AC #50 Musical talent: Do you have it? Here is a way to tell!

Here’s how you can tell if you, your child, or someone you know has a talent for music.

One of the oldest and surest ways to tell is to notice if an ability to pick out melodies by ear on the piano, whole or in part, is present. People of any age who can play and reproduce melodies on the piano, on their own, without having any music lessons, have a natural talent for music.

On one hand, there are many children who’ve demonstrated this ability at ages as young as two and three and discovering this talent at such early ages gives children a chance to get an early start on their musical journey.

On the other hand, there are many people who’ve gotten started a little later or a lot later and many of this group have often discovered they, too, have this natural ability to pick out melodies and even more.

Keep in mind that as melodies are being picked out, perfection is not required because flawless execution is not the decisive factor in determining whether or not a talent for music is present. As long as songs can at least be half-way recognized, talent is present and lessons are in order! If you can even partially pick out any of the melodies below, I’m interested in working with ya.

However, even if you feel you don’t have this ability because all of the melodies you pick out are not even remotely recognizable, don’t despair because if you like music and music speaks to your soul, chances are your talent is hidden within you and needs to be uncovered and developed. This ability can be learned through “ear training” and practice.

Picking out melodies may be described as the ability to find a starting source pitch by ear, reproduce it on the piano, and then match the intervalic movements of each subsequent melody note in relationship to the last or previous note that was played and correctly identified. Simply put, it’s a kinda “what-is-this-note-and-where-did-it-go-from-here” exercise and your success at picking out melodies depends your skill at distinguishing half steps from whole steps.

As a follow-up to post AC #49, here are ten melodies on which you can practice and sharpen your picking-out-melody skills. Each song, with its multiple courses, repeats three times.

This activity works best if you use a piano, a keyboard, or some other real-world instrument, but If you aren’t near one, try using this onscreen piano keyboard just for fun to play along.

The levels of difficulty range from fairly easy to a bit arduous. Try a few! See how you do!

AC-50-Song-1 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-2 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-3 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-4 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-5 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-6 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-7 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-8 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

A short revisit post on “block chords” is coming soon, so here’s a song with a “blocked melody” .