Serious question:


When you think about music, or you have a tune going through your head, do you imagine all the tiny little parts? The different instruments? That intro or middle section? In other words, do you actually 'hear' the song itself, almost as if you're listening to it?


Or do you just think of the actual melody itself?



This may have absolutely nothing to do with it but I always remember being in school, aged about 8 or 9, and the whole class singing 'My Grandfather's Clock'.

As you may know, part of the chorus goes: 'And it stopped... short... never to go again, when the old man died'.

There was this one guy in class who could just not get his head around the fact there was a pause between 'stopped' and 'short'. No matter how many times we sang it, it would always end up as:


Class: 'So it stopped...'

Jeffrey: 'Short'

Teacher:

Class: 'short... never to go again...'






He never got the hang of it.

So when you think of a tune, how do you imagine it?

I generally hear the melody, but if I really want to "hear" the song, Ill think about it in detail and hear all the little instruments and stuff. Its easy if you know the song well enough. I love doing that! Makes you feel better as if you had the song on for real.

susannah said:

Hey!

I think it does depend on how well you know the song. But, generally, when I'm thinking about music I tend to hear it as if I'm listening to it. Even some silly glockenspiel or something in the background.

Do all music fans do this?

I'm a human metronome, lol. I have perfect pitch, hun, and once I know the arrangement of a song I hear all of it ...(writing, I can imagine most of it)...and, so, even while singing acappella I'm on all points! Or, KNOW when I'm/it's off.



~I sometime read words with melodic rhythm.

a lot of times, just the bass lines will go through my head.

i think this comes from when i was a kid and used to play my mom's drum set every day after school - we had a set in the dining room next to the stereo, and we'd play drums along with our favorite music. i'd obsess over bass parts during the day because it helped me figure out the drum parts. i haven't played drums in years, but i still love picking music apart that way and bass parts are still always going through my head.

Depends on the tune, really. Sometimes its the whole shebang, sometimes it's just a few simple notes.
Funny story, but when I was much younger and experimenting with/partaking of things that weren't good for me, when I would hallucinate, I would hallucinate sound more than sight. I think it's quite unusual for someone to do that, but it makes sense to me as I tend to be so aurally focused. Sounds of things really affect me. In any case, sometimes when I'd be lying in bed after the rave (lol) I would hear the most AMAZING music in my head. It definitely wasn't songs I knew, just my head twisting the sounds of quiet around me. It could go on for what felt like hours, roo. I always wished I could somehow record what I heard on those nights. lol.
goodness, those were the days.

I just read/sang Anx's and Carrie's posts!

I sort of see musical parts in my head. In geometrical patterns, it's hard to explain it but it also involves sort of "colour-coding" the textures of the various different elements and then forming some sort of a overall picture, I guess. Miles Davis explained in his autobiography the same phenomenon, and I think I know what he was talking about. Of course my type of music is the type of music where there is quite often very little of actual music left in traditional terms, so the focus tends to be on texture completely. Most of the musical parts we use these days are sampled from other sources, but I tend to view them as mere texture as well. They are no longer notes or melodies to me.
[Edited 6/27/06 9:07am]

Novabreaker said:

I do this too.

all parts, harmony and scoring

CarrieMpls said:

My mind is constantly doing this - either with a song I know, something I'm working on, or something completely formed and complete that just presents itself in my head. The problem is that it isn't drug-induced at all and it's been happening to me as far back as I have memories.

I tend to pull it apart by the instruments.If I like a song, I learn all the parts and start improvising new bits for it.
I cannot fall asleep listening to music, my mind just keeps playing with the various elements until I'm more awake than I started out.

i usually have full albums playing in my head. track for track its funny my brain is like one huge album shelf.but as for picking apart instruments? i just hang where im supposed to and let my brain do the rest.

SHANNA said:

I'm a bit like that. I think it comes from being in a choir years and years ago. () I can always start off in the same key as the actual song, even when it's not playing.

I used to work with this girl who - for want of a better description - was like a Mickey Mouse Club wannabe. (She was obsessed with Disney, in fact. ). She was all very 'drama' and 'pizzaz' and I think she thought she was going to be the next Britney Spears. Anyway, cos she'd had a lead role in a few amateur productions, of course she was a musical expert.

She was singing this song and (jokingly but serious) I said 'You're out of key'. You'd think I'd said she sounded like a strangled cat or something based on her reaction. She would not have it. But I was right. She was out of key.

Anx said:

Those must have been fun times.




I don't play an instrument - something I'd like to do - but it's interesting for me to see how the musical mind approaches these things.

Do you think you'll ever go back to playing the drums??

onenitealone said:

my husband was describing a singer in his bands who could never get the timing of this line

Goddess on the mountain top Burning like a silver flame The summit of beauty and love And Venus was her name

CHORUS: She's got it Yeah, baby, she's got it I'm your Venus, I'm your fire At your desire Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire At your desire

Her weapons were her crystal eyes Making every man a man Black as the dark night she was Got what no-one else had Wa!

CarrieMpls said:

I believe you.

Imagine you could transcript those sounds... I've had those moments, lying in bed. And - when you hear them - they're as clear as day. Amazing!

We need to hear Carrie's Musical Mind.

GangstaFam said:

Interesting, guys.

I'm not sure whether I do this or it. I tend to 'zone out' when I'm listening to music so maybe I do it and I'm not even aware of it.

Do similar sounds/pitches, etc.. have the same patterns??

XxAxX said:

We need to plug your head to a speaker.

shellyevon said:

I've never been able to fall asleep listening to music. Increases my concentration.

Finess said:

Thanks for that.

That is one reason why I created this thread - to see how other music lovers think. Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of doing something, I catch myself going through a tune; even though I wasn't aware of doing it. It's like there's always music going through my head (not in a Prince way - obviously - just thinking about it).

when I was about 13 on school camp we had to sit quietly in the forest by ourselves in the dark and listen to the sounds of nature, and what did I do? Sang out loud the whole Purple Rain album, all vocals and instrumental arrangements turns out we were all placed about 50m apart and nobody could hear nature thanks to my singing

ZombieKitten said:

Did your husband kick them out of the band??

For a moment, I thought you were going to say Sodanation sings a version of 'My Grandfather's Clock'!!!

onenitealone said:

this was years ago, when that song was popular! sodanation's singer was probably not even born then!

that just made me feel very old

ZombieKitten said:

Crickets chirping, water rushing, Charlotte singing the guitar intro to 'When Doves Cry' and doing the backward vocals of 'Darling Nikki'.

onenitealone said:

very embarassing, but I knew the whole damn thing by heart!

ZombieKitten said:

Old schmold!

onenitealone said:

50 is the new 30

ZombieKitten said:

That's our excuse and we're sticking by it!



Where's me slippers??

onenitealone said: