Click here to return to the home page.

How to benchmark Absolute Pitch Blaster

What is a benchmark?

A "benchmark" is a snapshot of your pitch-recognition ability.  You can do benchmarks periodically to keep a statistical record of your improvement.

The first time you do a benchmark, you probably won't have any idea what answers you're supposed to give, and you'll end up guessing randomly.  This is the point!  You don't already have absolute pitch, so of course you have to guess randomly.  You should do a benchmark, even though it's random, because these results will show your recognition ability before you started using AP Blaster.  As you improve your pitch recognition abilities, your benchmark percentages will go up.

1.  Choose your benchmark

First, indicate which pitch you want to benchmark by pressing the right and left arrows.  The blank spaces will fill up with the aliens corresponding to the pitches which will be benchmarked.  You can choose either one pitch alone or multiple pitches.  The screenshot above is for a seven-pitch benchmark; at the start, you'll probably just want to do a benchmark for C alone ().

2.  Start the benchmark

Begin by pressing the button .

An alien will appear in the small screen , and a pitch letter will appear underneath it.

3.  Playing the benchmark

Each time an alien appears in the small screen (with a pitch letter underneath it), this indicates the Target Pitch you should listen for.

Once the alien appears, the program will play a musical sound for you.

If you hear the Target Pitch in this musical sound, press the green button .

If you do not hear the Target Pitch in this musical sound, press the red button .

Press the button to make another alien appear.

4.  Finishing the benchmark

As you progress, the Wave Flags on the right side of the screen will count down.  When they reach zero, you're done!

Keyboard shortcuts

enter - or - spacebar	X	V

left arrow	right arrow

Results

Select Results from the Game menu to see your results.

Because the chance of guessing correctly at random is 50/50, you might be surprised to see a higher percentage than you expected.  But even this will increase as you continue to play the game.