[NF] NF's and Music

[Kool Keith]

From what I've read, INFP's are stereotyped as writers. (I do actually enjoy writing quite a bit, even if it's just for business correspondence.)

But what about music?

I have been a very musical person my whole life. I have played a variety of musical instruments, I have a very good feel for music, and it is probably one of my greatest strengths.

Do the NF's in general have an affinity for music? If not, what types do?

 

[speculative]

It's not one of our normally listed "favored professions." However, from what I've seen though INFPs can't lay any more claim to music than any other type, quite a few INFPs I've run across seem to enjoy music or be gifted at it.

 

[KLessard]

From what I've read, INFP's are stereotyped as writers. (I do actually enjoy writing quite a bit, even if it's just for business correspondence.)

But what about music?

I have been a very musical person my whole life. I have played a variety of musical instruments, I have a very good feel for music, and it is probably one of my greatest strengths.

Do the NF's in general have an affinity for music? If not, what types do?

I have an ENFP friend who plays a bit of guitar and (secretly) composes songs (she admitted it to me and felt all ashamed about it, I'm not sure why, she says she feels she's no good at it). She loves listening to all kinds of music.

My father was INFP and loved music, but never had the patience to learn (at some point he wanted to play guitar like Elvis, and when he realized the effort he would have to put into it, he dropped the music lessons).

As for myself, I was forced to play piano since I was three and the lessons were a pain to me all the way (mostly because my ESTJ mother and ISTJ teacher were very hard and impatient with me and were impossible to please). My mother allowed me to choose whether I still wanted the lessons or not at thirteen and I gave up right away, and what a relief for me!!!
I started playing piano at church about a couple of years later because they needed a pianist, and that is when I started loving it. Playing in a spirit of worship and sharing, not for showing off your skills was what I loved, and I now also play in a Christian band. Music is not a passion for me, but I enjoy playing with other musicians. I love the fellowship of music.
The instruments I play are piano, keyboard, irish whistles and a bit of mouthblown smallpipes.
Folk/ celtic / world music are among my favourites, but I also love choir and gospel music very much.

 

[Lacey]

I'm a terrible writer. I don't particularly like doing it, either. Now, reading, on the other hand...

My father was INFP and loved music, but never had the patience to learn (at some point he wanted to play guitar like Elvis, and when he realized the effort he would have to put into it, he dropped the music lessons).

Yeah, I did kind of the same thing. I love rock music and wanted to be super cool and play guitar. Notice I said I wanted to be "super cool". Pretty shallow, eh? I took guitar lessons for 2 years, but I hated practicing.

However, I'm a really good rhythm (as opposed to Broadway) tap dancer. Which I count as music, even though lots of other people probably don't. And I have another INFP friend who's even better at me than tap dancing.

All the other types of dance (ballet, jazz, modern) where more of a challenge to me, but I ended up getting decently good. Because I was passionate about it, so I worked for it. And I think that any type can do that for any field.

I think NFs can definitely have an affinity for music... At least in my case, I connect emotionally with music and rhythm in a way that I can't connect with anything else.

 

[BlueScreen]

INFPs are some of the best at music. They are creative, expressive, accurate. I'm sort of jealous .

I have an ENFP friend who plays a bit of guitar and (secretly) composes songs (she admitted it to me and felt all ashamed about it, I'm not sure why, she says she feels she's no good at it). She loves listening to all kinds of music.

ENFPs can be their own harshest critics. It's sort of the gap between what is and what could be. I do the same. I won't be happy until it sits okay next to things like yesterday and imagine. But don't think it's a problem, ridiculous dreams are what make us tick, and sometimes achieve the amazing. Encouragement and affirmation always help though.

 

[Snuggletron]

Tried my hand at making music/sound, never really followed through on keeping at it. Some of the equipment is very expensive, and it just doesn't seem like a realistic goal (I've been wanting to make my own ambient music for the past year or so).

There's the three big arts, Writing, Drawing, and Music. I've found a lot of people talented in one are likely to be talented in another or all three. Creative people like messing around with different outlets. I do.

 

[OrangeAppled]

I love music. I'm a big music nerd and totally obsessed with it.
I've never had the discipline to learn to play an instrument. It's part of my follow through issue....

I have seen "musician" as a favored career for INFPs (not that those lists matter a whole lot). Song-writing seems like something INFPs would be drawn to. Lyrics are a form of poetry after all.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I've played several instruments. I'm a better musician than writer, by far...

