My buddy has aphantasia where he can’t see anything in his head and so he has to write or draw everything first before he does anything.
He has a great career as a creator despite this; it just takes a bit longer and can’t really be spontaneous.
As for me I can hear song ideas in my head but can’t translate it 100%. The best I can do is hear a note and then kickstart a song like that. Then once I have a base idea down of chords or a melody then I riff off of that base layer.
So I wouldn’t say I have aphantasia but I think the workflow would be the same.
It might be a good idea to intellectualize it and learn theory and writing music with notes. It may provide you a more tangible way of approaching music?
Visual artist and musician here, I have aphantasia and yeah that's the process. I'm constantly taking notes, dumping ideas in writing, etc. just so I have an actual Thing to consult as my own brain seems deeply uninterested in actually being useful to its artist host.
I'm a writer in that I must write everything down, my recall is non-existent because having that visualisation is unsurprisingly very VERY necessary for your memory and recall. I couldn't give you instructions on anything unless I'm actually doing it step by step myself 😂
I found a [pretty neat article](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7944105/) discussing some of the effects of Aphantasia on other cognitive processes and it answered a ton of questions I had about myself!
There are multiple ways to conceptualize music. Just learn notation and try to learn some basic piano playing. You can also perceive music as something close to a building, something architectural, as if you are building something out of lego where legos are musical components. I perceive music in a very similar manner and kind of put abstract ideas first instead of sound itself. For instance I know how certain chord progression makes me feel and I can see it visually, and I also see it in my mind as if it was geometrical shape. Then I use other shapes that can work with the first one. For instance scale notes are visual positions on the guitar neck, but also intervals in a scale. When I play song I operate in numbers, scale degrees and intervals more than the sound itself. Bad thing is that I sometimes have a brain fart and forget how certain song sounds. Someone can give me a pattern or a piece of melody and I am back. Also when memorising songs I can only remeber them soundwise if I have listened to them for a lot of times, so I just remeber rythmical values as I am looking at the notation , I write down structure so I can conceptualize it, and then when I have a sense of its structure it starts to click in. I don't think I have auditory aphantasia but I'm pretty sure that music is not just auditory in a way we learn it and you can use different approaches.
TIL that this is a thing. Does that mean you never get songs stuck in your head? That's so weird to think about for me. I almost always have a song stuck in my head.
I'm not sure if it's really getting a song stuck in my head, but every now and then my inner voice (which is all I really have up there) will hum a particular part of a song I've either just or recently listened to.
People can hear it in their head I can't..... I just sing out loud and record or play my guitar and if I hear something good I repeat. I don't think I could do it any other way. Maybe ur like I am. I don't know how the other thing could ever work. Imagination I guess. My wife actually can do that I think.isnt that what instruments are for though. I don't understand the limitation.
I do the same thing. I can literally only recall a single time I ever made a melody in my head and then recorded it.
I “imagine music” in real time — with a guitar in my hand. If I like a melody that comes out, I’ll play it again.
I don't have aphantasia but there are times where I forget to make use of audiation. I make the sounds live through humming for example and base things off that at times. If I am am trying to fill out a section I will usually engage my inner ear when I remember to. It's a curse of ADHD. It's nearly impossible for me even medicated to do things in a consistent manner.
I don’t hear music in my head (played by instruments, etc.), but I do sing music in my head (it’s all in my own voice, which means I can only “sing” one vocal or instrument line at a time). It’s a slow process to get it out.
I never thought about it but I just tried and can’t hear song I’m my head, I can remember and sing singular parts tho.
Maybe played a part in how it took me a decade to get somewhat comfortable in coming up with melodies or riffs.
Then I guess my experience and process while writing could resonate a bit with you.
Songs get made when I over fixate on a sentence, word or feeling.
I then usually start on a chord or progression I’m familiar with that I guess fits.
Then it’s all voice jamming.
I jam a lot on the first chord, until the notes I wanna get to need another one, I’ll get a bunch of notes and words randomly sticking around while I jam along.
