A question about brain's capability of imagination and music

Hello

I always wondered something about myself and if it is common.

During my technical studies I could render objects in question in my brain; merge them, rotate, bend, color and even put texture to them with anything I wanted; lighting and shadows included. Can everyone do this? I can also imagine a scene with full color and depth including sound in it when I want to. They don't look computer generated, they look very real like realistic dreams.

One more thing as a musician; I always have some known song playing in my mind during the day with more than 3 instruments plus the original vocal. I can edit that as well on the go. This is valid for my own music so I can come home and record the part If I remember. Sometimes I record the melody to my phone just to remind myself and all the project comes to my mind again.

Is it something common? I am sure we all have this ability and possibly more when I think about old times' musicians like Mozart etc who probably could be listening to tens of instruments in his head while reading music.

Best
B.

a reply to: belkide

I cannot do what you speak of... I truly wish I could. You must have a brilliant mind. Perhaps your brain is wired more artistically than others. Maybe you should donate it to science after you die I'm curious if others have this ability, very cool. Thanks for sharing!

a reply to: FamCore

I think it is possible for you to learn because when I was very young I would go crazy on something I could not do. Here it is:

I was imagining a stickman running an endless road but like a threadmill. That threadmill always had a little void that he had to jump over it. I just could not get that spot away from the road and he always had to jump while I was imagining and the hardest thing was to make it go away. That drove me nuts. Maybe that can be a practice for you.

Btw thanks for the compliment and please be very sure that this thread is not for my ego or anything. I was just very curious.
Thank you =)

note: and I have almost 6 nipples like a dog or a cat going down my chest. Just a "did you know" fact lol ! They are very small and they are called supernumery nipples.

a reply to: belkide

I can totally do that, almost exactly like you said. I am also a musician. I wonder, when you read a book does it turn into a movie in your head? I can also add and remove instruments in remembered songs, in my head, and sometimes have had more then one song in there.

Going back to memories and the 'mind build-out' - I also have a feeling of the 'time of the times'. I can recall the 'feel' of the 70's. The feel of a specified time...

Do you play a piano or guitar? Something fast? I play a lot of Flamenco, and still don't understand how I actually do it... How I can have my fingers go that fast, and specific, in a wicked time frame... but they do, I just know they will.

Wild post, nice one!

a reply to: Newt22

Exactly! When I read a book it turns into a movie plus that I can also feel the time frame like you mentioned 70s etc when I want to imagine a scene I made up from my mind. In 70s case I can feel there is no cell phones and feel the good absence of it right away for example.

My main instrument is guitar also and I leant it myself. I do not know notes and yes, I am fast as well.

Thanks bro! Btw I think this is a musician thing plus maybe painters and writers. Writers can definitely/probably see the scene while writting and combine the parts. My grandfather was a writer and never had the chance to ask him since he passed away.

I play bass and guitar (super fast within odd and compound time signatures and tempo changes) and i write fiction. Writing and reading is like seeing a movie in my mind. I can do all this, but I'm super terrible at math.

a reply to: belkide

Yes it is interesting.

I guess some people have more imagination than others, I can imagine similar to you except less colour, maybe black and white. I have more of a technical mind, I am an electronics engineer. No musician but can blow my own trumpet.

a reply to: belkide

Yes, that's how I've always written music, the whole thing is played first in my head and then I just pick out the parts when I sit down with my instrument. I've also used my phone a few times to put down little ideas like melodies that come to me so I don't forget because no matter how inspired I feel the tune is at the moment, if I don't get it down in some form I will surely forget it before I can get home to put it down. This has happened more times than I can remember.

My visualization is restricted to seeing original stories unfold in my mind. Complete with characters, locations, plots, and the ultimate conclusions. Sometimes there is background music. Mind movies that only take a few seconds.

very interesting thread. being an artist working in illustration- i´m sometimes asked if i can visualize images beforehand. but in fact my visual imagination and photographic memory is quite fuzzy and abstract.

i often "draw in my head" but i don´t really see the whole thing - just parts of possible solutions.
creating an image is like a puzzle for me. and that's the fun part of it.

i might even have some kind of image in my head but it is of not much help.
the real challenge is how to translate it to the 2d world and transform it in a drawing on paper. seeing an image is one thing- translating it correctly onto a flat 2d plain is another.

often i plan my illustrations carefully with a lot of sketches so i can "see" what i´m going to do and find the best possible solution to realize the idea ( and eventually the client wants to see sketches too...)

if i could do all the planning in my head it would help i guess.
but it wouldn't help my clients since they can´t look inside my head. in the end - for the client -only what happens "on paper" matters.
going through different stages of the process together with the client is often crucial to get to the "perfect image".
and having physical reference of all my alternative solutions,failed attempts and errors is valuable for me too.

working for a client or myself - best ideas often emerge from happy accidents and intuitively - in the physical world and "on paper".
an accidental smudge that turns into another element, a crooked line that gives different meaning to the rest... etc.
and imo as good ones photographic memory is - the use of reference images,models etc. always enriches the final result.

Sometimes I can do that, I work on the principle that if I forget it then nothing lost and if I can remember it, then it was worth keeping

a reply to: belkide

I can store musical notes in my brain. I can recognize song samples in rap songs and know exactly what original song it came from. Regardless if the sample has been slowed down or speed up and overlayed with other notes, words and sounds.

My wife thinks it's bizzaro.

I really don't know how I can do it.

Also, in my brain I can "Mash" 2 songs together if they sound similar enough. Example, just YouTube"Pray" by MC Hammer and "We care alot" by Faith No More. In my head I hear both songs together.

Also "Inagoddadavida"(sp?) By Iron Butterfly and the theme song to "The Greatest American Hero". The lyrics can be sung to each other's songs.

I can do the 3D build in my head. I think it's just a different brain skill set. I can think in 3D and have applied it in different ways.

When I was a kid, I would draw things from odd perspectives. Like people from directly above, or below. So my ability to see objects, render them, apply textures, just grew from that.

Glad I'm not alone. I though I was weird.

a reply to: belkide

Musician here - and yes, some of us can visualize different aspects better than others. My normal memory is so poor that I'll probably forget in a week that I responded to your post. And yet, I can still remember every song I've played since 5th grade band, and can transpose on the fly.

We've tested my capacity - within roughly about 2 weeks I can have a full concert memorized. I only need to hear it right a couple times and I can play it.

My family thinks I got the audiographic memory from my Dad's side - apparently my great grampa could do the same thing on the violin (in my case, it's the trumpet and violin, but it can extend to any instrument). No-one else has it but me.

-foss

Wow guys such great detailed posts. So glad to read your special shares.

I think this thread is going to be one where people can share their different brain capabilities not only for music and pictures but some stuff else which probably we have no idea about yet. (Not talking about powers like telekinesis or telephathy)

Best
B.