Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Musical Memory

I've been curious about my sons music ability for a few years and wonder what it means giftedness wise. I also wonder and would like to hear if your kids have this, or similar music.... i don't know what to call it, music memory I guess? Here are a couple examples I can remember though there have been many.
I remember my DS watching the first Superman movie with DH and I one night when he was 3. He had never seen it before or had ever heard of Superman. He watched it all with us and really enjoyed it. The next morning when he woke, I said "Did you like bum pa dum bum...and I started singing what I thought was the superman theme..but I had a brain fart and was singing the Indiana Jones theme mistakenly. DS said " No mom it's ...bum pa dum..and he went on to sing the whole theme having never heard it other than the night before in the movie. I was amazed.
OK...so nowadays, (DS is 5 now) he like knows the background music in parts of movies and even TV episodes he has only seen once or twice. HE gets upset with me and says
"Hey mom, do you remember on Avatar episode, at this part..(and he has the names of the episodes memorized somehow but that's another story)..then he hums or budumpa's the background music from the episode at that point and then looks at me. I say
"um no I"m sorry but I don't remember that, I don't remember the episode names or the background songs, I don't really notice the background music on tv shows or movies." HE gets upset like WHAT? or course you know!
I Do watch his shows with him sometimes when I like them, but I just think it's wild that he does that. He often will sing background music from tv shows or movies he's seen and remember tunes he has only heard once.
Do your kids do this? Does anyone know what this ability is? Is it a math thing or...I don't know .let me know what you all think...or share similar stories....

It is uncanny that you wrote this today because I was wondering the same thing at breakfast! DD7 was singing AC/DC Rock N Roll Train.. the whole thing. She heard it in the car on the way home from school with her dad yesterday. Apparently, it was the first time she had ever heard it. DH was impressed because she had the melody 100% correct, too. I find her to be better remembering melodies than words, in most cases. Although some of the words she 'remembers' are friggin' hysterical. When she was 4 she used to love to sing Silent Night and my favourite part was 'round up your virgins'.

I don't know if her musical memory has anything to do with being gifted or because both DH and I are very musical ourselves. It is helpful when she practices piano because she memorizes the music and never looks at the page (arrg!). At least she remembers what the songs is supposed to sound like so she can tell when she is making mistakes.

Ok - that totally made my day!
Yup - our family is gifted 'that way' too! DH has perfect pitch and gets a headache if he tries to watch 'Glee.' He would also perfer to only listen to a song about once every 4 months - no matter how much he likes it!
DS could sing in melody much much earlier than the other kids in his preschool, and refers to himself as 'Mom and Dad's little experiment' because whenever a 'classic rock' song come on the radio, DH makes DS try and identify the artist. He's quite good at it.
DS learned how to whistle at age 9, and whistled without stop, except for sleeping and eating, for an entire year. He says that he always has a song in his head, although it's easier to block it out and consentrate at times. When I'm feeling resentful towards DH, I can 'get' him by humming a bubble gum pop song - usually it will get stuck in DH's head and he won't be able to get it out for several hours. ((yeah - don't cross me!))

When Ds was 9 and whistling, I complained about it to a co-worker. She started to giggle. Apparently I sing and hum all day long. And not just one or two favorites - I have thousands of them up there! I tease my son that when I was a teenager I had a virtual ipod, because I would consiously 'tune out' my family by listening to songs I could hear in my head, one after the next. Strangers have stopped me and said: "It's so nice to hear someone humming so cheerfully!"

Ironically sometimes it when I am at my most overstimulated, and I'm humming to get some relief. In my 20 this was very puzzling.

My mom and I used to bother my little brother by starting to sing a song that used whatever word he had just used. We could have gone on and on. My grandmother remembers her little brother complaining to their mom: 'Make her stop singing and dancing near me!'

Clearly not every gifted person is musically gifted, but my family is. When my mom passed away, my dad told the story of the first time they met. He was so impressed that she knew all of the words to all his favorite songs.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Oh my gosh... the whistling!!!! DD learned to whistle when she was 5 and she drove us INSANE. Impressive that she could whistle any tune, but holy moly she never stopped.

DH is a music buff and prides himself on his music trivia knowledge. He often sits the kids down to watch concert DVDs with him and teach them all sorts of things that no one would think to teach a kid. DD particulary loves Motorhead and considers Peter Frampton to be a guitar god.

It may also have to do with the way he learns/observes things. My DH really hears all the background music on movies. Me, it could be completely silent the entire time and I would never notice! LOL

My DD is very musically inclined. Not so much instruments at this point because she is only 3.5 but she has always had rhythm, even in the womb. True story. My DH would wait for me to fall asleep and play with her and one night I awoke to feel him tapping on my tummy and then I felt her tap back the beat. He would tap 3 ... she would tap back the same way. I laid there for a little while to make sure I wasn't imagining it and then freaked out. He just laughed and let me in on their secret. They had been playing that game for weeks.

Then when she was around 18 months she was in her daddy's office and made a bee line for all his guitars and strummed them impressing even him. Up and down the neck her fingers would go. That one I have on video!

But in reference to music, she always recognizes songs that she has only heard once and has an amazing memory for the verse. She is also in love with classic rock.

The other night she was cracking us up at a restaurant when she decided to sing at the top of her lungs "Oh My Darling, Clementine" over and over. Finally, I suggested she come up with another song to sing. This excited her and off she went into her own creation about a frog and a butterfly which was pretty impressive but eventually it too was to the tune of Oh My Darling, Clementine. :P Then later on she decided to sing her new song again and did ... exactly the same words as she came up with 20 minutes before.

I really think this talent falls under the category of memorization of books. DD has always had the ability to memorize whole books and long paragraphs after only one or two readings and the way she is able to remember songs appears to be the same.

My DS is not a great singer, but he loves all types of music. When he was younger, he would try and learn the theme songs to he favorite shows. He could get them after hearing them a few times. I realized at one point he would sing the words he knew and hum the tune when he did not know the words, adding more words each time until he had the whole song down.

We often have to sit in the driveway to hear the end of a song if it is one he likes as he sings along quietly to it (I think he knows he doesn't sing very well and so does it quietly.)

Enjoying your stories and insight...