Have you ever been to a musical performance and the artist or group did not play their hit song the way you heard it on the album?  It can be a disappointing experience.  Your ears were expecting to ear the song in a certain way.  The good news is, this musical memory can serve us well when trying to determine the original key in which our favorite songs were recorded, which in turn, gives us a leg up when trying to play along with the song.

I was out on a bike ride the other day and the song Should I Stay Or Should I Go by the The Clashcame into my head.  It got me thinking about the original key the song was recorded in, and if the song was actually playing back in my head in that original key.  I couldn’t wait to get home and see if indeed I was hearing it back correctly.Before listening to the recording I simply hummed the song in my head and tried to find the first chord on my ukulele.  Once I determined I was hearing the key of D, the famous I-IV-I progression of the opening riff became quite apparent.

So the moral of the story is, trust your brain!  It remembers every song you’ve ever heard, and the original key it was recorded in.