How many things can you hear in your mind?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Insanity jokes aside... how much can you hear without needing to resort to overdubs or some sort of recording?

 

In my mind's eye (ear?) I can "hear" two separate instruments playing at the same time (guitar and bass, say) and can sort of allow for a third line, if it's going to be repetitive like a drum beat or a wash.

 

I was wondering how others hear music in their mind and whether there's any way of training one's self to hear more?

 

ADDED: Personally, I find it easier to "hear" something I've already heard. ie I can hear a lot more of some song I've heard on a record and it seems to take more effort to hear stuff I am imagining on the spot.

 

Any ideas?

[Warthog]

I can hear 3. Guitar, bass, and one other. But that's me, and I'm a freakin' genius...

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Yeah, the 3d one I can SORT OF hear. Let's say I hear it once for a couple of secs and then just accept that it's there. Like I said, it only works for repetitive things like drums.

 

Wonder if there's any way of increasing the number of things one can hear (or imagine hearing, really) simultaneously?

 

I've read somewhere that humans are incapable of visualizing more than five individual objects, after which we start grouping things (as in "two groups of five". It should be ten, but we're really visualizing two objects).

 

Wonder if the five limit (assuming it's true) applies to sound as well.

[Billster]

I can hear any amount of pitched instruments or lines, or chords and melody, or ensemble chords (think big band voicings or orchestral harmonies), but what I won't hear necessarily is drums. I will feel the rhythm, but I won't formulate in my mind what exact drum hits are going on.

[miroslav]

Yes, a lot of it is about "feeling" things...though having been involved with recording for a long time and spending most of my music time in the studio environment...

...I've trained myself to be able to hear pretty much the whole production even though I'm just working on track 1 of a song.

 

Yesterday I woke up and was doing the shower/shave thing, getting ready to go to work

and all of a sudden a heard a complete song in my head.

For a few seconds it was just the feeling of the songbut very quickly the melody appearedand even the overall theme of the lyrics

and I quickly ran over to the piano and banged out the progressions and the melody so I wouldnt lose it.

And on the way to workI was already hearing how the whole production would go.

 

Now I just have to sit down and do the tracking.though Im sure once I get going, new things will emerge and some changes my take place.

The only thing I cant hear in its entirety are the lyrics.

I can get maybe a verse or twoand/or the chorusbut usually it takes some work with pen-in-hand to get tall the lyrics to come out. :-)

 

 

 

[Eric Iverson]

Never thought about it, but it's a good thing to explore and endeavor to expand. Thanks, Vince.

[revolead]

I hear all of them. I pay attention to one. I'm not much of a multitasker, so it's always been hard for me to listen and play at the same time. I guess I have to work harder at rhythm and ear more than most people, but it makes the result that much more rewarding.

[Oyster]

I hear it all. For example, when I'm really into one song, I'll play it over and over in my head. Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, whatever I tell my mind to do.

 

What messes me up is when I listen to ..say.. The Beatles and hear something new I haven't heard before. One little minor chord, or something that I've missed in the past. In my mind, I'll hear that minor chord much louder and have to tell myself to knock it off!

 

It's learned, but I just kinda 'had it' as a kid. Makes playing easier though... too bad I still suck!

[picker]

I only hear one thing in my head; a voice that keeps saying "you are going to die...". I play music to drown it out...

[Zuben]

Picker - LOL

 

I always hear the bass player. That goes back to my 1st "power trio". Our first bass player sucked and it was hard NOT to hear him. His replacement, who stayed with me for 10 years, was good and became great. He is now the director of Jazz Music at Memphis State University.

 

I feel the drums more than I hear them. I try not to hear the background or harmony singer(s) as it messes me up even after all these years.

 

One keyboard player I get the honor to play with once in awile I always hear. It would be a crime not to hear him.

 

If I am practicing a new lead or part, I always hear the beat, bass and rhythm in my head.

 

It wasn't always that way. I would hear what I wanted to play and hear what I was actually playing. Scary!

 

I don't know if I trained myself to hear, was fored to hear or it was a natual progreesion.

 

Peace

[fantasticsound]

I've been ear training in one form or another my entire life.

 

I was amazed at how difficult tuning is for many accomplished musicians. I don't have perfect pitch, but darned good relative pitch. With the exception of loud background noise, I can get really close to an A-440Hz standard tuning on the guitar without that reference to guide me.

 

I've always been good at microscoping sound, whether it's music or ambient noise. What I call microscoping is the equivalent of the zoom in and out on Google maps, etc. I can zoom in on an individual component of whatever I'm listening to and instantly pull out to include other instruments or hear the sum of all the parts.

 

I can't play everything I hear. Heck, sometimes I can't even hum exactly what I'm hearing, but I can hear it. I think that's part of why, when someone is playing a song with the intention of playing it like the recording, I get tense when they substitute chords that don't have the same subjective sound as that on the original.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

That's really interesting! Looks like I have some catching up to do! :grin:

 

BTW... I take it you guys are referring to INDIVIDUAL sounds, right? Sounds that play independently? I'm asking because anyone can say, "I can hear 30 violins in my head", but if they're all playing the same part then I'd only count it as one.

 

Is there any way I can learn to hear more stuff? (short of mental elbow-grease, which I sort of know about already. I'm talking about mnemonics or some sort of "method" you learned in a monastery in Tibet or whatever) It'd be a handy thing to know!

