i play piano
piano all the way
I have never actually gone to a school to learn music, but I play keyboards and a little bit of piano for 15 years now…
I am self taught!!! I just listen to what other people play and then when I get home I am able to reproduce it!!! I don’t know how this is possible!!! I just can distinguish and recognise the sounds I hear!!!
Ohhh!!! I also played the trombone with a philarmonic orchestra for a week!!! I’ ve Learned the trombone the same way.
Spyros.
you have perfect or absolute pitch. that is, if you play it in the right key. i can reproduce almost anything in c major. you see, when most people hear music their brain recognizes the intervals betweens notes, but people like you hear everything differently, you people hear the individual notes. this can be a helper or a hindrance. some people have such absolute pitch that they can’t recognize a song if it’s played on a slightly out of tune piano. mozart was able to distinguish two notes an eighth of a step apart. :o
I somewhere heard that this ability is just a kind of very good memory.
And it can be trained of course
not really. it something you can only be born with. some people with it can’t recognize as song that’s originally C when it’s played in C#
Frankly I can not tell if it’s something you get borned with or if it’s something that can be trained. But I think memory doesn’t have something to do with distinguishing sounds. Good memory, only helps me afterwards, when I’m trying to play the song back…
valarking I am not sure if I understand the difference between perfect and absolute pitch, but I can tell you I can “hear” what a specifice instrument is playing or a specific singer is singing even if they are “covered” by other instruments/singers… It’s like I can isolate different sounds in my mind… When I hear a pianist playing, I can tell what’s he is playing on the right and what on the left hand.
My only limitation is that I have never went to a school to learn piano properly… 
(I wish I had the chance… )
Spyros.
I love my Clariminet. Its a cool instrument. Even cooler than the Pianomo or the Saxamaphone.
I never went to school to learn piano either, I’m taking private lessons. I believe someone with perfect pitch, like me, can hear a middle C played and then be able to sing/hum/whistle it in key. Someone with absolute pitch can sing a middle C without any help, and can tell the difference of a fraction of a step. And last, the most common, are people with relative pitch, this comprises like 80% of the population. They hear the intervals between notes, not the actual notes.
I used to have relative pitch until I began playing, but now my pitch is about perfect. I think you only have absolute pitch at birth.
I can seperate instruments playing in an orchestra too, especially piano.
I’m pulling all of this up from (a rather rusty) memory though.
I play guitar (lead &rhythm), bass guitar, drums, a bit of keyboard, alto sax (tho its been a while since highschool) and can gennerally pick up most instruments and make decent enough sounding noise with them. 
I also was messin’ around with fruityloops for a couple of months a while back as well. Making electronic music is great fun as well, tho my roots will always be good 'ol guitar. I used to play in Heavy Metal cover bands (Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Megadeth, Sepultura etc…), but i mainly write my own music now.
Matt
Blend on, and blend well!!!
PS: Here’z 5 of my mp3’z made in fruity:
I’ve played the violin for about 12 years now:)
Wybren van Keulen
Funny Farm
Memory no doubt has a lot to do with perfect pitch, whether you realize it or not. If you see a dog, and recognize it as being a dog, you’re using your memory, matching what you see with something you’ve seen before. Same thing with recognizing notes. May be more complex than that, but memory is a big part of it.
Imp
When I took regular piano lessons, I trained to memorize the C. And I could sing it with the right pitch. Now I cannot. Personal experience
HH
Lead trumpet player in band from Grade 7 to Gr. 12, (Senior year for my American friends ).
I also play a little bit of guitar and I can play the drums very well, IMO anyway. I used to sing in choir, chamber choir and jazz group in high school as well.
I also used to be the singer in a metal band a few years ago and we made a demo tape. We got played on some local college stations here, but that was as far as that went.
BgDM
I played guitar for 2 years (1987 to 1989). I was taking classes in school (7 to 8th grade) Classes were on Fridays. Every friday this dude will call me across the street. Like an idiot I will go. Then He will ask “are you a Geek” I will say “no” then he will ask “Why are you carrying a guitar”. I said nothing. He will then pick me up slam me on the ground and start punching me. Years later we met as adults and he refered to me as the “Crazy kid who will take a beating instead of just walking away”. I look at it as “Its pretty damn hard to run with a guitar and bookbag and be chubby”
Guitar players are geeks??
Hey ZZ Top you’er a buncha GEEKS!
Yeah you too Jimmy Ray Vonn!!
Hendrix! You big geek! Carry’n that guitar around all the time!
So what this guy never listned to Rock?!
Hey listen I can relate man! I played trombone in school 
I think he just wanted to beat me up. I look the part I guess, Catholic school boy, tie, blue shirt pants, guitar on back along with bookbag, glasses, Chubby, shirt halfway out of pants, running nose, unkept hair. I guess the guitar just stood out.
Later on I took up Turntable lessons started House/Club DJ’ng. Had alot of fun doing that until hearing started to fade. Now I got to crank up the TV set to hear it.
Those guy’s actions speak for them selves.
Dj huh? neat!
So how do they do that mixing thing where one song blends perfectly into the next?
easy to match up songs, just match the drum beat up using the pitch control. Hard thing is knowing which songs can go with each other. So you develope bread and butter, get you out of trouble mixes. A cheat way is to count the beat (drum) per minute and write it on the record label. So if you got one record with 117 beats per minute and one with 120 beats per minute. You will have you pitch set to zero on both turntables (well you hope) you will either move the faster record pitch down -3 or move the slower one up +3, make sure you drop the record on beat, do your beat count thing 8 count or 4 count, tap your feet or bob you head or jump up and down to keep on beat. Know the breaks in the song, deal with echos from bad club settings, watch out for the women, don’t drink too much, and put long songs on so you can use the bathroom.
Cool! I’ve been wondering how they do that for a long time now!