Hi Reei,
Tuning forks are the best way of teaching them perfect pitch, but are a little pricey. Something else which keeps its tune such as the glockenspiel is also good.
Have a look at the rightbrainkids website. It talks about perfect pitch
tuning forks are a bit expensive. i checked out the glockenspiel in the local music store yesterday, i tested 2 with metronome, one did not not have perfect pitch, another one which is double the price of the first one has perfect pitch but is too big for my home…
anyone taught perfect pitch with tuning forks and found them effective?
I have used the tuning forks and absolutely l love them! But if you can’t afford them, then that’s another story. They will last a lifetime, and your kids can use them even when they are older.
hubby said tuning forks are expensive…yet… he has money to buy PS3 , GT5… i will buy the tuning forks…i dont care…
@sarah108
the tuning forks from right brain, the john walker, is it labeled, which fork is for which note?
you mean you tested with a electronic tuner, right? And yours incidentally comes with a metronome? 
How are you going to use the tuning forks to teach, by the way? I don’t consciously teach pitching. This just happens by the way, right? Doesn’t perfect pitch develop from the womb? Or at least from birth? Most will say your child would already be born with it.
Isn’t it good enough if they have very good hearing which will lead to good intonation.
The ability to decipher between pitches and reproduce pitches is both innate and learned. If we are born with excellent hearing then we have the potential to hear the whole range. But being able to hear the whole range and being able to differentiate between pitches let alone know exactly what frequency has just been played to you or being able to read music and reproduce the note vocally or tune a violin without an electronic tuner etc.
These abilities are learned and like the ability to hear the different sounds in individual languages they become more difficult over time so does training the ear to differentiate between different frequencies. The earlier these different frequencies are attached to the ledger notes they correspond with or the key they press on the piano etc the easier it is for perfect pitch to be achieved.
We can of course learn to pitch later in life but it is a lot of hard, repetitious work. Better to learn it while it’s easy.
Tuning forks I think are better for teaching perfect pitch, but I love the sound of a glockenspiel (well a nice one) and it’s a lot of fun for a child to be able to hit something and create such a beautiful full ringing tone.
Thanks TMS. I have ordered the tuning fork from Right Brain. Can’t wait to get my hands on it to have fun… . :mellow:
Yes, my boys who play string instruments can tune their instruments without a tuner. They certainly have good hearing and they can roughly tell if a note is accurate. But they certainly do not have perfect pitch. That’s why I don’t see why it is important.
sam
See, it really must be inborn then! Bc even Trebellina’s tones are not pitch-perfect! Every time I heard that “person” sing the tone of the note, I’d cringe. Thankfully it is followed by the correctly-pitched key, but still … why do they have a person sing a note not accurately in that DVD?!
i’ve not managed to find any testimonials online about using tuning forks to teach perfect pitch. but at the end of the day, it doesnt really matter, just have fun with my daughter, that’s the most important. if she gets perfect pitch, that’s an added bonus.
relationships before results…
I’ll stick with our glockenspiel. hehe Wish we had the one that was larger than one octave. But too bad. My place also no space for too much large things. I bought our glockenspiel from a music school.
sam
Hey Sam,
It takes only a little imagination to understand the potential of perfect pitch in the hands of a creative mind.
You hear something you can write it, you think something you can write it, you read something you can hear it, you read something you can vocally reproduce it.
Absolute pitch - no limitations, you’re not hide bound to traditional instruments but can hear music everywhere, in every sound. Therefore every possible pitch becomes another sound in your musical vocabulary with which you can express yourself and create musical dialogues.
If the aim is to only have your child be able to reproduce the tones that are pleasing to you you are cutting them off from choosing their own musical path. True creativity comes from expressing yourself musically not expressing yourself musically within these hidebound rules. That is how we stagnate. I think there is definite danger in only training in traditional music or only western music or only contemporary music or only anything. To evolve musically we need the next generations to have two things - the tools, and the imagination to use them.
To carry the language of music with you in your head…a wonderful skill. Combine this with creativity and there are no musical boundaries.
As for the trebellina DVDs I don’t know why they’d include someone singing off key - similar experience with YBCR when the little girl singing changes key half through I’m a little teapot. It drives me up the wall.
Having said that if you have never been sad can you truly appreciate happiness? If a child only hears excellent pitch can they appreciate it and value it or even recognize it? I don’t believe that all musical experiences should be perfect. It gives no spectrum to the child as a reference point and no appreciation for the work that has gone into the acquisition of the skill nor a visualization of the path and journey to get there.
Sorry to drag on, I just feel that as a whole musical education misses the point.
I just believe that a child who has been exposed to good music from in-utero, would be able to develop rather musically already. Just like Mozart. Would his parents have specially given him 'perfect pitch" training? I doubt. But Mozart was exposed from the time he was in the womb.
sam
It is a strange idea to think that providing only limited experience will wield genius type results.
Albert Einstein didn’t just have numbers floating around his house and equations that he was exposed to and suddenly become a genius, he had an Uncle who played mathematical games with him as a toddler and throughout his youth.
Genius requires several things - 1)Potential 2)Tools 3) Experience to tie the two together 4 )the unknown x-factors (that could be as simple as parents (or uncles) who create opportunity outside the square).
So Mozart is born with the potential he is then given the tools and the experiences and a genius is born.
Giftedness is what we are born with our potential so to speak. Talent is what we do with it and the two are very very different things. I hope that in utero and since I have laid down the potential for my son. I now provide the tools and experiences and await to see what he does with them.
We limit ourselves and our potential when we say “good enough”. When we have an end goal instead of a never ending story. We don’t know what lies in our children’s futures or their childrens’ future so who are to determine what tools are unnecessary.
Sorry I’m a bit distracted so this argument is poorly constructed - I hope I make sense.
I agree with TmS about the Trebellina video. The Rock Bassey parts drive me nuts. He could’ve just been a character with a low voice, but instead it’s an affected “cartoony” voice. It’s got to be tough to sing on pitch that way. I think the voice talent for Trebellina herself is much better, and when she talks/sings it catches my baby’s attention more than the other characters, for some reason.