 

[Bubbles]

I'm a better writer, but I love to sing. It's a bigtime hobby.

I sing while doing dishes to take my mind off the fact that I'm working.

 

[Biaxident]

I'm a better writer, but I love to sing. It's a bigtime hobby.

I sing while doing dishes to take my mind off the fact that I'm working.

I sing all the time, just don't tell anyone.


Well crap....I forgot, font changes don't carry over onto iSpy....

 

[Kool Keith]

Thanks for the responses. Just curious about this stuff is all. The idea that SF's were those most into art and the arts was interesting to me because I am a big slappy for most of that stuff in general, although I am pretty deep into INFP territory according to my MBTI test.

 

[OrangeAppled]

Thanks for the responses. Just curious about this stuff is all. The idea that SF's were those most into art and the arts was interesting to me because I am a big slappy for most of that stuff in general, although I am pretty deep into INFP territory according to my MBTI test.

Many INFPs are artistic. I'm more or as artistic than most SPs I know personally. I think there's a misconception that you need to be a sensor to be good with color and space. Most INFP profiles mention that we're inclined towards the arts, and that can be anything from writing to music to visual arts.
That doesn't mean all INFPs will be that way, but I'm suspicious of someone who claims to be INFP and isn't inherently imaginative and creative in some way.

 

[Southern Kross]

I have dabbled in playing various instruments when I was a kid but, like others here, have struggled to learn due to the lack of necessary discipline.

However, I do have a strong affinity for a wide variety of music. I truly love it and have this weird deep connection to it. I've come to realize that few people respond to it the way I do; to me, its like others merely hear it but I experience it. Its like there's a more direct pathway between the music and my emotions - they seem to be intricately connected. Certain songs at certain times (I tend to go through periods of obsession over particular songs) can affect me so much, it can initiate a deep emotional response out of nowhere. I can actually feel the underlying emotions of the song as if they were occuring for real: anguish, joy, unease, hope, awe, disallusionment, nostelgia, even love, in addition to many more that are so delicate and complex they defy description. Some music can even create a noticable physiological response in me; the more common ones being: shivers up my spine, a wave of a tingling sensation, and real tears. But sometimes I can go into a sort of subconscious state where I can literally feel my heartrate completely change, and the tension (for the lack of a better word) in my body seemingly radiate out of me in the most bizarre way that my body begins to feel lighter. The world recedes, the music envelops me, and I almost entirely lose all sense of time and space. Its like being completely transported in mind, body and spirit. I guess this is Fi in overdrive.

I really wish that I could use that connection to actually play and make music. I often find it hard to cope with the fact that I can't . I have recurring dreams where I just pick up a musical instrument and can magically play it like a professional, as long as I don't think about it too much and just let the song flow out of me. Its like a paraplegic believing deep down he should be able to run like a Olympic sprinter.

 

[SilkRoad]

I love music and have always had an affinity for it, certainly as far as appreciating it - both classical and rock. I started general music lessons at the age of 3 and started piano (well, actually I started on harpsichord and moved to piano) at 7. I've also played recorder, ukulele, violin and guitar.

However, my main affinity is as an appreciator, not a musician. I played many pieces I loved when I did piano but I also had to be hassled a lot to practice. I was good at the expressive/emotional aspects but not so much at accuracy and technique, especially in the fast pieces! There would be moments when I would feel a kind of breakthrough and the music would just flow from me, and that felt wonderful. But usually it didn't last that long - I tended to spoil it by starting to think!

At least according to Keirsey, that "flow" feeling is the kind of thing that SP musicians would experience a lot/most of the time. I understood that better after reading his SP descriptions and also understood better why I kept spoiling my musical moments by thinking too much

I love live music, of any genre, as long as it's good. Of course, I particularly love going to a concert by one of my favourite bands. I have many of my happiest moments at a good rock concert. It's like the meeting of the spiritual and the sensual for me. I become unhibited (as far as screaming and yelling and jumping up and down!) in a way that I very seldom do otherwise, but it's a spiritual/emotional experience too. Live classical music is not as intense for me, usually, but I can also be very deeply moved and I have a strange feeling that a hole I was barely even aware of is filling up inside me.

