Do you hear your melodies in your mind?

[Zeekuh]

As im progressing ive started hearing melodies in my head, but its kinda hard to explain.
Its like i play 1 note and hear in my head suggestions for continuation and hum it untill i find the right follow up note untill i have a full melody.
I aint sure if the melodys are original or if theyre just memories of things ive heard.

Am i alone in this or is this common among you other musicians when composing?

I dont hear them all the time, only when i sit down to compose

[raiderpdog]

I think they can come at any time, or at least for me they do. Besides when in studio, they happen to me while driving, walking, exercising, relaxing, etc.....never know when an idea will strike.

Over the years, have also had many of the ideas in the above scenarios vanish because I couldn't remember them later once I was back in my studio with my equipment. Now I just make recordings into my phone, humming melody, making human beat-box sounds, whatever, for later use.

Everyone probably has different ways and methods.

[thecontrolcentre]

For me ... I get ideas when I get out walking, especially in the countryside. I sometimes hum them and record the idea on my phone. Other times I just switch one of my synths on and jam around until something good happens

[chk071]

You lucky guys. Most of the time, I'm utterly uninspired.

When I listen to other's music, I sometimes get the one or the other idea though...

[trewq]

Never mind. I don't want to sound like I'm against it.

It's a love/hate thing I guess. These days I listen more to ambient to clear my head of it.

[excuse me please]

Let's say I try not to hear music. But each time it comes back to haunt me even more.

[DJ Warmonger]

I often get ideas for my tracks in a sleep.
Which is a bummer if I don't record it just after waking up - but managed to do it a few times.

[tomx2188]

I think it's called audiation, and I guess it's pretty common among musicians.

I guess that over time, a mind will pick up lots of musical patterns that it is exposed to .. and when presented with something like an unfinished melody, it just likes to fill in the blanks in some way that is more or less consistent with the patterns it learned.
That's my experience at least.

I hear music in my mind even when not working on it .. pretty much all day long, every day. But that's almost always stuff I already know. I found that original stuff usually only comes up on its own when I'm already in bed and trying to sleep

To make audiation work for me, I found that I absolutely have to create a starting point for myself using some other means first, like recording myself noodling on guitar or keyboard for example. Or just programming a synth sequence somehow. Whatever, as long as I don't listen to what's in my mind.

I tend to fall into familiar patterns a lot, both with music in my mind and physical playing (muscle memory). I found that my ability/tendency to escape these patterns seems to be strongly connected to sleep (or disturbances/lack thereof). Not something I can easily influence, unfortunately

[SparkySpark]

I think it's called audiation, and I guess it's pretty common among musicians.

I guess that over time, a mind will pick up lots of musical patterns that it is exposed to .. and when presented with something like an unfinished melody, it just likes to fill in the blanks in some way that is more or less consistent with the patterns it learned.
...
To make audiation work for me, I found that I absolutely have to create a starting point for myself using some other means first, like recording myself noodling on guitar or keyboard for example. Or just programming a synth sequence somehow. Whatever, as long as I don't listen to what's in my mind.

I tend to fall into familiar patterns a lot, both with music in my mind and physical playing

Here's something that might work for you: listen to radio pop music played in supermarkets, but from far away. If it's low volume enough, you won't hear what beat the chorus/hook starts on. If you walk in closer, you may think that a song in Am is actually in F, and that Am is the third chord in a four chord sequence. Now when you're closer, you can discern the singer or the hook, not off beat, but off-chord-pattern. This way, new ideas can form easily.

[SparkySpark]

I often get ideas fo my tracks ina sleep.
Which is a bummer if I don't record it just after waking up - but managed to do once a few times.

I actually wake up when I come up with new songs, even in the middle of the night, and not so seldom. I've done this at least three time since new year.

It's been like this since my early teens, before we had things like smartphones. Therefore, I wrote down the sheet music and chords instead. I even developed a shorthand notation style for these occasions. The cool thing is that these songs aren't worse than my others. In fact, some of my best (whatever that means ) songs were dreamt in the middle of the night, and for decades, I've slept with pen and paper or a smartphone by my bed.

[Aloysius]

Nevermind

[melomood]

I consider it a form of daydreaming

[mixyguy2]

I think they can come at any time, or at least for me they do. Besides when in studio, they happen to me while driving, walking, exercising, relaxing, etc.....never know when an idea will strike.

Over the years, have also had many of the ideas in the above scenarios vanish because I couldn't remember them later once I was back in my studio with my equipment. Now I just make recordings into my phone, humming melody, making human beat-box sounds, whatever, for later use.

Everyone probably has different ways and methods.

Sums it up for me. Lately I find when I'm browsing new patches on a soft synth, and usually I just hit some random notes or maybe go up and down a key to decide how usable the patch is or not, something will pop into my head. I immediately save it off. Because if I don't, I'll lose it.

Also what app do you all use to record things on your phone? I'm not a cell phone addict like most and have very few apps. Would want it to be free if possible.

[Karmoon]

It's pretty common - even among non musicians.

I don't believe it confers any special or mystical ability. Artists like Deadmau5 have stated that they don't hear stuff like this.

By all means take advantage of it when you can, but it's not a substitute for hard work, practice and experience.

[Aloysius]

Do you hear your voices in your head?