Are you teaching perfect pitch?

[aangeles]

Thank you all for your replies! Especially fiz!!

I got the right brain kids tuning forks last year after debating and hesitating for a looong time because of the price. Now I wish we had gotten it sooner! Nevertheless, we have been using it along with the Music Play program so, if that was what worked for you, who knows, maybe it is also the reason why Ella can almost tune her violin by herself!    Anyway, I am now extra motivated to keep up with it and be more consistent after reading your post. Thanks a lot! 

[fiz]

Dear Parents,

This is  my full recount of why I give high praise to Tuning Forks. And it is pretty clear one of  the benefits of Tuning Forks is  to let the young children pick up perfect pitching. My feedback is the forks is able to CORRECT PITCHING” if you think your kid is “weak” in this area initially.

My daughter was already  5 when I purchased the Forks and experience tells me that age is certainly not a barrier ( as some say the best time to use is between 0-3 yo).  The same goes to practice. I took 4 months to try correct her hearing/pitching ability with various device such as piano etc.

Even though the handbook suggests 15 minutes of music pitch training per day to gain optimal results,  well, I think it all depends on individual.  I don’t do it daily, perhaps in the alternate, or 3/4 days per week, but the results are amazing, my daughter has transformed from a young music learner who was NOT GOOD at all with simple pitching of c, d, e, f, g, a, b to someone who is pretty IMPRESSED by now to not only have all simple notes wiring accurately with her auditory,  but also to SHARPS as well as simple CHORDS,  to name a few : D Minor, C7, G Major, C Major, D Major, F Major, F Minor….by just pushing the piano keys simultaneously ( give her allowance of making very minor hearing mistake sometimes, if it does occur) ( But for a 5 yo child, I think this is pretty encouraging).

The other tips, before I used Tuning Forks I used piano and high quality xylophone to teach pitching,  well, I think the results are not apparent compared to Tuning Forks perhaps for a simple reason that Tuning Forks generate “ONLY CONSTANT SOUND WAVE FREQUENCY” as pointed out in Right Brain Kid’s Handbook as opposed to the ones mentioned that have frequencies with many degrees. 

So I am very pleased to let parents know that you may try Tuning Forks if you think your child may not have this part of training. Just as you have nothing to lose if you try but you would have everything to lose if you dont.

Perfect pitching is important in terms of any musical learning, I think, practically because the child doesn’t need to learn the instrument in a hard way but to teach the child to enjoy music joyfully, easily with ease. So the more I see it the more I understand why V is catching up fast with her piano lessons, she is doing Level 2 pieces within 8 months times, and I notice she practices, she hums the notes and then she could play by memory almost instantly.  Humming exactly coincides with the basic humming frequency training in Tuning Forks.

Cheers!

[fiz]

Dear Angeles & TeachingMyToddlers,

It was my mistakes, I didn't use 4 months to teach her perfect pitching, I used up 4 months to teach perfect pitching with various devices such as piano and xylophone, as mentioned results was not good. After purchasing,  I used about a month to get her familiar with Tuning Forks. And the thing is once she gets it, she gets it forever. Even though I have hardly used the forks to her by now but she still able to discern any sound when I place any vibrating forks near her ears.

[aangeles]

That's really encouraging, fiz!

One more question: you said your daughter did not attend any right brain classes, but do you do any right brain training with her at home, aside from using the tuning forks to teach perfect pitch? I do a lot of right brain activities with Ella at home (we don't have access to Shichida or Heguru classes where we live). We have finished Tweedlewink and now I do the Wink activities with her almost everyday, as well as mandalas, flash and peg memory, tangram puzzles, photographic memory kit, logico/funthinkers, etc., and I was wondering whether other kids who have developed perfect pitch also had similar right brain training or whether their pitch ability was developed in isolation from other right brain abilities. Would love to hear your thoughts on this...

[fiz]

Hi aangeles,

Yes, I do a lot of right brain activities with her since one month's old. I am living in Malaysia and I should have ample chances to attend any of the schools you mentioned but didn't attend mainly because I did activities  through books I read on Shichida's method with her at home back then, second I can't drive, so I have to confine my activities at home. Basically I homeschool her until now.

