin is not included in the
account, the main point being that, even at an early age, Mozart was recognized
as possessing an exceptional musical ear.)1
Due to such connotations surrounding the subject of perfect pitch, many
musicians feel an impossibility of ever enjoying this proficiency. Actually, this
super-refinement of hearing is not a mystical gift of pitch bestowed only on the
musical elect. The ear of every musician has a natural, but usually undeveloped

9
ability to discern "color" within the pitch spectrum, much as the eye sees "color"
within the visible spectrum. There are scores of musicians today who have
developed perfect pitch and the proficiencies which go along with it. Perfect
pitch is color hearing—a refined perception of "color" within the sound spec-
trum—and it can be easily "learned" by most people when they know how to
listen.
You can easily prove your own latent ability to acquire perfect pitch. Go
to a piano that is fairly well tuned and listen to both the Eb and F# below Middle
C. Do you notice that the F# seems to have some sort of a "twangy," "vibrant"
quality, whereas the Eb seems "softer," more "mellow"? When this is pointed
out, most people are immediately surprised that they do seem to hear this
distinction, but had never listened closely enough to discover it before. It is this
II. THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOR
"twanginess," "softness," or other quality of a pitch which is its characteristic
color.
HEARING
The "twangy" color of F# might be compared to the visual color of red.
The bold vibrancy of red seems to "stick out" more than other visual colors,
which is why red is often used for flags, warnings, etc. In a similar way, F#
seems to "stick out" above all other pitches because of its bold "color." For Musicians commonly define perfect pitch (technically known as absolute pitch)
most musicians, F# is the easiest pitch color to notice. as the ability to name any tone heard and sing any note requested. There are
Some musicians can immediately hear this "twangy" color of F# so well many reasons for cultivating this inborn yet usually undeveloped musical per-
that they insist there must be something about their particular piano which ception.
causes this. However, F# sounds the same way on any piano which is in tune! Of the many facets to superior musicianship, a good ear is the essential
Tones of the same pitch always have the same pitch color, regardless of the foundation. A good sense of pitch is considered by professional musicians to
instrument playing. be the most valuable element of musicianship, and is even chosen above other
The undeveloped ear can usually hear pitch color best on the piano at essentials like good rhythm, technical facility, accurate memory, intensity dis-
first, probably due to some extent to the large sounding board which seems to crimination and creativity.2 Perfect pitch can be a master key to fluent improv-
help clarify the color of the pitch. An amplified electric guitar also seems to isation and playing by ear. Perfect pitch is also a stable basis for confidence
make the "vibrant" pitch color of F# or "mellow" color of Eb more noticeable during performance. Memorization is made much more secure when the ear
to the undeveloped ear. However, you may find that at first pitch color is only hears in terms of color patterns in addition to finger memory and theoretical
noticeable on your familiar instrument, whatever that may be. familiarity with a piece.
A musician with developed perfect pitch simply has his ears fully open to Singers find perfect pitch an invaluable aid for locating obscure pitches
these fine qualities of pitch color as they are perceived through the various in precarious situations. A brilliant effect can be produced when a singer arrives
textures of many different musical instruments. If you can clearly hear the colors onstage and does not require a starting pitch. After singing briefly the instru-
on the piano as indicated above, but cannot hear them on another instrument, mentalists join in, and—to the delight of the audience—everyone is together
or if you are not certain even on the piano, do not despair. Rather than a facility in tune.
which one either "has" or "does not have," perfect pitch in reality is an expanded These kinds of proficiencies are in themselves often considered as the
musical awareness which can be easily cultured by certain "ear opening" ex- ability of perfect pitch, but really they are all skills which are rooted in the one
ercises. basic ability to perceive pitch color. Yet even if a musician would not apply his
Color hearing may at first seem very abstract, but once your ear catches sense of color hearing to practical musicianship, there is a higher aesthetic
onto it, a whole new field of musical experience will become apparent. appreciation of sound which dawns in his refined ear.
Imagine the most glorious sights your eyes have witnessed in life: color-
splashed sunsets, the iridescent hues of spring, summer and autumn, all the
majestic artistry of nature. Now think how you would describe these sights to
someone who sees, but who does not recognize visual color. Total color-blind-
ness is extremely rare, but 8% of all men (less than .5% of women) have some
degree of visual color perception disability and confuse obviously different hues
like red and green. If you are not one of these people, imagine not clearly
seeing the difference between the red of a rose and the green of its leaf! The

10 11
inhibition of artistic appreciation in life can hardly be compensated for! Yet the As the art of coherent sound, music deals exclusively with acoustic vibra-
musician lacking aural development unknowingly finds himself in a similar sort tions as interpreted through our sense of hearing. Our scope of musical com-
of situation. prehension is therefore limited only by our boundaries of aural awareness. By
To the color ear, the entire pitch spectrum is a dazzling display of distinct increasing one's sensitivity to musical tones, one not only enlivens his appre-
sound colors which dance within their musical framework and blend in various ciation of musical art, but also instills into his awareness an intuitive cognition
ways to form the different chords and tonalities. Acoustical psychologist A. of the finer mechanics of this art.
Bachem has observed that "particular characteristics of certain keys, e.g., the The apparatus of the ear is already latent with the ability to discern pitch
brilliancy of A major, the softness of D flat major, can only be appreciated fully color, so no new faculty of hearing needs to be created—one needs only to
through absolute pitch."3 In addition, the color ear experiences a certain richness become attentive to a level of musical experience which previously went un-
of sound which extends even beyond the musical sphere. noticed. The key to acquiring a sense of color hearing lies only in expanding
By comparison, the ear that has not penetrated to this depth of experience one's restricted musical awareness by learning how to listen in a more refined
lives in a shadow musical world "painted" only in shades of "grey" pitches and natural manner. In cultivating perfect pitch, one's aural perception becomes
which, though individually distinct, are somehow all the same. The common increasingly broadened and alert, thereby forming a more comprehensive basis
musical ear certainly has no trouble hearing pitches and can certainly enjoy all which facilitates all avenues of musicality. Expanded musical awareness is both
forms of music, but it is inhibited in its scope because it does not recognize the cause and effect of acquiring this phenomenal mastery of musical frequencies.
subtle value of color— that quality which distinguishes a pitch in its own right,
without comparison to other tones.
This is unfortunate because, unlike visual color-blindness, there is nothing
inherently "wrong" with most ears that would prevent full pitch color awareness.
The chief reason why people, including musicians, have an undeveloped sense
of color hearing (apparent "color-deafness") is largely lack of aural orientation
in life.
Psychologists differ as to the extent each sense contributes to our total
perceptual scope, but many feel we are about 80-90% visually oriented. Early
in life we are taught the names of visual colors, but seldom does a child learn
the musical colors of F#, Bb, etc. Our vision is almost a necessity of everyday
life and has certainly become our dominant sense. If you stop to think about
it, it becomes apparent that we use our eyes for almost everything we do—
except, of course, for listening to music. In fact, about the hardest thing our
ears have had to deal with until musical development is the differences between
spoken words. Imagine how developed our hearing would be if we had spent
as much time in school listening to sounds and music as we did in reading and
writing, science and mathematics!
As a result of a one-sided attention favoring the sense of sight, most ears
are still "sleeping" to greater possibilities of experience and are not fully enli-
vened to more abstract values of sound. It is as if the ear has taken on some
dullness or laziness because it has never really had to listen intently. The so-
called "tone deaf" individual is largely a myth. Most people labelled as tone
deaf appear so only due to lack of musical development rather than to any real
disability in hearing pitches.
For most individuals, hearing is therefore a more elusive sense than sight.
Because color hearing is an even subtler experience than grosser sound per-
ception, it is easy to see how the sense of perfect pitch is obscured from
awareness. Yet the ear has always been capable of hearing pitch color. Most
musicians, in fact, are already hearing pitch color to some extent, but because
they are not consciously aware of it, they do not fully appreciate it. Because
most ears have never really related to color, color hearing has remained an
untapped and little understood possibility.

13
12
 ear, therefore, within its own field, seems to contain more perceptual possibilities
than even the eye. In fact, the ear is such a delicate and perfect instrument of
perception that it is easy to understand how it could also possess a natural
ability to appreciate different wave frequencies (pitches) as different "colors"
within the sound spectrum, just as in the visual field the eye naturally sees all
the colors of the rainbow according to their appointed frequencies.
Every pitch we hear has a particular wave frequency, and because of this
every pitch has a particular sound color. All we need to do to hear these colors
is simply learn to listen.

III. WAVE FREQUENCY AND

Many musicians have already developed a color ear. But what exactly is
COLOR such an individual's experience? It is easy to understand color in terms of sight,
but when applied to the sense of hearing, the word color may carry connotations
which do not necessarily belong to the sense of perfect pitch.
Let us at this point clarify exactly what is meant when we talk in terms of
color hearing, the ability to hear "pitch color" within the sound spectrum. To
The mechanics of perfect pitch are quite simple and can be understood by avoid foreseeable confusion, we will examine related topics to make a distinction
comparing the sense of hearing with the sense of sight. Let's look at some between them and color hearing.
facts and figures on visual and aural perception and then make an analogy
between them.
Both visual and aural sensory fields relate to wave frequencies. The fre-
quency of a sound or light wave means its number of vibrations per second
(or cycles per second). This is expressed in hertz (Hz), one hertz meaning one
cycle per second.
The eye can see light wave frequencies from about 4.5 x 1014 Hz to about
7.8 x 1014 Hz, and somehow perceives them as a distinct prismatic color
spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet—with all the hues in
between.
The ear is sensitive to a comparatively larger range of sound wave fre-
quencies from approximately 16 Hz to about 20,000 Hz (some people can hear
as high as 30,000-40,000 Hz). Within this continuous pitch spectrum, Western
music today uses about 88 specific pitches (each has its own "color"), as can
be seen on a piano keyboard. Contemporary concert pitch is set at A-440,
which means that the accepted standard of pitch is such that the A above
Middle C is set at a frequency of 440 vibrations per second (or 440 Hz) and
thus sets all other tones accordingly. Each successive octave on the keyboard
is twice the frequency of the previous one, and each octave is divided up into
twelve semitones, or chromatic degrees.
With this information and a little math, it can be shown that the frequency
of any tone times the twelfth root of two (which equals about 1.0595) will equal
the frequency of the next higher tone (i.e., A-440 x 1.0595 = Bb-466, the next
chromatic degree higher). Thus we can calculate that the lowest tone on the
piano is A-27.5 and the highest tone is C-4186 (Middle C has a frequency of
261.7 Hz), each tone lying well within the ear's limits.
Again considering that each octave higher is twice the frequency of the
previous octave, it becomes apparent that the ear has a complete hearing range
of ten to eleven octaves, compared to less than one for visual perception. The

14 15
IV. COLOR HEARING AND TIMBRE

Musicians often use the term tone color when referring to the characteristic
quality of a tone which enables one to tell different instruments apart. "Tone