I don't seem to have any affinity at all for composing. I can't think creatively that way. I have been a writer on and off for most of my life, but I unfortunately feel less creative than I used to...perhaps that is everyday life stifling the creative impulse... However, my main outlet for creativity these days seems to be writing poetry, and that is really a medium where I feel I can express emotion and creativity

I also have the impression that for NFs, INFPs are more likely to be musician/artist types than INFJs. INFJs are likely to have the edge when it comes to writing, though - certainly writing of the "literary" variety.

 

[speculative]

I took 9 years of piano lessons when I was a kid, and didn't have a problem with practicing. I also played trombone in band for about 9 years. I think I had more discipline for that sort of thing back then. I haven't read sheet music in soooo long... I need to re-learn that skill, and am finding it harder to discipline myself to do it than I would have when I was younger.

When I take those intelligence type tests, music is usually my top intelligence. I took a music composition 101 class in college because I could test out of it by turning in my composition piece early. I played it for the professor and passed the class. It was interesting, because I had always composed on the piano using patterns. (I'm hoping I can transfer this skill to the pattern-based computer composition programs.) He said something about how I had used scale "X," and I didn't know what that was but just nodded. I had just picked the notes because they sounded good in that pattern.

 

[bighairything]

Although I'm pretty much always listening to music and am fairly knowledgeable about it, I've never been particularly "musical". But I do have excellent rhythm and an innate talent for the bongo that I haven't really developed. Doubt it has anything to do with NF though, more like Se, which I'm okay with.

 

[MonkeyGrass]

I have an affinity for music. I'm actually quite good at music theory, and am a thoughtful performer, too. It's not something I could ever do as a job, but in college, I was quite good, comparatively. I have music in my genes on both sides of the family, and I don't think it's something my type alone could destroy.

 

[Stanton Moore]

Many INFPs are artistic. I'm more or as artistic than most SPs I know personally. I think there's a misconception that you need to be a sensor to be good with color and space. Most INFP profiles mention that we're inclined towards the arts, and that can be anything from writing to music to visual arts.
That doesn't mean all INFPs will be that way, but I'm suspicious of someone who claims to be INFP and isn't inherently imaginative and creative in some way.

Yep. Me too.

I think our Fi is key here. It's the ultimate judging function for aesthetic matters. It's the little voice that says "No. This is not quite right. Rework it." As an improvising musician, this is a critical function. It tells me how to react without conscious thought (Actually, it is the reaction), and as a great (probably INFP) drummer named Brian Blade once said: "As soon as I start thinking on stage, I know I'm in trouble."
Fi can be great. There's nothing whiney about it for me. sometimes I thank the universe for the moments I've enjoyed through it.

 

[HecticRat]

The bassist in my brother's band in an incredible musical composer and my INFP friend is pretty good too. I haven't heard much of his latest work but based on what little of it I've heard, he knows how to write music. Also, he seems to hold himself to the same high standards with all his projects that an INTP (a type with a supposedly natural advantage in the musical realm) would. In other words, He doesn't go into the writing process with a plan but he still won't cut any corners and say "screw it, good enough" and just leave it be the way it is. It's gotta be perfect in order for him to consider it finished (this also applies to video editing with my friend).

 

[Lacey]

However, I do have a strong affinity for a wide variety of music. I truly love it and have this weird deep connection to it. I've come to realize that few people respond to it the way I do; to me, its like others merely hear it but I experience it. Its like there's a more direct pathway between the music and my emotions - they seem to be intricately connected. Certain songs at certain times (I tend to go through periods of obsession over particular songs) can affect me so much, it can initiate a deep emotional response out of nowhere. I can actually feel the underlying emotions of the song as if they were occuring for real: anguish, joy, unease, hope, awe, disallusionment, nostelgia, even love, in addition to many more that are so delicate and complex they defy description. Some music can even create a noticable physiological response in me; the more common ones being: shivers up my spine, a wave of a tingling sensation, and real tears. But sometimes I can go into a sort of subconscious state where I can literally feel my heartrate completely change, and the tension (for the lack of a better word) in my body seemingly radiate out of me in the most bizarre way that my body begins to feel lighter. The world recedes, the music envelops me, and I almost entirely lose all sense of time and space. Its like being completely transported in mind, body and spirit. I guess this is Fi in overdrive.

Wow. This is what I wanted to say the last time I posted, but didn't know how.

I think it's interesting you brought up the physiological aspect. I definitely get that too. I wonder if that's why I feel the need to dance.