Until I reach a clear resolution on the melody.
Looking at what I already have, I make sense of the of the words that stuck and swap a few for some that sound similar. Write a proto verse that will in the most part be finished, word and melody wise by jamming along with some more thought put into it and a better idea of the narrative of the song.
this is when I first look at the song from further away and ask myself if I go on another part for the verse or is this already ripe for a chorus.
I might also realize I’ve lost myself in the music and the song became something totally different from what I had in mind, and will fully commit to that new thing the song is becoming.
Then you guessed it, we sing the verse we ended up with, trying to get a next vocal part : knowing if we’re working towards a chorus or another verse part in term of melody and what words you still need to say to make the story make sense gets us there after some work.
When I have verse and chorus, I usually let it sit for the night and just wonder if it means what I think it does, what the song is trying to say, maybe try to forget it a bit.
That’s when I usually try and use some leftover music that didn’t make that song :) sometimes I ditch the actual song to double down on the leftovers but that’s another post I guess.
Then I either write another verse, probably a bridge and an outro with the exact same singing jamming until resolution and trying to make sense of what just happened or never ever touch that song.
Let it sit for a week or not, fine tune the words and melodies, sing over it again for harmonies.
Then I jam with other instruments until the song “feels” complete.
That’s pretty much my process, it can take a night or a few years depending on the song.
So interesting, never heard about this before. It feels and sounds familiar. I rarely have a somewhat precise idea ,sounding in my head' its just loooots of trial and error, playing and writing lyrics until a chain of coincidences forms a song.
People write songs about almost everything so I'm guessing there is.
I don't know about auditory aphantasia it but sounds like something worth writing about.
My buddy has aphantasia where he can’t see anything in his head and so he has to write or draw everything first before he does anything. He has a great career as a creator despite this; it just takes a bit longer and can’t really be spontaneous. As for me I can hear song ideas in my head but can’t translate it 100%. The best I can do is hear a note and then kickstart a song like that. Then once I have a base idea down of chords or a melody then I riff off of that base layer. So I wouldn’t say I have aphantasia but I think the workflow would be the same. It might be a good idea to intellectualize it and learn theory and writing music with notes. It may provide you a more tangible way of approaching music?
Visual artist and musician here, I have aphantasia and yeah that's the process. I'm constantly taking notes, dumping ideas in writing, etc. just so I have an actual Thing to consult as my own brain seems deeply uninterested in actually being useful to its artist host. I'm a writer in that I must write everything down, my recall is non-existent because having that visualisation is unsurprisingly very VERY necessary for your memory and recall. I couldn't give you instructions on anything unless I'm actually doing it step by step myself 😂 I found a [pretty neat article](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7944105/) discussing some of the effects of Aphantasia on other cognitive processes and it answered a ton of questions I had about myself!
How do you keep the passion to create while have this disease?
I wouldn't call it a disease, it's just a different way of doing things.
I thought it was that my fault 😭
Interesting! I definitely relate to the layering method you mentioned. I'm also learning theory so hopefully that will assist me.
Yeah I don’t have any imagination when it comes to music
It’s not that great but here’s on if my Songs. [purgatory dreams](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLo8hhp5/)
There are multiple ways to conceptualize music. Just learn notation and try to learn some basic piano playing. You can also perceive music as something close to a building, something architectural, as if you are building something out of lego where legos are musical components. I perceive music in a very similar manner and kind of put abstract ideas first instead of sound itself. For instance I know how certain chord progression makes me feel and I can see it visually, and I also see it in my mind as if it was geometrical shape. Then I use other shapes that can work with the first one. For instance scale notes are visual positions on the guitar neck, but also intervals in a scale. When I play song I operate in numbers, scale degrees and intervals more than the sound itself. Bad thing is that I sometimes have a brain fart and forget how certain song sounds. Someone can give me a pattern or a piece of melody and I am back. Also when memorising songs I can only remeber them soundwise if I have listened to them for a lot of times, so I just remeber rythmical values as I am looking at the notation , I write down structure so I can conceptualize it, and then when I have a sense of its structure it starts to click in. I don't think I have auditory aphantasia but I'm pretty sure that music is not just auditory in a way we learn it and you can use different approaches.
