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How do you visualize or experience music?

Dreamer

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Do you find yourself translating what you hear to colors? To smells? To light? How does music touch your soul and how do you interact with it on levels beyond the auditory restriction of the medium?

There have been a few other threads around this topic, how music makes you feel, but I am interested in the product so to speak. What do those strong internal responses to music allow you to create? What do they allow to imagine? What do they allow you to think? I am interested in the creative process, as it relates to your subjective interpretations of music.
 

Breathing

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Well if I'm really into a song I'll zone out pretty hard and imagine a sort of music video. I would say my mind would create something surreal, like strange landscapes and creatures. My mind would focus on experiencing physical sensations a bit too (like feeling strong wind, heat and smelling pleasant scents). Interesting question, I'd like to see others add to this.
 
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Dreamer

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Well if I'm really into a song I'll zone out pretty hard and imagine a sort of music video. I would say my mind would create something surreal, like strange landscapes and creatures. My mind would focus on experiencing physical sensations a bit too (like feeling strong wind, heat and smelling pleasant scents). Interesting question, I'd like to see others add to this.

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. Do these images or sensations you get tend to be imprinted to the song, meaning, once you hear it and make that connection in your own way, does that same landscape reappear? If not, would you say your emotions at the time play a role in how you respond to the same music?

Do you find your visualizations in general, tend to offer a language of their own, or do you seem to create from scratch with each new immersive experience?

Apologies for all the questions, I'm just super excited over this topic! :happy2:
 
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Wouldn’t that be synesthesia? I don’t hear colors. I do feel a wave of chills with pieces that really stir me inside. They either emanate from my head and cascade down my body or they run in the opposite direction. Lexicon had a thread on it a while back with articles saying if you experience chills with music your brain is wired with more receptors that respond to music. There are also studies comparing music to drugs in terms of stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain.

I think the more you listen to music and the more diverse your selections become the more your brain builds to accommodate your preferences. I may have more receptors keyed to musical input because I listen to so much music.
 

Coriolis

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Do you find yourself translating what you hear to colors? To smells? To light? How does music touch your soul and how do you interact with it on levels beyond the auditory restriction of the medium?
You find the auditory nature of music to be a restriction?

Apologies for all the questions, I'm just super excited over this topic! :happy2:
Why the interest in this particular topic?

( I will provide a more substantive response later when less pressed for time.)
 

rav3n

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Depends on the piece. Some like Adagio in G minor paint a man in religious despair and reverence, in conversation with his sky god.
 

á´…eparted

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Music has been very important to me, starting mostly in my teen years when I discovered the genres of music that I like. Prior to that it definitely meant a lot of me and the rare songs I really liked I really enjoyed, but I did not place a concerted effort into finding what I like until I got older.

Ultimately, music is an experience for me that can be come quite rich if I immerse myself in it (i.e. just listening and not doing much else). They key is though I have to like the music and it has to resonate with me in some way. Usually in the form of sound, but rarely I can connect with it in different ways. Unfortunately it's rather difficult to explain how I experience it since it is sort of its own category.

Excluding cases where the music does nothing for me, at the lowest level I will enjoy the sounds. No imagery or impressions, but it's still nice to listen to. Not much else to explain beyond this since this experience doesn't really differ all that much from other things.

At higher levels though it's a bigger deal. At it's highest I will get full "videos" in my head as I listen to it. Sometimes I will create one and it will come relatively quickly, but other times it just sort of comes to me (this usually only happens for songs with no music video, but not always). Lately, the videos I have created or that came to me have taken place in the D&D campaign I have made, and actually have been a pretty big source of fodder for it. The biggest reason is music will very often capture the sort of asthetic and emotional vibe of the world, and based on my players response to things this actually matched up pretty well (the campaign ended last year due to me graduating).

As for the emotional landscapes and aesthetics that I will feel, that is extremely difficult to explain. Its sort of like trying to explain happy, or the color blue to someone who has never experienced or seen it before. There is a lack of a decent reference point. In a lot of ways, I sort of need the person to listen and I will cross my fingers that they will "get" what I am seeing/feeling, but that rarely happens. Though, I do come across some people who will follow it very rarely. [MENTION=17945]Video[/MENTION] is actually one of those people.

