I have no musical knowledge so bear with me.
How can people hear a note played or a word sung and this to themselves “oh that’s an A flat” or something along those lines. Or how can they identify that they are not singing the right note and know how to modify it to get to the correct one?
What about tuning instruments. How can someone do that by ear and just know that it’s in tune?
The mind boggles!
In: 10
Comes with experience, but I think some people also have it naturally and that’s called having “perfect pitch”. My orchestra teacher told me that I had it when I was in middle school and although I’m no professional music player, I can see why she said it. I have the ability to recognize certain musical sounds, so much that I can even predict the next note coming in a song. I never studied music theory but I can still read music with a bass clef.
Tuning also comes with experience. In orchestra, the contrabass is tuned in perfect fourths while the the cello, violin, and viola are tuned in fifths, meaning that it takes 5 notes to get to the next string. As long as you remember that and get used to hearing how each string sounds, you eventually learn to tune a string with just your ear.
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