Figure 1: FIRST 15 OVERTONES OF C

color," or timbre (pronounced "tam-ber"), is the characteristic pattern of overtones
unique to every instrument which gives an instrument its own distinct sound. If
you play a tone on a trumpet, then another on an oboe, it is easy to tell which
instrument is which by its quality of timbre. Timbre is what gives a tone its
"brassy," "reedy," "stringy," "hollow," "rich," etc. sound.
The overtones which produce the quality of timbre are much weaker than
the fundamental tone sounded, so they usually are not consciously noticed by
the musician. But if you listen carefully it is not hard to hear many of them.
Go to a piano and play the C two below Middle C. A string vibrates not
only as one long string length, but also in halves, thirds, fourths, ad infinitum,
and therefore corresponding overtones are produced which can be heard. By
multiplying the frequency of the fundamental tone by two, three, four, etc., we
can calculate the frequencies of its overtones. With this particular C sounding,
the pitches shown in Figure 1 are also sounding, many of which can be heard
if you listen very closely.
Try this experiment: Depress Middle C, but do not allow it to sound. Next
play Low C, but only let it sound briefly. You will notice that Middle C is now
sounding. The first overtone of Low C is identical in pitch to Middle C and thus
causes the Middle C strings to sympathetically vibrate. Try this with Low C and
Middle C#. It will not work because Middle C# is not an overtone of Low C.
Nor can Middle C cause Low C to vibrate (it can, however, cause Low C's
overtone to sound!). You can repeat this experiment with other overtones, but
they will not all work due to mathematical differences of pitch between natural
harmonic overtones and the actual contemporary Western twelve tone scale.
It is the presence, absence, and relative strength of overtones and where
they occur in the harmonic structure which determines the "tone color," or
timbre of an instrument. Figure 2 shows a sound wave graph which represents
a pure tone from a tuning fork, which essentially does not have any overtones,
or timbre. The pattern of a tuning fork sound wave is just a simple sine wave.
The overtone series unique to a musical instrument shows up on a sound wave
graph as fluctuations within this basic sine wave pattern, as shown in Figure

16
 3. Every musical instrument has a different wave pattern produced by its char-
acteristic arrangement of overtones which registers in our ear as its timbre, or
unique sound of the instrument.
Though musicians universally refer to the quality of timbre as "tone color,"
it is really a misnomer. Qualities like "brassy," "reedy," "stringy," etc. are not
colors—they are more like textures. If something sounds "brassy," for instance,
that is really a textural quality rather than a kind of aural color.
Because musicians are inherently poetic at heart, it is pleasing to employ
such a lyrical word as color in music vocabulary and even use it liberally in
other respects as well. In addition to "tone color." we also speak of "color" with
reference to harmonic texture, melodic disposition, dynamics, register, orna-
mental and interpretive devices, as well as the general character of a work.
Color means a unit of melodic repetition when referring to French Ars Nova
forms of music of the fourteenth century. All these usages are really free inter-
Figure 2: PURE SINE WAVE pretations of a word which also has a specific meaning in physics: the perceived
quality of a wave frequency which allows one to recognize that wave frequency
Sound wave graph pattern of a tuning fork, which essentially has no overtones. on the basis of perception alone. Because pitch color means the unique sound
of a wave frequency, it is a more accurate usage of the word color than any
of those previously mentioned.
As stated earlier, the textural form a pitch takes (its timbre) can be rep-
resented by its particular graph pattern, as shown in Figure 3. On the other
hand, what determines pitch color (as contrasted with timbre) is how many of
these waves are produced per second, as we discussed when comparing the
sense of hearing to the sense of sight. The more waves per second (Hz), the
higher the pitch will be, and each pitch has a different color sound.
The graph pattern of a particular instrument is its "fingerprint" of timbre.
No matter what pitch is sounding, the graph pattern will have the same basic
design which represents the texture of that particular instrument. The colors of
concert pitches, however, are the same on all instruments when compared to
the same pitches (frequencies), but these colors wear the disguise of many
different "tone textures" according to the instrument sounding. With this un-
derstanding it is easy to analyze the mechanics of tonal discrimination in the
developed ear: if a Bb is sounded on a flute, one knows it is a Bb by hearing
its color (pitch color discrimination), and one knows it is a flute by its sweet,
hollow sounding texture (timbre discrimination).
The point here is to make the distinction between "tone color" (which is
Figure 3: COMPOSITE WAVE really tone texture) and other general usages of the word color, and color
hearing, which is the ear's perception of pitch color. It may have been agreeable
Sound wave graph pattern of a fundamental tone with overtones. Overtones not to have added another definition of color to the musician's already crowded
show up as fluctuations in the basic sine wave pattern, and register in the ear list, but the sense of perfect pitch is master of this word and therefore rightfully
as the timbre, or sound quality of the instrument. deserves its place.

18 19
 fact that he or she can identify specific bands of frequencies (musical pitches)
just by how they sound to his ear. If one is color-blind or "color-deaf," one will
not be able to consistently identify visual or aural colors. It is not that one as
such perceives nothing—a color-blind individual at worst still sees shades of
grey light, and the (apparently) "color-deaf" individual still hears gradations of
pitch. It just means that perceptual awareness is not yet complete. Unless a
careful comparison of the perception is made with a specific given standard,
there will be difficulty in identifying the name of the color frequency. Color
discrimination, whether visual or aural, simply gives the unique perception of
a wave frequency which allows you to identify it without reference to anything
else— i.e., red always basically appears as red, F# always sounds like F#, and
V. COLOR HEARING AND it is not necessary to refer to any other perception to know this.
The point of this section is that color exists both in the fields of sight and
SYNESTHESIA hearing. It is important to note that it is not our goal here to indicate a strict and
definite correlation of the two senses, which could prove to be a difficult task,
but rather to show by analogy that wave frequencies can be heard as colors
within the sound spectrum much the same as they are seen as colors within
Some people have a perception of musical tones which extends beyond the the visual spectrum. Further, individuals with the sense of color hearing (perfect
sense of hearing and "overflows" into other senses, particularly the sense of pitch) do not see colors when tones are played (this is synesthesia), but rather
discriminate between colors which are heard.
sight. That is, when they hear a musical tone they may simultaneously see an
actual visual color. This extremely rare and peculiar phenomenon is called
synesthesia, which means that one of the five senses is stimulated through a
different sense outside its own field of perception. The synesthetic individual
literally "sees" a color when he hears a tone.
This situation has no direct connection with the ability of perfect pitch. A
person with perfect pitch does not see a visual color when he hears a tone;
rather, he hears the sound color (pitch color) of the tone. Visual color and pitch
color can both be referred to as color because they both mean a certain quality
which allows one to discriminate among wave frequencies.
If this seems to be an abstract conception when applied to the sense of
hearing, it appears so only due to unfamiliarity with pitch color perception. If
you were to try to explain how different frequencies of light appear to your eyes
as "red," "orange," "blue," etc., you may find that intelligent descriptions elude
you even though what you see is perfectly obvious to your perception. But the
proof that you do see color is the fact that you can identify specific bands of
light frequencies just by how they appear to your eye.
In a similar manner, it can be difficult to explain how the musical pitch
spectrum is perceived as various "colors" which are heard. Even most people
with perfect pitch can not explain how they perceive the difference between
tones. If played a C#, color hearers will know it is a C# by ear alone. But if
asked how they know this, most will say something like, "I don't know—it just
sounds like a C#." Color, whether visual or aural, is difficult to convey to
someone who does not have that experience.
Each tone on any musical instrument is a different wave frequency, how-
ever, and therefore should be heard as a different "color": C, C#, D, Eb, etc.
If you hear a C# and do not know it is a C# rather than a Bb, you have not
as yet become aware of the color of C#.
The proof that someone with perfect pitch does hear colors of pitch is the

21
20
 on a kind of constant synesthetic experience, but rather on purely subjective
psychological considerations.
Also, it is hard to say whether the above composers were "seeing" color
(synesthesia) or associating visual color to pitch color, as probably all could be
consistent in their color schemes due to perfect pitch. When Beethoven referred
to B minor as the "black" key, he certainly could pick this key out by ear from
any other key due to perfect pitch. Whether he heard it synesthetically as
"black" each time or whether he associated black to what he knew was B minor
is something we do not know. (In any event, Beethoven's "black" B minor is
about equivalent to today's Bb minor due to the rise of pitch standards.)
On the whole, there seems to be little correlation between different indi-
VI. COLOR HEARING AND COLOR viduals' musical color associations. It is interesting to note that none of the
composers mentioned associated visual colors to music in precisely the same
ASSOCIATION way as another. For instance, Scriabin labelled A major as a "yellow" key,
whereas Rimsky-Korsakoff felt it to be rose-colored.7
Of the many psychological considerations affecting color association, the
musical terms sharp and flat seem to connote "brightness" and "somberness"
in our minds as they do when used in other non-musical contexts. For this
Since the dawn of musical history, man has associated visual colors with various reason, F#, for example, is more often associated to a bright color, while Gb,
functions in music, such as individual notes, tonality, tempo, scale degree, the same pitch, is more often thought of as a darker hue.
register, timbre, harmonic texture, as well as individual compositions and the In conclusion we can state that, whether synesthesia or color association,
entire works of some composers. Ancient philosophy of India relates the degrees one's correlation of music to visual color can be extremely subjective. Yet for
of the scale (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti) to the colors green, red, gold, yellowish- perhaps this very reason relationships connecting visual color and music persist,
white, black, yellow and a combination of all colors for the seventh diatonic and people seem to feel an irresistable and mystical unity between the senses
degree.4 In the fourth century B.C. Aristotle pondered on a relationship between of sight and hearing. Even the languages of the musician and artist are replete
visual color and music in his De Sensu. In the seventeenth century Sir Isaac with related expressions as we all talk in terms of color, tone, chromatics, pitch,
Newton went so far as to mathematically correlate the prismatic colors red shading, brightness, intensity, volume, etc. One of the earliest references to a
through violet with the scale tones C, D, Eb, F, G, A, and Bb respectively5 (a formal coordination of the two arts was by Louis Bertrand Castel in his La
C scale in the Dorian mode). Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Scriabin, Rimsky- Musique en Couleurs (1720). The art of color music has since had many in-
Korsakoff, MacDowell and other composers have been known to express direct novations and pioneers. Russian composer Alexander Scriabin scored a colored
associations of musical tones and/or key tonalities with visual color. The im- light fantasia to accompany his Promethius, the Poem of Fire (1910). Arthur
pressionistic "paintings" of Claude Debussy are fantastic works of musical color Bliss created an entire symphony with each movement named after a color.
which seem to reveal the composer's conscious efforts in this regard. And of course, the light show at many concerts today is another variation on
In his book Color Psychology and Color Therapy, Faber Birren has noted this same theme.
that: It should be clear by this analysis that color hearing (perfect pitch) is
completely separate from any kind of visual color association to music. Color
Among other composers Liszt is credited with several pet phrases: association simply means various connotations of visual color imposed upon
"More pink here." "This is too black." "I want it all azure." Beethoven various musical functions. Perfect pitch, on the other hand, is the perception
called B minor the black key. Schubert likened E minor "unto a maiden of pitch color and has no concern with any kind of visual color experience or
robed in white and with a rose-red bow on her breast." To Rimsky- association.' Pitch color is a quality which is heard and is merely analogous to
Korsakoff sunlight was C major, and F# was strawberry red.6 the way the eye sees and discriminates between visual colors.
(Note: Even though color hearing and color association are distinctly sep-
There is a fine distinction between color association and true synesthesia. arate considerations, there can be a value in temporarily "listening" for visual
Whereas synesthesia is actually "seeing" a color upon hearing a tone, color colors as a first step in the culture of perfect pitch, as we will see in the Color
association is a purely psychological connection between the name of a note Hearing Technique exercises to come.)
(or some other factor of music) and a visual color. For example, many musicians
feel an association of color to various musical tonalities. However, most of these
musicians are not able to identify these keys by the colors they allegedly "sound
like." Thus it becomes obvious that such associations of color are not based

