Stupid Genius Moments

[Deleted]

I'll explain what I mean by the title. On Friday at school, during band class, the teacher was teaching us about how we should be able to know what a note is for our instrument just by hearing it. She made a game where she plays a piano note with a certain program on her computer (probably a virtual piano) and we had to match the note on our instrument. She challenged someone who played piano (a girl who was really good at it) to locate the key (or note) on the piano in the class, and she could only get one out of the ten. She encouraged others to try, so I did.

I was able to ether find the exact key, or the key next to it on a piano for every note. My teacher was impressed when she heard the same sound played back so she asked me what note it was, I said "uhh I dunno, its the middle black key." And she asked if I knew piano, I told her I didn't, and she made me out to be some musical genius but I honestly though it was just a matter of knowing what each key sounds like. I'm pretty sure its not something to brag about but it was to my class. I felt dumb for not knowing the letters though, even when the rest of the class did.

After class she told me a trick to knowing each note and something about only 12 notes on a whole piano, when I thought each key was a different note. Wow. The whole moment made me feel like a moron and a genius at the same time.

Give us some insight on a moment in your life where something like this happened. I don't want this to just be a thread about me

 

[Samuel Cook]

There's many people can match notes without having a clue what they're playing. You're either born with it, or you have to work really hard to get good at it. You're lucky you were born with it, it makes learning new songs so much easier.

 

[Deleted]

There's many people can match notes without having a clue what they're playing. You're either born with it, or you have to work really hard to get good at it. You're lucky you were born with it, it makes learning new songs so much easier.

I never understood why every key is higher when you go from left to right, but when you press all the keys in the same spot in each "group" of 3 black keys, they're neither higher nor lower, yet they sound different. Agh, its hard to explain, but they sound the same and different at the same time.

Someday I'll learn piano though, I hear its popular with the ladies. Or is that guitar?

 

[jasoncyrus]

Playing by ear is a great talent to have. It's the building blocks of being a musical genius. It's like artists doing awesome doodles and sketches before they learn the proper principles of art to create masterpieces.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I play almost entirely by ear (guitar), and I can pick a chord out on my first go 60-70% of the time. I change tunings frequently, it'd be a lot higher otherwise. for complicated fast parts I just play it back slowly in my head, and translate the slow riff to guitar, then speed it up. Works most of the time! If you asked me what a note was called after the first 2 strings though, and I'd look rather foolish. I don't know any scales either.

 

[Karlaxx]

There's many people can match notes without having a clue what they're playing. You're either born with it, or you have to work really hard to get good at it. You're lucky you were born with it, it makes learning new songs so much easier.

I never understood why every key is higher when you go from left to right, but when you press all the keys in the same spot in each "group" of 3 black keys, they're neither higher nor lower, yet they sound different. Agh, its hard to explain, but they sound the same and different at the same time.

Someday I'll learn piano though, I hear its popular with the ladies. Or is that guitar?

I don't know piano too well either, but on guitar if you play the same note in different spots it sounds different because of the nature of the string, so it probably goes the same for the piano. If you're in band, you probably know what an octave is, otherwise I'd say it was that.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I don't know piano too well either, but on guitar if you play the same note in different spots it sounds different because of the nature of the string, so it probably goes the same for the piano. If you're in band, you probably know what an octave is, otherwise I'd say it was that.

Also, the mind is great at "filling in the blanks" so to speak, say if you play a power chord, yet leave out the root note, it'd sound almost identical to most people.

 

[Deleted]

I don't know piano too well either, but on guitar if you play the same note in different spots it sounds different because of the nature of the string, so it probably goes the same for the piano. If you're in band, you probably know what an octave is, otherwise I'd say it was that.

You'd think I'd know what it is but I learned it waaaay after the rest of the class. I chose trombone because it doesn't really play 12 'notes it can play the whole spectrum, even that C flat people tell me doesn't exist, I see notes like a rainbow so there's has to be an orange if C is yellow and B is red! Anyways the trombone is the instrument for anyone who doesn't want to memorize stupid finger positions which is why I chose it. But I will learn the piano.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

*Snip*

You probably have absolute pitch or something. That would definitely be a cool skill to develop.

