You and music: a poll for the discerning individual.

[Rain Man]

My musical talent is thus:

Composing - I've never tried, but it would be cool to do. I could do lyrics, I think, but the music would take a lot of training. I'm in awe when I hear a complex song like Jungleland. How do you envision that in your head? Amazing. And a symphony with 50+ instruments? Mind-blowing.

Instruments - I like musical instruments and want to play. In my youth I was the first chair in my saxophone section, but I had no illusion that I was really good. I could play mechanical stuff pretty well and could play the fast stuff really well, but I couldn't really do the subtle things that make it really good.

Singing - I have an ear for music and can hit the right notes, but I have a range of about half an octave and I don't think my voice is very melodic. I never sing in front of anyone other than maybe my wife when the radio is really loud and I'm just singing along.

On the above note, out On Demand TV channel throws up experimental channels once in a while, and a few years back they put up a karaoke channel. The wife was gone and I found the karaoke channel and thought, "Let me give it a try." It was terrible, in part because they didn't have songs that I knew very well, but also because a song would be the wrong key for my limited range or it would be bizarrely slow or something. So I tried it for 20 or 30 minutes and then thought, "Ugh, that was a disaster."

And then my wife came down the stairs. I thought she was gone, but she was just up in the bedroom. She heard me doing this horrible singalong for a half-hour. I was mortified.