the music in your head

[encey]

I'm sure I'm not alone in having music playing in my head basically all fuckin day long. Sometimes it's wonderful, other times it's Katy Perry. :/ But does it sound to me like it does to you?

 

Certain songs--even whole albums, in some cases--I have listened to so much, when I hear it in my head, it's virtually indistinguishable from hearing it in real life. I can hear all the pick scrapes, filter steps, the eq of the mastering, the car stereo or headphone set I'd most often listen through. If I am really bored, awake in the middle of the night or need to kill a ton of time, I'll listen through an entire album or mix where I know how all the songs and transitions go.

 

When I'm about to fall asleep, sometimes the music just changes to abruptly and surprisingly and inventively I think Rob Boots and Sean Braun are fucking with my circuits via oneiric satellite technology. It's unbelievably, the audio equivalent to tripping visuals. I try to stay awake as long as I can and remain in the half-composing, half-washing over me stage of consciousness.

 

If I hear a song from far away, in a crowded mall or restaurant, or just a snippet from a passing car, I'll get the sound of the drums, or the basic rhythm, or a snatch of melody and it'll turn into its own song based on what my mind thinks the rest of that song probably sounds like. Similarly, if I'm hearing or thinking of one song that reminds me of another, I'll spontaneously mix them together or remix them in some way -- the things I wish I could do quickly with audio software and release as a killer mash-up. I am composing and re-mixing in my head all the time.

 

If I've sat through a long class or conversation, I'll leave with echoes of the speaker's voice -- their characteristic vowels and plosives, pitch and speed -- bouncing around in my head for hours sometimes, sonic afterimages.

 

I also play drums on my teeth along to the music in my head. My dentist noted that my rear molars have been ground down. :-@

 

Sometimes I'll have a song just stuck in my head inexorably, and the only thing I can do is hum it aloud, sing it, or whistle. Or else play the drums on a table. To anyone else in the room who can't hear the backing track in my head, it's quite obnoxious. But I can't help it! I have to get it out of me!

 

 

What's the music in your head like?

[chassis]

Melodic beeps and boops with hip hop down tempo beats.

[dr lopez]

wow. i could have written all of this. dear lord this is my life. every sentence every word describes my similar affliction.

[chassis]

If I hear a song from far away, in a crowded mall or restaurant, or just a snippet from a passing car, I'll get the sound of the drums, or the basic rhythm, or a snatch of melody and it'll turn into its own song based on what my mind thinks the rest of that song probably sounds like. Similarly, if I'm hearing or thinking of one song that reminds me of another, I'll spontaneously mix them together or remix them in some way -- the things I wish I could do quickly with audio software and release as a killer mash-up. I am composing and re-mixing in my head all the time.

 

 

This also makes perfect sense

[QBLA]

A couple of tracks I'm working on now are from that model too. Hearing something from a distance and be like... yeah that's cool and recreate it.

[Braintree]

Bleep bloop bip bop bzzzz click doop sweep bleep bloop

[Guest dilbthelame]

only wish i could record it well enough so that i don't have to describe it using a fucking keyboard...

 

once when i was high.as.fuck. i heard a choir of voices singing one-syllable words that all made perfect syntactical sense, but that also joined up into longer words/phrases that also made sense.... like rapping two separate lines at once but with the same sounds, in four part harmony. i have never heard anything that perfect ever again.

 

other times, i just think up beats, chords, basslines.... yada yada, basically epic funk/electro workouts that groove and mooch along for as long as it takes me to walk home.

 

also, mashups. a lot of mashups.

If I hear a song from far away, in a crowded mall or restaurant, or just a snippet from a passing car, I'll get the sound of the drums, or the basic rhythm, or a snatch of melody and it'll turn into its own song based on what my mind thinks the rest of that song probably sounds like. Similarly, if I'm hearing or thinking of one song that reminds me of another, I'll spontaneously mix them together or remix them in some way -- the things I wish I could do quickly with audio software and release as a killer mash-up. I am composing and re-mixing in my head all the time.

 

<actually yeah, just like that

[murve33]

wow. i could have written all of this. dear lord this is my life. every sentence every word describes my similar affliction.

