Flashback!

I love my iPOD, just love that little gadget and take it everywhere.  

A friend at work gave me a bunch of old music to put on my little ipod, and I put it all on without thinking much about it.  Walking this morning and Steeleye Span singing "All Around My Hat" came on.  Haven't heard that in YEARS!  Took me back to college, dancing with friends, crazy days, seems now that I was very carefree altho' it didn't seem so at the time. 

Wow.  Maddy Prior's voice - I remember now the sweetness and purity and vibrato that she had. And Sandy Denny's voice. And other strong voiced women in the '70's.  

Man...

Since I'm reminiscing - was anyone here.  I wasn't  (WAYYY too young) but Tony was - with the Hogg Farm as the "Please Force". Yeah...right.  The stories that he tells are amazing.  

I wouldn't go back, but there are just certain things that I still think about....

Perfect Pitch

I'm getting better at knowing this computer, but still not perfect yet.  I wanted to download a video here, but just can't get it to work.  It is a video of a perfect Tuesday night in New Hampshire, at a high school band concert.  The music was loud, and fairly uncoordinated, the gym was decorated with American flags and we all sat on folding chairs watching the kids perform.  The very loud "WAAHHH" of the various wind instruments when they start playing, the loud drums, the serious faces - there is nothing like it - I smiled till I laughed and cried. 

But something occurred to me as I listened to the music, without even thinking about it, I know exactly which notes are slightly flat, or sharp - when the tempo is slightly off, and when the drums don't come in at exactly the right time.  It's something that I take for granted, this perfect pitch - and I began to wonder if, like learning to see colors, this is something that one can enhance and teach your brain to learn.  Has anyone out there ever tried?  I'd be interested in your opinions. 

It's interesting to me that I yearn to see colors like others who can see red, green, yellow, blue, pink in what I consider to be a grey tree.  Yes, I am slowly teaching my brain that there are other colors in that grey - but I never had to teach my ears to hear.  Is it genetic?  Was I so exposed to music at a young age that my brain "learned" pitch and tone so perfectly? 

I never thought twice about this gift - because it was always there.  I'm planning to enjoy it a bit more now. 

(That ear looks like a cup handle!!)