One constancy that I will experience though is feelings of other-worldlyness, or something that has departed from the every day and reality. I've been drawn to "unreal" things as far back as I can remember, so it definitely comes from my enjoyment of such things. In some ways, it feels like I'm a kid again going to some amazing place I have built up in my mind, and it is everything I want it to be. That feeling of satisfaction, immersion, and like there is something larger beyond what is being seen. I hesitate to call it a spiritual experience because I am not a spiritual person, but it would be somewhat close to that.

I feel like one of my life long goals is trying to find ways to actualize the experiences I have from listening to music, and finding ways to have others be able to share in that sort of experience. I mean, music was a very big reason I was able to create all of the things I did in my D&D campaign, and my players loved it, so I am definitely on to something.

 

Breathing

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Interesting! Thanks for sharing. Do these images or sensations you get tend to be imprinted to the song, meaning, once you hear it and make that connection in your own way, does that same landscape reappear? If not, would you say your emotions at the time play a role in how you respond to the same music?

Do you find your visualizations in general, tend to offer a language of their own, or do you seem to create from scratch with each new immersive experience?

Apologies for all the questions, I'm just super excited over this topic! :happy2:

Yeah I'd say that certain songs bring up the same images and sensations. I'll go back into the same daydream with a song, maybe build upon it here and there. A lot of songs share the same daydream actually. What I'm feeling will usually dictate what type of music I put on. The visualizations are what I would describe as abstract representations of my emotions I guess :shrug: . I just go with the flow in my head and enjoy the experience.
No apologies needed :wink: I just hope I answered your question thoroughly ; o
 

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I have perfect pitch, and so certain keys have certain associations for me--for example, color associations (A minor is yellow, B minor is dark blue, C# minor is sunset orange, G minor is green with flashes of yellow, etc.). Aside from that, I do what I assume most people do, which is to say I see music-inspired videos playing through my head while I'm listening. Since I often use music to inspire my writing, these videos frequently pertain to settings, characters, and events that I've made up as a part of my work in that art form.
 

Sacrophagus

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Listen to a foregone melody again, and it will be your ticket back to when you met.


I remember the melancholy of some earstwhile days, when music was my only mean of alleviation. I was addicted to Minor scales and gnomic modes.


No, I don't think in terms of colors or smells, rather, music is a channel to emotions I have isolated deep within. For catharsis and reconciliation.


I would express life through the frets of my guitar, visualize tesseracts and landscapes. There forms solar flares as I gently push my whammy bar, and supermassive blackholes when I caress the harmonics as I'm tapping my way through mixolydian.


Goosebumps may occur as I'm listening to music strongly reverberating my state of mind, to speak my mind.


e.g: The Best Of Times, Lakeside Park, Glasgow Kiss... etc.
 

rav3n

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Music is more meaningful to me than the lyrics. I often give the song different meaning than was intended by the song writer. Or latching on to a refrain or line in the lyrics which can be construed in different ways. Some music consumes me, usually classical (vernacular definition), opera, ambient, etc. Others can enhance emotions or help to mitigate negative emotions. Some music evokes colours, sensations, etc.
 

Dreamer

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Wouldn't that be synesthesia? I don't hear colors. I do feel a wave of chills with pieces that really stir me inside. They either emanate from my head and cascade down my body or they run in the opposite direction. Lexicon had a thread on it a while back with articles saying if you experience chills with music your brain is wired with more receptors that respond to music. There are also studies comparing music to drugs in terms of stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain. I think the more you listen to music and the more diverse your selections become the more your brain builds to accommodate your preferences. I may have more receptors keyed to musical input because I listen to so much music.

