Unstoppable symphony in your head?

I also think that, it something that can't be solved by modern medicine. It's something deep down, something innate to us. Maybe it's the sound of another universe converging with ours. Maybe were hearing their music as well as they are listening to ours, who knows? But honestly I find it peaceful given the right mood. Maybe in the near future we can solve this odd occurrence. Hopefully we do, but for now sit back and relax and enjoy the ride.

it happens to me sometimes when i'm trying to sleep
not so much these days, more when i was younger
a lot of people seem to be reporting this similar experience here?
weird huh?

about the "i thought i was crazy" thing..
the subject of 'hearing voices' came up with an elderly neighbour once
she said when she was trying to sleep one time, she heard this little voice in her head (can't remember what was said exactly, something like "she'll hear you") and asked me if i've ever had a similar experience..
when i was going to sleep one time, i heard voice #1 say something illegible,
then voice #2 said "well, you may as well not bother now, he's heard us"

anyone ever had something like that happen?

a reply to: markymint

I found this post because I searched for something along these lines. I could have written it... I frequently experience this - usually when things are quiet in bed. Usually it's complete orchestral movements with extreme detail - complex harmonies, instrument solos, drum tracks - the works. Most recently - it was a blues-type track (and I hate blues - but I liked this rendition).

The music is absolutely real, extremely detailed and specific - but very fragile. If I were to try to hum any of it, the magic would evaporate instantly with the real sound corrupting the very delicate (silent) sounds in my head. Also, to try to hum anything would be futile because they are all multi-instrument pieces.

I know that if I could record them somehow, I would have a new career as one of the top composers of all time. And it's so strange because you don't get to choose how it goes - it just plays... an entirely original piece of music playing in real-time.

Like you - I listen to movie scores mostly, and I have an excellent ear for music. I play the piano very poorly and I can read about 1 note per 5 seconds when trying to do that. I'm a DIY pianist with no applicable talent - but my brain knows how to produce awesome music on the fly... how does it do it?

EDIT: With reference to the notion of hearing music from other universes: it doesn't feel like that. While the experience is that of listening to the music in real-time, there is an inherent awareness that it is being created on the fly; I know my brain is generating it.

a reply to: markymint



on numerous times, in other posts to threads mostly related to auditory hallucinations linked with Schitzophrenia...

I have reported hearing what sounds like 200 piece Orchestras or else Philharmonics playing stuff like a Opus


other times I hear birds chirping, maybe 10 or so birds... progressing to a flock of over 100 birds in a all consuming sound of chirps & squawking...but Always getting progressively more complex and musical as the experience continues... other times perhaps the noise level getting to the point of being unbearable
...
I also have Bells ringing or even water filled crystal glasses vibrating as the Auditory hallucination of-the-day



but the bells and the symphonies are the best... Its' as if I were wearing headphones the music is so clear and sparkling



the only reason I think the head symphonies play out is to slow-down-your activity... it might be personal way for nature to redirect your internal thought processes...instead of continuing with what might well become problematic behavior or actions on your part (you remain unaware of the intercession as a needed derailing device used by your unconscious mind)



if you continue to delve into the issue, think about what I said... the music in-your-head has a greater purpose than just entertainment...it serves as a mechanism for something else
~maybe to slow down your activity, maybe for the creation of more elaborate neural pathways---who knows, because this kind of digging-for-answers lies outside the acceptable 'norm' and is not addressed in casual or normal conversation...



venture far in that twilight world of the mind ~ but keep a Tether around your middle

a reply to: markymint

Hey, I am a musician as well and I suffered / suffering from the same stuff you are talking about. I did a big research and I came up with this:

When the brain is very stressed or been stressed for a long period of time (more than 4 5 months at least); it starts to play music (if you are a musician it knows that music makes you calmer or happier). So it is a self-defense mechanism that starts when the stress passes your brain's stress threshold. Its very close to earworm thing but different. It can be random, new music, old music you written or heard, or some other noises as well. I managed to cope up with it after it started 3 years ago. Now I change the music it plays to a music I want to listen or I just sing along to the line if I like it (vocal or instrumental does not matter). It is slowly going and I am getting better and better. Hope this helps.