Unless you actually "see" the notes like a rainbow, in which case you'd be synaesthetic, which is even cooler.

 

[benylor]

C flat is called B, actually. The difference between B and B flat is the same as the distance between C and B.

 

[Deleted]

*Snip*

You probably have absolute pitch or something. That would definitely be a cool skill to develop.

Unless you actually "see" the notes like a rainbow, in which case you'd be synaesthetic, which is even cooler.

I know what perfect pitch is but what the hell is synaesthetic? If its cool then whatever that's fine I guess.

It seems not enough people contributed stories of their own and have turned this into a "Look at Douk hes awesome" thread

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

I once perfectly explained why the sky was blue and clouds were light, and I mean all science sunding and such. The exact moment I finished explaining it I had forgotten what I said.

That the kinda stuff you asking about? Because the whole time I was explaining I thought I was making it up.

 

[UAProxy]

I began music lessons when I was 13, with a violin. Three years later in a high school orchestra class, I called out with surprise while looking over some sheet music.

"What is it?" My teacher asked, seeing as shouting is not something I usually do.

"I understand sheet music now!" I replied.

"Wait, you couldn't read music before?"

"No, why?"

"How have you been playing along, then?"

"You played a section, I figured out where to put my fingers to make the same sound."

"So you didn't know any scales or notes?"

"Not at all."

And that was the day I realized I had a latent talent for music. Glad to see I'm not alone, at least.

 

[tomtom94]

*Snip*

You probably have absolute pitch or something. That would definitely be a cool skill to develop.

Unless you actually "see" the notes like a rainbow, in which case you'd be synaesthetic, which is even cooler.

I know what perfect pitch is but what the hell is synaesthetic? If its cool then whatever that's fine I guess.

It seems not enough people contributed stories of their own and have turned this into a "Look at Douk hes awesome" thread

Synaesthesia (sp?) is a rare brain condition which means you see sounds as colours, if that makes any sense. It makes it really easy to remember stuff you've "heard", but is obviously a bit weird.

OT: I often feel like a moron and a genius at the same time, usually after my latest bluffing my way through fixing my mum's computer.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

You are a luck bastard. It took me years to be able to replay stuff back like that.

Apparently, I am "incredible" because I picked up a ukellele and pretty quicky started playing some Iron Maiden stuff on it. You would have thought I'd be able to do that pretty easily, as I've been playing the guitar for many a year.

 

[Deleted]

You are a luck bastard. It took me years to be able to replay stuff back like that.

Apparently, I am "incredible" because I picked up a ukellele and pretty quicky started playing some Iron Maiden stuff on it. You would have thought I'd be able to do that pretty easily, as I've been playing the guitar for many a year.

Haha in the future what I plan to do is pretend to never have seen an instrument before, study it for a few minutes, and play a full song on it. That will surely impress people.

 

[Klepa]

Haha in the future what I plan to do is pretend to never have seen an instrument before, study it for a few minutes, and play a full song on it. That will surely impress people.

I've done this actually, it's hilarious. It was with my army buddies, I never mentioned that I played guitar. When we went to one guy's flat, he had a guitar lying around, and he played around with it for a bit. He started "teaching" me a few riffs, without asking if I can play or not. The show went on for about five minutes, until he realized that most intoxicated people aren't able to play Master of Puppets "By ear", if they've never touched a guitar before.

As for Stupid Genious moments.. I can't say I've had any. I've known to pick new things up quite fast, but I usually get stuck in that entry level stage.

 

[Deleted]

I feel I need to revive this thread and give it a second chance. There's this guy at my school who is insanely good at batting baseballs. He could do ten home runners in a row since he's buff. He said he got so good at hitting the ball from his dad ,who taught him his whole life. The teacher was so impressed he was inspired to do next gym class outside so we could play softball.

That gym class we were playing softball for the first time and the dude didn't know how to play the game! Everyone was shocked to see him repeatedly ask "why is he running? Why did he stop?" And it was funny seeing him run all around even if someone caught his ball. But still he hit a mean ball.