Do you "feel" music?

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I'm currently sitting on a train listening to music and feel like I can textualize the music I'm listening too. Feel the emotions the singer is going through, envision the instruments and almost smell the room that the music was recorded in.

Do you do the same?
How does music go through your mind?
Do you "see" the music in some way, like some see emotions as colors?
 
Yes, I can definitely feel music. I don't have that sensory capacity some people have, I forget the term, to see colours etc. associated with notes.

I do though definitely feel the melody, the rhythm, everything about the music. Also if I know a piece of music, I can usually identify a tune after hearing about one bar of music. I always, from a young age got very animated, or entranced by music. It always has had a very powerful effect on me. Probably for this reason I was a dancer. Music has the amazing capacity to capture every possible mood, emotion or energy, and it's phenomenal to experience that.

What I loved about dancing was the fact that it is so expressive. This was often very often connected to musical expression. I loved it in my training, we had pianists and percussionists playing in our classes. The training I had as a dancer is also helping me now in learning an instrument again, because I feel the phrasing of the music and know intuitively about the phrasing and timing. I need to understand the rhythm first and then the rest fits into place.
 
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ezra said:
Feel the emotions the singer is going through, envision the instruments and almost smell the room that the music was recorded in.
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ezra said:
Do you do the same?
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~i do the same. That's why i think the best singers/artists are those whose music resonates with people. BUT there are also singers who are really good when it comes to technicality and stuff and has a really good voice but not really feeling the song, i would somehow notice it.

ezra said:
How does music go through your mind?
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i'm actually more into lyrics the music just follows. Mostly song brings me to memory lane.

ezra said:
Do you "see" the music in some way, like some see emotions as colors?
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i'm not quite sure if i understand this correctly. But i do listen to a particular genre when i'm specifically feeling something or if i'm in a specific mood. Not really sure if that's "seeing"........
 
I feel music, but unfortunately I can't see it. I can only hear or feel it.

I was just talking about this yesterday, a band was playing and I was acknowledging that they made good music but I never felt anything from them and this happens sometimes with great artists so I've always concluded that the song just wasn't resonating with my soul. When I feel music I have always thought and like to think that it's resonating with my soul. This feeling makes the hair on my arms stand on end, and gives me goosebumps. I feel a variety of emotions. The music speaks to me, and I hear it and feel it.

But I don't see it, unfortunately. Or smell it.
 
No I don't "feel" music. I experience emotions of my own when I listen to music. I think analytically about the meaning of the music and all of its dimensions.

When I play a piano, the act of playing the piano is a conversation with the piano about who it is and what kinds of sounds it will respond to me with. I want to hear its voice. Is that anything like what you mean?

I think what you're describing is more like my experience of reading a novel. Usually when I'm reading a novel, it's like I'm having a personal conversation with the author about their reasons for writing the novel and all of their thoughts and emotions about what they've written. I would say that I can "feel" the author as though they are in the room with me, but more than that, with a sort of intimacy. I don't think that many people have the sort of relationship with a book that I do.

In some ways this is my experience of music - as a text that has something interesting to say, potentially of an emotional nature - but not with the emotional depth and clarity that you describe.

Sorry, I have rambled a little bit. But although I do appreciate music, and even at times have music inside me, I don't think that I experience music like you do, no.
 
ezra said:
I'm currently sitting on a train listening to music and feel like I can textualize the music I'm listening too. Feel the emotions the singer is going through, envision the instruments and almost smell the room that the music was recorded in.

Do you do the same?
How does music go through your mind?
Do you "see" the music in some way, like some see emotions as colors?
Click to expand...

I think it depends on what music and how well i know it. When I know a song well it can remind me of people and places, and different times in my life. I don't 'see' music but I really hear/feel it. Usually i can't help but hear little counter riffs and melodies to it, and it doesn't take much for me to want to play music if I've been listening to any.

Some music I think can become very special, when you closely associate it with a person that you care about. I can remember dancing around in my front room, listening to Paul Simons Graceland album with my son when he was a baby, laughing. He liked the bass and rhythm of the songs and he'd giggle and laugh.
 
I can feel the intensity of a song on an emotional level, to the point of euphoria or transcendence. I can't see it but I can sense emotion in music meaning the artist's feelings imbued in how they sing or feel while they sing. I can also feel and interpret the emotional content of a musical piece or song separate from the lyrics. It's almost like intuiting the history behind the feelings that created the song reflected in the writer's or artist's thoughts. But kinda thought it was silly to believe I could do this, so now I simply enjoy music.