Edit: No it did not improve my music writting skills. I always had music coming to my mind when I wanted to but this was very irritating and needed to go. So it did not made my music better cuz I already make kickass music LOL

Very cool! Thanks for sharing your experiences. I am randomly hopping across forums for the first time in a long time and here is my thread with 3 new replies today... crazy! But totally relevant. Relevant cos I also had one of these again a week or two ago, it was revitalizing. And I think that's one of the first times it's happened to me again since I wrote this thread, so spooky co-incidences

It wasn't an orchestra this time more like a Destiny's Child or girl group style track haha but as you describe it mattian, original, not controllable, unfathomable sequence or to hum ever again etc but then why would you, because it sounds (feels) perfect at the time and yes in a way its like receiving your own special mastered track...that you can never have or hear again, haha! Anyway this intrigues me, that it (if/when it happens again) could be any kind of genre of music, it isn't locked down to one particular, so I'm excited for the next occurrence. No idea of the trigger...

But I like the idea that it could be "stress relief" triggered by your brain, but maybe belkide you suffer something slightly different? Cos for me it is not an unpleasent experience. Quite the opposite, its a heavenly one. And also a nice idea St Udio that it is a reflex relating to your neural pathways, maybe expanding (maybe shrivelling up in my case) Explanation isn't so important to me, and probably not to you guys so much either, but thanks for sharing. Knowing that other people do experience it (and your descriptions are helpful) is great. Though I am still curious if it's more prudent with musicians, though presumably you need only a simple musical mind for the processes to be in place for it.

a reply to: markymint

Dude I even heard of people installing some kind of lazy recording devices to their cars just to hum the melodies that comes to their minds while driving somewhere. The same thing like you would record with your phone while walking. Its a gift also so embrace it =)

Yes mine is sometimes bad, probably something different but I can switch it to the creative part when I am working on a song etc.

Nowadays if it is a known song I just try to open that song and listen to it; if its one that I like. =)

I used to get chamber music, the sorts of things you play with a piano, a couple of violins and a cello. Endlessly. All night.

Very frustrating. Especially if you're not a great big fan of that sort of thing and it just...won't...stop.

I did have a dream in the post-service college days of massive sleep disturbances, wherein a very dead Hank Williams showed me around his house and told me that he had been working on a number of songs when he died. Told me that I'd remember this one when it came time, and played it for me. General honky tonk stuff. Which I also am no fan of, although I do like a few of HW's songs. "lost highway" comes to mind. This was not lost highway. I fear Hank's ghost embedded the song in my head in vain. Alas.

a reply to: markymint

It could be that you were a famous composer in a past life and you are being called to repeat your talents in this life. Go with the flow, write it down, get immersed in your music.

love,

the reincarnation lady

a reply to: markymint
Try noting your blood pressure and maybe blood sugar during the times that you experience this music. Be sure to have taken baseline readings during a similar time of day long before or long after the event. If this is music that you have never heard before, you may have been chosen to receive inspirations from non-human beings. If so, the intent is for you to produce the music for the rest of us to enjoy. They select those whom are able to do the work. Maybe try recording a la-la melody to help you remember it. Notice if you are sent a feeling of joy. It is a greeting.

In the fall of 2005 I began to hear a symphony all the way up until August 2006. I thought I was going crazy like schizophrenic, until someone close to me died and that's when I stopped hearing the symphony. To this day I still remember the symphony I would hear repetitively leading up to Shawn's death. Shawn was only 19 when he was killed; he was always so nice to me, I miss him dearly....

originally posted by: belkide
a reply to: markymint

Hey, I am a musician as well and I suffered / suffering from the same stuff you are talking about. I did a big research and I came up with this:

When the brain is very stressed or been stressed for a long period of time (more than 4 5 months at least); it starts to play music (if you are a musician it knows that music makes you calmer or happier). So it is a self-defense mechanism that starts when the stress passes your brain's stress threshold. Its very close to earworm thing but different. It can be random, new music, old music you written or heard, or some other noises as well. I managed to cope up with it after it started 3 years ago. Now I change the music it plays to a music I want to listen or I just sing along to the line if I like it (vocal or instrumental does not matter). It is slowly going and I am getting better and better. Hope this helps.

Edit: No it did not improve my music writting skills. I always had music coming to my mind when I wanted to but this was very irritating and needed to go. So it did not made my music better cuz I already make kickass music LOL

originally posted by: Simonex

originally posted by: belkide
a reply to: markymint

Hey, I am a musician as well and I suffered / suffering from the same stuff you are talking about. I did a big research and I came up with this:

When the brain is very stressed or been stressed for a long period of time (more than 4 5 months at least); it starts to play music (if you are a musician it knows that music makes you calmer or happier). So it is a self-defense mechanism that starts when the stress passes your brain's stress threshold. Its very close to earworm thing but different. It can be random, new music, old music you written or heard, or some other noises as well. I managed to cope up with it after it started 3 years ago. Now I change the music it plays to a music I want to listen or I just sing along to the line if I like it (vocal or instrumental does not matter). It is slowly going and I am getting better and better. Hope this helps.