[Guitarzan]

i hear the whole arrangement when i am at work and obviously unable to do anything about it. i will hear both guitars and bass as well as a vocal line and drums.

if they ever invent a mind recorder i will be able to write at work.

[Strategery]

Hey Kramer,

 

Like most of you I'm sure, I think we musicians hear different things than the non musician.

 

My wife gives me hell because I can't dance worth a damn, because I'm following different rhythms and listening to musical parts instead of beats. :grin:

I can't help it. After 35 years of playing, it's just ingrained. :grin:

 

My opinion is, it's depends on how UnCluttered the band/musician keeps the music.

 

Take you a good old 3 guitar, garage jam, and it may all come out like mush.

 

My favorite kind of music, is the kind where the writer can hear and place all the parts that are different, but all intertwined, not all playing very similar things.

A good Weaver so to speak.

 

Then take a good lead & rhythm guitar, ad a nice steady drum beat, a walking bass doing it's on thing, and a Hammond B3 from hell-even a piano, and you've got something there my friend. :grin:

You can even add light strings and/or horns in the background.

 

That's just me...so I guess I'm saying....somewhere between 3 to 5 parts...but only if it's uncluttered...and only if it's not after a six pack of Warsteiner. :grin:

 

Randy

[mdrs]

The echo makes it hard to tell.............

 

:grin:

 

:rawk:

[Strategery]

Uhhhh...I only hear 2 on that one...but they look intense. :grin:

 

Randy

[Fumblyfingers]

I only hear one thing in my head; a voice that keeps saying "you are going to die...". I play music to drown it out...

 

LOL that is so awesome Picker. I'm gonna take that one to the grave, baby!!!

 

 

I hear as many as I want.

[Fumblyfingers]

What's really cool is when you latch on to the sub-groove...the groove within the groove...yeah baby, I mean!

[Justus A. Picker]

 

I can "hear" entire arrangements but my mind isn't breaking things up into separate components unless I choose to focus on a single line. Playing counterpoint like a fugue on classical guitar I'm focused primarily on a single line at a time. I hear the other parts and how they interact with the dominant part, they just don't take up as much of my attention.

[Fumblyfingers]

I was wondering how others hear music in their mind and whether there's any way of training one's self to hear more?

 

I also think a lot depends on how complex you are getting and how many different parts you add, when making up or arranging a piece of music in your head. If you have complex rhythm's going on it seems at some point you will have to let one or more go as you add something else. Realistically it seems that not more than a few parts are possible with a complex arrangement, if you are talking being totally locked in on every single part. It is an interesting exercise.

 

But it is addressing composing in your head which is much harder because you are having to provide each part you are imagining. Listening back to a recorded piece is totally easy because it is all there and you are hearing it all at once. You can concentrate on single or multiple parts at will, as it is provided.

 

Try imagining a straight 1/8th note hi-hat 1+2+3+4+ etc then add a kick say on the 1 and the 3+ . Keep that going until you have it nice and clear then add a snare on the 2 and 4. Now try throw on an easy bass line and perhaps have it accent the kick drum hits as well and just keep that going until you feel confident you can add a guitar and make something up etc etc etc.

 

I would also do listening excersises and put on headphone and really get into a mix and pick out and follow certain instrument parts as well as hearing the whole. Great aspect of ear training.

 

Cool thread Kramer.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

But it is addressing composing in your head which is much harder because you are having to provide each part you are imagining. Listening back to a recorded piece is totally easy because it is all there and you are hearing it all at once. You can concentrate on single or multiple parts at will, as it is provided.

 

Yeah, I was referring specifically to composing.

 

I started wondering about this, ages ago, when trying to write songs on bass. I can play one line, but unless I have some sort of recording gear, I have to imagine the rest of the music as I'm playing that one line and that's not always easy.

 

Thanks for the idea about imagining the drum kit! I hadn't thought of that. It's easy enough to say, "Try to imagine more melodies simultaneously" but then you wonder, "What should these melodies sound like?" whereas a drumkit is a nice, standard thing to imagine.

[Hardtail]

I read somewhere, either in one of my software engineering books, or a psychology paper of my wife's, that the human brain can concentrate on 7 simultaneous things at the max.

 

I have no idea if this is true. I just remember reading something about it.

[Billster]

But it is addressing composing in your head which is much harder because you are having to provide each part you are imagining. Listening back to a recorded piece is totally easy because it is all there and you are hearing it all at once. You can concentrate on single or multiple parts at will, as it is provided.

 

Yeah, I was referring specifically to composing.

 

I started wondering about this, ages ago, when trying to write songs on bass. I can play one line, but unless I have some sort of recording gear, I have to imagine the rest of the music as I'm playing that one line and that's not always easy.

 

I thought that's what you were getting at when I made my first reply here.

 

Once upon a time, I was hired to work on some music for a theater show. The main writer had this one tune that was a bass line and a vocal line. I was tasked with making it into a full band number, and so the ability to picture multiple parts in my mind came in very handy. I ended up with a writing credit in the program It was really just an arranging exercise.

[alittlebatty]

[font:Comic Sans MS]I hear the whole song in my head and I can hear all the different instruments. (when the voices in my head quiet down.... j/k!) [/font]