22 23
VII. PERFECT PITCH AND
RELATIVE PITCH

Figure 4: COMMON INTERVALS

At some point or another every musician encounters the challenge of developing
his ear. Students majoring in music usually go through at least two to four years
or more of formal music theory/ear-training classes. The self-taught teenage
guitarist also practices to become adept at picking up material by ear. The
proficiency usually being cultured by these efforts is called relative pitch.
Relative pitch is the ability to quickly compare the pitches of two tones to
determine their distance apart, or interval. Music theory classifies the space
between two notes as a specific interval relationship, as shown in Figure 4 on
the following page. This diagram describes intervals only between C and the
note indicated, but the entire scheme can be transposed to any note.
Notice that the name of an interval is dependent on how the notes are
spelled (i.e., F# or Gb), but that the actual distance between notes can be the
same. For example, F# is enharmonic (identical in pitch) with Gb because it
is really another spelling of the same tone, so even though we say theoretically
that F# is an augmented fourth up from C and Gb is a diminished fifth up from
C, the actual distance from C is the same for each.
Relative pitch deals with relationships. A musician with relative pitch has
become so familiar with all of these intervals that he or she can evaluate
relationships between chords and single tones. If played an A and a C#, he
can tell you that they comprise an interval of a major third. Or, given an A, he
will be able to sing a C# by locating the distance of a major third.
When first developing relative pitch, musicians usually make use of mne-
monic devices which aid in remembering what each interval sounds like. A
familiar song can be used which contains a particular interval and which helps
to remember that interval later. The first two notes of "My Bonnie Lies Over the
Ocean" comprise a major sixth, and the second and third tones of "Taps" is
a perfect fourth. A good exercise is to think of a song that fits each interval.
Then when that interval is heard it can be related to the song and thus to the
name of the interval.
The most difficult interval to learn to sing is the augmented fourth, the so-
called "devil in music" which was strictly taboo in early Christian chant. The sight due to orchestral considerations, and in so doing became embarrassingly
augmented fourth can also be called a diminished fifth or tritone, the latter name confused because the music "sounded all wrong" in the new key. If such a
because it is an interval of three whole tones. Master this sound well so it will situation like this has arisen, it can only be due to the musician's lack of trans-
not deceive you! position skills or adequate relative pitch development. This therefore is not an
Musicians who are first learning relative pitch sometimes complain they argument against perfect pitch, but rather for relative pitch.
cannot think of a piece or song with an obvious tritone sound. Actually, if you The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980, Macmillan Pub-
listen closely you will find that this interval is an integral part of music from the lishers Limited) comments on these kinds of misunderstandings concerning
Baroque period to the present, and is often especially noticeable in modern perfect pitch:
works and movie and TV scores. In the soundtrack of the Star Wars series
there is a short recurring melodic phrase whose first and last tones comprise Arguments that absolute pitch is of doubtful value to a musician
an augmented fourth. Also, the harmonic structure often battles with major (particularly one engaged in transposition) strike one as if a majority
chords at a tritone. of colour-blind people were to tell a minority of normally sighted ones
Many musicians mistakenly think that good relative pitch is "not quite that, even if they wished to be painters, colour vision is more trouble
perfected" perfect pitch, that is, that good relative pitch is a fair degree of perfect than it is worth. In fact it is less surprising that the few possess it
pitch. Through our analysis it should be clear that relative pitch and perfect than that the many are without it.8
pitch are completely separate functions of aural perception. Relative pitch
means the ability to evaluate relationships between separate tones, whereas Development of perfect pitch alone is actually more desirable than relative
perfect pitch means the ability to perceive the pitch color of individual tones. pitch alone. Even a slight sense of perfect pitch captures a broader territory
Relative pitch is a sort of "horizontal" listening experience. In developing than fully developed relative pitch, which is why color hearers can usually long
the ability to recognize relationships between tones, relative pitch examines the outwit the most difficult ear-training drills even without formal relative pitch
surface level of aural perception in order to acquire judgment on that level. training. The musician with perfect pitch in fact almost always develops relative
Perfect pitch is more like "vertical" listening—it penetrates deep within the pitch spontaneously or with little effort. Because the color ear is wide awake,
sound of individual tones to a delicate level of experience unnoticed by most it does not experience the difficulty of comparing tones which is common among
ears. Opening the ear to perception of pitch color is in essence an expansion many music students in ear-training classes today.
of musical awareness (i.e., appreciation of finer values of sound than before), The color ear hears music from a deeper level than can be realized through
as contrasted with the focus of awareness which relative pitch training demands relative pitch training. Whereas relative pitch reveals knowledge of musical
(i.e., learning to compare sounds on the concrete level of perception which is structure, perfect pitch presents the subtle perception of absolute pitch itself.
already clear to one's awareness). The sense of perfect pitch admits to the ear consciousness of the color in music,
For the fully developed musical ear, both perfect pitch and relative pitch the intrinsic artistry of pure sound which is distinct from—yet part of—the actual
must be lively; one cannot replace the other. Both facilities play unique and fabric of music composition.
valuable roles in musical experience, and in their developed forms both augment Both perfect pitch and relative pitch have their own range, however, and
one's musical expertise from their own levels. for this reason complement each other in an integrated musical experience.
Some musicians with undeveloped color hearing argue that relative pitch Perfect pitch without relative pitch lacks theoretical knowledge of relationships
is all that is necessary, and in fact say that they would not even desire such and cannot be fully musically creative. Relative pitch without perfect pitch lacks
"perfect" perception lest they become "too sensitive" to slight yet inevitable a deep perception of sound itself and cannot be fully creative or artistically
tuning discrepancies. This reasoning of course is unfounded, and more often appreciative. But to the fully developed musical ear, relative pitch reveals the
than not exposes such a musician's frustration and lack of understanding of framework in which the building blocks of pitch color are arranged. In this way,
how to develop perfect pitch. Those who have tried unsuccessfully to develop when perfect pitch and relative pitch are both lively in the ear's awareness, they
perfect pitch should know that color hearing cannot be gained by any amount each enhance the value of the other and thus form the basis for an even more
of relative pitch training. Color hearing will only evolve after one starts listening complete and fulfilling experience of music.
for color. Many attempts to gain perfect pitch have also failed because musicians
have tried to "memorize" a pitch without becoming sensitive to its color. A pitch
will not stick permanently in the mind unless there is some quality the mind
perceives about it which distinguishes it from other pitches, and that quality is
its color. Also, the color hearer does not "suffer" due to "too good" an ear—he
accepts tuning inconsistencies as would any other musician.
Another kind of argument "against" perfect pitch is implied by a purported
incident where a well-known performer was required to transpose a score at

26 27
 Level Two: COLOR DISCRIMINATION
Whereas simple color awareness is not yet sufficiently developed to earn
the label of "perfect pitch," color discrimination can be said to be the first true
manifestation of a finely tuned ear. Color discrimination is the enlivened ability
to accurately discriminate among the twelve chromatic musical colors (and their
successive octave "tints"), just as one can identify the basic colors in a set of
paints. This is the basic level of perfect pitch where one can identify pitches
by ear alone on the instrument with which one is most familiar. Color discrim-
ination is mature color awareness.

Level Three: REFINED COLOR DISCRIMINATION

VIII. LEVELS OF PERFECT PITCH
After clearly perceiving and distinguishing the colors in the pitch spectrum
of one's familiar instrument, a further advancement develops as the ear be-
comes sensitive to color variations within the sphere of a single tone. The ear
at this point has become so familiar with each pitch color that it can sense to
By now we should have a clear conception of perfect pitch as distinguished some degree the sharpness or flatness of a tone.
from various other musical considerations. As we hr.ve seen, color hearing is The sharper or flatter a tone is, the more it starts to take on the quality of
not to be confused with synesthesia or color association, nor is it in any way its neighboring tone, just as red melts into red-orange before arriving at orange
a reference to instrumental "tone color" or other musical definitions of the word in the visual spectrum. If a flat F is sounded, the ear with refined color discrim-
color. Color hearing simply means the facility to "hear in color," which implies ination will hear it as "shaded" to some degree by the color of E and thereby
the ability to identify musical frequencies (pitches) by their perceived pitch color. notice its flatness. An ear lacking this refinement will simply hear it as an F,
The color of a pitch could be described as a certain "quality" of sound and if it is very flat may even confuse it for E.
which is peculiar to and characteristic of each musical tone. To most ears, there Mozart was using his refined color discrimination to evaluate the difference
is apparently nothing different about one pitch from another except its "high- between violin pitches in the story recounted earlier. One should bear in mind
ness" or "lowness." To the color ear there is a subtle, yet distinct difference that Mozart was unbelievably skilled at everything he did that was musically
between each individual pitch—some quality which distinguishes one from the oriented, and that it would be quite an achievement to recognize without direct
next. "Highness" or "lowness" does not enter into pitch identification—color comparison a "half a quarter tone." Yet no matter how proficient one becomes
alone is the secret of the ear's ability to know a pitch. with intra-tonal discriminations, further levels of color hearing are at this stage
In the natural unfoldment of musical perception, the ear tends to proceed adequately prepared for development.
through several levels, or stages of development. These phases are not ab-
solutely clear-cut, and there is a great deal of overlapping, but they do serve Level Four: UNIVERSAL COLOR DISCRIMINATION
as a general indication of the ear's development. We will consider individually
Pitch color perception is usually best experienced on the musical instru-
each step of progress towards fully enlivened perfect pitch.
ment with which one is most familiar. A guitarist, for example, may hear pitch
colors easily on the guitar, but when listening to a flute they may somehow
Level One: COLOR AWARENESS
seem completely obscured. This surprising situation can be so striking that one
The first stage in the unfoldment of refined tonal perception is simply may seem to have acute color hearing on his own instrument, only to appear
becoming aware of colors of pitch. The keyboard is a spectrum of sound colors helpless with other musical pitches. The ear may seem to have difficulty
which, comparatively broader in scope than the visual color spectrum, repeats "finding" the pitch colors of tones within the different qualities of sounds from
in successive "tints" with every octave. Simple color awareness is an innocent other instruments one does not practice.
and undeveloped stage where the ear first starts to pick up on this new abstract This phenomenon is due to the ear's as yet underdeveloped ability to
experience. It is similar to a child who notices visual colors but has not yet distinguish between pitch color and timbre. (Recall that timbre, or "tone color,"
matured enough to be able to label them. And just as a child may at first confuse is the textural form which a pitch takes; it is that peculiar quality of sound which
similar colors like red and orange until he learns to finely discriminate each gives each musical instrument its own identity, even though the same pitches
color by name, the ear which is just starting to recognize color may at first are duplicated by many other instruments.) At this stage of development the
"group" tones together which have a similar color sound. ear's perception may still be somewhat "blurred," thereby lacking the focus to
distinguish between "tone color" and pitch color.

