Jenny in Florida Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 So, I was chatting with my husband and daughter not too long ago about this little quirk: My husband ALWAYS has to have CDs of music to listen to in the car. When we go on a road trip, one of his biggest concerns is which CDs will get packed. Now, interestingly, I am much more musically inclined, but I almost never think about taking music with me in the car. I have an iPod, but have only a selection of classical music loaded on it. And I almost never buy CDs any more. At some point during the above-mentioned conversation, I said something about the fact that I really don't need to lug around CDs, because if I want to listen to a piece of music, I can usually just hear it in my head. My husband was very surprised and couldn't really grasp what I was saying. So, up until that moment, I never realized that not everyone can do that. What I'm talking about is being able to hear an entire piece of music, exactly as if you were listening to a recording, with vocals and harmonies and all of the instruments, but just in your own head. Both of my kids can, apparently, but my husband cannot. I've started asking around among people we know, and it seems that most of us can. (In fact, one friend we know who is a semi-professional folk musician said that, not only can he hear things he knows from recordings, but when he's working out a new arrangement of a song, he can hear what it will sound like when he and the rest of his band play it.) But, then, I guess we tend to hang around music-y people. And now I'm curious about how common it is not to be able to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can now, thank goodness. Awhile back I was on Paxil for some anxiety issues. It was great for the anxiety symptoms, but after taking it for several years, I gradually realized I had stopped getting any pleasure from music and could no longer "hear" music in my head. Music just began to sound like noise rather than something pleasant. It eventually returned to normal after I stopped taking the medicine, but it took awhile, and for months I was afraid I'd never really be able to appreciate music again. I later found that this isn't an uncommon side effect of SSRIs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 It never even occurred to me that some people can't do this. I had a wonderful, curmudgeonly music theory professor. At his funeral, the officiant told this story about him. He came to work one day and said, "Oh! I heard the most glorious performance of the Beethoven [something] last night!" So the guy asked where? Who performed? "In my livingroom. I opened the score, and heard it, page by page. It was perfect." I can't imagine not hearing music, always. It would be awful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangermom Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Wow, that's really cool. I always have music going in my head, but it isn't nice and neat like that; it repeats, skips around, and gets stuck in there. (Right now it's an awful silly song from the 60's that I don't like.) I do hear it just like whatever recording I know best--but not right from start to finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can get a song stuck in my head but I have to hear it or know it by heart first. It is predominately the lyrics more than the music. I know the notes and could hum a song, but I don't start at the beginning of the piece, I start where the lyrics start. I don't play an instrument, and don't have a musical talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can hear music, but not the way you describe. I don't think I could hear a song from beginning to end, all parts included. When I have a song stuck in my head, it's mostly just the melody, and generally just the chorus- over and over. If I try, I can hear the instruments, but I really have to concentrate. I need at least a couple of hours of music play each day to fill my bucket. There's no way that the music in my head could fulfill my music needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubbsfamily Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I like others I often can hear only parts of songs repeated. And sometimes I can hear them really well, others not well enough to replicate to someone else to help me figue out which song or where it is from...ugh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I like others I often can hear only parts of songs repeated. And sometimes I can hear them really well, others not well enough to replicate to someone else to help me figue out which song or where it is from...ugh :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I hear music all the time. I love music, used to sing on a worship team, so there is always something going on in there. I also hear music in other things. This may be weird, but when our A/C or furnace runs I hear music. The air blowing through the pipes creates a small symphony and I hear it just like an orchestra. When I was younger I remember sitting in the car during a really windy cold day. My parents were at an auction and I was freezing, so I went to the car. The wind whipping through the cars and surrounding trees make this beautiful arrangment, I remember it being so peaceful. I still crank real music in the car, though. :auto: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can. I didn't realize that some people can't - maybe that's why my husband plays music all through his waking hours! I'll have to ask him when he gets home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 . Wow, that's really cool. I always have music going in my head, but it isn't nice and neat like that; it repeats, skips around, and gets stuck in there. (Right now it's an awful silly song from the 60's that I don't like.) I do hear it just like whatever recording I know best--but not right from start to finish. Mine is now Laurie Berkner, thanks to this thread...."There's a song in my tummy and it wants to come out"...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hose Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor at this very moment. