f# g f# e e d b d e

Every day I receive e-mails, letters, cards and phone calls from listeners asking me to help them find a particular piece of music. That's normal for someone who works at a radio station. However, I must share with you some of the ways in which people have asked for help because I find them creative, funny and sometimes downright challenging.

For instance, just last week I received an e-mail from a listener in regard to a particular piece heard in March. Unfortunately, the playlist for that particular date was missing and I could not retrieve the file from my computer.

Northwest Public Radio listeners being the creative people that they are, this particular man sent me an e-mail, some of which I include here.

"....if I remember rightly it had a melodic motif that went something like this:
f# g f# e e d b d e, with the second e being an octave lower than the first and third." This may go down as one of my more interesting requests! Not having perfect pitch I resorted to the help of a virtual keyboard.

I'm sorry to report that after listening to this melody about eight times I cannot identify it. It sounds familiar but it's turning out to be one of those "can't quite put my finger on it" moments.

Why don't you give it a try and let me know if you recognize it?

This experience made me think about some other interesting and fun requests I've received over the years. Here are a few favorites.

A listener taped music from a t.v. commercial onto a video tape, played the video, held the phone up to the video and asked me to identify the music. I can't remember now what the piece was but I do remember that I successfuly identified the piece.

I've had numerous listeners hum, sing, whistle or do something that approximates those things over the phone. Just recently this happened and I asked the listener to call back and sing it again on my voice mail because I didn't recognize it. I then forwarded the message to some of my colleagues at Northwest Public Radio but to no avail.

If you called, e-mailed or otherwise wrote to me with an unusual request it would be great to hear from you and for you to share your story with the other NWPR listeners.