Edit: No it did not improve my music writting skills. I always had music coming to my mind when I wanted to but this was very irritating and needed to go. So it did not made my music better cuz I already make kickass music LOL

Hi all. I also was browsing to find people with the same experience of listening to incredible beautiful music inside, something that happened just once in my life. But this answer was way more interesting, thank you to markymint who originate the conversation and to belkide for the answer. I was young when it happened and I kept looking for an answer to it for many years. Stress sounds perfect because also during my youth one night I had an absolute stressful moment and without knowing why I run to the backyard for a deep breath and then sat at a table and write down an incredible poetry as if someone would be telling me what to do. In general creativity interest me and seams that stress is one of elements related.
simon

a reply to: markymint>>>> In a similar vein, I do some writing and noticed something when I'm thinking. Maybe everybody does this or maybe its just me and odd. But when I think about things, talking to myself in my thoughts or just day dreaming. But I spell every word I think. If I think to myself " I'll go home and have beer and a tuna fish sandwich for dinner." I'll be thinking the words but also spelling them out. If I think the word " encyclopedia" I'll be spelling it as I think it. Is it from so much time online messaging? I look at my coffee cup on the desk and I spell it as I think the word cup. Is that normal? Anybody else do that subconsciously and automatically?

a reply to: Dutchowl

I have a sound track to most of my dreams....sort of Bach or Giuliani sound-alike

a reply to: markymint

Yes, I absolutely get what you are saying and have experienced the same thing. The first time was way back in 1990. I woke from a dream and a presence filled my mind with the most intense music I had ever heard. I jumped up and grabbed my guitar and, within a few minutes, had fingered in as close an approximation of it as my meager skills could muster. Ten minutes later I had written a beautiful "pop" song that came out of nowhere. It was quite a departure from my normal chord arrangements and stunned the guys in my band. It also "stunned" my live in GF who had been fairly supportive of my songwriting up until that point, but was not at all impressed with the "surprise 2 a.m. full volume, full voiced songwriting."

It felt like a rushing revelation. The melody structure was completely different than anything I had written up until that time. It happened again a few months later when I had been struggling with finger exercises and ear training for several hours before bed. I had been working on transposing an Al Dimeola solo (I was never much of a soloist) and just couldn't get it. I went to bed and basically continued the "work" throughout the night. When I woke up the next morning, I picked up the guitar and nailed it. It was as if I had been practicing constantly throughout the night.

The strangest part was the sudden realization that the "solo" could be broken down to root variations of chords I had never considered previously, largely involving major chords with minor 7 "overtones." I started playing a series of these chords very slowly, muting the g string with my fingers to allow the b and a string notes to ring through and suddenly, and entire song fell out of my head. The feeling was and still is difficult to describe.

It felt like I was being lived by the music instead of the other way round and it was ecstatic.

a reply to: UNIT76

The scene: a grocery store, 41, shopping with my wife. Ahead of us, at the far end of the aisle and woman, 30ish, leaning in to examine something on the middle shelf.

In my head, a sudden "pop" or release of congested energy, followed by "...panko, Italian bread crumbs, plain bread..."

Me (inwardly): "OH"

Her (out loud): "OH"

She turned to look at me and our eyes locked and there was a mutual "knowing."

My wife was pissed and absolutely convinced that the other woman and I were having an affair for the better part of the day and evening that followed.

reply to: 0zzymand0s
English is my second language, and when I am at the phone with an native English spoken person, my conversation improves quite a bit, compare to the one I may have in English with a non native English spoken person. I've come to realize it's because the transmission of information that happens in every conversation goes way beyond the actual words, similarly your "conversation" with that lady

a reply to: markymint

yep, I have symphony orchestras playing in my head sometimes...it's like siting at an outdoor Amplitheater it is so real

most time I hear birds tweeting, sometimes bells tinkling until the melodies start to take off, louder and more complex than just chirps or reindeer jingle bells.... that's when instrumentals emerge (not singing songs -never-)


tinnitus, ear whistling, and forever the conch sea-shell with that hollow & airy echo chamber sound,,,

then I hear bagpipes sometimes

the chirps & whistles last up to 20 hours
orchestras or bagpipes may be around for 2 or more hours


I decided my problem is with my Schizophrenia audio hallucinations

so the sounds are not bothersome , but welcomed by my conscious mind

this topic reappears about every two years here on ATS

a reply to: markymint

message deleted


I just realized I already wrote in this topic =)