When we start doing music, we are really excited - loads of inspiration, we are SO looking forward to doing a piece or a song!
But as we get into practice, little by little we begin loosing interest - things get more difficult, more challenging and we realise that instead of playing music and playing with the music we are more and more into difficulties, like :
- sight reading and altogether playing sheet music,
- or co-ordination of the body (where do my hands go and why the heck don’t they coincide?),
- or fast tempo (why is it that when I play slowly, everything goes so smooth and nice but as soon I move into the real tempo, it becomes a mess - fingers are glued together, notes are missing or wrong?),
- and the rhythm! (When I hear the tune played on record, it’s so lively and swinging and it really makes me feel like dancing, but when I play, the music becomes rigid and cold… that is, if I can manage to play it without stopping at the page turn…),
- And how come that I’ve played the piece over and over with the score but it does not stick to my mind? I have this really great little solo after the 2nd chorus and I play it fairly well alone but I can never manage it when the whole band is there,
- Or it could be just hitting the right notes - why am I off tune all the time every now and then?
You might even realise that you experience a kind of fear, a resentment against certain parts of the piece. Oh, no, no, here comes the difficult part! It’s so fast, there are so many notes!
Sometimes we get so tired of all that, we put the piece to the side and take another one thinking: I’ll take it from the scratch, here we go!
But then the same problems pop up one after another - being a prisoner of the score, the limbs are simply not behaving, my waltz resembles a military march, notes do not sound as they should and so on, and so on…
With time we become a lot more cautious about choosing our pieces. You hear a piece and you really want to play it, but then you open the score and quickly close it saying: Well, no this one. It is not really my level.
The more time passes, the less there is motivation. The desire to practice gets more and more dampened by the lack of confidence. The mere approaching the instrument feels like a sentence to hard labour. We keep saying “I’ll keep up tomorrow” or ”I really should be practicing more often, but I don’t have time” without realising that we always find time for what we really want.
In other words, the pleasure of doing music is gone, because we need loads of time to find solutions for the problems - technique, rhythm, just remembering things…
What to do then?
In fact, there is a universal solution to all these problems and difficulties. Yes, an ultimate solution, the common denominator to all of them. The one that can get your whole musicianship onto a completely different level. And the solution is getting your musical ear into action.
I can just hear you muttering: Musical ear? What’s that? I am musical and I hear just fine, thank you very much! And how could my hearing things come to aide with the technique, for exemple?
Musical ear.
Well, the thing is that by saying musical ear, connected ear or absolute pitch, I really mean your musical brain. Start controlling your musical thought consciously and it becomes active, PRO-ACTIVE. When you put your musical ear into action, the brain starts in fact doing what it is supposed to do, it starts to co-ordinate your activities.
And of that, there are loads! When you play or sing, you do a great number of things simultaneously. Doing music is always a multitask functioning and the ear carries about 90 per cent of those functions.
So, when you develop your ear skills, you automatically liberate time and energy.
Those you can put into other things, like precision of a gesture, for exemple, or preparing a movement, - and that is technique, isn’t it?
Just imagine that your musical ear is properly connected and on. It is no longer passive nor idle, you don’t just follow and hear what you play. No, you hear in advance and your body simply follows your musical idea.
In fact, your brain does is all the time processing language whenever you hear, speak, read or write. Music is a language, pitches and notes are its basic units.
When you connect the ear, you start controlling your musical thought effortlessly. It frees plenty of time, most of which naturally goes into the sheer pleasure of playing. There’s no fear of the notes anymore, no grudge at the score. Music written becomes your most dedicated friend!
Or imagine, an improvisation.
Right now, it is may be the secret desire and the horror of your life. You get on stage for a jam and you panic: What’s going on?! There’s this huge wave of music coming, I’m just hanging for my dear life!
But with the ear connected, no, you enter the current with dignity and grace, you flow with it freely like an experienced surfer doing a magnificent tube. You are totally in conversation with other musicians because you are listening, you are connected.
Another exemple, singing in a choir. If you are in difficulty to know by ear what is going on, let alone to anticipate what’s coming, you have no time to hear what others are doing, no time to appreciate what’s happening. But let your ear go into intelligent action and you start bathing in the beauty of the human voices joined together in a harmonious movement!
So, when you develop absolute pitch, when you connect to your musical ear in full measure, you start doing things by ear, you connect your musical idea to the here and now.
This gives you the time to control your actions, the energy to do things as you want to, you find once again the pleasure of being able to express yourself through music, your feeling, your emotions, all those things that the words can’t express. And is it not what we seek as musicians?
Naturally, the listeners will approach you saying how much they enjoy your music. If you like it, why should not they, too? And, of cause, the praise is gratifying to any artist.
As you see, it is a complete win-win.
