Paul Myatt and Gillian Erksine interviewed by Tim Topham

“The sense of pitch awareness and the development of perfect pitch is outstanding in Forte pupils. It amazes me that I have taught the pupils this myself as my listening skills were very poor as a learner - aural tests were my weakness at every level from grade exams to degree level.

It is without a doubt the use of solfege which has achieved this, and their outstanding pitch abilities produce comments from other music educators that come into contact with our pupils through their schooling and/or learning a second instrument.

My own listening skills have improved beyond belief since I have been teaching solfege at Forte. I can pick up tunes easily now that I hear and can perform readily by ear. In college I was the student who struggled to play the pieces which had to be learned from memory.

I have noticed one strange thing that has happened to me of late... on Saturday I played “Oh Holy Night” using the pitch transpose feature on my piano for the singer. I have done this every two years for twelve years. This year though I was completely thrown by it and just felt completely out of sorts following the music... I think I may be developing perfect pitch!!”

“Pik has really helped me develop my piano skills and has opened up a wide variety of music that I have enjoyed playing. Having learned piano as a child, I thought it would be difficult to basically learn from scratch, but Pik has helped me develop the skills to pick it up again. My goals have been to play for pleasure and be able to pick up an play all types of music, I am now achieving this. I had only played classics in the past and it is a great experience to venture into Jazz, Opera and other genres.”