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In high school I got rather adept at memorizing our marching band music. By my senior year I could play a song once or twice, and not have to look at it again f
by asciimov 4y ago
In high school I got rather adept at memorizing our marching band music. By my senior year I could play a song once or twice, and not have to look at it again for the rest of the semester.
While this kind of skill is nice to have, there is a curse to this kind of musical ability. I often find myself humming songs or fragments that I cannot place. Worse you cant just hum or whistle the tune into some app and have it tell you the song. And it's maddening when you know you don't have it quite right.
For example, for years I had a reoccurring little tune stuck in my head. I had nothing to go on other than a couple of bars of the song that repeated. One day I finally(!) figured it out when I got out an old copy of NES Mega Man, and selected Cutmans stage. The cutman theme had been stuck in my head for years, and it was quite the relief to know what the song was.
- pulvinar 4y ago>Worse you cant just hum or whistle the tune into some app and have it tell you the song. I've had reasonable luck with folktunefinder, not for humming, but for tapping in a snippet as notes or a rhythm.
- tiagod 4y agoGoogle lens audio search works pretty well for humming, not so much for whistling
- mixmastamyk 4y agoNo doubt when corporate vultures arrived for their cut.
- nicoburns 4y agoThe article says McCartney had a similar problem with a song, and only found out which song it was when he recorded and released his own version!
- dualboot 4y agoSame, but it started in middle school for me. I could only read a piece of music once.
- squarefoot 4y agoIt took me over 40 years to listen again and immediately recognize a catchy tune I had in my head since I was like 14 or 15. It was "Do I kill you" by Les Humphries Singers, btw.