The emotion in the song "Have Mercy on Me" is hard to ignore. Another one is "Bittersweet Symphony" and "Am I Wrong".

The one that used to get me the most is Coldplay's "Clocks".
 
Gale said:
The one that used to get me the most is Coldplay's "Clocks".
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Clocks had been my anthem along with Fix You. so beautiful.
 
LittleLissa said:
I don't have that sensory capacity some people have, I forget the term, to see colours etc. associated with notes.
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@LittleLissa are you talking about synaesthesia? I experience synaesthesia when I listen to music. It's like having an animated, abstract mixed media collage in my mind's eye that evokes a certain mood. Different instruments and notes resonate as specific textures, materials, colors and shapes- all with particular emotional resonances, "behaviours" and "personalities."

I like to daydream scenes that heighten the emotion of what I'm listening to as well- like watching a movie or music video that plays in my head or bleeds into reality. These visions are spontaneous and automatic, and often related to the theme of the song, to a memory I have, or a scenario or fantasy I've invented that the song captures well. Many instrumental songs are self-generating abstract worlds I come back to time and again to explore, which can be a richly emotional experience, too.
 
Jonathan said:
are you talking about synaesthesia?
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Yes, that's the one, that must be amazing! I think there are different variations on how people experience it but it's very rare. Do you enjoy it or is it distracting? I guess it must feel normal to you. It was probably weird when you realised that everyone wasn't experiencing the same thing.
 
@LittleLissa it's certainly a lot of fun, and inspires a lot of artwork. It can be distracting if I allow myself to daydream- which only makes the visions clearer. It also has a profound effect on my taste in music, since I tend to favor songs that produce more interesting synaesthesia, which can seem completely random to other people, and often makes me profoundly enjoy "low quality" music that people tend to think of as forgettable or grating. It was sad to me when I found out synaesthesia wasn't a normal experience, but I like sharing what I see with others- it gives them this "wow" moment-especially artists. Some have done paintings based on descriptions I've given them.

@ezra - it would be cool to know enough about instruments to be able to envision them. Music is so abstract for me that I often forget to appreciate the talent and practical skill behind it- which is the reason it exists at all.
 
I used to experience synaesthesia. I guess I still do because I can experience notes as points in space, but it's not like it used to be. My interpretations have grown much less abstract so that now I visualize the instruments being played, see the band, or see the scene that the song is narrating.
 
sprinkles said:
I can relate to that. I often listen to things that people don't necessarily like just because the sounds do interesting things for me.
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@sprinkles surprisingly, you're the first person I've talked to that's told me they felt that way! Any songs that are particularly interesting? Also, how do you see notes? Are they points of light or color or something else?
 
Jonathan said:
@sprinkles surprisingly, you're the first person I've talked to that's told me they felt that way! Any songs that are particularly interesting? Also, how do you see notes? Are they points of light or color or something else?
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I used to see kind of blobs of color but I don't anymore. I still feel notes though and I sense them as a location in space. It's like knowing where something is even though you can't see it I guess. Sounds can feel rough or soft, or round, or square, wavy or pointy... some sounds are just cute.
 
Jonathan said:
@LittleLissa are you talking about synaesthesia? I experience synaesthesia when I listen to music. It's like having an animated, abstract mixed media collage in my mind's eye that evokes a certain mood. Different instruments and notes resonate as specific textures, materials, colors and shapes- all with particular emotional resonances, "behaviours" and "personalities."
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Me in a nutshell. I've always tried to find a word to explain this. Thank You for that.

It's also easy to "see" the input; the instruments, the mixing board, and all of the subtleties of a recording. This has been more fine-tuned (no pun intended) from my experience as a sound engineer. It was always strange to me that most other musical people don't experience music similarly (assuming?)... and I have quit playing with other musicians because they lack the "genius" for lack of a better term, that is intrinsic to my capabilities.. but my abilities are inherent and come so naturally. The most frustrating thing about playing music for me is having to deal with musicians who are not on the same page. The INFJ idealism plays a huge role in this... It was always easier to play every instrument and to do the vocals myself, when I can see the end vision at my fingertips.
 
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Music can transport you. Under the right conditions I have had what you would call mild out of body experiences. A feeling like you are some place completely different. Kind of like reading a fictional book but feeling like you are actually there.
I don't listen to much popular music today...whats on the charts ect.... but I do listen to a good but bit of classical and some vocal music. There is some vocal music that I am attracted to.
There's a new game I had been playing called Battlefield 1. In it while in the menus there is music and then vocals of a woman singing in a foreign language. It is some of the most hauntingly beautiful music I have ever heard and it absolutely takes me some place else.
 
 
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