Eguchi Method of Teaching Perfect Pitch

[aangeles]

Has anyone ever heard of the Eguchi method in teaching perfect pitch? Apparently, it is being "used by more than 800 teachers around Japan to teach perfect pitch to very young children, claiming a success rate of almost 100 percent for those who start before they are 4 years old." See this article in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR2009072602350.html?sid=ST2009072602370

I have been teaching Ella to recognize individual notes initially on a glockenspiel and later using a digital keyboard since she was 15 months old. I have been using a modified Doman method to teach this. I have never tried to test her as she is very averse to being tested especially if she has not yet mastered a certain skill. Also, I have read somewhere that it takes 2-3 years of consistent training to develop perfect pitch so I thought it would be premature to test her. According to the article, however, Eguchi recommends teaching chords in the beginning rather than individual notes. And her method seems simple enough so I am tempted to switch to her method.

Does anyone have any experience with this method? Do you know where I can read more about it?

[Ouroboros1]

Sounds intriguing!

[mtb999]

The idea is intriguing.  I wonder how different it is to the Perfect Pitch training of Right Brain Kids?

I have done 10 mins of searching on Google and this is what I've found out.

There is a music school homepage in Japan which teaches the Eguchi Method
http://www.ichionkai.co.jp/english/english%20page%20-%20top/english%20page%20-%20top.htm

They have a page stating they plan on doing an online programme - but I can't ascertain how old the link is.
It says to contact 1000<at>ichionkai.co.jp for more information
http://www.ichionkai.co.jp/english/english%20page%20-%20perfect%20pitch/english%20page%20-%20perfect%20pitch.htm

Another website has cited an Eguchi research paper for it's technique
http://www.aruffo.com/eartraining/software/etchopper.htm

Oura, Y. and Eguchi, K. (1982). Absolute pitch training program for children. Ongaku Kyouiku Kenkyu (Music Education Research), 32, 162-171
- I wonder if anyone is able to get a copy of the paper and if it's in Japanese if they can translate it into English??

[Ouroboros1]

Has anyone tried this program mtb999 mentioned?
( http://www.aruffo.com/eartraining/software/etchopper.htm )

It looks promising, and has a free demo.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I just emailed the Japanese music school regarding the online training (length of course, equipment required, how it works, cost, etc). I'll let you all know if I hear back from them!

[mtb999]

Teaching my Toddler - thanks for emailing the website.  I look forward to hearing the update.

Re: Chordhopper - at the moment my DD is too young to play the computer game.  I think a 2 1/2 to 3 year old would be able to play the game ... anyhow I hope someone will be able to give a review in a few weeks time after their child trials it.  $39 for the download seems quite a reasonable price to pay ... almost tempting to purchase ... but the money could be spent on other educational materials :-)

[HH]

Today I took some time to take a look at the method.
First, there is a clear confusion in terminology. ‘Perfect pitch’ is an ability of any individuals to hear exact pitch of 1 sound at a time. If a chord played, the individual can name every sound of the chord one after another.
 Some people have inborn perfect pitch ability. Sometimes it is a burden. For example, in music literacy C# and Db are 2 different notes, but on piano – the same pitch (on violin you may place finger a bit closer and pitch changes). People with perfect pitch most of the time are not encouraged to develop ‘harmonical ‘  ear – ability to grasp music piece from any key melodically with corresponding harmony.
On the video kids clearly are getting trained to differentiate chords with no relation to particular tune. We have many approaches and training courses in Russian schools of music. I used to do the same with small children too. I didn’t use colors or flags, but cards with images that correlate with sounds by association. For example, ‘happy face’, ‘sad face’, jelly fish, happy/sad rabbit etc
Now I came to conclusion that the best way for ear training is practical use. Kids have to be able to take a song and transfer it to any key that is more comfortable for singing/performing.
It is also great when they can pick accompaniment to any melody.

[aangeles]

Thank you, guys, for your replies.

Today I took some time to take a look at the method.
First, there is a clear confusion in terminology. ‘Perfect pitch’ is an ability of any individuals to hear exact pitch of 1 sound at a time. If a chord played, the individual can name every sound of the chord one after another.
 Some people have inborn perfect pitch ability. Sometimes it is a burden. For example, in music literacy C# and Db are 2 different notes, but on piano – the same pitch (on violin you may place finger a bit closer and pitch changes). People with perfect pitch most of the time are not encouraged to develop ‘harmonical ‘  ear – ability to grasp music piece from any key melodically with corresponding harmony.
On the video kids clearly are getting trained to differentiate chords with no relation to particular tune. We have many approaches and training courses in Russian schools of music. I used to do the same with small children too. I didn’t use colors or flags, but cards with images that correlate with sounds by association. For example, ‘happy face’, ‘sad face’, jelly fish, happy/sad rabbit etc
Now I came to conclusion that the best way for ear training is practical use. Kids have to be able to take a song and transfer it to any key that is more comfortable for singing/performing.
It is also great when they can pick accompaniment to any melody.