28 29
 When the ear learns to identify pitch color on one's familiar instrument,
it is not confused by timbre because the timbre of the instrument remains
constant while the pitch colors change. For example, all the tones on a piano These progressive levels of color awareness are not completely isolated
have the timbre of a piano (obviously), yet each note on the keyboard has a from each other. They merely indicate a basic course of the ear's ability to
different pitch color according to its vibratory frequency. When a pianist listens perceive pitch color. It is quite possible, for example, to have a very good aural
to the piano, his ear only has to concern itself with pitch color until faced with recall yet not possess a high degree of spectral discrimination. However, the
a different instrument's timbre. His ear could then easily become confused individual with aural recall has expanded his perception beyond the level of
when exposed to an entirely new sound texture after having listened for color spectral discrimination, so the latter potential is already exposed and can be
deep within the tones. The ear "surfaces" to grapple with the new overt timbre, sharpened with greater ease.
and in so doing cannot locate the more abstract value of pitch color which lies
at a subtler level of experience.
In time, however, the ear learns to universally distinguish between the
"texture" of the particular instrument and the color of the pitch: ^tiich are two
separate considerations. Gradually the ear is not sidetracked by different in-
strumental sound textures, and pitch color becomes clearly perceived through
the "disguises" of many different timbres.
In advancing to this level of development, the ear naturally acquires a
deeper appreciation of timbre in addition to a more refined experience of pitch
color. In fact, the following equation could accurately describe this level of
universal color discrimination:

REFINED REFINED UNIVERSAL

COLOR + TIMBRE COLOR
DISCRIMINATION DISCRIMINATION DISCRIMINATION

Here is an example of how development of perfect pitch results in an

expansion of musical awareness which in turn enlivens other aspects of mus-
icality. The alert color ear experiences not only a keen perception of pitch color,
but also a finer level of general music appreciation and sensitivity.

Level Five: SPECTRAL DISCRIMINATION

As the ear is able to clearly sense the absolute pitch color of any musical
tone (universal color discrimination), it again can start to discriminate to some
degree in between tones. Spectral discrimination is refined color discrimination
when applied to any pitch spectrum on any instrument (or non-instrument). The
ear becomes sensitive to the complete color spectrum of pitch in all its forms
and manifestations.

Level Six: AURAL RECALL

Aural recall is the advanced achievement of the color ear. Even without
actually hearing a tone, the musician with aural recall is able to imagine what
the color of an F#, Bb, or other tone sounds like. In this way he is able to
imagine and sing a tone without hearing any tone first. This shows that such
a musician has attained a clear realization of what was formerly only an abstract
perception. A true test for aural recall can be made only once in a sitting,
because once any tone is heard it could be identified by its pitch color and thus
indicate the location of other tones via relative pitch.

30 31
IX. VOCAL TENSION PITCH X. THE PRACTICALITY OF COLOR
HEARING
A pseudo "perfect pitch" sometimes develops especially among singers which
relies on vocal tension in estimating pitch. By becoming familiar with one's vocal
range it is possible to learn to judge a pitch by V,w much vocal tension is Imagine closing your eyes, yet knowing the names of musical tones because
required in order to sing it. Though some singers can become fairly accurate you hear their colors! Imagine what the experience of music is like to the ear
with this, it is not reliable due to the varying conditions of the vocal mechanisms which has gained sensitivity to this subtle value of perception! There is a difference
throughout the day. We have probably all experienced how much easier it is between the way someone with perfect pitch hears music and the way most
to sing in a low register upon awakening in the morning—sometimes even a people do. The sense of perfect pitch enriches the experience of sound in a
minor third lower can be reached which is quite impossible during the day. way that no amount of theorizing can compare with.
Ideas of where to locate specific pitches can fluctuate in a similar manner, and Though a developed ear alone can never make up for technical disabilities
are all the more confused by changes in mood, how much one has just talked of the performer or creative inhibitions of the composer, it forms a firm foundation
or sung, or if one is tired or energetic. of higher achievement for establishing other musical proficiencies. The ear with
Vocal tension pitch is rarely accurate enough to be mislabelled as "perfect such an expanded musical awareness is naturally more responsive to many
pitch," and it does not involve pitch color discrimination. It is important for avenues of sound artistry. Musicians with a developed color ear tend to be the
musicians who wish to develop a color ear not to become attached to this sort more successful and creative individuals, and sometimes even seem to enjoy
of pitch location. It is hard to rid oneself of this crutch, and it distracts one's music with greater vigor. Whether you are a professional musician, a perform-
focus from true color hearing. ance major at a music school, or a member of your own high school music
Vocalists who are already somewhat skilled in this regard should not group, perfect pitch will benefit you both as a practical musician and in personal
become concerned, however. Vocal tension pitch will not inhibit growing color appreciation of sound.
discrimination if one does not use it during Color Hearing Technique practice The importance of ear-training with reference to an art which is enjoyed
sessions. by listening cannot be overevaluated. For the serious musician, half of all music
theory classes should be devoted to ear-training, and half of all ear-training
sessions should be devoted to Color Hearing Technique. When one under-
stands how to develop perfect pitch, it is just as easy to culture as relative pitch,
and when the two are present together the ear's awareness is not doubled, but
squared.
The exercises for developing a color ear are much simpler than learning
intervals and are also a lot of fun. You will find that Color Hearing Technique
is a different kind of challenge than relative pitch training.
The principle of increasing one's color awareness lies with the factor of
attention: on whatever aspect of aural perception one puts the ear's attention,
that aspect will tend to increase and grow in one's awareness. The perception
of pitch color is a more refined and satisfying experience to the ear than one
of "black and white," yet it is also a subtler experience and therefore more

32 33
elusive. But if the attention is consciously and rightly directed, the ear will then have perfect pitch." When I counter-insisted that she could easily hear the
have the opportunity to develop of its own accord. differences between the various pitch colors, she admitted that she did "seem"
The way to develop perfect pitch is to listen for color. Many musicians to, but that she still did not think she could develop "perfect" pitch. Yet in a few
have attempted to gain this facility by trying to "memorize" a pitch. There is weeks she was explaining to other musicians how it was that she knew a pitch
one such experiment in which Middle C would be played constantly for fifteen by ear alone, complete with her experiences of how Bb has a "softer" color
minutes per session to try to get it to stay in one's head.9 Though the experi- than F, and how the color of F# sounds "hotter" than a "cool" Ab. It may take
menter claimed success, this method is very roundabout and indirect, and could you a little longer than she took to develop a good color ear, but you can do it
easily tire the ear as well as become extremely boring. A pitch will only stay if, like anything else, you will just take the time.
in the mind when there is some quality about it which distinguishes it from other
tones, and that quality is its color. Even the violinist or other musician who has
apparently "memorized" a concert A due to constant orchestral tuning to this
pitch has done so because he hears the color of A to some degree.
Color Hearing Technique must be actively applied in order to improve your
ear, and thereby your musicianship. Do not doubt your own latent ability to
develop perfect pitch just because the subject is often both misunderstood and
unduly revered. Paul Hindemith wrote that his experience "time and again has
proved that 'absolute pitch' can be acquired and developed," and even added
that "if not, the question may be raised whether there is any musical gift at all
in a mind that cannot learn to remember and compare pitches."10 Though it is
true that some musicians spontaneously develop certain skills, this does not
in any way mean that others cannot achieve these skills with practice.
During college days I taught piano to three sisters—average American
teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. Before starting individual lessons
we would meet as a group to study ear-training. Because these students had
not been conditioned to think of perfect pitch as something extra-musical, they
innocently practiced their ear-training exercises and were soon competing ea-
gerly for first place in naming tones. No sooner would a tone be played than
each would immediately name the note, making it a contest of speed rather
than one of mere recognition. The point of this example is that development
of musical perception is easy if one has proper direction and does not resign
oneself to a lessor level of musioality.
Development of perfect pitch does not take a long time, but it does take
its own time. Musicians progress at varying rates with different musical skills,
so strict indications cannot be given for how long it will take any particular
individual to develop a good color ear. The average musician, however, should
be able to produce a good aural recall in a year's time or less if the forthcoming
Color Hearing Technique exercises are practiced daily. This is by no means
an extraordinary amount of time—think how many years it takes to become
proficient on your instrument, let alone become a seasoned performer. Consider
also how long one spends on other aspects of musicianship and theoretical
knowledge in an effort towards greater musical fluency. The time you invest in
your ear will pay high dividends for the life of your musical activities.
Color Hearing Technique is not something you will have to keep on prac-
ticing. Once established, color discrimination cannot be lost—instead you may
wonder why you had not noticed pitch color previously. Enlivenment of perfect
pitch requires a little time now, and later when the ear is open one just enjoys.
It is possible that your ear is so ripe in its development that you will barely
even have to practice. A flutest friend back in high school insisted she did "not

34 35
 ular, allowing fast tuning which is more accurate than a human ear—a definite
plus for the performer in concert.
Some musicians have the idea that a good ear can become "ruined" by
listening to pitches which are consistently sharp or flat. The truth is that if an
instrument is well tuned in itself, yet sharp or flat to standard concert pitch, it
will not "ruin" your hearing, nor make your ear "go out of tune," nor can it
undermine the judgment of someone with perfect pitch. It's just that if you are
newly learning to discriminate between, say, the color of F and the color of F#,
it will be difficult to make a distinction if the two tones are always infringing on
each other's territory. To help quickly "open up" the ear, practice only at a
constant pitch level.
A musician with developed perfect pitch can never have his ear "untuned"
XI. TUNE UP! because his ability is in hearing the complete, unbroken spectrum of pitch color.
What he calls these colors are of little consequence. Pitch standards, in fact,
were quite ambiguous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with concert
A vacillating anywhere from about 373 Hz to about 567 Hz.11 Handel had one
of Shore's original tuning forks which was tuned to A-422.5; Mozart tuned his
Before starling the following Color Hearing Technique exercises, it is important
pianos to about A-422.12 In Bach's day a concert A could often be tuned as low
to make sure your instrument is always well tuned. If you are a guitarist, for
as 415, which would sound like Ab to the contemporary ear used to a concert
example, and will only be casually playing for some friends, it would still be
A at 440. Yet if these composers were alive today, they would simply adapt by
good to tune to concert pitch beforehand even though the guitar might otherwise
assigning their familiar note names to our newer "tinges" of pitch color (as well
be in tune. Remember that we want to cultivate a deeper perception of particular
as possibly having all their works transposed to sound as they had intended!).*
points within the musical spectrum (i.e., specific musical frequencies at a standard
Playing or listening to an instrument which is not in tune in itself, however,
pitch level).
can have a weakening tendency towards further aural refinement. Hearing an
You can help keep your instrument in tune with a tuning fork. This familiar
ill-tuned instrument is like seeing through a wrong pair of glasses: perception
and practical musical tool was invented in England by trumpeter John Shore
becomes blurred. Eyes can become weakened if they cannot focus clearly; the
in 1711. Most music stores have been stocking them ever since at a nominal
ear can gradually start to lose its idea of what musical clarity is like and become
cost. A-440 is the most commonly used fork and is also the pitch to which
less sensitive to harshness and dissonance if the pitches it hears are consist-
orchestras usually tune. Other pitches are available which may be easier to
ently not well focused. In short, one's discrimination can become lessened or
use with your particular instrument, but you may have to put in a special order.
dulled as a result of tuning carelessness.
To use your fork, first grip it firmly and strike one of its arms on the heel
Some people may wonder how the use of equal-tempered instruments
of your palm or on your knee. Then touch the base to a wooden object. The
wood will act as a sounding board to make the tone sufficiently audible. Never relates to the ear's discrimination. Equal-tempered tuning is the contemporary
strike your fork on metal or e.,/thing hard, as this could dent or nick it slightly Western way of fixing successive pitches at mathematically regular distances,
and put it out of tune. exactly as described in the section entitled "Wave Frequency and Color." When
Vocalists should regularly take time to establish proper pitch even when spaced in this fashion, tones are not always precisely in tune with the natural
a piano is not available. Pitch pipes are more convenient for vocal activities. harmonic overtone series, as we have mentioned.
Get the best one you can—by consciously staying in tune now, you will later The predecessor of tempered tuning is just tuning, where scale tones are
be able to discard your pitch pipe permanently. adjusted to these mathematical "irregularities" and are more in accord with the
String instrumentalists should learn to use one fork (don't get one for every overtone series. Though just tuning is theoretically the more perfect system
•string!) to establish a standard pitch level, and then tune each string accordingly. because it produces the more consonant and natural harmonic intervals, it has
If your instrument is fairly new to you, you may feel it is difficult to get it sounding a disadvantage in that an instrument so tuned can be played well only in the
just right. If this happens, realize that your ear is better than you think, otherwise
'Concert pitch has risen over the years largely due to the clever practice of an orchestra
you would not know your instrument is not quite tuned or feel disappointed that tuning slightly sharp to give a more "brilliant" sound. Originally, in fact, the term concert
it doesn't sound as good as you would like. Just tune up as well as you can pitch meant the brilliant pitch of an orchestra in concert. Over time, however, this effect
without taking a long time and don't worry about it being "perfect." With practice seems to wear off and the sharper tuning tends to become a new standard, while the
and easy listening your ear will sharpen and tuning will become second nature. orchestra still desires the brilliancy of an even sharper pitch. This is an interesting trend,
Some musicians may wish to use the electronic tuning devices which have and seems to indicate that even the undeveloped ear naturally senses a shift in the pitch
been appearing on the market. Such equipment is becoming increasingly pop- spectrum it is accustomed to.

