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Does anyone else play songs in their head (purposefully)?

jamesaldrin

Well-Known Member
Does anyone else do this?

I like to play a song in my head and focus into getting all the little details right so that I can enjoy. This leads to me going into focus and not focusing on the outside world. I might play a few songs in my head when I'm on the train or something. For instance, I would play a metal song, "Through the Fire and Flames," in my head in as much detail as possible, trying to get in all the guitar strums, lyrics, and drum beats I can remember / focus on. This can get enjoyable when I get really into it; I can get the goosebumps occasionally from this. Often times I can't focus well enough to play the song well (probably because I'm tired), but every now and then I can play a song pretty vividly.
 
Does anyone else do this?

I like to play a song in my head and focus into getting all the little details right so that I can enjoy. This leads to me going into focus and not focusing on the outside world. I might play a few songs in my head when I'm on the train or something. For instance, I would play a metal song, "Through the Fire and Flames," in my head in as much detail as possible, trying to get in all the guitar strums, lyrics, and drum beats I can remember / focus on. This can get enjoyable when I get really into it; I can get the goosebumps occasionally from this. Often times I can't focus well enough to play the song well (probably because I'm tired), but every now and then I can play a song pretty vividly.
I constantly have songs in my head, but contrarily its usually very annoying ones and then I have to listen to actual music to get relief lol. I get the feeling you are describing when playing the guitar though.
 
I do with lyrics mainly, certainly not to the same degree with the notes themselves.

I've done the same in the past with films, books, speeches and conversations.

It's not always voluntary for me, or at least not completely, and I do get crap in my head stuck on repeat.

When I'm overwhelmed it's often just one or two words, which I wonder if it's related to echolalia?

Ironically, when I first thought that a few months ago, the word "echolalia" got stuck on repeat for weeks!
 
I have a TERRIBLE problem with going into stores or gyms and the music stays with me. So I have a whole lot of others songs I play in my head when I leave to get rid of them'

I am very fearful when I go into plublic places because of their music.
 
Yes, I do this all the time, intentionally, usually repeating certain parts over and over or slowing them down in my head to try and figure out what intervals/harmonies are present within the arrangement of songs I haven't quite got the measure of yet.

This is a very useful ability for composition, too, but the problem is, I haven't quite figured out how to take these original ideas that I've imagined inside my head and put them into actual music accurately yet, they never sound quite how I imagine them to sound and there are usually certain chords or melodic phrases that just don't sound as good as they did in my head. I'm getting better at this all the time, though.

I hate when I'm doing this and then there's some other music playing somewhere else that interrupts it. HOW DARE THEY INTERRUPT MY IMAGINATION.
 
It's not always voluntary for me, or at least not completely, and I do get crap in my head stuck on repeat.

Yeah, for me it's sometimes voluntary but a lot of the time it's something really annoying that has wormed it's way in.

When I'm overwhelmed it's often just one or two words, which I wonder if it's related to echolalia?

This happens to me too. Sometimes just like one line that replays over and over and over ad infinitum, and it can be one or two words occasionally too.
 
Yeah, I do this. Most of the time it's voluntary, and, unlike my NT friends, I do actually remember the instruments, drum beats and lyrics. They think it's weird, but now... maybe it's just aspie? IDK. Most of the time I sing it out though, I'll try and keep it in my head and I'll find myself humming and grooving in the middle of an assessment. It's...
a bit embarrassing.
 
yes, it happens often.... the music gets in, then stuck and i have to listen to other music, to dislodge it.... i'm NT, so im not sure if this is just an Aspie thing....?
 
Yes. I am always playing songs in my head, nonstop. Right now it's Without You by My Darkest Days, but it's always changing.
 
Oh yeah, I do it all the time. I love walking to the sound of a song I like, but sometimes I don't have the song I want on my phone. So I just try to play it in my head as faithfully as possible. Sometimes I just make up a melody in my mind to pass the time.
 
Every once in a while, some short tune works its way into the end of my dream, and then I wake up with it stuck it my head, but it's usually something I don't recognize.
 
One of my SI's is Rent, and I constantly have songs from it running through my head. Like, CONSTANTLY. There is about an 85% chance when you talk to me, I have one of the Broadway songs playing in the back of my head, like elevator music.
 
right now as I type this, "shiny stockings" [ella fitzgerald] is playing in haphazard order in my cranium.
 
I think everyone is prone to "ear worms", but what the op is describing is a bit more elaborate. I play songs in my head to relax myself when I'm stressed out! The Original three Star Wars movies can be replayed (in my head) with just a thought of them!
 
I think everyone is prone to "ear worms", but what the op is describing is a bit more elaborate. I play songs in my head to relax myself when I'm stressed out! The Original three Star Wars movies can be replayed (in my head) with just a thought of them!

Thank you for pointing this out; I was getting a bit frustrated.

Everyone has fun expressing themselves in this thread, I guess, even if they talk about something different but relevant.
 
I can change songs in my head, but they won't play in full. I also used it during studying sometimes, then I could bring the song back during a quiz and feel more confident.
 
I often get songs in my head after hearing the radio, after a TV program, or after hearing music played in other settings. But sometimes I do play songs intentionally to make myself feel more relaxed and happy.

However, many times I hear music when I do not wish to - like earworms that stay indefinitely, and I have to sing out loud the words in the shower, or in private, to get rid of the often unwanted intrusion. The music goes away after a while but it stays there for quite a while. Who sang the line "I spent the rain down in Africa.."? I have been hearing this tune repetitively just now. It seems welcome now as it is inspiring and seems good timing for me just as I am going to sleep.
 
I do that too! And I play movies in my head sometimes, sometimes of my own fabrication. There are some parts that are missing, but all the good stuff is really vivid so it's fun. Also, this is more or less related, but I was playing a video game in my dreams and I found the solution to a puzzle in it, and it turned out it was the solution in real life too!

Earworms are the worst though, but I'm able to replace them with something else (though parts of the earworms pop up sometimes, and sometimes earworms fuse toghether to make one song). If I'm trying to concentrate on something though, I can't do that
 
I thought I was the only one who did this. I can play movie soundtracks at will in my head. If I hear them I can tell you what movie, scene, and the dialogue.

I also can take ever song and split it into its different instruments and play them independently inside my head. I have never met anyone who was able to do that before. I sometimes also add different harmonies to see how it sounds.

Sometimes I do play certain songs in my head as self-soothing. Oddly enough in stressful situations such as blood draws or planks, I play the Pirates of the Caribbean theme in my head.

What I am describing are not earworms as I can start and stop playing the song at will.
 
Yes, all the time. I'm doing it now. Everyone does this, don't they? I've now got this song going round and round.

"Dancing in the moonlight,
Everybody's feeling warm and bright,
it's such a fine and natural sight"

 

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