The MOST Important Musical Skill

Does anybody dream about listening to a popular band's tune or attending a gig of your favourite band, then you wake up and realize that song doesn't really exist but your mind just imagined and created it from scratch associating it with that band, vocals and arrangements included? (Then have a hard time remembering it when you want to write all that down even though it sounded crystal clear and awesome in your dream).

My favorite part of this is your kids singing these tunes and getting them all in the right key off the top of their heads.

For people who take this to heart and want to then transfer it to your fingers for whatever instrument. here are some exercises I've been doing at home: 1. Play a chord and put it on some kind of repeat, so you have something to play on top of 2. Start from the root note, and sing a 3 to 4 note melody. Then play the exact melody on the instrument. 3. If you want to hit some certain notes but the notes aren't coming to you mentally, try playing a little riff and then sing it back to yourself, and then play it again. Another exercise: 1. Key agnostically just sing the first 2 bars of a popular tune. 2. Try to play it on the instrument. 3. Continue the song. I've been trying to do this about 15 to 30 minutes a day (to an hour if I'm having too much fun), and my ability to find the "right" notes has gone up quite a bit. My ability to also mentally think up new licks and then play them as intended is also going up slowly.

This is why Beethoven is immortal. He composed some of the most amazing pieces in history WHILE HE WAS DEAF.

Taking a cue from Rick Beato, my first child's name will be BucketHead.

Rick says "It's not perfect pitch. It's not relative pitch. It's the ability to take a sound from your mind and make it louder." That's heavy, man! AND, that is exactly the same advice I receive from my Vocal Teacher. She says that our ability to sing ANYTHING comes from this skill.

Why elementary music education is so damn important!

Rick has got to be the coolest dad out there! How lucky are his kids to have him and be able to grow up with him and learn from his vast wealth of knowledge!

I could sit here and listen to Rick’s kids sing melodies all day.

I’m a musician and always assumed everyone could do this . Amazing stuff Rick, this why I love and value your channel.

In answering deadstar44 below, I woke up in the middle of a dream and I was singing the notes to a song I'd never heard, or thought I'd never heard, coming out of my mouth. I remembered the verse melody and part of the transition to the chorus. I kept humming to myself all day, gradually it faded from direct memory. About 6 months later I was walking by a house on a street where I live, when out of an open window I heard that tune. I am not shy when it comes to something that has been driving me crazy. So I knocked on the door where the music was coming from an attractive lady a little older that I was, this is probably 20 years ago I'm 68 now, answered the door. I apologized and told her the story and finally I asked for the name of the song. She said that is Billy Joel, and the name of the song is, "And So It Goes" from his 'Live' album in Russia. Now while I am a fan Billy Joel's early stuff I had not listened to anything past his first double album of greatest hits. So now I had I heard this before in a situation where it would have been passive listening, like walking through a mall, or had I heard it and just forgot, to this day I do not know. So to end this, I think the music you listen to can trigger some sort of ability to have an idea for a song, or whatever you find interesting. I've read where engineers will have ideas come to them in sleep mode so why not music. By the way that Billy Joel remains one of my favorites, and if I'm wandering by an idle piano anywhere devoid of humans I'll sit down and play and sing it. I've been 'caught' a few times and got a few "that was nice" comments. Sorry about the ramble, but my Mom said I started talking at 14 mos. and I haven't stopped since.

Absolutely. Ear training is more about translating the head sound on your instrument. A lot of people can sing it but not put it on their instrument. So there's nothing wrong with the ears. It's just the mapping of the note on instrument. Great video to demonstrate this. :)

As a young kid I believed that we had record players inside our heads and that we can listen to any song we know just by playing that record on the turntable in our head. I have been told that I could whistle recognizable tunes before I could speak, which apparently my mum found very embarrassing. I was regarded as being a weird child.

Dylan's growing up to be such a rockstar. Love it! ...Very important concept as well.

Dylan and Layla. .. yeah, you're a musician! Great video, thanks for sharing your insights!

This is how I was always able to learn songs on bass. If I heard it in my head I could play it.

The most important musical skill is the hair.

Adam Neely has talked about audiation before as well. I've always done this in my head, and always assumed everyone else does, too. Translating it to my instrument is a bit harder, though.

Absolutely Rick! To audiate and intonate is crucial to being able to play/sing what we want. That is what my whole piano course is all about. I used to teach how I learned; by brute force of memorizing and playing over and over, and focusing on reading notes. Focusing on HEARING the music is ABSOLUTELY the MOST IMPORTANT skill! Thank you for this!!!

Exactly!!! There have been times in my life when I had no access to music and out of desperation, would go through a whole song in my head, including the parts with no words, or instrumentals; or when I'm trying to think of a song/name of a song I have to sing the parts I remember until my mind/memory catches the rest of the song, and THEN it all comes back to me. 😀