Isabelle Bracamonte wrote:
vtec> I second that! Whoever suggested this -- how in the
vtec> world do you train for such a skill? I know that
vtec> people who have been pianists since childhood can
vtec> often instantly hear a melody line they look at, but
vtec> how does an adult go about trying to learn this?
Isabelle,
I am a singer first, and a pianist second. (My first piano lesson was
at age 18). I could hear a melody line in my head long before I could
play it on the piano. I learned to hear it as I learned to
sight-sing; I see the relationships of one note to the next and
"hear" it in my head. That's how I sight sing.
As I began to learn piano and began recognizing the shapes of chords
in various inversions, I could recognize a tonic, dominant,
subdominant, etc. chord by knowing what key I'm in. Since I know what
a tonic sounds like vs. a dominant, I know basically what the chord
will sound like before I play it (or hear it, if I'm listening to a
recording and following the score). Obviously, I don't know what
everything sounds like, especially when there are accidentals or
extreme modulation, but I get the general idea, especially if I'm
familiar with the style. (Mozart arias are easier for me to "hear" in
my head than Menotti, for example).
I hope that helps.
Vicki Bryant
Naperville, IL
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