I’ve been looking into ways to recognize notes by ear (the whole perfect and relative pitch thing). There is lots of software out there - Any recommendations?
I suppose this is the right forum since I only play the whistle. (Using the term “play” loosely 
) But if not, ship me elsewhere!
play along with a recording of something simple that you know
In the right key.
Can you recognize intervals? That is, if someone plays, for example, a perfect 5th interval, either in sequence or as two notes together - can you identify it instantly without even thinking? Just as when someone shows you something red you instantly know it’s red without thinking?
If not, that’s the place to start.
One of the secrets of good ear-players and sight-readers is that they play the intervals as much - or even more - than the notes themselves.
You can use interval training software. You can have a friend play random intervals to quiz you. If you have access to a keyboard, you can jab at random intervals “blindfolded” and quiz yourself. Along with this, learn the terminology of major, minor and perfect intervals.
Use the first two notes of melodies you already know to create mnemonics - a cheap trick from my Jr. High School theory classes.
Maria (West Side Story) = diminished 5th
There’s a Place for Us (also WSS) = minor 7th / dominant 7th
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star = perfect 5th
Then when you can sing or play intervals at will, as well as recognize them passively, you’re well on your way.
[pedant] second and third notes?[/pedant] 
OK, OK … the first two distinct notes. 
This does not constitute and endorsement by me. I just couldn’t resist.
MTGuru - That’s exactly what I can’t do, and what I want to be able to do. I don’t understand anything about intervals, etc. Should I start with the Edly’s book you’ve recommended elsewhere to get a little theory first?
Feadoggie - Is that software any good? I read a bunch of reviews on it, but couldn’t make heads or tails.
Sorry, I guess you didn’t read the fine print in my first post.
I have no idea as to whether the software is any good. Has anyone posting here used it? I just know that David Lucas Burge has spent a whole lot of money advertising his method in magazines for the last 30 years. His visage haunts me. He must be selling product to keep up the advertising budget but I can’t speak to the effectiveness of his method. And Esteban sells guitars!
I vote for the listen and play, listen and play, listen and play method. And then you do some more listening and playing. It falls into place over time. MTGuru gives good advice. Years ago, a band-mate of mine (who is now a well noted (sorry) solfege teacher) used to play the “name that note, name that interval” game with us. That can work for some. Using familiar tunes to recognize the intervals as MTGuru suggested seems to be a more accessible method for many. In the end it is all about listening and being able to play back what you hear regardless of whether the playback is in your mind or on an instrument. The more familiar you are with your instrument and hearing good music played on your instrument the easier it becomes.
Feadoggie
I noticed that too! Any search even close to learning music notes or theory brings him up! For some reason, that always makes me suspicious. Thanks for the advice.
I just spent a few minutes playing with this online interval trainer, and having some fun:
http://www.8notes.com/school/theory/musictheory/files/trainers/html/id90_en.html
You do have to know how to name the intervals. But you can set ascending or descending, melodic or harmonic.
Man, my descending intervals are rusty. 
Check out the other trainers and lessons on the main page, too.
Don’t know if this will help you, but the first instrument I ever learned tunes by ear was a harmonica, but its the same principle I used to learn tunes on a whistle. I started with simple tunes such as slow airs or tunes that don’t seem complicated, (not fast ones like Jigs or reels) and what I did was listened to the first few notes and played my whistle until I found the right note to start then tried to find the other two and played them over and over a few times. Next I moved onto the next part of the tune and did the same until I picked it up.
After enough time I could pick up many tunes this way. First I ever learned by ear was Maroi song Pokearekare Ana then Abide with me.
A few good tunes to start from would be Britches with Stiches or Down by the Sally Gardens. Could probavly think of more but a little tired right now, busy day.
I’m all a bit new to this game as well … I’ve been finding that just by playing bits of scales up and down, at different speeds and timings, 3/4 4/4 etc., also starting at different points in the scale, and/or missing the odd note in the scale, the start of a tune (or a recognisable phrase within a tune) can appear almost by magic, then it seems easier to “pad it out” around something that “automagically” plays itself, rather than trying to get everything sorted from the beginning.
Admittedly, having started something, I’ll often search out the music for it, rather than trying to figure it all out by ear, even if it’s just so I’ve got a written reminder of how it starts, rather than having to try and remember again a day or two later.
You don’t have to learn it all at once whilst trying to remember it all … make notes, keep records, even use conventional music (just don’t tell the “trad police”) … eventually (and really quite quickly) you’ll be picking up your whistle and rattling off a tune or two “just for fun” before settling down to some “serious” practice
Good luck … and ENJOY … it’s not supposed to be hard work 
You’re telling us the first two eighth notes aren’t distinct?? 
