Do you hear it too?

[Koog]

Yes. It has been a near lifelong thing for me. A continuous loop of music. Sometimes it's complete arrangements, but often it's bass lines I've been working on or have played frequently.

I've also experienced tinnitus since my late teens, which has been nearly 60 years.

The former can be extremely annoying, especially when sleep is disrupted which is often. The latter is easier to deal with since I've worn hearing aids, it is ceaseless as well.

I've been called crazy, but I'm not quite insane....yet.

I'm sorry for others experiencing this, but it is a bit comforting to know I'm not alone with it.

Koog

Edit: I just noticed a post just before this one referencing analysis of music. I too can't just listen to music. Most of the time I'm pulling it apart, analyzing the individual parts and figuring them out in my head. As the poster said, "Welcome to the life of a musician".

 

[friskinator]

Yes. It has been a near lifelong thing for me. A continuous loop of music. Sometimes it's complete arrangements, but often it's bass lines I've been working on or have played frequently.

I've also experienced tinnitus since my late teens, which has been nearly 60 years.

The former can be extremely annoying, especially when sleep is disrupted which is often. The latter is easier to deal with since I've worn hearing aids, it is ceaseless as well.

I've been called crazy, but I'm not quite insane....yet.

I'm sorry for others experiencing this, but it is a bit comforting to know I'm not alone with it.

Koog

Edit: I just noticed a post just before this one referencing analysis of music. I too can't just listen to music. Most of the time I'm pulling it apart, analyzing the individual parts and figuring them out in my head. As the poster said, "Welcome to the life of a musician".

I analyze parts as well. Snare sounds, bass lines, all of it. I was telling a friend about this recently, and as a non-musician music fan, he was astounded.

Something else I am hyper-aware of is music playing in public places. If I'm in a restaurant with friends, I sometimes fade in and out of the group conversation because I'm paying attention to what the house music system is playing.

 

[Ostie]

Yes. I just can't decide if it's a blessing or a curse.

 

[bholder]

A lot of my bass riffs I hear in my head before actually ever playing them.

The best riff I ever came up with was in a dream, it started as a warped version of PF's "Interstellar Overdrive" then morphed into its own thing. I tried to wake up in time to figure it out on bass and write it down, but it vanished...

 

[micguy]

I'm always working on new music ( church gigs every weekend. When one or more of the new tunes I'm working on starts playing in my head, I know I'm making progress - it's part of the process.

 

[Discount Bassy]

When I go to sleep, I continue to breathe.

 

[badinage]

This morning's ritual opening of curtains for the benefit of houseplants kicked this off:



Hasn't stopped. You're welcome.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Always !
Started when I was about 9 years old and my oldest sisters were listening to disco music all the time.
Got another huge peak when I heard Erruption and You really got me from Van Hallen when I was 14 years old. What an awakening !
Another big impulse happened when I was 16 and started listening nonstop to Led Zeppelin and Rush songs and bass tracks.
As I write this, Disco inferno plays in my head again and again !
And I practice my bass lines every night and morning when laying in bed.

 

[bholder]

When I go to sleep, I continue to breathe.

Me too. As long as nobody unplugs me.

 

[Clark W]

The best riff I ever came up with was in a dream, it started as a warped version of PF's "Interstellar Overdrive" then morphed into its own thing. I tried to wake up in time to figure it out on bass and write it down, but it vanished...

I have problems going to sleep cause my brain won't shut down. Sometimes after I have laid down I'll get back up and play riffs I hear in my head on my ABG. I record them with my phone so I can go back later and work on them, then I lay back down. It's particularly bad on days that I have picked up an instrument earlier in the day.

 

[fhm555]

If I'm cramming for a bass job, the set list runs 24/7 in my head unless it's something I can play in my sleep.

 

[JC BASS 91]

I almost always have a song in my head. The only time I don't is if I there is something else making sound around me, like listening to music, playing music, TV, movie, etc. Or, like right now, the rhythm of the washing machine won't allow the music to play. I can't abide the sound of overlapping music, which is why if the youngest (the only one still living at home) has his music blaring in the bathroom, I will stop my music in the living room until he's shut his off.

 

[brianrost]

When playing, yes, to some extent.

When not playing? No, which is why I can't write songs for the life of me.

 

[Clark W]

I almost always have a song in my head. The only time I don't is if I there is something else making sound around me, like listening to music, playing music, TV, movie, etc. Or, like right now, the rhythm of the washing machine won't allow the music to play. I can't abide the sound of overlapping music, which is why if the youngest (the only one still living at home) has his music blaring in the bathroom, I will stop my music in the living room until he's shut his off.

You should use the rhythm of the washing machine to write a riff. I'm sure there's one in there waiting to be pulled out.

 

[sikamikanico]

It happens regularly, but not all the time. I can have a degree of control over it - the more music I play or listen, the more it happens, and I can nurture it. But if something else comes up, it will stop.

but it almost always happens when I'm in a boring meeting at work

 

[Honkey tonk]

Few years back I couldn't listen to a recording without trying to figure out how and what was being recorded
Had to stop listening to music for a good while just to learn to appreciate what I was listening to.

 

[HardNHeavy]

always humming something in my head..also helps ear training and tuning, can almost do it without a tuner...My guitar friend always asks, how do you know so many songs and where to go with your notes.

 

[petermwright]

Yes.

 

[JRA]

if i'm not composing in my head i'm usually hearing some kind of funk. i've been doing some spray painting lately and this one keeps calling me :

 

[Slacking Zac]

Yes, and there is a medical term for it: Musical Ear Syndrome. I have it pretty bad due to hearing loss and tinnitus. If there is a fan or something noisy like that on, I swear someone is playing music through the vents.

Musical Ear Syndrome: Causes and Treatments.