In your head!

I only hear notes when the voices in my head start to sing.

I do hear/make up melodies and riffs when I'm not playing.

The simple answer is yes, I do hear sounds in my head while playing and while I am not playing.

Actually, I think it starts to come on pretty early in learning and just progresses as one gets better.

An example I can quote is a simple one. Were you ever playing and noticed the the chord or note you were playing just didn't sound right and you looked down and one or more fingers were off or just not fretted right? Knowing what you expect is based on "hearing" it sound right before. It's this same memory retention that eventually lets you "hear" the chord or note in a song that someone else is playing.

My opinion is that it is both, GoodVic - a gift and a long (or short) term association with music. But the 'gift' aspect of it; to me it's a gift as in a 'gifted' person. I think it's a gift as in something given to you that you can then use. They may seem the same thing, but to me at least 'gifted' brings in a lot of ego-stroking and one-upmanship and competition, whereas thinking of it - music - as something simply given to a person, takes all that out. It's like, "Here, use this. Have fun. Enjoy."

I mean, I was actually hearing music long before I ever picked up an instrument - in my head I mean, not on records. And the stuff I heard may or may not have been from something I'd heard somewhere. It was unrecognizable to me. And I hadn't been an avid music listener in the first place. I'm still not, actually. :)

But it was the only reason I started to try and play music; I wanted to see if I could somehow play what I was hearing just because it was so beautiful. It was symphonic almost, with strings (I remember that at least), and it just went on and on, circling, swirling, spiraling, building and never repeating. There was a Wurlitzer organ in the house so I tried that. I picked up the guitar (much easier to take into my room with me!) and started playing that, but I never got even close. More recently, maybe within the past five or six years, I've gotten closer. I actually stopped playing for 14 years and then the music seemed to slip in unnoticed and then got my attention. I mostly hear 'parts' now because I record stuff. Occasionally I'll hear a choir somewhere far away, and I think it's the same composer and same 'group' pretty much because they never repeat themselves either. And as such, I don't think I would ever be able to write it down - even if I could instantly translate the notes onto paper like some people can do - because I'd always be writing that one piece!

And also recently, just mulling things over, I've come to believe that this music is given to each and every one of us; almost like it's the 'background music' to life. Some of us listen to it, some of us try to play it. I think it's a matter of focus and perception. If you listen for it, you'll realize it already there, and has been, all the time. If you don't try to focus on it and just maybe concentrate on technique or scales or something, or do some other interesting thing that occupies your consciousness, the music - that inner stuff - will just sorta fade into the background again and wait until you decide to focus again. I think the harmonies somehow all fit together. It's like 5 people will hear notes or chords or voices singing, and if it were possible for every one of them to write it down or record it in some other way, I think all five parts would blend together seamlessly. You know how certain songs will just fit together and though they were separate pieces, they become harmonies of one another? That kind of thing. It's like everyone gets a portion (or the whole thing, though that's pretty massive and complex) and then it's up to us to listen to it or not. It's pretty simple actually. :)

The hard part sometimes is where you try to bring that inner stuff into the outer world, lol!

I've been playing about 11 months and I hear notes that I want to play as I'm going through a solo or just freestylin' somthing on a scale. Somtimes I can't always find that note when I want it on certain scales I'm using. But that's just because I need to learn my fretboard some more. I have no idea how it started. I think I've always been pretty intuitive when it comes to what I want to play next. Even before I got into playing music I could almost always pick out what notes "should" come next in a song based on it's "theme".

I dunno, am I nuts?

I am so jealous of you guys but to my satisfaction, "Even in the wizarding world hearing voices isn't a good sign." :) :)

It is quite amazing being able to provide your mind an avenue to express itself. DemoEtc, well explained, every bit of it.

Cheers

I am so jealous of you guys but to my satisfaction, "Even in the wizarding world hearing voices isn't a good sign." :) :)CheersThanks for reminding me that "The Prisoner of Azkaban" DVD comes out today.

Thats about all I think is in riffs and licks or rhythm runs. I hear them all the time even when I'm not playing. Sometimes I'll think them through enough that when I do get to play I already know what I need to play to have it come out like I heard playing in my head. What else is there to think. I even dream music.

Joe

Well you are crazy good Joe :).

I do hear guitars in my head when im not playing a lot. I figure out what it is im thinking about and where I would play it. Its helping me.

I also hear guitar when im playing (yes in my head and in the physical world) but its basically just what I should be playing or what im gonna be playing.

If you can imagine a melody, any melody, you're hearing the sound in your head. I've been imagining melodies my entire life, before I ever touched an instrument.

The hard part is the translation. What you hear in your head is an ethereal thing; it needs a name. You need to be able to 'name' the notes. I don't mean 'aha, that's C#', I mean you need to have an idea if it's higher or lower than the previous sound, and by how much.

Once it's got a name, whether it's C#-E, or minor third, or three frets up, you need to translate that again to the guitar. You need to get your fingers to do what the mind wills. That's practice and experimentation.

So the process is: think-recognize-execute.

To the original question, the thinking part is a gift. The melody doesn't come from me in any sense, it comes to me (or through me). The recognize/execute parts are the hard work, and they come from a long-term association with music.

The fellow that helped me get started with guitar, asked me if I could hear tunes in my head. He said if you can't you'll never be able to play. I can thankfully. What a horrible thought, not being able to hear music in your head.