HH,

Thanks for replying as well. I was hoping you would since I wanted to know your opinion on the topic of perfect pitch and whether it is worth teaching to our kids. Some people with inborn perfect pitch say that it is more of a curse than a blessing. I know from your book that you said you acquired your ability to detect perfect pitch as an older child, and as someone who can remember having and NOT having this ability, would you say you'd rather that you never developed it at all? If you think it is worth teaching to our children, do you think that Eguchi's method has any merit to it? OR, do you think that just by following your lesson plan and using the Soft Mozart program, my daughter will pick up this ability anyway? (I am still waiting to receive my SM package so I am not certain what the scope of the program will be.) Lastly, can you elaborate more and explain what you mean when you say "harmonical ear – ability to grasp music piece from any key melodically with corresponding harmony"?

Thanks!
Anna

[mtb999]

HH - my impression is that they start off with Chords in C major but then progresses to the same chords but in other other scales (sorry I'm not sure of the exact terminology).

So if they can recognise the different between CEGC and DF#AD and correctly identify according to flag or whatever the identification tool is - then isn't that perfect pitch?  Presumably when they are older they will learn that the music convention for the eg red flag is CEGC and the eg. green flag is DF#AD ... therefore that would be perfect pitch.

There is definitely relative pitch learning involved with hearing the individual notes whithin the chords.  But if the child is taught instantly recognise the dfferent chords ad different pitches then is surely by definition perfect pitch??

Having said that I have made an assumption - and perhaps the video is only showing one aspect of the course?

PS  Are you able to post the video that you mentioned?

[HH]

HH,

Thanks for replying as well. I was hoping you would since I wanted to know your opinion on the topic of perfect pitch and whether it is worth teaching to our kids. Some people with inborn perfect pitch say that it is more of a curse than a blessing. I know from your book that you said you acquired your ability to detect perfect pitch as an older child, and as someone who can remember having and NOT having this ability, would you say you'd rather that you never developed it at all? If you think it is worth teaching to our children, do you think that Eguchi's method has any merit to it? OR, do you think that just by following your lesson plan and using the Soft Mozart program, my daughter will pick up this ability anyway? (I am still waiting to receive my SM package so I am not certain what the scope of the program will be.) Lastly, can you elaborate more and explain what you mean when you say "harmonical ear – ability to grasp music piece from any key melodically with corresponding harmony"?

Thanks!
Anna

Anna,
It is so easy to communicate with you, because you read the book and we are on the same page!
Perfect pitch that I suddenly received as a child at the beginning became my ‘point of support’ to understand music notation. I was pretty good in writing music dictations. In Russian school of music all the students from Primer level ‘till university have to be able to hear 1-4 voices piece played on piano (or sometimes even other instruments!) and write it down on music paper. With my perfect pitch I had no problems to do it, but always wrote it as God put it per capita. But I think  it also held me from becoming creative, because I was too good in duplicating…
In conservatory I met some students who were sometimes even better in this task with no perfect pitch involved. I never forget a friend of mine who played a piano recital. After his performance his piano professor got mad. Apparently, the guy played entire piece… from different key. For him to transpose a complicated piece was a piece of cake! We all were stunned! This guy was a composer and great improviser.
I think, the combination of perfect pitch and ‘harmonical ear’ (ability that my friend had) would be the best.
I can’t back my words with research, but many people who used SM with small children testified that they developed perfect pitch with it. I can speculate, why: the kids play many pieces and singing a lot of Solfeggio. Finally the pitch, voice and ear get in tune. But unlike me in my past they recognize perfect pitch of every sound in chords and in harmony with other sounds.
Here some videos about how Soft Mozart is teaching kids to develop their ears. On this video a boy playing ‘Ode to Joy’ in different keys. He developed this ability using our software on a daily basis.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/RMsjF5uHgtI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/RMsjF5uHgtI&rel=1</a>

This video was made during one of my lessons. When I work with siblings, another one is practices usinf our software alone. This girl is learning how to pick the right chords by listening to a melody. She was so adorable that we asked if we may record:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dq3xrN4xpMo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Dq3xrN4xpMo&rel=1</a>
In your Deluxe version you have ‘Solfeggio and Chords’ section.

[aangeles]

That's good to know, HH!

