I did it again!

[Oeditpus Rex]

I'm watching a "M*A*S*H" rerun — the one where Burns auctions off the garbage — and Hawkeye's fooling around in the Swamp with a nurse when Radar calls him into post-op. He tells the nurse, "I'll be back before you can whistle 'Carmen,'" and just before she starts whistling, I do it... in the same key as her.

I do this all the time. Theme songs, CDs, whatever. If I know what's coming, I nail the key within one note either way. :shrug:

Anyone know if there's a term for this?

[MissHoneychurch]

1. too much time on hands?

or just junking your brain with useless information?

Ok, knowing the songs of Carmen isn't an useless information .... :)

[Jamastiene]

2. You might have perfect pitch.

If you can (without a reference note) nail tunes like that in the same key. Wow, that's a true gift.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. I don't think that's it

Because I can't hear an E in my head or whatever.

Well, wait. I can — or at least I think it's an E — but it feels more like a memory thing than a "know" thing.

:shrug:

[Jamastiene]

8. Do you have any formal or informal music training?

In other words, do you know how to play an E on any instruments?

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. Yup

Formal: Piano lessons for a couple years when I was a young'un.

Other: Taught myself guitar when I was 19.

On edit: And I've sung in a buncha choirs. (The voice is the original musical instrument.)

[Jamastiene]

13. Hmm, I rhink maybe RevCheesehead has it right then.

Sounds logical, right?

[Heidi]

3. L-O-O-Z-A-H?

:rofl:

Sorry. I couldn't resist. :evilgrin:

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. ...

:spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:

[Heidi]

6. OK. Accepted. I deserved it.

:rofl:

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Yeah, you laugh

But I know where you hide your accordian. :evilgrin:

[Heidi]

9. Same cabinet as the toaster. (nt)

[Liberal In Texas]

10. Basically, you have no life. Like me.

It's like when I got out of a car in west Texas near Marfa at a real old restored calvery fort, and they were playing music over the PA for the tourists. A park ranger meeting us (we were on a site survey for a TV station) greeted us, and the first thing I said pointing up at the speakers was:

GARRY OWEN.

She said, "How do you know that?"

I shrugged. Just junk in the head.

("Garry Owen" was General G. Armstrong Custer's battle song. It's an old Irish tune he adopted for the 7th Cav.)

Hear it here on midi:

http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/gowen.html

[RevCheesehead]

12. It's called "pitch recognition"

Quick - hum the tune of The Brady Bunch. Got it?
Now, "it's......." (da dum, da da da da Dum, da dum, da-da, da-da, da-Dah...)

I have it, too.
It's a blessing, and a curse.

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. That's gotta be it

I've heard that term. Didn't really know what it meant. Makes sense, though, huh?

And I can hear the Brady Bunch theme, and I know it's the right key. :eyes:

Why's it a curse? :shrug:

[RevCheesehead]

15. oh, come on....

you've never been at a party where someone starts singing, but it's in the wrong key?? :banghead:

I can also tell when songs or movies are time-compressed. The pitch goes up ever so slightly. (I also have an internal metronome.)

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Oh, gawd

Yeah... and it hurts my brain. Seriously; I have to get away.

Didn't think o' that part.

Know what else hurts my brain, musically? When the Really White People clap on the 1/3 instead of the 2/4. Y'know, Grand Ole Opry style. :spank:

[RevCheesehead]

17. yes!!!

And when they decide to clap in rhythm, and they can't help but accellerate. Like a friggin' snowball down the hill, it is. Aaaaaagh!

"Really White People" :rofl:

Once, we were singing a spiritual in church (Soon and Very Soon...). When we got done, I looked at the congregation and told them "sometimes I think we're too white for our own good."

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. ROFL!

Oh, gawd... I so would've loved to have been there. :rofl: :yourock:

One Sunday us young'uns were doin' the music, and a girl and I were doing "Put Your Hand In the Hand." When we got to the refrain I got everybody clapping, and damned if they didn't do the 1/3. I wanted to stop the song right there and tell 'em if that's all the soul they had, being in church wasn't gonna help 'em any.

