I recently learnt to differentiate notes in a scale using an app[1]. Basically, you listen to a few chords for musical context and then you hear a note and have to choose which note it as. When I started I couldn't do it at all. After a few weeks I was able to tell which note I was hearing pretty reliably.
I think the analogy to colours is absolutely correct. There's no calculation in my brain when I hear one these notes. I just hear it and think "That's a third". It feels exactly looking at a colour and thinking "That's red".
The fact that the identification is not a conscious thought leads me to believe that learning notes by relating them songs and musical phrases you know is probably not the best way to do it.
Note: this is not learning absolute pitch/perfect pitch. It's 'just' relative pitch, but having gone from not having that ability the change was quite large and quick.
I think the analogy to colours is absolutely correct. There's no calculation in my brain when I hear one these notes. I just hear it and think "That's a third". It feels exactly looking at a colour and thinking "That's red".
The fact that the identification is not a conscious thought leads me to believe that learning notes by relating them songs and musical phrases you know is probably not the best way to do it.
Note: this is not learning absolute pitch/perfect pitch. It's 'just' relative pitch, but having gone from not having that ability the change was quite large and quick.
[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kaizen9.fe...