Can you hear music in your head?

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:00 am

Denny wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:Hearing music in my head? Yep. Hearing what I'm reading, though, is iffy, although I'm finding that to be getting a bit better. Must be a brain muscle thing.
I have found it so...it gets better with practice.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:51 am

I was once on a trip where I spent a lot of time on a bus, looking at the passing countryside. For some reason I didn't bring a walkman but I was able to replay tracks from start to finish in my head. This was before I started playing an instrument (though since then I try to bring recordings with me whenever I travel... maybe I should stop).

As for reading dots, I can cold read most bagpipe tunes and get the melody (both Scottish and Breton notation) whereas I had trouble without hearing the tune first. I haven't quite reached that stage with non-bagpipe music though I'm trying to do more ear-learning than sight-reading and have begun doing that with the odd bagpipe tune too.

Cheers,
Aaron

BrassBlower · Post by **BrassBlower** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:07 pm

Oh, no! It's those blasted earworms again!

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=36196

Boody · Post by **Boody** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:43 am

It goes on all the time, I like it, but sometimes I realise someones been talking to me for 5 minutes while I was listening to some song in my head.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:20 am

This is an interesting topic. I have music running through my head all day long. Sometimes it's a tune I like, sometimes one I want to learn, or it could be some innane song like with lyrics like "you can ring my bell, ell, ell, ring my bell, ding dong, ding dong" (HA! I have now inflicted upon your subconcious one of the worst songs ever written

). I can also hear the melody when sight reading the dots.

I only wish I could ever remember the name of the tune/music running through my head...

Eric

maire · Post by **maire** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:47 am

What about voices?
Do voices count?

Bill Reeder · Post by **Bill Reeder** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:08 am

I've had a continuous stream of Irish tunes running in my head for years, but lately it's been getting competition from the soundtrack from Snow White which I get to watch 5 days a week with my grandson.

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:29 pm

Bill Reeder wrote:I've had a continuous stream of Irish tunes running in my head for years, but lately it's been getting competition from the soundtrack from Snow White which I get to watch 5 days a week with my grandson.

At least it's not Barney or Spongebob - yet!

I constantly "hear" music. That works out nice when I'm at work and they haven't turned on the radio or CDs - I can keep myself entertained! Not real good at reading sheet music though.

Key_of_D · Post by **Key_of_D** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:16 am

I'm just a little portable napster... It helps too when learning tunes. I can even slow the tune down in my head somehow, and play it note for note, at which ever speed I like; but that only works if I've been listening to the tune for quite some time, so maybe that's nothing spectacular. But, I like this ability. Gets me through the day when a chieftains cd is nowhere in sight. Or any other tune I might like. I believe we're musical by nature, and the fact that we can do this, is only part of that musical ability.

-Eric

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:47 pm

maire wrote:What about voices?
Do voices count?

Only if they are lilting or singing sean nos in the Gaelic. Otherwise you have not only strayed from the tradition but have turned daft... and really, aren't they both the same?

Fishie · Post by **Fishie** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:01 am

I hear tunes (not always trad) in my head all the time. I try to get myself to hear the tune in my head while I'm playing it as well.

Sometimes, if the tune is from a cd, I will play that tune all the way through in my head, then the next tune on the cd will cue up!!!

fyffer · Post by **fyffer** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:23 am

'Tis my curse.

... I hear dead people ..... playing jigs and reels ...

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:57 am

maire wrote:What about voices?
Do voices count?

The voices ... the voices, they are telling me to .... PLAY FASTER!!!!!!!!

seisflutes · Post by **seisflutes** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:54 pm

Wormdiet wrote:I have "The Gold Ring" going on now. It's been then since yesterday's session.

Ack! Now I've got it too! I had " Fasten the Leg in Her" going before.

Danner · Post by **Danner** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:37 pm

Diddo what everyone else said about hearing tunes in their heads. I personally like to play Silly Wizard when I'm in the middle of a really hard math test... makes me a little more comfortable.

From really intense study of classical flute, I've gained the ability to hear a tune by just looking at it. I just tried it, and I realized that I can hear myself playing it. Like, I heard a few spots where I "made a mistake" with notes or intonation or whatever. I heard spots where I "played" it sloppily because it was too fast. I can hear how I'd do vibrato with it, etc. I dunno, after hundreds and hundreds of pages of music, it becomes almost second nature. However, I cannot see piano music and know what it'll sound like. It just works primarily for flute, some with picc, whistle, and Irish flute.

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Can you hear music in your head?

Can you "Hear" music in your head?