Once upon a time… a young girl wanted to play the guitar… “No, we will not re-string the guitar for one left-handed person every week to enable her to take guitar lessons”.
It was at this time the girl heard a few piano notes. “No, you can not take piano lessons as it clashes with your academic subjects”.
Several times over the next two decades or more, the girl, now a woman, would hear the same piano chords. She desperately searched for the song, if only for sentimental reasons. She never knew the name and could not play it as she had not learned to play. She knew it in her head but could not compose it, nor could she sing it as she had no words. The notes would slip by in movies once every few years but like a droplet of water, it would diminish before a full stream could be formed. She would more oft than not hum it every few years to someone, hoping they would recognise it.
Over the years, the hum became a little more off-beat and unrecognisable even to herself. But in her mind, she knew what it was she wanted but was unable to express it. Latterly she thought she heard strains of the song while caring for a family with a grand piano in a grand house. But on further insight, maybe not, maybe she was mistaken. A recent visit to a home and the site of a piano brought back those memories. But by now she was too embarrassed to hum it, la-la-la it, or make any reference of it to the outside world.
A friend who appreciated her love of music after seeing her ‘Shazam’s’ on Facebook and Twitter, encouraged her to try SoundHound, unbeknownst to him, her secret. Unfortunately, lives were busy and SoundHound was forgotten. However, SoundHound was mentioned by another good friend most recently and on ‘this’ occasion the girl took the time, followed it up, downloaded it, installed it and trialled it.
What do you think? Of course, ‘humming’, those ‘special notes’ close to her heart. Unfortunately, with no success. However, not to be outdone, the girl tried it several times, maybe three, four, five six or even seven times. It actually was on the seventh that something came to light. It flashed like a beacon in her head, most probably, because the track album was in black and white, old and ancient, much like the amount of years it had been sought.
SoundHound, the music searching database app, allowed the girl to listen to a preview of the track via iTunes and to watch a video of the music track on YouTube.
Surprise! Surprise! It was THE song, searched for, for over two decades. The elusive track, titled ‘Heart and Soul’ comes from the movie Stardust but is known, much as with the young girl, via only its piano chord and as such is rarely recognisable via its full title and the accompaniment of words that occur on a full song sheet. A quick Google and the girl found the perfect rendition for her, a recording by Ella Fitzgerald. Sadly, it is not available for sale, but some clever work by her brother saw her with the mp3 track duly downloaded and installed for further listening. In gratitude, the girl would like to thank her brother and in addition, Nii Teiko for his initial recommendation of SoundHound and Akash Malhotra for his most recent reminder. In recognition of the undeniable effectiveness of SoundHound’s musical imagination, the girl, has purchased a full version of SoundHound. The End!
The most famous rendition of the song/piano play:
Google Wikipedia Info on the musical track ‘Heart and Soul’: The song’s A-section is often simplified as a repeating I-vi-IV-V progression and taught to beginning piano students as an easy two-hand duet. Much like the song, “Chopsticks” this (somewhat inaccurate) version became widely-known, even to those who have never studied piano.
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