So, how to do it? How to connect to your musical ear? How to develop absolute pitch and learn to really control your musical thought?
All this is in the new program that I’ve created for you, the My Absolute Pitch Formula program. Everything is in there - the know-how, techniques, explications, exercices and tricks and tips.
Katja Keller
Katja Keller is a Danish musician and music coach. She is known as one of the most followed music trainers of our time.
She's famous for creating a unique method of absolute pitch development. The method is based on two approaches : music and cognitive psychology, which completely changes the process of musical learning and development.
She has customers and clients on every continent - amateur and professional musicians, music teachers and artists.
Reliable system to train your ear skills
12 notes. Fun & easy.
6 Training Modules - 6 Weeks.
I will walk with you hand in hand the paths to your own absolute pitch.
All instruments, all levels
Your current level of musicianship has no significance.
Unlimited access
Your class will play in any modern browser.
Personal guidance
Email me with questions concerning your individual progress, and I will answer them personally.
Live Q&A webinars
You will have a chance to ask all your questions and share your progress with a group.
Class Workbook
A complete downloadable workbook for the entire training course.
With My Absolute Pitch Formula Training :
- You will recall pitches and recognize them in all instruments and sounds around you. This leads to better phrasing, variety in color, ability to instantly harmonize and improvise. In other words, you will gain a conscious control over your musical thought.
- You will stop playing (singing, composing) what you merely can and start doing what you actually want. Your new ear skills will bring freedom and joy into your musical practice.
- You will be able to read and write music very much the same way as you read and write in your own language.
- Your relative pitch will greatly improve in parallel with no additional effort.
- Absolute pitch completely unlocks musical memory. You will memorize and recall music naturally and with ease.
- Your new ear skills will bust up your creativity.
- You will start appreciating music independently of its “degree of complexity”.
- The last, not the least but the most important and amazing! Your perception of music and sound will change all together and you will simply become more musical.
- It will take your musicianship to a whole new level.
Stan H CanadaLooking back at the last few months, all I can say is that it has been a tremendous and fascinating journey of self-discovery.
My entire view of audio perception has changed. Whether it’s listening to the sounds of hair dryer or car engine, there is a whole new multi-colored world of sound.
On top of recognizing pitches here and there, my creativity has improved significantly. In some ways, I guess, I feel like that small kid 10-15 years ago who could do anything that he wanted to. And how about playing and having fun with notes? Most people would say that it is nonsense; however, I tend to disagree. After taking the course and enjoying just listening, music became something much more for me. Add to all of that Katja’s teaching style, and one gets a one breathtaking roller coaster ride on the journey of self-discovery
. At the end of the course, not only my listening has improved, not only my appreciation for music has gone up, but I also feel more alive now than for many years.
For all that, I have to thank M.A.P. method. I firmly believe that this course is for anybody interested, whether you are a professional musician, or an amateur, or just a person interested in expanding your awareness. And always remember, the journey will complete the who walks the road. Mine is just starting.
Alexia (amateur musician) Paris (translated from French)Hi Katja !
Hope you are doing well.
Last June I participated in your workshop in Paris, and since then I have worked scrupulously - and with great pleasure! - following your method, your exercises, your instructions.
During the summer I created the sensorial images for the twelve notes. Then I continued to open myself to the world of the sound. I spent a lot of time just listening with my body and audiolizing. (What was difficult for me: audiolize a sound without singing it)
My progress is incredible. Today, I can find every note and sing it just by thinking its name. It is prodigious!!!! Without piano, without a pitch fork !!! Basically, this is what counts most for me ...
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your method, I would never have thought to have access to the absolute pitch in my life ... and that counts for me a lot.
Nikolaus W USAThe course could be best described as a guided sensorial evolution. Like so many others before me, I have struggled for years with almost every conceivable variation of the basic note recognition drill — from the Burge method to Absolute Pitch Avenue — all in a futile attempt to coax my mind into thinking differently about sound.
And that’s what AP really is — a different level of aural cognition that for whatever reason cannot be brought about through note recognition exercises. With the M.A.P. method I’ve begun for whatever reason to process sound in a new way that is very different from the usual contextual listening paradigm. The mind/body sensations that often resonate within me every time I encounter the familiar pitches in audio space are nothing less than a beautiful connectedness to the realm of sound.
Anja (singer and musicologist) CopenhagenThe training was a really positive experience.
First of all, a fundamental absorption in the audio universe, where the ability to listen consciously develops and gets challenged.
In addition, I have got really many tools and implements, which can be used constructively in all possible connection with my everyday life.
As soon as we receive your payment, you will get an email message with your login info (user name and password), and you can start doing the exercises.
Need help?
Contact us :
+33 (0) 6 61 09 89 93
E-mail :support@oreilleabsolue.mobi