Music: What do you see?

[nsmar4211]

I see things in my head all the time, not just when playing music. When I recall stuff, I see it in the form I first saw it in (book page, computer screen, whatever). I do math in my head too, it's like writing on a sheet of glass mentally.

Music wise, If I've learned something visually (say, off a tab or sheet music) then when I'm playing I can recall the visual and "read" it in my head. The more times I play without looking at the sheet music the fainter the visual gets, but the more rote playing it because (ie. it fades because I don't need it). If I learned something by ear without ever writing it down then my visual becomes the pattern on the fretboard. Course, then I tend to stare at the fretboard if I get lost because that's where my mental visual cue is.

In orchestra I once forgot my music folder at the school where we practiced for a concert. I realized I could see the music in my head and didn't actually need the folder! (it was a christmas concert...how many times have I played sleigh ride?!) The conductor didn't feel that way and luckily the band director of that school was a member so he grabbed my music while he was getting other things. Funny part was I ended up passing my folder to the other pecussionists because my copies were easier to read and ended up playing by memory anyway.

I've been told thats a photographic memory. However, I don't remember names worth a darn (which makes this business a bit tricky....) and unless I concentrate I have trouble remember where I know someone from. Part of that may be from working retail and seeing 50-200 peeps a day. But you'd think a photographic memory would make names easier....*sigh*.

It has its uses outside of music too... I totally tripped out an old 4H leader, I was in college 1200 miles away and she called to ask if I knew where some animal normal temperature info was (this was pre internet, back when you looked everything up in books). I remembered the book title, told her to flip through starting at around page 300, look on the left side of the page for a gray table that takes up 1/2 the page.... it ended up being page 312 or something like that. Funny part is, that was no big deal to me LOL.

As for seeing colors when music plays.....if I try I can. I tend to see more lines and patterns than actual colors, the lines move like you were scrolling through the music side to side. Kinda like waveforms on editing software (which are endlessly fascinating to me!). Colors when you taste something? Now that'd be neat....

 

[carrasaurus]

Rising from my fingers, I see little puffy cartoon clouds rising with point values of 5, 10, 25, and 50 - then they poof away when they get about 8 inches above my fingers. When I play a cool lick, a larger cloud will appear with a point value in the hundreds and a flashing star the says "combo!". When I play a wrong note of flub my fingering, a red X rises from the fret board and deducts from my total score. All the while I hear sound effects from super mario world regardless of what I'm playing.

 

[Honk'n_down-low]

I'm sure some people learn to subconsciously read each other when they've been making the same music together for years on end, kind of like how twins can be sometimes. I don't know exactly what it is, but I wouldn't call it magic.

And anbody who ends up seeing unexplicable colors in a trance state either has some measurable neurological condition or is a drug abuser.

My drummer - a professionally jazz-trained musician and one of the most talented people I know - and I can hook into a groove together pretty well. My band is a trio and we do alot of Cream-style improv sections where we all just try to play off of each other. Sometimes I have to concentrate on what he's doing; sometimes it feels, like you've described, as though the music is being channeled through me rather than being played by me. But I think that's mostly the result of us knowing, conciously or subconciously, what the other guy is going to do at a given point because of experience of having played together for so long and knowing what the other guy is capable of. Lots of eye contact and it's more like we're having a conversation with our instruments than tripping out on some mystical state of being, or whatever.

The drummer from the John Entwistle Band said that he and John "knew" each other from a musical perspective so well that they could anticipate each other's mistakes, and offset them before they ever happened. I don't think that's the result of anything "magical", rather they were just ****ing amazing musicians.

Not saying that it happens the same for everyone. Magic was more a descriptive term than a literal one in what I was trying to convey. It is both what you stated to some degree and more than that IMO.

There are quite a few people here and elsewhere that understand what I am saying. Not trying to nail it to a mystical element, but there are special places you get to when playing, I am not trying to define it for anyone. IME, it is closer to an energy, spiritual thing, but I don't want to limit it to those terms. Even saying in the Zone can be misconstrued. It is Zen like place and the Music takes you there. Not only do you play with an amazing sense of connection - but it can occur during the creative process and you are just effortlessly producing music, musical ideas - that in these moments you have to be recording - cause sometimes they slip away as quickly as you produced them. A similar experience occurs if you have ever woken up with a melody or part of a song in your head and did not write it down. YMMV. Just saying it is an awesome thing and I am not alone in having experienced it - however you choose to define it is totally cool with me.

