This is a game I’ve been developing that teaches your brain how to tune into music on a higher level. I think of it as basic interval training, but part of the experiment is to see if the brain will actually learn to associate colors, note names, and simple symbols with particular sounds.
After listening to the David Lucas Burge Perfect Pitch course over and over I began to wonder about notes and colors. I also listened to Katja Keller, who claims to have taught herself perfect pitch via mind mapping. Another instructor online made an app that attempts to use interesting sayings or rhymes to memorize notes.
I kept thinking of casino games where the cherries pop up, so I decided to start with F# as red cherries, and I moved on from there. My goal was to use all fruits and vegetables to represent notes, but I hit a wall with D being light blue. That’s why I chose to represent D with a robin’s egg. I could have done eggplant for Bb, but I absolutely love black olives. Plus, I love the sound of Thelonius Monk playing in the key of Bb. Most of my thought was based around ways I could somehow make these colors meaningful to me, but I may have fallen short when choosing the butternut squash for Ab. Ab sort of means nothing to me, and so does a butternut squash. Maybe that’s the hidden meaning?
Honestly, I don’t even know if other musicians are interested in this type of training, or my app, but I will say it has changed my life, and the way I perceive music.
If you don’t know where to start with this sort of thing I advise you to learn some intervals, if not all, by any kind of memory game.
Examples Include:
- Minor 2nd = Jaws theme
- Major 2nd = Happy Birthday
- Minor 3rd = Smoke on the Water
- Major 3rd = When the Saints Go Marching In
- Perfect 4th = Here Comes the Bride
- etc.