37
36
one key to which it is tuned. The mathematics of just tuning are such that the
perfect harmonic relationships established do not apply to a different key, and
if other keys are attempted the sound will be very out of tune.
Johann Sebastian Bach formally introduced the world to equal-tempering
in his Das wohltemperierte Klavier (1722). This volume was a progressive
ideology in its day. It consisted of preludes and fugues in each of the twelve
major and twelve minor keys—an effort to prove that all tonalities in an equal-
tempered system are musically self-sufficient and pleasing.
Bach, who had a fully developed color ear, would not have advocated a
system of tuning which would not be musically satisfactory to the ear. While
it is true that just tuning is more ideal, it does not offer the wide range of
harmonic possibilities available in equal-tempered tuning. Considerations along
XII. COLOR HEARING TECHNIQUE
these lines are really to a large extent dependent upon personal taste and what
the ear is accustomed to.
In addition to situations of tones being out of tune with each other, individual
tones can also be discordant within themselves on the piano (or harpsichord).
Two or three strings vibrate together for most tones on the keyboard, so if the Color Hearing Technique is the set of progressive ear-training exercises for
strings for a particular tone are not focused to pitch, that tone will be blurred. developing perfect pitch. These exercises culture the ear in a whole new dimension
Serious pianists should have tunings done two to four times per year—the of musical perception—that of distinguishing between the various pitch colors
natural changes of season in one's area are ideal times to tune. in the sound spectrum. This enlivened potential of aural perception is the su-
It is not necessary to become a tuning fanatic. A simple tune-and-forget- perhearing facility of color hearing.
The actual experience of pitch color is difficult to convey, but once you
it attitude will suffice. Your ear will not become hampered in acquiring pitch
hear it clearly for yourself, further refinement will come very easily. The color
color discrimination with slight discrepancies in tuning. After all, you learned to
of a pitch is that particular quality which is characteristic of a particular tone.
identify "red" even though every "red" you see is slightly different in hue.
Some tones sound "vibrant," some sound "soft," some could be said to sound
"bright."
In describing the ability of perfect pitch, The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians explains that "the faculty is experienced subjectively as
different keys having, as it were, distinctive flavours or colours that are instan-
taneously recognized and never confused."13
The twelve chromatic tones could also be compared to twelve spices on
the kitchen rack. Each has its own scent which distinguishes it from the others.
If you smell rosemary, you will know it is rosemary by its own scent and not
sage or thyme, even though you have not compared it to another spice.
In a similar manner, every pitch has its own particular sound which dis-
tinguishes it from other pitches. It is this unique "sound color" of a pitch which
allows one to know the name of a tone.
The different octaves of a pitch could be likened to different "tints" of that
same color. Every F#, for example, has the characteristic "twangy" color of an
F#, no matter which octave it occurs in. The different octaves will simply de-
termine if this color of F# is "brighter" (higher) or "darker" (lower).
In the following exercises you will be listening for these subtle differences
between each musical tone within the pitch spectrum. Once your ear becomes
sensitive to the color of a tone, it will be easy to label that color as F#, Ab, etc.
It is never our concern to "memorize" a pitch or try to place it by how "high"
or "low" it seems to be. Perfect pitch is color hearing, and in order to develop
it we simply listen for color.
Once you direct your attention to a tone's color, you may be surprised at
how quickly you start to pick up on this new experience. You may even wonder

38 39
 D. Don't sing the tone!
why you had never noticed pitch color before. If, however, for some reason you
should experience an unduly "lazy" ear which refuses to sense anything dif- See section IX, "Vocal Tension Pitch." On parts of the exercise which do
ferent about one tone from another (except its "highness" or "lowness"), do not require singing, be sure not to attempt to judge tones by vocal estimation.
not give up. Once you resolve to listen to the twelve chromatic pitches in order Correct practice of parts which do require singing is explained in the exercises.
to discover their deeper sound values, it is only a matter of time before your
ear becomes sensitive to them. Resolve to gently wake up your sleeping ears E. Take it easy. . .
so that they can really listen!
No matter how advanced you already are in music theory or ear-training,
stick to just one daily practice session for the time recommended unless oth-
erwise stated. This type of listening could tire the ear if overzealousness de-
GENERAL POINTS
mands too much of it.
The following are some general points which apply to each exercise you Repeat the same exercise daily until you have really mastered it, at which
will be practicing: time proceed to the next exercise on the following day. Each successive ex-
ercise is quite a big step, so don't frustrate your ear by rushing and demanding
A. Get a partner. too much of it all at once. Be patient with your ear and allow it to grow naturally.
A seed will blossom into a fragrant flower in its own good time—it cannot be
It is ideal and in fact almost essential that you find another musician who forced faster by excess light, water or zeal.
will practice these exercises with you for a few minutes each day. While drilling
your partner, you will gain a great benefit just by playing and listening. A tape F. Relative pitch considerations
recorder cannot be used to replace the need for a partner because it not only
adds a confusing "tape recorder" timbre to the tones, but it is also vital to have The beginning exercises may seem quite easy to those who already have
the sound very, very clear and "live" until you become well-accustomed to a good sense of relative pitch. Because of this they may feel they are not really
hearing pitch color. If you have difficulty finding a partner for some reason, hearing pitch color at all, but rather are cued to the name of a tone via relative
however, much progress can still be made on your own with occasional outside pitch. In these situations it is important that the following rule be applied through-
help. out the practice of Color Hearing Technique:

B. Stay with one practice instrument. Unless specifically recommended in the exercise, do not make a
conscious effort to compare two tones to determine their interval. On
You may use any instrument you wish to practice these exercises, provided the other hand, if relationships between tones are obvious to your
that you stick with it exclusively until change is advised. For convenience in ear, do not make any attempt to ignore these relationships or con-
drilling, the piano is probably the best instrument to use, and therefore all centrate against hearing them.
exercises are geared to the keyboard. The piano is also good because it pro-
vides a medium range of tones which many instruments do not have. You may, This neutral, easy-going attitude is essential to correct practice of these
however, wish to use your familiar instrument (if other than piano) because exercises. If you can name a tone, it will not make a difference in the long run
pitch color may seem easier to hear on it. In this case you may adjust any whether it was by true color hearing or relative pitch. Because they are both
exercise in ways best suited to your particular instrument. (For instance, if your separate functions of aural perception, relative pitch cannot in any way interfere
instrument's range does not contain all practice tones called for in the exercise, with the development of perfect pitch. Each successive exercise requires the
you may eliminate or transpose tones not available.) Guitar is an excellent ear to listen more closely to the color of a tone and gradually eliminates the
practice instrument (avoid using a 12-string guitar, however). possibility of relative pitch comparisons. More often than not, the ear with good
All references to individual tones in these exercises are in concert pitch. relative pitch will discover at some point that beyond its sense of relative dis-
Whatever note a particular tone matches on a piano is its concert pitch, provided crimination there awaits an already well-developed color sense which just
that the piano has been tuned so that the A above Middle C equals 440 Hz. needed to be exposed by progressively suspending relative pitch facilities.
A concert F# would therefore be a "trumpet G#" because the trumpet is pitched Even if you find that you successfully pass an exercise on the basis of
in Bb. If you use any instrument which is not pitched in C, you must transpose relative pitch alone, do not become concerned. Just have it in mind that your
all practice tones in the exercise to match the concert pitches called for. Pitch ear's main focus is color. The ear will naturally penetrate deeper into the ex-
color is not dependent on the name of a pitch, but rather on its wave frequency. perience of a pitch regardless of what else it may have been conditioned to
perceive because the attention will be geared in this direction.
C. Tune up! The factor of attention in the expansion of perceptual awareness is very
C powerful. The chief reason for the ear's lack of development has been a lack
3e sure to keep in tune as discussed in the preceding section.
41
40
of attention to the subtle values of sound. By focusing one's attention in a COLOR HEARING TECHNIQUE EXERCISES
particular direction, that facet of hearing can become enhanced. Though the
ear has not noticed pitch color previously, all it needs to do is find the correct EXERCISE 1
direction in which to listen. Having the attention geared towards color is the
Locate the octave C to C, with Middle C at the top. Starting with Low C,
right start and will open the ear to this value regardless of any relative pitch
play the chromatic scale slowly, listening effortlessly to each tone. Repeat this
considerations which may be present. When practicing these exercises, there-
procedure a number of times, playing up and down the keyboard at varying
fore, do not worry about whether you are "really" hearing pitch color or whether
speeds. Listen attentively, yet easily, to this spectrum of pitch colors.
you are merely using relative pitch. Pitch color will become clear naturally as
Within this spectrum of thirteen tones, see if you can locate any two or
you take an easy attitude towards its perception and allow the ear to become
more tones which you feel form a "color group," that is, which have some sound
increasingly sensitive of its own accord.
quality that seems to make them more related than other tones. If you find such
Relative pitch of course has a vitally important function in the well-rounded
groups, what is it that you experience about certain tones which is similar to
musical ear. At this time, however, we should feel that perfect pitch is more
some tones yet different from others?
important to develop. The cultivation of perfect pitch will have the additional
Have a large set of multicolored pencils and a sheet of paper handy. As
tendency to develop relative pitch anyway, because the expansion of awareness
you continue listening, try to find some abstract perceptual reason for how each
required to hear pitch color will automatically extend into other avenues of
tone could sound like the color of one of the pencils. Draw a color diagram of
musical expertise. Most musicians with perfect pitch develop relative pitch with
your "sound spectrum," and label each color with the note it represents.
little or no training.
Young students as well as adults have a lot of fun with this exercise in
After practicing these exercises for some time, you may develop a sort of
imaginative cross-perception. Do not underestimate the value of this drill, and
"absolute relative pitch." This phenomenon is characterized by feelings of tonal
don't skip it. Focusing on an activity as abstract as "listening" for visual colors
relationships even when none really exists. For instance, if played an E the ear
gears the ear towards a new trend of sound perception. In seeking for some
may somehow hear it in terms of a major third above C, even though a C may
quality that it has not yet heard, the awareness of the ear begins to open to this
not have been sounded. The ear has been conditioned for many years to hear
newer level of color experience.
relationships between tones and not absolute pitch color. At this point it is
Don't become too attached to your visual/aural color associations. There
starting to distinguish pitch color better and is in the process of sorting out this
can be many psychological factors rather than perceptual reasons for why you
new perception from past patterns of experience. When hearing the color of a
may associate a particular color to a particular tone, and there are no "right"
tone, the ear may be conditioned to refer to a common way you have heard
or "wrong" responses. Also, as stated earlier, perfect pitch is not the association
that color before, i.e., a relationship or context in which you have unconsciously
of visual color to tones, but rather the perception of pitch color. The simple but
appreciated that pitch sometime in the past. Soon the experience will clarify
important values of this lesson are in having the ear listen for something new
and all associations to that color will break off, leaving a clear perception of
within a tone which cannot be located on the level of common perception, and
the pitch color alone. This situation can be characteristic of developing color
in indicating a "direction" in which this new perception may be found.
discrimination, though every ear will not necessarily experience much of this
The purpose of this exercise is to introduce the ear to pitch color aware-
phenomenon.
ness. It should take 15-20 minutes.
Instrumentalists who are not using piano for these exercises may sense
obvious kinds of cues which are characteristic of their instrument (such as an
open string sound which immediately gives away the name of a pitch). In these
EXERCISE 2
cases the same rule applies as for relative pitch considerations: simply identify
the pitch while listening for color. Even with these situations your ear is becoming Now let's examine just two tones from our color spectrum: the Eb and F#
receptive to pitch color as you continue to practice. Soon you will be able to below Middle C. (It is never necessary to continue relating visual colors to tones
universally discriminate among pitch colors on any instrument, and your ear as you did in Exercise 1.) Remember that if you are not using piano you may
will make a distinction between pitch color awareness and "open string" types have to transpose notes—these are concert pitches of Eb and F#.
of awareness. Play these tones separately many times and listen for the color of each
one. It is obvious when playing them that one is pitched higher than the other.
But do you hear anything else which is different about these tones?
G. Have fun! Listen carefully some more, and soon you may start to notice the difference:
These simple exercises should be practiced effortlessly with a sense of the F# seems to have a sort of "vibrant" quality, whereas the Eb seems to
enjoyable challenge. The expansion of musical awareness means a larger sound "softer," more "mellow." At first you may think you hear this distinction,
capacity for perception and artistic appreciation, so feel easy and free in your but then later it may elude you. Play the F# loudly and listen to its "brashness"—
practice sessions. no matter how loudly the Eb is struck it will not sound as "twangy." It is these