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura R (FL) Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I don't read music well, so I couldn't read a score and hear the music, for instance. Even though I can hear music, I'm still one to worry about what CD's will get packed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dayle in Guatemala Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I always joke with dh that I have an entire soundtrack to my life playing in my head at all times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Wow, that's really cool. I always have music going in my head, but it isn't nice and neat like that; it repeats, skips around, and gets stuck in there. (Right now it's an awful silly song from the 60's that I don't like.) I do hear it just like whatever recording I know best--but not right from start to finish. YES! I have a song snippet in my head as soon as I wake up and it's not always something I like, nor something I've heard recently. I've found that listening to other music is the only thing that will get it out, and not always. As far as musical training, I don't have any. I don't read music or play an instrument, though I used to sing (by ear) until I developed horrible performance anxiety. My husband does not have such an issue. Isn't that odd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAR120C Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I always ALWAYS have music in my head, but often not perfectly enough to start and finish a song without errors.... even one I know really well. More often than not I'll have a song "looping", where I never get to the end of it because I've skipped back somehow and it's stuck. About 8 hours later (ugh!) it's still there and it's driving me nuts. So I'm probably about as obsessed with packing the CDs as your DH is, because otherwise I have to listen to the SAME song in my head for the whole trip!! LOL Slightly off-topic, but the other reason I like having music in the car is that it seems that whatever it is my brain has to do to follow the song it's playing in my head takes a little something away from my attention to driving. Just a little, but I'm a much more relaxed driver when the music is supplied from outside my head. There are other things like that -- I can't think about math while I drive or I seriously lose track of the other cars, and I REALLY can't think about anything spatial -- knitting patterns, geometry, etc. or even feeling around in the back seat for where the map fell -- or it's like I've gone blind! Virtually no visual information (where I'm going, where the lane markers are, where there's another car...) can seem to get through in those cases. I think that might be why I'm good at knitting patterns and geometry, but at the expense of something else... multitasking, apparently! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen in PA Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can hear all sorts of my favorites in my head just fine, which my dh thinks is unusual (I'll have to show him this thread!). However, I almost always have music playing if I am at home. Through our library we can access Classical Music Online, which is like having all-request classical radio that always plays exactly what I'm in the mood for (my poor kids!). But in the shower, outside, etc., I definitely take my music with me in my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I hear it and it spouts out nearly non-stop:blush: The funny thing is hearing it out of the mouths of my babes:lol: (stuff they've likely never heard-just from my random outbursts around the house) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can but it is not a consistent skill at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I always ALWAYS have music in my head, but often not perfectly enough to start and finish a song without errors.... even one I know really well. More often than not I'll have a song "looping", where I never get to the end of it because I've skipped back somehow and it's stuck. About 8 hours later (ugh!) it's still there and it's driving me nuts. So I'm probably about as obsessed with packing the CDs as your DH is, because otherwise I have to listen to the SAME song in my head for the whole trip!! LOL ! :iagree: This describes me perfectly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 (edited) I only get ear worms, little snippets of songs that repeat over and over sometimes for days. The only way that I have found to get rid of them is listen to the actual song repeated which isn't always very easy as I don't own everything and some are pretty obscure. Otherwise, no not at all. We play Cranium and there is a part where you have to hum a tune and everyone else tried to guess what it is. Most of the family is awful at this. We have two musicians in the family and they are pretty good, two who have had piano and they can get it if it is something that they have played repeatedly, but the rest of us are hopeless even if it is something easy like "Row, row, row your boat". I honestly thought that only musically inclined people could do it, that it was a skill like math or spatial skills in which you can either see something or you can not. Much like the Magic Eye books. Only two or three in my family can see the pictures in these and they are not the same who have the music skill. Edited January 7, 2009 by KidsHappen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Wow, that's really cool. I always have music going in my head, but it isn't nice and neat like that; it repeats, skips around, and gets stuck in there. (Right now it's an awful silly song from the 60's that I don't like.) I do hear it just like whatever recording I know best--but not right from start to finish. I can get a song stuck in my head but I have to hear it or know it by heart first. It is predominately the lyrics more than the music. I know the notes and could hum a song, but I don't start at the beginning of the piece, I start where the lyrics start. I don't play an instrument, and don't have a musical talent. :iagree: I voted no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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