My Musical Life Z to A

I think I am going to tell this story in descending chronological order. I am going to start at the end and work my way back to the beginning. This is my musical life Z to A rather than A to Z.

I am working on two songs for a church program coming up on 9/9/2012. They are "I Believe" by Kathy Taylor, and "He is a Mighty God" and I am sure who wrote that song. These songs are presented to me on the spot without any preparation. So I have adapted to being very flexible and have learned how to improvise on the spot.

I can play thousands of songs. I really do not know how many songs I can play, but I know it's a lot more than a few hundred. I have pretty equal facility in all the keys so I am thinking in what I now call "The Big Key". I can adjust and adapt so quickly until the lead singer can be singing in one key and the choir in another key and I can follow both of them where it sounds okay. I can start following either a choir or a lead in one key and they can change keys and I can instantly transpose to the new keys as they appear. I never thought that was humanly possible.

I have learned how to listen to a song one time and play a reasonable facsimile of it instantly. In some cases I don't even get a chance to hear a song all the way through and I can figure the song out as the song goes along. Since the choir director does not know that it is humanly impossible to do she forces me to do it all the time and I have gotten good at it. Another impossible thing I was doing is playing a generic vocal part by rote without even knowing the tune of the song. However I had to tell her I can't really teach vocal parts without knowing the tune or melody. How can you give parts to others in  the play when you don't know the play? See it does not make sense. I really don't understand how she thought I could give alto and tenor their parts without knowing what the soprano is. So as she would be teaching and explaining the soprano part and words she would be asking me what is the alto part, and what it the tenor. Unless I can hear the soprano pitch or line I can't develop a harmony. Usually I would first hear her soprano but sometimes she would stop before even saying the words or singing the soprano pitch and ask me what is the harmony. See that does not make sense. You must first have a soprano line. Then you can find harmony lines. The lines are usually under the soprano in pitch although not necessarily. It depends on how you arrange the voices. The melody can be in the alto or tenor with soprano singing a harmony part on top of it.