42 43
qualities of "vibrancy" and "softness" which are the colors of these two tones "bright" when compared to the "vibrant" quality of F# and the "mellow" quality
and which will allow you to recognize these tones just by how they sound. of Eb. Find your own adjectives to describe these pitch colors.
The "vibrancy" of F# may be so immediately noticeable to you that you It is challenging to describe a pitch color. How would you describe a visual
may wonder if there is something wrong with the piano or your ears. Rest color like red, green, or yellow? No description can really convey the experience
assured that the "vibrant" quality of a concert F# is common to all instruments of color unless another has had that perception. However, words and analogies
for any ear which is sensitive to its color. Over the years I have questioned are helpful in explaining the experience of pitch color because they can "hint"
many friends and acquaintances with perfect pitch on this point, and though in such a way as to guide another ear to the same depth of perception. (Con-
many had never really thought about it until asked, all agreed this was their versely, it is easier to convey experiences of audible textures because they are
perception. If you can hear this distinction well, you already have a good color more obvious than the subtle perception of color, and most people are familiar
awareness. with them. If someone exclaimed that he heard a bird with a "reedy" call, or
It is important to note that pitch color is a function of pitch, and is not that he had a watermelon with a "hollow" pitch when tapped, one could get a
something that can be attributed to the actual physical mechanisms of an good idea of what he meant, based on one's own past experience.)
instrument. If you record a G or other pitch, then slow down the tape so the After you feel comfortable with the new color of A, include it in your listening
pitch equals F#, the pitch color will also change from the color of G to the drill. Remember to listen often with eyes closed and always with ears relaxed
"vibrant" color of F#. and receptive. Do not use tones outside the four octave limit. Switch back and
Play F# in several different octaves. Notice how "pointed" they sound forth with your partner for a total of 20 minutes per session. Proceed only when
when compared to Eb played similarly. Notice that the "vibrant" color of F# a high degree of accuracy has been established.
and "mellow" color of Eb are always present, regardless of the octave in which
these notes are played. Listen a lot with eyes closed—by cutting off the sense
of sight, the attention of your hearing will increase. EXERCISE 4
Spend about five minutes comparing these two pitch colors. Then have
your partner randomly play Eb and F# to see if you can determine which is Now we are ready to add C to the list, completing a diminished seventh
which. Restrict tones used to two octaves above and two octaves below Middle harmonic pattern. At this point the ear will have to start relying more and more
C (total of four octaves). Listen carefully to the color of each tone, not how on pitch color experience. It will not be able to refer as easily to relationships
"high" or "low" each tone seems to be. Be sure to let the ear hear; do not strain among the tones because each note used in this exercise is a minor third from
trying to hear something which you may not feel sure of. Evaluate to find out the next. This creates an ambiguous feeling in the ear and will cause it to start
if the tone sounds more like the "twangy" color of F# or the "soft" color of Eb. to lose any "home base" it may have had in previous exercises (i.e., before
After five minutes, switch and have your partner try the same drill. Practice we had three tones in each octave which could have been easy to determine
this exercise by switching back and forth in this manner for a total of 20 minutes simply by their positions of "high," "middle," or "low"; now all the tones run
per session. together and make this kind of cue more difficult).
When you make errors in judgment, listen to the tone again. Knowing what This exercise contains the seed form of developed perfect pitch. If you
its name is, listen again to its color. This is a vital step in your practice which can accurately name tones across the keyboard which are spaced at intervals
should become standard procedure whenever errors are made in any exercise. of a minor third, you will certainly be able to do the same with tones at a minor
You will probably experience that soon your ear will tend to evaluate in second as they occur in the full keyboard spectrum.
terms of relative pitch. That is, it will know F# and Eb simply by their relationship, Your ability to know the name of a pitch will solidify only as your ear
no matter which octave they occur in. You may then feel you are "cheating" gradually perceives some quality which distinguishes one pitch from another.
and not really listening for pitch color at all. Don't try to concentrate against This quality is a tone's color. More and more these sound colors will become
using relative pitch if this happens. Even if you know what a tone is instantly clear to your ear. With continued practice you will better appreciate these
in this way, listen for its pitch color anyway. Do not become concerned that musical perceptions which were formerly too delicate for the ear's attention,
relative pitch could distract you from hearing the pitch color. At points further and therefore not obvious. You may even be surprised when you find out that
in these exercises there will be divergences of these two faculties, and your your particular experience of pitch color may be common to other color hearers
ear will become required to listen to pitch color more closely. and is not necessarily unique or private.
Proceed to the next exercise only after you have achieved a high degree Although pitch color perception is certainly within the mental sphere (like
of accuracy. all perception), it does not exist on the basis of personal idiosyncrasies the
mind ascribes to pitches (as some music psychologists suppose). The visual
EXERCISE 3 perception of "blue" is also really only in the mind—objectively "blue" is just
a wave frequency—but we experience this "mental blue" perceptually.
Listen carefully to the pitch color of A for about five minutes. Compare it Similarly, pitch color awareness is the surfacing of a latent perceptual
to the color of Eb and F# in several different octaves. The color of A may seem awareness. However, before you sense the abstract value of pitch color dis-

44 45
tinctly, you may seem to feel a sort of "imagination" of pitch color. This is fine— (part C of each exercise). Sessions will therefore be a total of about 15 minutes.
let your imagination loose. As you progress in your exercises, personal ideas Do not practice longer than this per session, but if you like you may do two
of pitch color will be discarded for clearer experience. sessions per day which are spaced apart by several hours.
In addition to 20 minutes of pitch naming between you and your partner, Start your session by choosing a pitch to sing. See if you are accurate in
we will now include a pitch singing drill in your sessions. One individual will singing that pitch.
name one of the four tones we are using in this exercise, and the other will try Next, do a two-minute pitch singing drill as in Exercise 4. Switch with your
to sing that tone. partner for another two minutes.
Let's say your partner requests you to sing a C#. Intend to mentally hear The remaining time will be split into two ten-minute segments, ten minutes
the color of a C#, and then sing that pitch. Think the pitch before singing to each for you and your partner. The individual at the keyboard should use this
avoid vocal tension pitch as much as possible (treat vocal tension considerations time for active listening.
exactly as relative pitch considerations). Play each tone after singing to see Play any two tones you have been using in the four octave range. Sound
how accurate you have been. Do this drill for two minutes before practicing your them together and keep the keys depressed. The object for the listener is to
pitch naming drill. Switch with your partner for an additional two minutes. identify the tones in order from bottom to top. Tones may be played over if they
With this addition we are now starting to cultivate aural recall of pitches. fade before they are evaluated. Do not sing any tones in this part of the ex-
Because aural recall is so highly advanced, you may wonder why we are starting ercise—listen only.
this already. You may feel at this point that pitch colors are still unclear to your Now our exercises will include aural chord analysis, this newest drill with
perception, much less trying to remember them! Nevertheless, just the act of more than one tone at a time. Aural chord analysis is a more advanced ear-
trying to sing these tones consciously (even if one were to "cheat" with relative training drill which will greatly clarify your experience of pitch color. In learning
pitch) will start to cultivate a deeper tonal experience. It is the ear's attention to pick out a pitch color from a group of colors, your ear will become so sensitive
on a tone which ultimately leads to enlivenment of finer perception of that tone. and confident of its perception that it will not feel the need to search for rela-
It is as if the ear learns so thoroughly the superficial values of a sound that it tionships between tones in order to evaluate a pitch. While it is possible to gain
wants to plunge within to a deeper and more refined cognition. By going after color hearing through pitch naming with single tones, aural chord analysis will
the higher developments of color hearing in this way, a perfect path is cleared stabilize your perception of pitch color and ensure adequate preparation for
for their realization. universal color discrimination.
Here is another small addition to all future practice sessions: When first Playing more than one tone at a time will have a tendency to distract the
starting your practice session, agree on any tone you will be using and effort- ear's ability to relate previous tones heard to newer ones. This is fine, because
lessly imagine what it sounds like. Then attempt to sing that tone without hearing we are not trying to relate tones to each other, but rather we are listening for
another tone played. Check to see if you or your partner is more accurate. Do their color in order to identify them.
not become discouraged with this! Aural recall can only become firmly estab- However, when hearing two tones played together, the first thing that may
lished after you are further along in the exercises and have developed a good register in your ear is their interval. It is quite possible that you may know the
sense of pitch color. If you try to remember a pitch whose color is not very clear structure of a chord immediately upon hearing it, even though you have not yet
to your ear as yet, you certainly will not be greatly accurate. But the value is listened for color in order to identify the actual pitches. This is also fine. When
this: by intending to imagine what a pitch sounds like, you are requiring the ear listening to more than one tone at a time, we are automatically dealing with
to expand its scope by practicing to locate the color of that pitch. By doing this tonal relationships, and it would be unnatural not to acknowledge them. In fact,
easily and effortlessly, and not worrying about inaccuracies, your ear will nat- when using chords, it will now be permissible to use relative pitch freely within
urally start to penetrate more and more into this newer dimension of hearing. the context of each chord. After identifying one tone by color, you may find it
The total time for this exercise is about 25 minutes. Practice the pitch faster to determine the other tone by relationship. Relative pitch used freely in
naming part the same way you did in the last exercise. Be sure not to sing this way will actually culture a very well-rounded ear.
tones on this part. Make sure to listen again for color on tones which you are If your relative pitch is not so developed at this point, do not worry about
incorrect in naming. Listen innocently to the color—don't try to memorize the it. Color is our primary focus. Later when you learn the relationships of these
"highness" or "lowness" of the pitch. Proceed when you achieve 95% accuracy colors, it will be child's play.
on the pitch naming part. The total time for this exercise is about 25 minutes. Proceed when you
have achieved great accuracy with aural chord analysis.
EXERCISE 5 EXERCISE 6
Note: Instrumentalists who are not using piano for practice sessions and Instead of singing tones for two minutes each, alternate back and forth
who are unable to play chords on their instrument should skip to Exercise 7. naming just one tone for the other to sing for a total time of four minutes. This
Proceed as before, but ignore all instructions regarding aural chord analysis will now be your standard "alternate pitch singing warm-up."

