AIBU to wonder if my 15-year-old has an unusual ear for music?

v

I can…and I don’t class myself as particularly musical. You should definitely encourage her to pursue her music if it’s something she loves though.

You own a piano (I’d love to have the room and money) and yet think it’s unusual to be able to pick out a melody on it?! Aren’t people doing that all the time?! I remember as a child every time we went to a great aunt’s house people picked stuff out on her piano and we weren’t especially musical.

I do think some people are more musical than others. I started at three or four and was always making up little tunes on the piano etc so I must have enjoyed it. From quite young I could by play the melody with the right hand and also put simple chords to it in the left.

I’ve also got perfect pitch which helps as I hear the note in my mind and then immediately know which note it is.

If you play me a hymn or pop song now it won’t take me long and I can reproduce it largely on the piano. Probably won’t get some of the more nuanced chords-inversions-7s etc but will get the basic chord progression right enough.

i don’t think you’re born with perfect pitch I think you develop it if someone happens to teach you the names of sounds (ie notes) when you’re 3 or 4 - in the period of major language acquisition.

This isn’t unusual

Why is she 'drifting' everywhere?

Misses point of post

Hi OP, I think it it’s reasonably unusual. We’re quite musical in my family ( all play instruments and read music) but only DS can hear a tune once and play it note perfect on piano/brass. He can pick up an instrument and just play it. He can transpose at sight, harmonise instantly. He has perfect pitch, which I think is what enables him to do this, it’s certainly not something he has acquired through practice! Perhaps your DD is the same, it sounds like it.

I think whether you can do this sort of thing probably depends on your early childhood experiences. My mother is a pianist so I was exposed to constant playing, starting in the womb, and then started an instrument at a very young age. I can ‘see’ intervals between notes when I hear music (difficult to describe but it’s like a visual thing that flashes through my mind), and then I can play it without any particular mental effort. It makes memorising music easier too because I know what it ‘looks’ like.

I’d say most of the people I know who play an instrument can do this to some extent. My instrumental teacher couldn’t do it at all without written music and developed a real interest in why some people could, he’d get all his students to try and then ask them about it. His conclusion was that it was something to do with lots of exposure to music very early in life, but that’s just our best guess really from anecdata.

I teach whole-class music in a primary school and have spent ages trying to find the most effective methods. I use techniques that require children to sing the same intervals again and again using songs and games, starting very young. Most of the kids I teach can notate a simple melody that I sing to them and could play it back on a xylophone after a few listens by age 7 or so, some a bit younger. So I think it’s something that most people can do if they have the right musical building blocks in place, if you see what I mean.

E.g. she might play a song from the radio, but is she playing it in the correct key.

It’s rare if she can hear a note and name it, and play it instantly. Playing by ear with relative pitch is something most people can do if they’re musical.

To me it’s unusual because I don’t have a musical ear and I’d never be able to do this.

She has a lovely musical talent whether it’s unusual or not. I suppose as a few PP can do this then from my POV it’s a great talent to have

If she’s worked out the chords rather than just the top line tune then yes, I’d say that was pretty impressive!

I think she's brill for being able to do this. Regardless of music lessons or what she plays. My DD can do it too and I am always amazed by her as its something I can't do because I am absolutely tone deaf.

In terms of unusual, I don't think so as there's a fair few who can do it but I think they're brill too.

just picked up DS‘s toy piano to check and can confirm that yes, I can fairly easily pick out ‘killing me softly’ and DH now thinks I’m completely mental, leaping up in the middle of ‘Reacher’ to play a child’s keyboard….

I think it’s quite special to be able to do this.

I can read music and did several grades of piano. I couldn’t do this at all. I can only play pop songs etc with the sheet music.

Playing a tune by ear is straightforward if you already play an instrument. And it’s particularly easy on the piano as the notes are sequential, even if you don’t actually play the piano. Killing me Softly is pretty easy as it’s in Em so there’s only one black note to figure out (there’s also a nice Picardy third at the end of the chorus but that’s only in the harmony, not the top line melody).

So yes, it’s nice and shows she’s using her ear which is great and something that all musicians should do.

She would need to have some degree of musicality to be able to do that but not necessarily a great deal. Nothing remarkable.

I only know one person who can do that, my mother in law who is in her 80’s! Her parents were musical and took her round all the working men’s clubs a child doing various musical turns. She can read music but she doesn’t really need it, if you hum it she can literally play it. The kids have had her playing music from Trolls and K-pop and all sorts and she plays the piano and they sing. I’ve videoed her doing it as it’s really cool to watch!

She does sound musical OP, but not unusually so.

All of our family can do this, including the dc, and one of them has been doing it regularly from about 5 or 6, and we are not professional musicians or anything. We do have a few family who have all their "letters" in various instruments, and our dc mostly get Distinction in music exams (but a reasonably high proportion of candidates do).

So yes, a good, solid musical ability I'd say OP, but I'd expect at least two or three children in most random school classes could, and at a choir school, for instance, I'd be surprised if any of them couldn't.

My daughter did this with the Harry Potter theme tune when she was six so not very unusual. She started piano lessons about a year later and is a decent but not exceptional student (she doesn’t practice anywhere near enough). Some people just have a knack for it (I can do it too) but it doesn’t make us destined to be musicians. I am a very poor sight reader and my daughter isn’t much better. We both tend to just figure out stuff slowly and then learn by heart.

Especially since she's had instrumental training, I don't think it's unusual. You can hear when you sing whether the notes go up or down in pitch. You get a sense for how far apart they are (and if she's ever done exams, she'll have been taught tricks for hearing intervals quickly). Translating that to a keyboard you move up and down isn't that hard if you have any musical sense at all.

I can't play any instrument to any level in a proper sense, but I can use a recorder or the piano to play a tune by ear within a minute or two.

I can’t read music but can pick out a tune on a piano one handed. People are always impressed but actually I don’t think I’m that musical at all!

to me it’s obvious which note is next in the sequence- but if I tried to learn piano I know I wouldn’t get very far at all! I was the same with clarinet as a kid. Could play anything by ear but failed the actual exams and was useless really.

We have no music in our family except for me - I am a very high top soprano (think opera) and my oldest son is going into year 8. I do sing at home, but pop musik and silly made up stuff not properly like I do in choir or for musical theatre.
Suddenly we have been told by his music teacher that he is doing stuff with music that her top set year 10s can’t do, she desperately wants him moved into top set, but they don’t have sets in music until year 9. We are having meetings in the new school year to see if he can go into year 10 music classes as that might be the solution.
I honestly think it’s more common than it seems and that maybe everyone has some magical hidden musical talent, it just takes someone or something to unlock it!! It’s such a human thing to do, I think it’s incredible!

I’m the same @sakura06. I’m a competent sight reader but struggle to play by ear. I struggle to remember how to play anything without the prompt of the music. With the help of YouTube, I did start to train myself to play by ear during lockdown, and got a little way (I’ve always understood chords and chord progressions, which helps) picking out a few songs I liked but I’ve forgotten them now. My husband can’t read music but can play anything on the guitar. He’s much more instinctively musical. I’ve been taught some skills and can apply them but I’m not naturally musical. I can barely carry a tune.