Randy Potter School Students and Alumni

Conrad Hoffsommer hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu
Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:50:19 -0600


Don,

At 10:34 03/15/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>.  So. . . what did you do to sharpen your skills with
>the beat rates?  Any help would be appreciated.
>
>If any listers want to send me tips, I'd appreciate that as well.


I'm not a Randy Potter graduate, but I've met him a few times. <g>

Anyway...

-First, mute off about three octaves in the center of the piano.

-Pick out a major third near the bottom of that those three octaves - DO 
NOT PLAY IT!
-Briefly play the note two octaves above the UPPER note. - release.
-Play the chosen M3 - you should hear beating near the pitch of the single 
note you just played. (unless you've found a pure M3 in a historical 
temperament)

What you have done is to place the single high note in your pitch 
memory.  When you play the interval, your ear is still "listening" for that 
single pitch in the area where the lowest coincident harmonics of the 
interval will develop. If they are beating in the 3-10 bps range, they 
should be quite easy to hear.

After that try:
Octave - real easy, it's the upper note
Fifth - one octave above the upper note
Fourth - two octaves above the lower note
M3 - two octaves above upper note
m3 - two octaves plus M3 above middle note
etc...

If you can hear all of them, you will always be plagued with hearing beats, 
even on unisons.<g>




Conrad Hoffsommer - mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu
What if there were no hypothetical questions?



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