46 47
 Total time for this exercise is about 25 minutes. Proceed when you have
Next do ten minutes of aural chord analysis, except this time use three
achieved 95% accuracy on part (b), pitch naming with single tones.
tones. Switch with your partner for another ten minutes. You may spread tones
over a wide area, but stay within the four octave range. Remember not to sing
tones in this part of the exercise. Name tones always from the bottom up for
regularity. Listen carefully for identical notes separated by one or more octaves. EXERCISE 8
Play all tones with even pressure. Add E to your list of tones, using the same schedule as Exercise 7. Proceed
After you identify one tone in the chord (by color), the others may be with succeeding exercises when you achieve 95% accuracy with part (b) and
named more quickly by relative pitch. It is not necessary to listen to each pitch you feel the new tone has become established in your ear.
color if you can do it this way. The ear naturally hears chords in terms of tonal
relationships and color—pitch merely fixes the color pattern of a particular
chordal structure. Both color and relationship are important in chord perception, EXERCISE 9
and when they are heard together the ear is even stronger than with one of
these facilities considered separately. Add G to your list.
Relative pitch without perfect pitch is like comparing shades of grey; perfect
pitch without relative pitch is like seeing color without appreciation of patterns.
Perfect pitch may be said to be warm, more aesthetically useful, while relative EXERCISE 10
pitch may be said to be more coldly logical and theoretically practical. The two Add Bb. At this point do aural chord analysis with two, three and four notes
together comprise the ear of the most perceptive musicians—an ear which is per chord.
worth more than all the music theory courses one could take.
For some individuals it may be necessary to listen separately to each tone
within the chord (listening for color while all three tones are continuously held EXERCISE 11
down). Have the chord played over when the sound runs out and you need
more time. Do not feel you must make any effort towards hearing relationships. Add D.
Our main focus is color, which is the deeper part of aural perception. An ear
with the broad foundation of color perception will have no trouble evaluating
relationships. EXERCISE 12
Proceed only when you have achieved 95% accuracy with aural chord Add F. If you wish you may spend longer amounts of time per session,
analysis. but no more than about 30-35 minutes. (Instrumentalists not practicing aural
chord analysis may go up to 20 minutes per session if they wish.)
EXERCISE 7
The schedule now will be: EXERCISE 13
Add Ab.
(a) 4 minutes alternate pitch singing (see Exercise 6). (Don't forget to
choose and sing a pitch before starting your exercise.)
(b) 5 minutes pitch naming with C, C#, Eb, F# and A; switch with partner.
(c) 5 minutes aural chord analysis using two and three note chords; EXERCISE 14
switch with partner. Add B. Proceed only after achieving a high degree of accuracy with aural
chord analysis using three note chords.
Note the addition of C# to your list. At your first session spend an additional Note: Instrumentalists who have not been practicing aural chord analysis
few minutes listening to the color of C# within the four octave range. Discuss should change from their instrument to piano or guitar and return to Exercise
its color in comparison to other colors. What tone does C# sound most like to 7 upon mastery of this exercise. Having gained color discrimination, this pro-
your ear? (Do you notice a "vibrant" quality similar to F#?) cedure will enable further ear-training with chords while simultaneously devel-
Now that C# is in your list, we again have a kind of irregularity which could oping universal color discrimination. Aural chord analysis is very different from
give easy cues in pitch naming. This is no concern, however. Just have the pitch naming with single tones and will secure much greater clarity of pitch color
attention on color. By now color awareness is starting to become established. recognition. Having become sensitive to colors on your familiar instrument, your
When practicing aural chord analysis, do not tell your partner when you ear will now learn to pick them out from groups of tones.
are playing two notes or three notes. It is up to the listener to figure this out.

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 For parts (a) and (b) of each exercise, continue to use all chromatic tones, concrete aspect of awareness. Memory is a very delicate aspect of the mind—
but for aural chord analysis (part c) use only the tones included in the exercise. a mere impression of your previous perception. Just as pitch color was once
Continue again through the exercises as before, but study the discussion of abstract to your ear (perception), it will now probably be abstract to your mem-
universal color discrimination in Exercise 18, especially paragraph four. Listen ory. In time, however, you will remember more clearly, and any pitch will come
often to pitch colors on your familiar instrument and compare them to pitch at will by remembering its color sound.
colors on other instruments. Notice that different instrumental textures can still You are now ready for an advanced method to help you remember the
exhibit the same colors. pitch color of a tone. The best way to imagine what a tone sounds like is to
imagine the color sound of the major chord which uses that tone as its keynote.
For example, if your partner requests that you sing an A, effortlessly try to
EXERCISE 15 imagine what an A major chord would sound like. Then after attempting to sing
All chromatic tones within the four octave range have now been included an A, have your partner play an A major chord using the notes A, C#, E and
in your practice. If you have been proceeding at a moderate rate (not rushing A in close position. After practicing in this way for some time, you will learn to
to get to the next exercise), that abstract sense of color awareness has now quickly hear the different color patterns of major chords. This will greatly aid
been cultured to the point where we can say it has become color discrimination. your color memory because you will hear the color of a pitch as different from
You obviously hear a spectrum of colors which you have learned to name, other pitches and also the color pattern of a chord as different from other chords.
otherwise you would not be able to proceed to this exercise. And your success Then you may find that it is actually easier to mentally hear a tone by imagining
in aural chord analysis is proof that no matter where a tone lies in a musical the color of its major chord.
structure, you are able to pick it out by its color. When errors are made in this part of your exercise, you have not yet
The focus now is to expand your color discrimination to include all the remembered the pitch colors clearly enough. Listen carefully to the chord built
various "tints" of a tone in each octave. You are familiar at this point with how on that note. Then, without playing, hear this chordal color pattern in your head.
each tone sounds the same in all octaves, except that each octave seems to Sing the keynote. In this way your perception will continue to develop and your
be a different "shade" of that same color. To distinguish between these octaves memory will become clear.
we will label each tone with a unique name. There are many "accepted" but Pitch singing in this manner is now an extremely important part of your
rather confusing ways of identifying concert pitches, yet there is really no ab- exercise. In fact, when practicing aural chord analysis, it would be good to use
solutely standard way of doing this. The easiest and probably best way is to these same major chords from time to time so that you also get used to iden-
simply number consecutively each of the twelve chromatic tones from bottom tifying by ear these chords which you are practicing to remember.
to top. Thus the lowest tones on the keyboard are A1, Bb1, B1, etc. Middle C
would be C4. (Note: Instrumentalists using guitar for practice sessions can EXERCISE 16
adopt a system of labelling notes which correlates to the piano. The lowest
guitar tone, for instance, would be E2. On other instruments not pitched in C, Continue as before, but add one octave in either direction. Play single
use the number of the identical pitch on the piano. For example, Bb5 on the tones frequently in these extremes. Chord tones may be spread out as far as
piano would be C5 on a Bb clarinet.) you'd like. Don't strain with chords completely in an extreme low register; they
Practice this exercise exactly as the last, but this time learn the specific will be so muddy that even Mozart might have difficulty with them! Complete
name of each tone you have been using. chords should be used in the extreme upper register.
A good technique for the pitch naming drill is to play at a fast, constant
speed to see how quickly you or your partner can perceive and name the tones.
If there is one that you are unsure of or name incorrectly, just skip it and continue EXERCISE 17
with an even rhythm of playing and naming. It is not necessary to name which Add the remaining tones of the keyboard. These tones will prove to be
octave the tone is in when practicing speed. This technique helps sharpen "ear teasers" for awhile, but with practice you can master even those dark
perceptual alertness and can be practiced from time to time in addition to the bottom few tones.
regular parts of this exercise.
How is your aural recall doing? By now your ear perceives pitch colors
EXERCISE 18
well enough to start inwardly remembering them. This is trickier than one might
suspect, however. You will probably for some time be able to name a tone you You have now cultured your ear to a high degree of color discrimination.
hear very easily, yet when you try to think of it mentally you may not be able The colors you hear for each tone are absolutely constant functions of pitch.
to locate the pitch. Yet you certainly have some memory of the tone. This means that any identical pitch has the same color on any instrument (or
The reason is this: Memory is a much finer aspect of the mind than per- non-instrument!). Yet your ear may experience confusion in perceiving these
ception. Perception is right on the surface of the mind—the most obvious, most identical colors within the infinitely different varieties of timbre.