To this day, when I hear people doing that I go "White people!"

[RevCheesehead]

19. It gets even better.

It was in an old, stuffy white church in North Carolina. These people had serious race issues. The day I moved in, I was unloading my car.. and one of the older guys came by and told me "I closed your trunk." when I asked him why, he said "you don't want to be leaving that open in this neighborhood." I asked him if maybe we could hire some of the locals to help me move in, since there weren't any church people there to help me.

Later, his 80-something sister made a comment about "that black family next door to you." I smiled, and said "actually, their name is Brown, and they're really nice people. It's the other neighbor, the white retired Baptist minister, who won't talk to me."

I can laugh about it now. But then? :banghead:

White people. :(

[Liberal In Texas]

20. You have perfect pitch, or relative pitch. You are the opposite of being

tone deaf.

When you hear something that is only a little out of tune, it grates.

I don't think this is what our friend is referring to. Song themes pop into his head, as they do mine, with just the slightest provocation. Annoying, sometimes, sometimes pretty good during a trivia contest.

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. I've heard of relative pitch

But I dunno what it means. :shrug:

[Liberal In Texas]

23. It means that you are not as acuate as those with perfect pitch.

If you have perfect pitch, you could tune an A string on a violin with ease by hearing the differnt phases of sound.

Relative pitch means that your pretty good at it, but not perfect, like the "perfect" people are.

It's like I have great color acuity. I can discern shades of differnt types of hues with ease. My brother, on the other hand, can't tell the stop light colors very well.

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. I suck at colors

At the last newspaper where I worked, I'd be tweaking a photo and the publisher would look at it and say "You need to take out some blue" or whatever. I can't begin to imagine how he could see that.

[Liberal In Texas]

29. Might be kind of a disability in a print or art job..

:-(:

[Oeditpus Rex]

30. Mostly, it means I shouldn't be the one

to scan photos that are gonna run in color. :silly:

I went to a Photoshop seminar once and told the guy I don't see color well. He said I'd just have to rely on the software. But I think you still need to see what you're doing.

[RevCheesehead]

22. Those are two different things.

Perfect pitch implies the ability to read music accurately, singing the notes off the page as easily as we read a book... and the notes are always accurate. These are the people I hated in Music Theory class. Sight-singing was not a challenge for them - even the atonal stuff.

Relative pitch is really the same thing as pitch recognition. For me, that means I can start the song on the right note, every time, once I have learned it.

I can start the beginning of any TV theme song, and be right on target. But if someone said "sing a G", I'm lost... unless I can remember a song that is in G.

[Oeditpus Rex]

24. I knew one guy with perfect pitch

He was our conductor in Honor Choir one year. Instead of getting our keys from the piano to start a song, he'd softly sing them: "Bass, tenor, alto, soprano." Well, the first song of the concert, he did it a bit too softly, so we had a rather tentative start. :eyes:

He also damned near killed me that night. There was one song, "Reconciliation," that was forte on the last line, which we had to hold forever. It was way out of normal bass range, so I was already straining, and he raised his hands higher. I swear to Dog, I thought my neck was gonna splode.

[RevCheesehead]

27. Conductors are known sadists.

They live to watch people turn purple. (I know, I was one of them for a couple of years)

Hey, ORex, I gotta get some sleep. There's a driveway full of snow with my name on it tomorrow.

I hope you have a wonderful and fun-filled day!
:)

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. Night, Rev

Watch out for the White People. They like to hide in snow.

:loveya:

[Liberal In Texas]

26. I disagree. Knowing pitch and being a good sight-reader are two

different things.

Having perfect or relative pitch only gives you the gift of hearing the right and wrong stuff.

It does not make you a good music reader. Take it from one who's been there.

I believe I have relative pitch. But I'm a poor musician. I can't sight see to save my life.

And the worse of it all, is that when I go to see a fav group playing live, I am so critical if they're not right on key.

[Kire]

31. sounds like the beginning to the next Charlie Kaufman movie

I'm probably just saying that because I'm watching Eternal Sunshine right now