Graham English's "Absolute Pitch Power"
Instead of bona fide ear training, Graham English offers an unusual concoction of self-hypnosis, motivation tactics, positive thinking, and sleep learning. Graham is a hypnotherapist.
My grade:F / Dream on
Instead of bona fide ear training, Graham English offers an unusual concoction of self-hypnosis, motivation tactics, positive thinking, and sleep learning. Graham is a hypnotherapist.
Here is a prime example of someone who promotes useless information to capitalize on the 30-year success of Burge's best-selling Perfect Pitch Ear Training SuperCourse.
Of course, no one can learn to play the guitar or piano by hypnosis or sleep learning, let alone gain the skills of Perfect Pitch (also called Absolute Pitch).
Sure, positive thinking is great, but no amount of good intentions will improve your ear without proper Perfect Pitch drills.
Let's dream about Absolute Pitch ...
Graham promises people he'll give them "free interactive absolute pitch lessons, articles, and audio tutorials" if you'll give him your email address.
But what you actually get are dreamy sales letters that do not teach you how to develop Absolute Pitch and instead, they try to sell you on his course.
Here's an actual excerpt from his first email where his First Lesson instructs us to "daydream" about Absolute Pitch:
First, take the time to let yourself daydream about something relaxing. Focus on your breath flowing in and out ...
Imagine how good it would feel to have absolute pitch. Really feel it. Make it real. Picture a time when absolute pitch could be useful ... Make this scene real. Hear the sounds ... see the details of your surroundings. Now make these sensations bigger, closer, brighter, louder, clearer and more vivid. Bring the scene closer still. Make it even more intense. Visualize some other scenes where absolute pitch could be a great asset.
GREAT! Now you know how good it feels to have absolute pitch and you know the pleasure it can bring.
Actually, the pleasure I'm feeling is the $79 I've just saved by not ordering this course.
Perfect Plagiarism
Listening to Graham's course (which fortunately, I did not buy), I hear him proudly proclaim, "Shouldn't a musician know C from G like a painter knows blue from red?"
Yet this is a line he has copied from Burge's classic story published in music magazines for two decades - "How I Discovered the Secret to Perfect Pitch." Did he think we wouldn't notice?
Like so many Perfect Pitch copycats over the years, it's obvious that Graham has taken extraordinary liberties to mimic the hallmarks of Burge's famous course in order to make a buck.
Yet despite his shameless plagiarisms, Graham's "method" does not contain Burge's proven Perfect Pitch drills.
Complaints about Guarantee
Although Graham's company offers a guarantee, I hear that people have had great difficulties getting their refund. Some say they had to justify that they worked very hard to make the method work for them - or they could not receive a refund. Others have complained that they could not even reach Graham to get their refund.
To wrap it up ...
Musicians who have been hypnotized to believe they have developed Absolute Pitch might be mistaken.
I see no real ear training here, just slick-talk marketing with hopes to attract your dollars.
