BeatriceR

Exposure matters, too. Today’s friction-free music distribution means you can binge fifty versions of “Body and Soul” in one afternoon; that repetition wires the progression into muscle memory even if you’ve never cracked a theory book. Add a naturally attentive ear and you get someone like Ms. TTK, who hears the changes first and the melody second. So yes, the ability exists on a spectrum, but it’s more common than you might think among jazz devotees who’ve spent years marinating in the standards canon—trained or not.

I’m a pianist too, but my tunes almost never start at the keys. Like you, the ideas pop up while I’m walking the dog, stuck in line at the grocery store, or half-awake at 3 a.m. I’ve learned to treat my phone like a butterfly net: the second I hear something in my head, I hum it into a voice-note app before it flutters away. Later, when I’m back at the piano or in a DAW, I flesh out the harmony, tweak the groove, and build the arrangement Instrument by instrument.

I know it's an old thread, but this is streaming era in a nutshell. Physical media has become niche, while platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube give you on-demand access to tens of millions of tracks.