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Thursday, July 7, 2011

We'll all rejoice and sing a song

About two nights ago, I became mysteriously ill with some strange stomach bug; I felt like the contents of said stomach would surrender themselves to the toilet bowl, but for whatever reason, it never came. Don't you hate that? I mean, it's bad enough to feel like you're going to die, but at least when you throw up, you feel about eight jillion times better.

Anyway, as I sat on the floor of the bathroom, I entertained myself by trying to figure out where middle C was and to memorize it. It so happened that I knew a song in the key of C that started with C, so it was pretty easy to find. I was incredibly pleased with myself for figuring it out, since I could add C to my list of...(now) two notes that I've memorized. I've also memorized A.

The reason I was able to do this is that I have good pitch memory, meaning that if I hear a song enough times, I "memorize" what it sounds like and I know which key it's in by ear. (I hope that makes sense. This isn't to say that I can exclaim, "Oh, that's in A minor!" when I hear a random song...unless I happen to know that the song is in A minor somehow). This strange gift is great for singing a cappella. It's also awful for listening to people a cappella, because I know when they're singing it in the wrong key.

So my life goal now is to train myself to have perfect pitch, if that's the correct technical term for it. I feel like it would be great to expand my weird talent even further, don't you?

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