This.

 

I work in a magazine factory, and all of the machines and robots generally make different drones and tempos, and I drum or make songs up that go with it.

 

Sadly I never can recreate any of it when I get home. I'm usually too physically drained. Like right now.

So I minecraft the sadness away.

[dr lopez]

when whenever there is a naturally occuring rhythm i always create syncopated counterpoints with my teeth.

[ghOsty]

wow. i could have written all of this. dear lord this is my life. every sentence every word describes my similar affliction.

 

2nd this

 

when whenever there is a naturally occuring rhythm i always create syncopated counterpoints with my teeth.

Dr. lopez get out of my head!!!

[Guest KY]

wow. i could have written all of this. dear lord this is my life. every sentence every word describes my similar affliction.

 

2nd this

 

when whenever there is a naturally occuring rhythm i always create syncopated counterpoints with my teeth.

Dr. lopez get out of my head!!!

 

all of this. i'd say more than half the time it's original tunes i dream up, rather than already-existing songs that are stuck in my head. and yet, i feel like there's almost always a disconnect between this innate, musical part of my mind, and the music that i end up recording—i can never get those two to meet. and obviously, the musical part of my mind is ALWAYS better than what scraps of it i can actually record in real life.

[Guest hahathhat]

Certain songs--even whole albums, in some cases--I have listened to so much, when I hear it in my head, it's virtually indistinguishable from hearing it in real life. I can hear all the pick scrapes, filter steps, the eq of the mastering, the car stereo or headphone set I'd most often listen through. If I am really bored, awake in the middle of the night or need to kill a ton of time, I'll listen through an entire album or mix where I know how all the songs and transitions go.

yeah. if i ever go deaf or get trapped on a deserted island, i'll have half my ipod with me.

 

When I'm about to fall asleep, sometimes the music just changes to abruptly and surprisingly and inventively I think Rob Boots and Sean Braun are fucking with my circuits via oneiric satellite technology. It's unbelievably, the audio equivalent to tripping visuals. I try to stay awake as long as I can and remain in the half-composing, half-washing over me stage of consciousness.

 

once i was hypnagogic, editing four tracks of audio in cubase in my head. eventually, i snapped out of it. all i had left was the blocks of audio i'd chopped, sliced, rearranged. i could see where they all were and how big they were, but i lost all the audio. have you ever seen a flash of light when there's some unexpected noise down the hall or such?

 

If I hear a song from far away, in a crowded mall or restaurant, or just a snippet from a passing car, I'll get the sound of the drums, or the basic rhythm, or a snatch of melody and it'll turn into its own song based on what my mind thinks the rest of that song probably sounds like. Similarly, if I'm hearing or thinking of one song that reminds me of another, I'll spontaneously mix them together or remix them in some way -- the things I wish I could do quickly with audio software and release as a killer mash-up. I am composing and re-mixing in my head all the time.

i love this too. i try to create moments like this in my music, sometimes, where you hear it one way until you notice something. then you can't un-notice it, and the song sounds different...

 

the brain has to have a handle on things, essentially. if it doesn't, it freaks, and starts making shit up instead. it's great.

 

If I've sat through a long class or conversation, I'll leave with echoes of the speaker's voice -- their characteristic vowels and plosives, pitch and speed -- bouncing around in my head for hours sometimes, sonic afterimages.

-played DDR with laser focus for an hour. went to the bathroom, closed my eyes, splashed water on my face -- and i see a nebulous floating grid of DDR arrows behind my eyelids. almost gave me vertigo.

-studied for a math test all day. went to bed and saw gibberish equations behind my eyelids. i couldn't focus on any of them to see what they were!! because of that, i found this one annoying.

-play halo all day, close my eyes and see halo dudes/maps

 

but most importantly:

 

-worked on a track for hours and experienced the same phenomenon when i lay down to sleep.

 

it's kind of like an LCD screen, when you just put in the batteries and it shows _everything_ on the screen at once:

 

i call these "afterimages of the third eye." when you're zeroed in on any sort of pattern for a longer period, the rhythms stick around in your brain for a bit...