I have only a limited time to teach Ella several subjects on a daily basis so if I don't have to devote time to explicitly teach her perfect pitch and it is something that she can pick up along with harmonical ear from Soft Mozart, then so much the better. Thanks for your detailed reply - it helped me resolve the issues I had about teaching perfect pitch. Also, the videos have inspired me to really work with my daughter on this program!

[mtb999]

I don't know how anyone can make the statement of "taking time to look at the method" and then criticising the Eguchi method whent there is very little information available on the internet!  I have trawlled through many pages from google searches and there is not much information available for anyone to critique the method.

Whilst I think HH's method of teaching is very interesting and the videos compelling, it would behove readers to keep OPEN to other techniques of music and pitch (perfect and relative).

I hope that other readers of the forum are not conned by what sounds like HH's sales pitch for Soft Mozart and perhaps subconciously biased opinion - into closing their eyes and ears to other possibilities of teaching children.

I, for one, am hoping TeachingmyToddlers email will be replied to ... and that more information will become available about the technique as people do research and truly fund out what is involved with the method.  I am going to see if I can get ahold of the research paper cited too.

[aangeles]

I don't know how anyone can make the statement of "taking time to look at the method" and then criticising the Eguchi method whent there is very little information available on the internet!  I have trawlled through many pages from google searches and there is not much information available for anyone to critique the method.

Whilst I think HH's method of teaching is very interesting and the videos compelling, it would behove readers to keep OPEN to other techniques of music and pitch (perfect and relative).

I hope that other readers of the forum are not conned by what sounds like HH's sales pitch for Soft Mozart and perhaps subconciously biased opinion - into closing their eyes and ears to other possibilities of teaching children.

I, for one, am hoping TeachingmyToddlers email will be replied to ... and that more information will become available about the technique as people do research and truly fund out what is involved with the method.  I am going to see if I can get ahold of the research paper cited too.

mtb999,

The way I understood HH replies was that she was not so much criticizing the Eguchi method per se as she was saying that having perfect pitch alone may not be all that great. Perhaps I inadvertently contributed to this "misunderstanding" by the way I posted my very first message. (I started this thread just as I was leaving work the other day and I was in a hurry so I failed to elaborate.)

Even though I have been doing perfect pitch training with Ella using a modified Doman method for some time now, I have been kinda conflicted whether I should be doing this at all. In the back of my mind, I was always wondering whether I am teaching her an ability that she would later wish she did not have at all. (Apparently, once you develop perfect pitch, you will not be able to lose it even if you wanted to.) While there is a lot of contradictory information on the topic (and sometimes even on the DEFINITION of perfect pitch), most of the articles and posts in music/piano/violin forums I have read by people WITH perfect pitch seem to say that:

1. It is no guarantee of musical success or, even, musical talent.
2. Having this ability can be inconvenient, annoying, and can sometimes even get in the way of singing/playing an instrument because they get distracted/annoyed when they hear other people sing/play off-key, they have a problem transposing to a higher or lower key, they get too focused on pitch, pitch, pitch and fail to just enjoy the music, it is a hindrance to improvisation and creativity, etc. Granted, most of these people are not professional musicians so maybe that is another variable that has to be taken into consideration. I do remember reading somewhere in this forum that DrPrimo, one of our brillkids member, said that she has perfect pitch and she is very musical and that it is a nice skill to have!

So, anyway, I always had this nagging concern that teaching Ella to recognize individual notes/pitch (by using the glockenspiel, keyboard, or tuning forks) out of context of a holistic music education would not be a good thing at all. As of now, I don't have enough information on the Eguchi method or on the Chordhopper ear training software to decide whether they are effective or not. They may be 100% effective for all I know (I don't think HH ever said that these methods would not be effective). It's just that I agree with HH that probably the best goal to aim for for Ella would not be having perfect pitch per se but having a combination of perfect pitch and what she calls "harmonical ear."

For now, I will carry on with what I have been doing so far with Ella with regard to perfect pitch (modified Doman), until I receive my SM package and learn about the program firsthand. I had already ordered SM even before starting this thread so I guess I don't have a choice anyway... 

I do hope that Ella will like SM and that I will have encouraging updates to post soon about our experience with using this program. 

[aangeles]

And, TmT, thank you for taking the initiative to email the Japanese music company. Even though I would primarily be using the SM program with Ella for ear training and teaching piano (at least until I think she is old enough to have formal lessons), I would still be very interested in reading about and learning about their method. 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

FYI All, I never heard back from this company so I resent the message again 10 days later. Again, no response. I am pretty much giving up, maybe you might have better luck than me! If you do, please share!

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