What percentage of people can recreate a rhythm from memory?
What percentage of people can match a note from memory?
What percentage of people can correctly recreate a series of notes either relatively (this one is slightly higher than this and much lower than that) or absolutely (this is first, this is second, etc.)?
I would say that most can do 1, but that is because it is the only one I can do. I would also say that there are many more people who can sing along, than can sing by themselves unaccompanied.
I tried it and after 10 mintes got the wrong answer (EEAABBAFFEEDDC).
You’ll notice that I mostly got the relationships from one note to another correct (although it took some experimentation) but I couldn’t find the starting note. In my case, I can’t reproduce a note that I’ve heard accurately in my head closely enough to pinpoint it to one exact note. Also, while I can tell usually if a note is higher or lower than another, I can’t tell if it’s one key away or five keys away. However, now that I know the right answer, it does sound better to me.
FWIW-I have had several years of piano lessons and can pick out a few guitar chords, but I cannot sing or whistle since I also lack the ability to make my voice or whistling match the notes in my head (which as noted above aren’t always correct anyway).
So, in short, my answer is no. Even with more musical training than most I just can’t do it.
I’d let this slide, except that in reality, only the first half of it is in a different key. The last half is actually “right” in absolute terms, but not right in that it’s gone into a different key than the first half, therefore making it not follow the same tune. Close, but no cigar.
EEAABBAFFEEDDC
ccggaagffeeddc
Edit - gah, missed your edit! Jazz improv is always a good excuse.
Right? Just modulating back down to C. Not a thing.
I wonder if psychobunny would have kept to the same key if she (?) had fiddled with the black keys? You have to play some sharps to keep it in E (you should also go up to B instead of A for the second note, but that is damn close) Would it have been closer if it was a guitar string?
I think you misunderstand. The skill required is not the ability to listen to a song and be able to pick out what the individual notes are. The skill required is the ability to listen to a song and be able to tell what song it is. Do you mean to say that if someone were to play an instrumental version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, that you wouldn’t be able to tell what song it was without the words?
Actually, I did fiddle with the black keys. I’m just going with the theory that I am a naturally talented jazz musician :).
Seriously, though, you should hear me sing. I randomly change keys every few bars. Some of us just don’t have musical ability. As I said, I started piano when I was six. I can read music, understand keys, octaves, scales etc. but I simply lack the innate musical ability that some people take for granted. I do think that the musical education has helped me, although I will never ever be able to pick out a time signature and I still don’t understand why 6/8 time is not the same as 3/4 time just played faster (or written with more notes per measure).
Actually, it is. You sit down at the piano, and hit a few keys. If it sounds wrong, then try hitting another key until it sounds right. Then move on to the next note. The only skills involved are remembering which keys sounded right, and being able to tell when it sounded wrong.
I’ve always been able to pick out a tune on at the very least a piano keyboard. I could do this when I was four for simple stuff (jingle bells, twinkle twinkle). I’m sure there’s a skill to be developed that anyone can grasp (some easier than for others) and of course I’ve developed my skill at recognizing melodies since I was four.
But I do wonder if some of this is innate – some people have more or less of this skill available because of how their brain is put together, where others have very little skill with melodies, and have great difficulty accessing it, if at all.
Yes, I can play any simple tune on piano, flute, or flute-like instrument. (I also once shocked a woman at a Renaissance fair when I began playing her dulcimer effortlessly, despite the fact I had never even seen a dulcimer before. Dulcimers are not complicated instruments.) However, I’ve played piano and other instruments for almost 20 years now, and picking out a tune is a skill I’ve had to develop.
I can’t play whole piano pieces by ear or interpret popular songs into a nice-sounding piece. The best I can do is play the melody and add a few simple chords. I’m insanely jealous of all the people on YouTube who play by ear.
I couldn’t pick out a tune on an instrument if I had a gun to my head.
However, I can empathize with how, if one has an innate skill, it can seem almost ludicrous that other people can’t do what comes so easily to you.
When people tell me that my major is “hard” my kneejerk reply “No, it’s really not, it’s actually as easy as breathing.” My major is physics - I’ve learned to not go with the kneejerk reply.
I, too, would have thought that most people would have been able to pick out something like twinkle twinkle little star on an instrument as straightforward as a piano - like someone else said, guitar is a little more difficult.
I have no musical training and the only instrument I’ve learnt to play properly is the bass guitar, in my late twenties (I also have a clarinet but don’t play it much) but have always enjoyed fiddling around on pianos and picking out tunes. Maybe because I did that when I was a kid I can still do it now, and others never did that?
I’m surprised that you say that. Seriously, you don’t think most people can hum a melody they’ve heard? Go out and ask people of the appropriate age how “Smoke on the Water” goes - I’m sure that almost everyone who knows the song will go “Duh duh DUH, duh duh DA DA”.
This is actually a really good way to show why some people can’t do it. Like me.
I know enough about the piano to know where a C is on the keyboard, and from there I can find the rest of the notes.
But if I sit down and hit a random key, say A, my mind isn’t going to tell me “that’s not the first note of Twinkle Twinkle.” Instead, it’s going to try to find the next compatable note. Which in this case is D. (Try it.) Now I’m completely off and there’s no getting back to ccggaag.
Let’s say, however, that I somehow manage to start at C. One by one by trial and error, I manage to progress to the G, A, back down to F, E, D and back to C. That’s a 14-step sequence. There’s no way I can remember 14 steps in a sequence I just figured out unless I write them down.
Once you write it down, of course, it’s not “picking” any more.
Oh, that’s Smoke on the Water? I have a kinda mental block for song titles. When I was in a band I had to have access to a little list with my own renaming of songs in case the set list changed last-minute and I didn’t recognise the title. This included songs I’d co-written.
The OP was talking about songs as simple Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - most people could hum or whistle that.
kunilou, you can start the song on any note. That just changes the key. It’s still the same progression of steps and half-steps after that, just from a different starting point. Worded differently, you can’t start on a note that makes it impossible to finish the tune.
By the way, isn’t the OP the opposite of arrogant? He assumed everyone had a skill he has.
Interesting question, BTW. I’m a guitar player who played and sang in bands for a lot of years. I can generally come up with chords of songs I know but haven’t learned, right from my head (with a bit of trial and error). I say this not as arrogance! Just wanted to provide context–I would have thought exactly the same things as the OP. How could someone not be able to hit a note (not a chord, mind you, a note) and not find the next note in a well-known tune? And if you can do that, how could you not be able to find the next note? And so on…
I see now from this thread that is wrong, but I would have thought it true. Has nothing to do with arrogance, everything to do with ignorance (mine!)…