Try first two different pitches (unless of course the singer or player is really terrible). 
More seriously: Our guru is right and wrong about intervals. There are those who teach ear training who feel that abstract intervals, while useful in developing listening skills are not particularly useful in learning tunes etc. For that, some folks feel that learning to hear the scale the tune is in is the most useful way to go. Once you know the scale and the note it is based upon you can mentally pick out which note is being played. Sort of the difference between atomistic and holistic learning…
All that theory is, I think, less than useful for the learning of tunes (though not, as I said a bad thing for developing the ear in general). To play tunes you need to be able to hear them in your head. That means listening to them enough so you can sing them or mentally hear them. This is not such a difficult trick. Everyone probably knows dozens of tunes from nursery tunes to pop and show tunes which they’ve absorbed just by hearing them. Start there and learn how to transfer what you know to the instrument (whistle I suppose on this board). You’ll soon encounter the issue of having to get what you hear to match up with the keys available on the whistle. I suppose that is sort of transposing, but whatever it is it is a skill you’ll need and it is nice to develop it without the issue of absorbing a new tune at the same time. When that hurdle (or while it is going by) begin the process of internalizing the tune you want to play. Then play it. for quite some time it will seem awkward or impossible but one day it will suddenly be easy. So pick short tunes and repetitive ones as a starting point. It’ll make life easier.
Once the skill is in place you’ll wonder how you got along without it.
Well, it’s because Mason said nothing about the learning of tunes in his original post that I focused on ear training as a foundation skill in its own right. His reply seemed to indicate that’s at least partly what he’s after.
I guess if I’m honest with myself, I have to be reluctant to recommend ways for adult learners to bridge the gap between fundamentals of music and theory and application to, say, ITM. It’s been sooooo long since I internalized some of this stuff - like echoing tunes on a piano keyboard at age 5 - that I can only barely remember ever not knowing it, even if the formal gobbledegook came later. I tend to think that holism and reductionism are not mutually exclusive, but can be parallel paths to the same competence.
I think that the annoyance of having |: to pick up the arm and move it back to the beginning of the track (and hope ya managed to get the instrument somewhere near your mouth) before it was time 
was motivational 
Spinning out of control, Denny?
Just saying that to needle ya! And for the record…
It was long ago and far away.
Preteen, he was!
Ah, a major interval, then?
I actually bought this “program” back in 1994, on tape. Didn’t work so well with the wow and flutter of my walkman, but the underlying concept was sound. That was back before anybody knew what you meant when you said “nobody can be told what the matrix is.”
Originally, i am a bass player. Have good enough relative pitch that i can play fretless in tune. But the concept of the perfect pitch course didn’t really sink in until maybe 5 years ago when i picked up (soprano) flute. The overtone series, as a bass player, just wasn’t that important. Root, octave, 5th, octave, 3rd, 5th, third octave. And on a good day, the maj 2nd thrown in on top. Once i burned those into my mind, as its easier for me to hit the flute harmonics when i “hear” them first, i started to hear the relative amounts of different harmonics in different instruments. Yellow vs pink, as trevor wye suggests. Makes it easier to pick out the fundamental. And it really does lead to strange thoughts, as your mind fine-tunes itself to better “hallucinate” and decompress the raw signal your ears are feeding your brain. Not something you can woodshed, though.
But with whistle (and simple flute) the notes aren’t consistent in timbre. You can cheat, as different notes resonate differently. That just takes familiarity with each instrument you have, learning its sonic quirks.
But what i like to do is tune up a guitar to DADGAD, and strum the guitar. Then go play the whistle while staying in tune with the guitar. Use a capo with a non-D whistle. D-G (4th), D-A (5th), D-D (octave). Just get the D stuck in your head, even after the guitar stops vibrating. Like a drone that doesn’t drone. Then get your E, F#, B, C# to sound properly with the D. Then put the capo at the 5th fret and work on your C natural within the G major scale. Until you can internalize the tonic, it isn’t cheating to use an external pitch source. Ratios are musical. And once you burn the ratios of the D major scale into your noggin, everything else is just sped up or slowed down, relatively speaking.
Then again, both relative and absolute pitch just get in the way of letting Le Sacre flow through you. Music becomes as easy as breathing. But not until it becomes complicated enough that you have a Communication Breakdown. I found i “thought” too much when doing the pitch training freeware games. Its when you stop thinking that the magic happens. And if i could have told myself that back in '94, i never would have listened to myself.