Hmm, not synethesia, though I wish I had it! But I'll try to explain what I mean (I'll post later to give more detail) is taking in the information through music, feeling a stir inside, an emotional response, could be a mental response, now, what does that response ultimately lead to? What do you create with that? What does that motivate within you? Do you find inspiration to write upon hearing a moving song? Maybe draw? Maybe even solve a problem by abstracting the interplay between the elements within a song? (This last question is what can occur for me :))
 

Dreamer

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You find the auditory nature of music to be a restriction?
Restriction in a sense that it is the limiting factor in the delivery of information, meaning that your personal response is only in reaction to the auditory flow of information. Now, if you were to attend the symphony or say, the ballet or opera, you would not only hear the music, but obtain the visual information as well.

I don't use "restriction" here in a negative sense as there is an undeniable beauty in the requirement for the listener to fill in the blanks with their subjective experience. We are not told how to "see", though guided and persuaded perhaps by the composition of the music, but we "see" through the creation of what our minds may produce upon hearing something that has entered your soul.

Why the interest in this particular topic? ( I will provide a more substantive response later when less pressed for time.)

Oh simply because a song came on Spotify while I was working and it diverted my attention to something which felt rather moving and inspiring. The music was not simply background noise at that point. Then it got me thinking of how I prefer to listen to certain genres of music to encourage creative thought and I wanted to then see what other people's reaction to music may produce. :)
 

Dreamer

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I'm commenting to remind myself to return to this thread.

Oh heck no, you better not pull a "Dreamer" on me! I leave these sorts of posts all the time with the intent to return, and I probably only actually do like...25% of the time? :shrug: Haha
 

Peter Deadpan

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Oh heck no, you better not pull a "Dreamer" on me! I leave these sorts of posts all the time with the intent to return, and I probably only actually do like...25% of the time? :shrug: Haha

That's definitely my general strategy. I try.
 

Siúil a Rúin

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I've had one funny thing for decades where certain keys are specific colors to me and it stays the same. It is related more to the conception of each key rather than me having perfect pitch, so I'm not sure what that means. They never change:

A = Green
B = Orange
C = Yellow
D = Red
E = Blue
F = Purple
G = Brown

Besides that I am imaginative with abstract sound, which is why I often use programmatic titles in my own pieces. My senses are not compartmentalized at all, but are always integrated. It's actually a Western European, German most specifically, that conceives of music as "absolute", as existing in isolation to any other senses and that was considered an ideal for years. The idea of using a picturesque title or any non-sound based association in the title or conception of the piece is very much looked down on in that philosophy. I've never been able to think that way. I've always created music videos in my head. :)
 
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Hmm, not synethesia, though I wish I had it! But I'll try to explain what I mean (I'll post later to give more detail) is taking in the information through music, feeling a stir inside, an emotional response, could be a mental response, now, what does that response ultimately lead to? What do you create with that? What does that motivate within you? Do you find inspiration to write upon hearing a moving song? Maybe draw? Maybe even solve a problem by abstracting the interplay between the elements within a song? (This last question is what can occur for me :))

Oh I’ve written entire short stories by inspiration gained by listening to a piece of music. It will generate all sorts of ideas or spark memories. Sometimes I listen to distract myself from thoughts.
 

Jaguar

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Music is more meaningful to me than the lyrics. I often give the song different meaning than was intended by the song writer. Or latching on to a refrain or line in the lyrics which can be construed in different ways. Some music consumes me, usually classical (vernacular definition), opera, ambient, etc. Others can enhance emotions or help to mitigate negative emotions. Some music evokes colours, sensations, etc.

Same here. I had an argument with my brother and wanted to get that toxic shit out of my body. I went into my den and flipped on Coldplay's "Clocks." Just the piano intro, alone, can start zapping any negativity out of me. It's amazing, really.
 

Dreamer

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Same here. I had an argument with my brother and wanted to get that toxic shit out of my body. I went into my den and flipped on Coldplay's "Clocks." Just the piano intro, alone, can start zapping any negativity out of me. It's amazing, really.

"The Scientist" and "Fix You" are two of my go-to songs to bring me more in tune with my emotions. Not just negative or bleak emotions either. That point in "Fix You" about, 3/4 the way in where the music suddenly "releases", I can feel an internal freedom and weightlessness come alive on so many levels, it's sublime.
 
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