[Jonny Black]

Hi all,

Just wondering if any of you have any good exercises and tips when teaching somebody who appears to be tone deaf and can’t recognise pitch.

I have in the past been able to develop awareness of pitch recognition through repeating simple scales and building muscle memory. This current student I have though is a little bit unusual in the sense that if I ask her to improvise a song then she can sing an ‘interpretation’ of the song where most of the notes are either correct or a harmonic of the intended note, with plenty of pitch shifts! This suggests to me that there is musicality there but when I ask her to repeat a simple 3 note scakenthen she really struggles. She is very nervous but is very good rhythmically and has lots of enthusiasm.

Any tips would be great 🙂

[Veronica.Wakeling]

A blown up balloon to each ear in turn,then each note from the scale of C major to start,go up the major scale very slowly with the resonation vocalised as “NING NING.When the brain accepts that note resonation,go to the D, one by one up the scale.Repeat as necessary until accepted.The voice from NING NING is in head voice with no distraction from interference.Will not work with every student,though I have had great steps forward with mine.

[Jonny Black]

Thanks Veronica. I’ve not heard of that method and will certainly give it a try 😀