[vamos scorcho]

I sing a ton or just talk to myself when I'm alone in the house

 

sometimes it gets to this fevered point of what seems like pure, unbridled genius - in its comedy

 

 

yesterday I wrote this song about hanging up my shirts and recorded it so I wouldn't forget, in a country/hillbilly voice. my favorite line was:

 

'so when things get tough

my shirts are hanging up'

 

it's hard to explain but I was feeling orgasmic pleasure singing this stuff

[Guest hahathhat]

I sing a ton or just talk to myself when I'm alone in the house

 

sometimes it gets to this fevered point of what seems like pure, unbridled genius - in its comedy

 

 

yesterday I wrote this song about hanging up my shirts and recorded it so I wouldn't forget

me too. and sometimes when i'm not alone as well !

 

i'm too shit still, but eventually when i get singing down, i'll have an album or three of silly songs from around the house. the one about tubular sclerosis is catchy. friends now sing it at me

[Boxus]

If I've sat through a long class or conversation, I'll leave with echoes of the speaker's voice -- their characteristic vowels and plosives, pitch and speed -- bouncing around in my head for hours sometimes, sonic afterimages.

this is really cool, i experience something similar but not all the time, i think it depends on how sensitive i am and how closely i've been absorbing the voice. however, on acid i've always noticed that i can hear fragments of the voices of any person i've recently talked to with amazing clarity. it's fascinating how much detailed information we store effortlessly when we become familiar with a persona.

 

the music in my head usually starts with a melody or rhythmic gesture, maybe remembered from a song or maybe just a product of other thoughts interacting. then that idea will sort of loop and develop on its own accord depending on my mood and mindset. when i'm in a good mood, i'll usually sing or rap or make other sounds while walking around and doing things. when we were taking benzos regularly, my girlfriend and i would get way into it, doing crazy intricate vocal jams everywhere we went. that was some of the most fun i've had in my life.

 

i notice it changes a lot depending on what other things i've been into. i just watched the wicker man yesterday and i'm still making up folk songs in my head.

[data]

i've been humming a tune from doom 2 pretty much every day since 1995

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffl2ShaWyGM

 

I also play drums on my teeth along to the music in my head.

 

me too!

[encey]

when we were taking benzos regularly, my girlfriend and i would get way into it, doing crazy intricate vocal jams everywhere we went. that was some of the most fun i've had in my life.

Oh man -- I've had the best a cappella jams whilst high w my favorite musical friends. Alcofribas and I are known to bust out some drunken Tears for Fears / Madonna extended club edits on a buncha PBRs. &)

 

Teeth drumming for Most IDM 2012!!

 

(or Ulillillia. doot-de-dooooo ...)

[Zephyr_Nova]

I also play drums on my teeth along to the music in my head. My dentist noted that my rear molars have been ground down. :-@

 

Sometimes I'll have a song just stuck in my head inexorably, and the only thing I can do is hum it aloud, sing it, or whistle. Or else play the drums on a table. To anyone else in the room who can't hear the backing track in my head, it's quite obnoxious. But I can't help it! I have to get it out of me!

 

What's the music in your head like?

 

My friend used to do the teeth drumming thing all the time. I went through an awkward period where I did incessant drum tapping on desks and beat boxing while walking around with people, but eventually realized it weirded most of them out... so I fine tuned my social skills to be more compatible with more people.

 

I too am afflicted with having a constant soundtrack going on in the back of my head. Right now it's the intro to Head Down by Soundgarden because that Doom track Data posted reminded me of it I guess. What's funny is I had to pause to figure out what the hell was playing in my head as I wrote the last paragraph and why. Usually I'll have short sections of songs looping in my head as opposed to full songs, but with all the little sonic details (at least when I'm paying attention to it). I don't have much control over what's playing in there, or stopping it. I record people for work, so it's often whatever I've been working on for the day. It can be pretty ridiculous having the voice of one of my clients singing in the back of my head while fapping, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. Well, sometimes I manage to force a Portishead song in there, but usually whatever I had on loop in my head originally finds its way back.

