Why can't I play the melody after hearing a song...

[nyonyo]

As far as perfect pitch is concerned, I've got one opinion: Its not needed for any aspect of music and its questionable whether its even possible to learn or not (not enough evidence either way), its a complete waste of time to try and learn it when there are so many other things you could better spend that time on.

I totally disagree. Perfect pitch is a must to have for people who need to improvise with others or accompany a singer who keeps changing key. Many times this kind of person has to join the improvisation in the middle. He needs to be able to hear the key without asking.

I myself being fortunate to have perfect pitch ability enabling me to join any performance and improvise without asking the key etc. If I do not have perfect pitch, I have to ask or try till I get the key.

Damm....I spent too much time on this discussion...I barely work now!!

[syncope]

What is familiarity? The answer is interval familiarity or the other word, you need to internalize the interval. You are correct in relating the interval to a known song. As your as example said, My Bonnie, the first is sixth (Sol -- Mi). Therefore, the first thing to do is to remember all the interval. Once you master all the intervals (you can use your method by relating to certain song) then when you hear the same interval, you will be able to recall what you have in your brain.

I don't think you read my post carefully enough

[nyonyo]

On another point, the problem I've come at, having learnt intervals seperately from a music fragment and knowing it well, as soon as you try to figure out a song at the piano, you notice that a sixth may not be recognisable. Example: With "My bonny lies over the ocean" (there we go again ) the first interval is a sixth, but as a musical person you'll not recognize it because its not a sixth from the root but you hear it as a quarter till the root key, and an extra third above (or you won't hear it like that and be lost ).

Oh got to go study for an exam....

When you do moveable do, the root note of the key means nothing. Because we use relative distance from one note to another. For example Let's use Kumbayah

do mi sol mi sol la sol mi sol la sol, etc

If you have each interval well planted in your brain, as soon as you hear the first two notes ( do and mi ), you will automatically sing the same interval in your brain (very fast process) to match the interval that you had memorized, and then go to the next pair (mi - sol) , exactly the same process will be applied.

Therefore, practicing individual interval apart from the music is the first step. By practicing this, your brain will have the reference that will be used to compare to the interval that you will hear later.

I hope this makes sense.