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JSBACHlover
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28 Oct 2013, 10:46 pm

I can play symphonies and concertos in my head all day long so that I don't need my iPod. It's useful for composing music, too. Anyone else want to share their experiences?



schizoid26
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28 Oct 2013, 10:48 pm

It's really funny that people who hear music in their head are "geniuses", but if it was voices, then they would be considered schizophrenic.



JSBACHlover
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28 Oct 2013, 10:58 pm

Hey, stop making me laugh so hard!



starkid
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28 Oct 2013, 11:03 pm

schizoid26 wrote:
It's really funny that people who hear music in their head are "geniuses", but if it was voices, then they would be considered schizophrenic.


If people hear voices, music, or anything else that they don't believe they have created, they are considered schizophrenic. Non-schizophrenic people also "hear" voices – they remember and rehearse conversations. They are conscious of having created the "voices."



andrewlavigne
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28 Oct 2013, 11:14 pm

I make up music in my head. It's distinctly mid-late 20th century though. Not one for symphonies and such. Some might say I'm unsophisticated. I might say that you are living in the past, man.

I also replay snatches of music/dialogue in my head over and over.

Is this normal or am I even less normal than I thought?



RandyG
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28 Oct 2013, 11:32 pm

I can't normally make up my own, but unless I'm actively listening to music, watching TV, or reading, there's always some kind of tune playing in my head. It might be a favorite classical piece or just something I've heard recently. These days it's often Mozart's Turkish March sonata, but with small children around, it can be temporarily displaced by Elmo's Theme.



JSBACHlover
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29 Oct 2013, 12:26 am

andrewlavigne wrote:
I make up music in my head. It's distinctly mid-late 20th century though. Not one for symphonies and such. Some might say I'm unsophisticated. I might say that you are living in the past, man.

I also replay snatches of music/dialogue in my head over and over.

Is this normal or am I even less normal than I thought?

its normal for me, but I don't know if it's normal for other people. That's why I started this thread



Jensen
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29 Oct 2013, 3:24 am

I believe it is normal for people, - AS or not.


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Davvo7
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29 Oct 2013, 5:02 am

I have this all the time and find it quite soothing most of the time - I find it helps me screen out the din other people make. I have a huge back catalogue of albums that I know every note and every word to and often click 'play' to get through situations. I cannot do public transport - which thankfully for me is not very often - unless I have my music playing very loudly through noise cancelling earphones. This also helps me to store up newer albums for 'internal playback'.

The downside of this is that I can often get stuck in a loop, an earworm I believe it is called, and end up with a dreadful little snippet from an advert or from a TV theme or suchlike and have it stuck there for hours.

If I am trying to calm myself down from a challenging overloaded experience, I often visualise images and 'compose' my own music to that - a bit like my own personal Landscape Channel I guess. It works for me so what the hell! I try to soften the music as it progresses and then switch it off and enjoy the calm blessed silence.

I have tried to talk about this with people over the years and gave up after seeing the intial look on their face. I'm not sure it is particularly widespread but have no evidence to back this up. When I have looked in the past, the only links I have found has been some form of mental health support forum.


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treblecake
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29 Oct 2013, 7:41 am

Sometimes when I'm just about to fall asleep I hear symphonies. Also when I'm sleep deprived I hear symphonies to the point where they're just about auditory hallucinations and I can't turn them off. It's always stuff I haven't heard before but sounds late classical Beethoven-esque.


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JSBACHlover
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29 Oct 2013, 1:05 pm

Jensen wrote:
I believe it is normal for people, - AS or not.


Ok then there is my real question. What do you all think?



JSBACHlover
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29 Oct 2013, 1:38 pm

Ok, I did a little web-browsing and, apparently, yes -- hearing music in your head is normal. However, it's a question of degree. Most get the gist of the piece. Not many can hear every note.



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29 Oct 2013, 3:34 pm

JSBACHlover wrote:
Ok, I did a little web-browsing and, apparently, yes -- hearing music in your head is normal. However, it's a question of degree. Most get the gist of the piece. Not many can hear every note.


That's interesting. I thought it was a thing that was more prevalent among people with AS.

For me, I can hear entire songs in my head, the whole piece, sometimes on repeat, all. The. Freaking. Time, even when I've got a layer of thoughts above and below that. I don't make things up in my head, though.



cavernio
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29 Oct 2013, 3:50 pm

I'm not so good at reproducing what I've heard exactly. I also won't often hear every note, but all the outlying chords and the timbres can be there.

When I listen to a lot of classical music or am involved in it a lot, when I'm tired I will be able to have symphonic music my head. Modern in sound, 21st century romantic or film stuff, but can have baroque inspiration.

I quite love electronica in general, and once I was quite surprised to have dreams/falling asleep music that involved timbres that you'd only be able to find in electronica that I have no idea how to actually reproduce.

Lately I haven't heard or tried to hear a lot of music. I suspect my thought-perceptions of music is a lot less salient than what a lot of people here experience on a regular basis. Only in dreams or near-sleep states have I ever really 'heard' music. I suppose that music I *do* hear every note, but it's fairly rare. A few times a year at most this happens.

Earworms are quite common. I don't know how often they are heard. Older people who have hearing damage are 'at risk' for hearing music all the time, rather like schizophrenia. Lots of interesting stories in a book called Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks if you're interested Bach. http://www.oliversacks.com/books/musicophilia/


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auntblabby
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29 Oct 2013, 10:32 pm

i'm only capable of unintentionally replaying snatches of music that fill my working memory, or about 4 bars worth.