I was just writing “aphantasia” out in a comment while you writing that because I remembered what it was called.
One of my great worries in life is that I’ll always be musically stunted because I have the audio version of aphantasia, too… but I also don’t think it’s necessarily THAT limiting practically, but it’s so frustrating knowing that there are people who can hear all the notes in a John Williams symphony just out there walking around.
It’s not all sunshine and roses. My brain is like a broken jukebox that’s permanently on and set to random. I’ll start singing a song that I literally haven’t heard in 15 years, and next thing I know it’s stuck in my head.
It can be maddening, though I have developed some coping mechanisms to “reset” if I can’t get a song out of my head.
Maybe fighting it is having a perverse effect. Have you tried singing the song to get it out of your system?
Here’s another exercise: Sing the lyrics to one song to the melody of another. It’s an older combo, but Tom’s Diner to the Meow Mix jingle is pretty engaging.
Fighting it is a new thing for me. It’s not really even fighting it, I’ve just chosen a “default” song that, as soon as I notice I’m starting to repeat an unwanted melody or lyric in my head, I’ll start thinking intently on my “default” song and it basically forces the other song out.
Then I have the intro to “Good Times, Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin (my “default” song) in my head for a few min before it fades away. I’m not sure how I came up with it, but it’s something I only thought about doing in the last few years. It kind of works usually.
I will often swap lyrics with other songs, or just make up my own which sometimes makes me giggle.
I was just writing “aphantasia” out in a comment while you writing that because I remembered what it was called.
One of my great worries in life is that I’ll always be musically stunted because I have the audio version of aphantasia, too… but I also don’t think it’s necessarily THAT limiting practically, but it’s so frustrating knowing that there are people who can hear all the notes in a John Williams symphony just out there walking around.
It’s not all sunshine and roses. My brain is like a broken jukebox that’s permanently on and set to random. I’ll start singing a song that I literally haven’t heard in 15 years, and next thing I know it’s stuck in my head.
It can be maddening, though I have developed some coping mechanisms to “reset” if I can’t get a song out of my head.
Maybe fighting it is having a perverse effect. Have you tried singing the song to get it out of your system?
Here’s another exercise: Sing the lyrics to one song to the melody of another. It’s an older combo, but Tom’s Diner to the Meow Mix jingle is pretty engaging.
Fighting it is a new thing for me. It’s not really even fighting it, I’ve just chosen a “default” song that, as soon as I notice I’m starting to repeat an unwanted melody or lyric in my head, I’ll start thinking intently on my “default” song and it basically forces the other song out.
Then I have the intro to “Good Times, Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin (my “default” song) in my head for a few min before it fades away. I’m not sure how I came up with it, but it’s something I only thought about doing in the last few years. It kind of works usually.
I will often swap lyrics with other songs, or just make up my own which sometimes makes me giggle.
Good TImes/Bad Times never turns into an earworm, though? It behaves itself, comes when bidden, then leaves when its job is done?
Interestingly, I’m able to keep it to just the intro. Sometimes it does become a bit of an earworm but I’m ok with it because it’s a fucking jam