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

[IffWhite]

Is this unusual? DD is 15 and just this evening we were vaguely singing 2 songs - Killing Me Softly and the sea shanty Hoist The Colours. She drifts over to the (out of tune) piano and manages to work out the notes almost immediately, plays it, tinkers about with it, then drifts away again.
She has always been musical, and we were told this a lot when she was very little - by ballet teacher and other adults who heard her sing.
She does singing and an instrument, but she doesn't think its unusual - can lots of people do this sort of note thing by ear?
(She has never learnt piano, btw)

It's not that unusual... but please get your piano tuned! It's not helping her at all to hear an out of tune instrument.

I can’t read music but have a musical ear when playing guitar, as do my children. although I think it’s quite common in musical people, playing an instrument is a gift in itself!

I couldn’t sing of my life depended on it 😂

But I can do this! I’m quite logical though and can see pattern so intent wondering it’s linked to that rather than a musical talent.

You'd be surprised how often even people with perfect pitch can't sing. Just because you know the note doesn't mean you can put your voice there at will; it just means you know when it's wrong! And of course even very musical people can have voices that just aren't pleasantly toned. I know a lot of musicians who absolutely won't sing.

Totally common for anyone with any musical ability but it’s a great skill to have.

I was going to say it was unusual until you said she had singing lessons. She’s learned to pick out notes using her voice as an instrument and then translating that to the keys on the piano is the easy part. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have musical talent, just that she doesn’t have a particularly unusual musical talent.

Having a good ear means you can hear a wider range of sounds than some other people. Couple that with musical ability, practice and training and it can be a good skill.

It sounds like she's musical and that's great. It should definitely be encouraged but unfortunately it's not really the sort of thing that's easy to make much money out of. The music industry in general is very tough.

No one makes music to make money out of it. If that happens it's a nice bonus, but for the vast majority of musicians it is a hobby or, at best, a side job.

Yeah that's true.

My ds could do this when he was a toddler,I remember him replaying parts of his cd and copying it on his little fisher price keyboard over and over again until he got it note perfect.

He outgrew it as his communication improved (( he's Autistic )) he used to have music therapy sessions with his little nursery group and the guy who ran the session had picked up on his unusual ability to pick up perfect rhythm on drums etc.