 I used Wink too, also some materials I bought from Prof. Shichida's  such as linking memory, flashcards, mandalas, doing eye exercise............her memory is good, very good. She picks up piano lesson this year and she  could do real fast. I added one activities with her that is mental maths , the visualization way so her abstract concept is good, the more important I am saying here is mental Maths, that is why she was fast to translate music notation to practical training on piano  faster compared to her peers. I think there is one thing common  between these 2 activities : "abstraction".

But does all those right brain activites I have mentioned have any relation to perfect pitching apart from maths ? For that I am not sure. Perhaps it does.

[fiz]

Hi Angeles,

The other activity that I did more often but lesser now is "reading".  I used to read many books above her age since young. I always think to make her  challenge the activities we taught is far more fruitful than to let her constantly doing activities that have lost the challeging lustrous.  So I often  read books to her that likely to impact her reading skill as well as literacy skill. So now she could write  creative short stories on her own,  such that she would always name her characters with creative names such as King Boratio and Queen Doratio and so on, frankly I don't know where she pluck those names from.........  But she is only 5 and she enjoys reading books  by Shakespeare ( student's compilation)  and the strange thing is she could understand its context. Very different from my time!

[aangeles]

Hi fiz,

This is getting a little off-topic but I am finding your replies very intriguing!

Regarding mental math, I was wondering which method you used with your daughter - Doman, Shichida, Abacus/Anzan, or SEE's maths method? Ella is taking soroban classes right now and she is getting better and better with it each day. I am hoping she will not have any trouble progressing to the visualization/anzan level. Before enrolling her in soroban, I had been very interested in SEE's maths, but have not been able to find a lot of materials about it and I think there are also fewer teachers willing or able to teach this method because of all the effort required. That is why I settled on using the soroban to teach Ella mental math.

Regarding reading, I am also constantly surprised by Ella's ability to understand concepts and context above her age level. And I notice this not only with English but also with Chinese literature. She loves reading Tang and Song Dynasty poems and can actually understand and verbalize the feelings and emotions surrounding each one she reads. Same with the Chinese proverb stories which I myself only started learning in 5th grade, she can actually use these proverbs in the right context in her everyday Chinese conversation with me! However, I do try to be very careful when selecting above-age level materials for her because, although she is emotionally mature for her age, she is also very emotionally sensitive and amazingly empathetic. When she was barely 3 years old, she once cried all the way home from daycare because she saw a dead dragonfly in the parking lot! Another effect of all those right brain activities???

[fiz]

Oh,  it is not out of topic, initially I used See's maths, I   think this method is good for children compared to abacus,  because after using both abacus and mental maths, I have noticed such limitation sometimes back after asking my daughter to do both the sums,   for instance 4-5 or -5-(-10) and so on with abacus, abacus doesnt do sums like that,  and she would tell  " I cant do that because  no rules could apply" but the same doesnt seem to happen in See's Maths ( mental Maths).  That was my experince after seeing how my daughter adopting both. I must say both are good training.

 To be very frank you can teach See's math yourself to your child.....See's math is a simple math within our knowledge, not something extraordinarily hard.


I see close relation between piano, reading and Maths, because she i's doing theory too at young age of 5,  so ceratin part of the theory needs the child to undertsand conceptually  simple maths application or when the music notation is up and above the usual 5 stave lines.........or  why not all pieces are treble clefts...... or  be asked why this is 1/8, or 1/16 and so on and not 1/4, I notice it would be difficult for the music teachers to explain and  to tell the young child the concept of fraction and so on if the child doesnt have that in mind initially.

  That is why I think there is close relation between math, piano and reading, for instance it would be drilling if the child doesnt quite understand the meaning of andante, fff, mf, f, or lento, or andante or presto....silence or play adagio and that those terms often appeared in every music piece......so I personally feel it is always good if the child could grip the concept the moment she plays with it or has a feel of what she is taught to play...............But what I just mentioned doesn't appear to be a problem with kid  who is  9/10/11/12 years old and so on.....So age and understanding is my concern  in early child education, the option to bridge this gap is to find interest in books she read.....and you are perfectly right not all books are suitable to them.

[TTT8]

Angeles,

My daughter develops perfect pitch through using Soft Mozart program. I believe it is through her singing solfege while playing the piano. Her teacher also recommended us to play games. Have the child stand back facing the piano and parents play a melody 5 -6 notes and more challenging will include sharps and chords. The child will then play the melody that she hears. This exercise will develop ear, memory and creativity.  For a 3 year old, she can identify notes c, d,e,f,g,a,b some sharps and simple cords like c major and d major. According to her teacher once perfect pitch foundation is develop it will follow the child forever. It will develop further through playing the musical instruments.