 

Sometimes I'll have the verse of one song lead into the chorus of another song that's similar, but really I should have ended this post with the masturbation thing.

 

Kind of on topic... if I've been doing a lot of vocal editing, I become more attuned to all the nasal/salivary sounds people make between consonants and vowels when they talk (squishy mucusy sounds and the like), since those tend to leap out whenever I've got vocal takes soloed out. It can be quite distracting, and I hate automatically honing in on that sort of thing, but again it's not something I can help when it starts happening. At least I'm not busy scrutinizing the pores and wrinkles on every face I see... probably the bane of many a photographer's existence.

[Guest Bubz]

the music in my head that i don't come up with is either speed metal from F-Zero X, MC-4 Acid off Analord 1, or any other song(s) that i've heard so many times i know every little part.

music that i come up with in my head is usually a blend of dope breaks, deep bass, bleeps, and noises that have given me visual and/or kinesthetic synesthesia.

[rixxx]

I have random quotes from songs mostly, I currently have "HEY JAMBOJAMBO"

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QiLziusKW4s#t=120s

 

 

This quote has been in my head for roughly three years, it just randomly attacks.......

 

 

 

I do also make up a lot of songs and they can go around until I sing or make it in logic, etc.

[Lucas]

I feel very close to what you wrote as well ! But hopefully that music doesn't play ALL the time (think I could turn crazy if so). Also I don't do the teeth-thing but I'm often often making beats with my hands and every item that they meet, or sometimes with my body when there's no surface I can hit. This is really psychotic

 

Also, when I've smoked some weed, the melodies that grows in my head are for some reason completely shitty. Inconsistent and silly notes that usually tends to get on my nerves. lol

[rixxx]

Oh yeah and I sometimes sit in a room and find myself rocking back and forth wailing, with a strange, eery bleeping sound that goes in and out of tune. It's really relaxing you should totally give it ago.

[Lucas]

edit I wasn't able to put in the previous post : what I love with this way of making music is that I sometimes fall in love with that musical mood coming from nowhere, then I manage to record it, making the melody and sounds with my mouth (nobody wants to hear the messages I sometimes send to my own phone number :/). Then I lay it down to my sequencer and the fun starts. I think that's the way I make about the half of my tracks. Other are found just by jamming with the hardware and computer.

[wahrk]

I also play drums on my teeth along to the music in my head. My dentist noted that my rear molars have been ground down. :-@

 

Sometimes I'll have a song just stuck in my head inexorably, and the only thing I can do is hum it aloud, sing it, or whistle. Or else play the drums on a table. To anyone else in the room who can't hear the backing track in my head, it's quite obnoxious. But I can't help it! I have to get it out of me!

 

What's the music in your head like?

 

My friend used to do the teeth drumming thing all the time. I went through an awkward period where I did incessant drum tapping on desks and beat boxing while walking around with people, but eventually realized it weirded most of them out... so I fine tuned my social skills to be more compatible with more people.

 

I too am afflicted with having a constant soundtrack going on in the back of my head.

Sometimes I'll have the verse of one song lead into the chorus of another song that's similar, but really I should have ended this post with the masturbation thing.

DEAR GOD GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!

 

I clack my teeth to rhythms. I started beatboxing so I could stop though. It's not much better for the people around me, but at least my teeth will survive. I also got called out a lot by the manager at my first job at a theatre for drumming on the ticket stand with pens. They hated it. :)

[encey]

if I've been doing a lot of vocal editing, I become more attuned to all the nasal/salivary sounds people make between consonants and vowels when they talk (squishy mucusy sounds and the like),

This happened to me when working on my album -- lots of people talking, and now I can't hear it as straightforward dialogue anymore; it's a performance, with those clicks and weird things penciled into the staff.

 

edit I wasn't able to put in the previous post : what I love with this way of making music is that I sometimes fall in love with that musical mood coming from nowhere, then I manage to record it, making the melody and sounds with my mouth (nobody wants to hear the messages I sometimes send to my own phone number :/). Then I lay it down to my sequencer and the fun starts. I think that's the way I make about the half of my tracks. Other are found just by jamming with the hardware and computer.

When the laugh track starts then the fun starts