 

[DizzyExiled]

I see cute girls getting crushed against barricades and slimeballs trying to grope/grind/penetrate them.

 

[addylewis]

I DO see something whilst listening to cd's - I can't describe what though...kinda, shapes/colours which don't change and somehow fit to that song - its different for every song/version...that sounds wierd doesn't it, you'd know what I meant if you got it whilst listening...

 

[Elrend]

When I solo, I see everything in my mind.

 

[Arpeggiator]

feeling al the way , once i know the piece, when i am reahearsing a piece however i sometimes can visualize the notes.

 

[NickInMesa]

Seriously I see chord structure, as dots on a line

But not really visually, it's weird. I hear them. Odd, uh?

 

[kayakbass]

I'm usually Thinking " Nice Bristols" or "When's The Next Break?" or " when are the drugs going to take effect?" or "I hope I don't have to poop really bad in the middle of the set."

I often think "Jeez I'm not getting paid enough to play Sweet Home Alabama again!"

I hope those very same things for you!

I also think about my financial sitchiashun....

 

[ahbassman]

For me, its not so much what I see, but what I hear.

I can hear different melodies and harmonies that I come up with on my own in my head.

And then all the aforementioned experiences of just jamming and knowing what other band members are going to do and responding to that.

 

[All_¥our_Bass]

In my head I'm counting and thinking about intervals.

 

[NickInMesa]

In my head I'm counting and thinking about intervals.

You should not count. Not the same part of the brain. You need to feel it, man.

Counting may be good when learning some complex songs, but once you know it, play it.

 

[All_¥our_Bass]

Not counting individual beats, but keeping track of how many times to play a part before going into the next one (it's almost never 4,8,or 16 repetitions).

 

[megadan]

I generally see rhythms as shapes, like squares and triangles, or see-saws, rolling eggs, etc.
I generally hear melodies as colours or 'colour ladders' with different possible arrangements, or like folding cubes (tesseracts).

 

[pklima]

In another section they are interviewing Phil Lesh and he comments that we do not create the music, it already exsists and we are permited to channel it if we can get ourselves out of way and simply let it flow.

In Soviet Russia, music plays you!

 

[pandaman37]

synesthasia, what would i give to experience that for a little while..
i feel that sooner or later, people become so aquainted with it, it is almost like talking, and when you meet with people (a band), of the same experience, and especially if you share a deep personal and musical background, thats where magic happens.
being as new as i am, ive only had a few really profound experiences, the first one being the very first time me and my best friend from elementary school jammed (acoustic bass ftw) i cant believe how good it was, i mean it was nothing special or complex or fast, but it was just really cool how we turned out something so glorious. another time, i was super stoned, and i felt as though i was kissing each note goodbye. pretty awesome.

 

[Fetusyolk]

i see colors.. idk how else to explain that. i see colour when i play music. and the colors change like an aurora borealis somewhat.

i'm not being 'mystical' - i'm speaking literally

 

[Stempelloos]

synesthasia, what would i give to experience that for a little while..

'Feel your eyes grind in their sockets' relates to it in my mind.
It's indeed a bit like the Northern light (aurea borealis) or St. Elmo's fire at times.

 

[baalroo]

I too am surprised there are so few responses here about actual synesthesia. I see moving shapes and images that arrange themselves within my visual field and move in relation to the sounds that I hear. However, unlike a lot of people with audio-visual synesthesia, I DO NOT see sound as color, for me it's more like an opaque film of light and dark shadows laid over the top of my visual field. When I close my eyes it can be quite the vivid experience, but with my eyes open it's generally feint enough to remain just at the edge of my visual perception.

@fetusyolk: I too find it difficult at times to explain to "normal" people that my synesthesia is a REAL perceptual experience for me and not a way of talking in metaphor. When I say to someone (foolishly) something like "maybe we could play this a bit rounder" I often actually mean ROUNDER and it's only after I use such descriptors that I realize that what for me is a very descriptive and obvious explanation of a sound is complete nonsense to the people I'm talking to!

 

[R. Laevinus]

You guys are all weirdos... I see nothing, metaphorically or otherwise. I hear the music.

Like really. My mind goes comepletely blank, and I just get carried away on the sound.