[fiz]

TTT8,

You are absolutely right, singing solfege, I think this helps tremendously too.

After  joining music group class: Harmony Road Music Course ( a US system), with a book comes with a CD, and the CDs also teaches the child to read the music notations in solfeggi. And  I suspect too she must have developed her  perfect pitch during the constant class practice by that very experienced music teacher,  solfege singing together with Tuning Forks.

I recalled yesterday evening I asked her to do sight read and played new song composed by Mozart's: "Non Piu Andrai", and   in the process often I notice she would try on the piano several rounds, get the notes herself ( I can't play piano BUT I understand music language the "left-brain" way), get the rhythms and  sing  solfeggi while playing, and by doing so, for sure she has already mastered that new song,  so today she is already able to play by memory to entertain me........that always make me inspired.

[aangeles]

fiz,

Can you tell me what Shichida books you found useful and where I can get them? Thanks!

[fiz]

fiz,

Can you tell me what Shichida books you found useful and where I can get them? Thanks!

Dear aangeles,

I can't recall how many books I read by Dr Shichida, mostly in Chinese language because Chinese  should be the closest to Japanese if those books were to be translated.

Most of the books are quite similar, with case studies, but I remembered this book that sets the very strict requirements of expectations of the young child of 5/6 to achieve if he/she were to use the right brain methods correctly, so back then I did cross check with my daughter's levels with that book,  would let you know the book soon cause can't find it now.

The other I think is a must-have copy: presumably for children above 6 to adults i.e. for children who is able to receive instructions with no fuss: a HOW-TO-DO book: ISBN: 978-7-5442-4512-8, it comes with a CD.

The other emphasis by Shichida is raeding and math. In his books, my understanding is read as many books as possible, books with and without  pictures, books with boring and/ or interesting contents such as simple understanding of law of nature, law of motion......books with in-depth knowledge, even sometimes books with religious philosophy. He ever cited one chanting phrase  in that book I just above mentioned with ISBN.

 He also emphasized a lot on math, so the school has a  CD on multiplication, that said, I think what he wanted his young students to achieve perhaps is mental calculation........ Whether it is dots math, See's math, abacus, anzan, all that are the same because all stimulating the brains.

I got most of my books in Popular Bookstore, MPH and Border.

Happy New Year!

I would check out that two books for you later.

[fiz]

fiz,

Can you tell me what Shichida books you found useful and where I can get them? Thanks!

Hi aangeles,

I have found these 2 books that I think is an-essential-to-have books:
(1): ISBN 978-7-5442-4255-4
(2): ISBN 957-452-891 X

In book no. 2 page 226 & 227, Dr  Shichida had set up required expectations with regard to child who used right brain methods in Math Program. ( To my humble opinion, I think for kid who is able to do mental math would  have reached the set expectation and I think this expectation is kind of reasonable.)

That said, I also read a book by Dr  Shichida,  there too he had set a very stringent standard in terms of language, in that case it was Japanese Language he mentioned about  ie. I could recall he said the child at age of 5/6 should already be able to read, write and understand Secondary's level textbooks and so on.  In that, I am sure my daughter had yet to reach the set standard for Chinese, but for English I think it is possible for her to achieve that too. ( For this book, I can't find the exact ISBN and pages for your reference, but I would cite the copy soon.)

Book no. 2 has a special passage on how to do ESP and  achieve ESP for child between 0-6,  if this is what concern you then you may check it out at page 96 onwards. 
Book no. 1 is a mixture or HOW- to and WHY book.

Hope this help.

Cheers.

[lelask]

We do not have tuning forks yet but I have found this website
http://www.onlinetuningfork.com/  do you think the sund is accurate?

http://www.seventhstring.com/tuningfork/tuningfork.html

I have looked for some on ebay - are healing forks the ones I am looking for??
How many forks should I be using?

Many thanks.

[waterdreamer]

We do not have tuning forks yet but I have found this website
http://www.onlinetuningfork.com/  do you think the sund is accurate?

http://www.seventhstring.com/tuningfork/tuningfork.html

I have looked for some on ebay - are healing forks the ones I am looking for??
How many forks should I be using?

Many thanks.

I'm also very interested to know if these websites are helpful. $259 plus shipping is a bit to rich for my blood right at the moment, but I'd like to do something.

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