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 The aim now is to broaden your pitch color discrimination to include color
perception of any pitch you hear, whether it be your familiar instrument, an
"unfamiliar" instrument, or the grandfather clock striking the hour. There are
many drills you can use to "universalize" your color perception.
One way is to go to a piano, open it up, and pluck the strings inside.
Individual tones and whole chords can be played in this manner, giving a very
different sound for your ear to grapple with. After determining the pitches, you
can check yourself by playing tones in the usual way.
At first pitch colors may seem heavily veiled within the context of different
timbres. When you make an error in pitch evaluation, listen again to the tone.
If, for example, you missed a G#, listen again and notice that even when the
musical tone of another instrument sounds "different," it still contains the color XIII. EAR TEASERS FOR SUPER
of G#. By repeatedly listening for your familiar perception of color in tones
which seem to veil that color, your ear will gradually make the distinction between EARS
pitch color and timbre.
Listen closely to all pitches you hear. Have friends with various instruments
sit with you to get used to the sound of pitch color on their instruments. Listen
for the key in which songs and pieces are played on the radio, at concerts, and
on records. Listen to any sound you hear: church bells, whistles, horns, glasses During high school days, one of my very best friends and I used to have fun
of water, etc. A friend of mine had a Siamese cat that meowed on a Bb! Don't thinking up all sorts of outrageous hearing tests for each other. Here are some
be afraid to check your judgments by ironically carrying a tuning fork. As your of them for you and your partner to experiment with. Do not feel that they are
ear continues to sharpen, you will start to gain great confidence in your judg- "impossible," because they aren't. And they can be as much fun in trying to
ments and soon will not feel the need to check yourself. By consciously listening outwit the other as they are effective in sharpening your already clear color
in this way, your ear will not only refine its color discrimination, but it will also ear.
become increasingly appreciative of the different qualities of timbre.
It is not necessary to concern yourself with naming the octave of a pitch • Locate an entire octave of diatonic (scale) tones. Leave one out and play all
when listening to many different timbres. You will probably find that naming the others simultaneously in one tone cluster. Have your partner name the
octaves other than on your familiar instrument is trickier than you might suspect, missing tone. Repeat, using scales in different keys. Hint: First listen for and
and that this in itself could entail another exercise if you so desired. identify the keynote of the scale being played. Then "climb" the scale with
Developing universal color discrimination is a very advanced level of mus- your ear while listening for a "gap" in the tones.
ical perception. The color hearing you had acquired even back in Exercise 15
was very discriminative and therefore earned the label of "perfect pitch." Since • Play all but one of eight consecutive whole-tone scale tones together in one
then, however, your ear has opened in many more ways. You can see that tone cluster. Name the missing tone.
there is really no limit to the possible expansion of musical awareness.
As far as future practice is concerned, you are now on your own. You may • Play five to ten tones in any kind of chord pattern. Name all tones in order
find that even without practice your pitch will continue to develop simply because from bottom to top. This is tricky because sometimes a few tones may be
you took the time to set your ear listening in a direction it had not taken pre- difficult to hear. Be sure the player strikes the chord in a very even manner.
viously. You will find as you discriminate more easily between universal varieties Also, because your ear is so sharp, you may hear overtones and confuse
of pitch that spectral discrimination Oudging the sharpness or flatness of any them for actual notes. Watch for this! This is an even better exercise if all
tone) will also naturally grow. the intervals are half and whole tones.
The most important exercise to practice at this point is pitch singing. When
you can readily remember a tone without even hearing it first, you certainly will • Play all but one of seven to ten consecutive chromatic tones together in one
know it whenever it is heard. tone cluster. Name the missing note as well as the low and high tones of
Consider yourself to have mastered Color Hearing Technique when you the series.
achieve 95% accuracy in both single tone pitch naming on any instrument
(universal color discrimination) and pitch singing (aural recall). • Find a partner who plays the same instrument that you play. One individual
plays scales starting in any key, moving up to successive chromatic keys
upon completion of each scale, while the other tries to locate where the tones
are so as to join in playing exactly together. The goal is to be sure on the

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 first attempt so that tones played in error do not cue the ear via relative pitch.
This same drill can be practiced with chromatic scales and arpeggios, and
on piano octaves of any pattern.

• Listen to some modern progressive music. Choose any note and listen for
it somewhere in the music. Go up the chromatic scale until you have listened
for and picked out each tone.

• Attempt to tune a guitar or other string instrument to concert pitch by ear

alone. Check yourself with a tuning fork or piano. This exercise will greatly
improve spectral discrimination. XIV. PERFECT PITCH, MUSIC AND
• Using any musical score, take a melodic line and slowly listen mentally to HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS
the pitch color of each tone. Even if you can fluently read the score, go very
slowly and listen closely to the pitch in your mind until you perceive its color.
This exercise will make you a master of aural recall.

Every musician experiences that the power and influence of organized sound
is vast. Sound waves can create anything from a single tone to a rich symphony
or, at another extreme, can shatter glass or crumble the walls of Jericho.
Experiments have shown that certain sounds stimulate plant growth while others
inhibit life.14 Plato discussed the characteristic effects of the Greek musical
modes on the human psyche. Early Christian musicology recognized these
influences and responded by extracting only those modes leading to edification.
The traditional Jewish modes "were an esoteric secret of the priestly class"
designed to "attune the human soul to the various emotions expressed in the
Scriptures and post-Biblical poetry of Judaism."15 The great sages of ancient
India proclaimed that the entire universe is a manifestation of one basic vibration
which emanates from eternal silence, and that anything can be effected in life
by proper use of specific sound patterns, or mantras.
As the language of the heart, music possesses the peculiar ability to
encode emotions and feelings within its structure and to culture those char-
acteristics in the heart of the listener. Whatever the music is, whatever qualities
it expresses, these are rendered once again new, alive and vital in the listener's
awareness, just as sympathetic vibrations are induced in one string by the
identical vibrations of another. The coherent artistry of the composer's imagi-
nation becomes transformed into musical experience, and thereby infuses that
same coherence into the listener's awareness. It is this transmission of inner
harmony that at once captivates the listener and at the same time cultures an
inner enrichment.
The oldest music on earth is the hymns of the Veda, a system of sacred
chant cognized by the ancient rishis of India that records a comprehensive
technology for the development of consciousness. The Vedic tradition incor-
porates a complete analysis of life to aid human development, yet the verbal
significance of the hymns are superficial to their real purpose. Their deeper
value lies in the rhythm and sound of the hymns, which in themselves are said
to encode the highest knowledge available to man.16
In tracing the development of musical awareness, it seems to be the ear's

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aspiration to gradually learn to break down and identify the different levels of
a sound until it arrives perceptually at the essential basis of that sound. Though ing is said to be one of the superknowledges which anyone can attain simply by
expanding one's awareness and cultivating pure consciousness.
every ear is presented with all the components of musical experience, this in
itself does not ensure that the finer aspects of music will be consciously ap- The fully developed musician is a master of coherent sound. He knows
preciated without training. A progression of developing aural awareness can how to structure a musical phrase so that maximum integration occurs between
be traced from the level of non-musicality to the most highly refined musical the sense of hearing and the heart of the listener. He is proficient at re-energizing
perception (see Figure 5). When viewed in this light, perfect pitch is a higher a phrase during his performance to ensure responsive penetration into the
level of perceptual alertness than is commonly realized which itself precedes listener's awareness. He is a deep thinker whose feelings run deep and spill
even fuller values of musical experience. freely into his music.
To illustrate, let's take a simple chord composed of the notes C, E and G, The greatness and strength of a musician are ultimately found with his
and trace the perception of this chord through the successive levels of musical depth of inner awareness, and the degree to which he can express this out-
awareness described in Figure 5. wardly. In Greatness in Music, Alfred Einstein wrote that "greatness means the
The non-musical ear will of course hear each of these three tones when construction of an inner world, and the communication of this inner world to the
played in a chord, but it will not be able to separate individual tones from the physical world of humanity."18 The inspirational impact of a musician's art is
overall sound. What registers in the completely non-musical ear is just the dependent upon his own personal development—the cultivation of his own
overall sound of the chord, without appreciation of any other aspect of it. perception and consciousness. This is the fundamental resource of musician-
The average individual naturally possesses an ear more musically appre- ship.
ciative and will be able to hear that there are actually three tones which make The art of music has always been imbibed with the ability to pass beyond
up this somewhat "happy" sound, thereby sensing an intrinsic emotional re- mere theory or philosophy; music has the capability to express the most delicate
action to what is really only a set of specific wave frequencies. Further refine- and highest values of human existence. The ear of every man has been given
ment of perception is realized by the musician with relative pitch, who will this precious gift of musical awareness—the potential to unfold, appreciate, and
explain that the structure of the chord is such that the intervals from the bottom enjoy the totality of all that can possibly be heard.
note are a major third and a perfect fifth, which therefore form a major triad.
The musician with perfect pitch will place the tones exactly as C, E and G, and
observe that this particular pattern forms a unique pitch color scheme. The rare
musician whose awareness can transcend these outward levels of perception
will cognize the silence of his own awareness as being intimately connected
with the perception of these musical tones. It is this latter experience which
reveals to oneself the essential unity of the musician and his art.
The development of musical awareness can thus be traced from the sim-
plest state of hearing, through various stages of sound cognition, to the profound
basis of one's own inner awareness. The true Master of Music is not one who
has earned such an academic degree, but rather the musician who has refined
his perception sufficiently to be able to comprehend the source, course, and
goal of musical processes.
The potential of aural perception is vast. Patanjali, the ancient sage who
organized the system of yoga, has described various siddhis, or "perfections
of consciousness" in his Yoga Sutras. By practicing a technique known as
samyama, certain abilities can be mastered which, like perfect pitch, may appear
as supernormal to the average individual. With reference to hearing, Patanjali
says it is possible to culture abilities to comprehend the sounds of all creatures,
hear things clearly at extreme distances, and perceive the subtle sounds of
creation which cannot be heard with our physical ears.
This potential of the ear is mentioned numerous times in many ancient
writings. The fully enlightened man is said to possess not only a profound
cognition of the nature of life, but also a perceptual scope developed far beyond
common experience. "With that clear Heavenly Ear surpassing the ear of men,
he hears sounds both human and celestial, whether far or near."17 Divine hear-

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 5. Further
Horizons

4. Perfect
Pitch

3. Relative
Pitch

2. Music
Appreciation

1. Simple
Hearing

Figure 5: LEVELS OF MUSICAL AWARENESS

1. Simple Hearing Music Appreciation 3. Relative Pitch

a. Hearing in terms of Common musical a. Skills derived
"sound" sense through
(non-musical Conceptual appreciation of
appreciation) hearing musical
b. Perceptual hearing What effects the relationships and
c. What the music music has structures
sounds like Interpretation b. Horizontal hearing
d. Tonal sounds Level of the music c. How the music
e. Level of non- student was constructed
musicality d. Composition
e. Level of the
musician

4. Perfect Pitch 5. Further Horizons

a. Color hearing (skills a. Celestial perception
derived through (skills derived through
appreciation of appreciation of one's
individual music own awareness as
building blocks) the essential aspect
b. Vertical hearing of musical
c. What the music is experience)
made from b. Inner hearing
d. Color c. Where the music is
e. Level of the artist based
d. Silent awareness
e. Level of the music
master
NOTES

1. Percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music (London: Oxford

University Press, 1956), p. 2.
2. John Booth Davies, The Psychology of Music (Stanford: Stanford Uni-
versity Press, 1978), p. 130.
3. A. Bachem, "Absolute Pitch," Journalof the Acoustical Society of America,
27, No. 6 (November 1955), 1185.
4. Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self-
Realization Fellowship, 1974), p. 183.
5. Scholes, p. 204.
6. Faber Birren, Color Psychology and Color Therapy (New Hyde Park, New
York: University Books, Inc., 1961), p. 163.
7. Scholes, p. 202.
8. "Absolute Pitch," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
(London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980).
9. H. K. Mull, "The Acquisition of Absoute Pitch," American Journal of Psy-
chology, 36 (1925), 469-493.
10. Paul Hindemith, Elementary Training for Musicians (London: Schott and
Co., Ltd., 1946), pp. 206, 207.
11. William L. Sumner, "A History of Musical Pitch," Hinrichsen's Musical
Yearbook (London: Hinrichsen's Edition Ltd., 1952), VII, pp. 237-238.
12. Ibid. Also Scholes, p. 814.
13. "Absolute Pitch," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
14. Peter Thompkins and Christopher Bird. The Secret Life of Plants (New
York: Harper and Row, 1973), pp. 145-162.
15. Eric Werner, "The Music of Post-Biblical Judaism," The New Oxford His-
tory of Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), pp. 322-323.
16. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, lecture at the International Course on Vedic Sci-
ence, Indian Express Building, New Delhi, India, December, 1980.
17. Samannaphala-sutta (tr. Rhys Davids) as quoted in: Mircea Eliade, Yoga,
Immortality and Freedom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969),
p. 178.
18. Alfred Einstein, Greatness in Music (New York: Oxford University Press,
1941), p. 163.

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