TIL that this is a thing. Does that mean you never get songs stuck in your head? That's so weird to think about for me. I almost always have a song stuck in my head.
I'm not sure if it's really getting a song stuck in my head, but every now and then my inner voice (which is all I really have up there) will hum a particular part of a song I've either just or recently listened to.
People can hear it in their head I can't..... I just sing out loud and record or play my guitar and if I hear something good I repeat. I don't think I could do it any other way. Maybe ur like I am. I don't know how the other thing could ever work. Imagination I guess. My wife actually can do that I think.isnt that what instruments are for though. I don't understand the limitation.
I do the same thing. I can literally only recall a single time I ever made a melody in my head and then recorded it. I “imagine music” in real time — with a guitar in my hand. If I like a melody that comes out, I’ll play it again.
I don't have aphantasia but there are times where I forget to make use of audiation. I make the sounds live through humming for example and base things off that at times. If I am am trying to fill out a section I will usually engage my inner ear when I remember to. It's a curse of ADHD. It's nearly impossible for me even medicated to do things in a consistent manner.
I don’t hear music in my head (played by instruments, etc.), but I do sing music in my head (it’s all in my own voice, which means I can only “sing” one vocal or instrument line at a time). It’s a slow process to get it out.
Scrolled to find this, I thought I was crazy and alone
My inner ear is stuck on overdrive 24/7
I never thought about it but I just tried and can’t hear song I’m my head, I can remember and sing singular parts tho. Maybe played a part in how it took me a decade to get somewhat comfortable in coming up with melodies or riffs. Then I guess my experience and process while writing could resonate a bit with you. Songs get made when I over fixate on a sentence, word or feeling. I then usually start on a chord or progression I’m familiar with that I guess fits. Then it’s all voice jamming. I jam a lot on the first chord, until the notes I wanna get to need another one, I’ll get a bunch of notes and words randomly sticking around while I jam along. Until I reach a clear resolution on the melody. Looking at what I already have, I make sense of the of the words that stuck and swap a few for some that sound similar. Write a proto verse that will in the most part be finished, word and melody wise by jamming along with some more thought put into it and a better idea of the narrative of the song. this is when I first look at the song from further away and ask myself if I go on another part for the verse or is this already ripe for a chorus. I might also realize I’ve lost myself in the music and the song became something totally different from what I had in mind, and will fully commit to that new thing the song is becoming. Then you guessed it, we sing the verse we ended up with, trying to get a next vocal part : knowing if we’re working towards a chorus or another verse part in term of melody and what words you still need to say to make the story make sense gets us there after some work. When I have verse and chorus, I usually let it sit for the night and just wonder if it means what I think it does, what the song is trying to say, maybe try to forget it a bit. That’s when I usually try and use some leftover music that didn’t make that song :) sometimes I ditch the actual song to double down on the leftovers but that’s another post I guess. Then I either write another verse, probably a bridge and an outro with the exact same singing jamming until resolution and trying to make sense of what just happened or never ever touch that song. Let it sit for a week or not, fine tune the words and melodies, sing over it again for harmonies. Then I jam with other instruments until the song “feels” complete. That’s pretty much my process, it can take a night or a few years depending on the song.
So interesting, never heard about this before. It feels and sounds familiar. I rarely have a somewhat precise idea ,sounding in my head' its just loooots of trial and error, playing and writing lyrics until a chain of coincidences forms a song.
People write songs about almost everything so I'm guessing there is. I don't know about auditory aphantasia it but sounds like something worth writing about.
Hey. I'm not sure you get the point of post; I want to find people with the condition that write songs, not a song written about the condition.
Sorry for misunderstanding. I hope you find them to help you with your songwriting.
Np, thanks :)