Musical Ability
Upon finding out that I’m a musician, adults often tell me how they have “no musical ability.” I always try to reassure them that they understand much more than they think they do, but they never seem to believe me.
So here we have a real example of what I’m talking about. Without giving everything away, because this is podcast gold here, we have a man who has a memory of a song from his, say, junior high days. He even makes a recording of it, singing and whistling as much as he can remember from every part (as in melody and accompanying parts). Listening to his recording, I’m struck by two things: his feel for the rhythm, which is pretty strong, and his difficulty in reproducing the correct pitches. What is more amazing to me than the fact that they actually figure out where the song comes from is that this guy — who clearly has some difficulties reproducing pitches accurately — is able to get some musicians who have never heard this song to reproduce it almost note-for-note. The guy is hearing things very clearly in his head, and while he can’t reproduce it himself, he somehow finds a way to communicate what he hears to musicians and can vet if they are playing it the way he hears it in his head. It wouldn’t take much instruction to get him singing more accurately — a year or two, perhaps.
