How many of you visualize scenes when playing or listening to music?

ranjit · 2024-06-06T20:58:05+00:00

I do this all the time but many of the pianists I know don't. So I thought it would be a fun poll. 🙂

currawong

I do sort of visualise music, whether I'm playing or listening, but it's not scenes, or landscapes or anything of that sort. It may be colours or shapes - I do associate tone colours with actual colours (a little bit synaesthetic I suppose - brass sounds are yellow, flutes play pale blue). When I'm playing (and I almost always play from the score - I play far too much music to memorise it) I have the shape of phrases screening in my head. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but it's something that happens, not something I purposely do.

TC3

currawong Very similar for me!

ranjit

Sophia Or is he human?

Nope 😉

ranjit

Here are some recordings I recommend:

Animisha

When visualisation happens spontaneously, it is lovely! But unfortunately, the more complicated pieces I play, the less it happens.

Sophia

Along those lines, I always loved Disney's Fantasia. I remember how flabbergasted I was that Mickey as the sorcerer's apprentice was written to match the piece, not the other way around... they just seemed like they were made for each other! And the four seasons, the imagery couldn't be more fitting. There was even the "colours and shapes" visualisation that some mentioned here.

Since you really seem to live it, @ranjit I bet some music can make you cry real tears too, right?

ranjit

Sophia Since you really seem to live it, @ranjit I bet some music can make you cry real tears too, right?

Unfortunately, I can't relate to that one!

Tom and Jerry is also in the old style of cartoons, where the action matches the music.

TC3

Sophia I've wept from listening to music more than once, and not because of sadness but just the pure joyous beauty of it.

Stub

For me--nope. No images or scenes. Entirely aural.

Pallas

This is the first piece that made me want to learn piano! Because I'm a very serious person.

Cassia

I was thinking about this yesterday. Sometimes I have weird … not visuals exactly, but more just thoughts, associated with certain passages of music. For example there’s a part of Chopin’s 3rd Ballade that I’ve dubbed “white pants after Labor Day” because that’s always what I think of when playing that specific passage. It’s weird and funny and makes no sense. And it only happens when I’m playing, but not when I’m listening to someone else play.

And for the record, I otherwise don’t care or think about white pants after Labor Day.

SouthPark

TC3 I've wept from listening to music more than once

TC3 This has happened to me sometimes. Not all the time. As in some tears coming out ... due to some thing that comes together that could be a combination of elegance in the particular music plus the particular sound, the movements, the particular sequence. And I'm normal, as in I don't get depression etc. And I don't usually get teary unless seeing some sort of movie etc where they purposely include parts that are deliberately put in to trigger our emotions.

Pallas

I'm a sap. Piano music makes me laugh, cry, and all the stuff in between. But when I'm playing it's mostly, "Oh, crap, I hope I didn't mess this up."

Sophia

Exactly! Not meaning to hijack the topic but beautiful music can bring out such strong emotions. Sometimes it's a memory, sometimes it's knowing the circumstances in which the piece was written, sometimes it's the words...

And I too am not at all overly sentimental or fragile. Mind you, I can't keep dry eyes any time I watch Dumbo visiting his mom in jail either, heck even thinking about it makes me emotional. Or Bambi when he loses his mom. But each of those too have a score that just tears at the heartstrings, so I guess there is a theme here after all 😆

SouthPark

Sophia Or Bambi when he loses his mom

Oh geez ... thanks a lot Sophia. I'm really slightly tearing up right now after you mentioned that ... about dumbo etc. It's when we have people feeling compassion and care about good things and people and animals etc.

Stub

Sophia And I too am not at all overly sentimental or fragile. Mind you, I can't keep dry eyes any time I watch Dumbo visiting his mom in jail either, heck even thinking about it makes me emotional. Or Bambi when he loses his mom. But each of those too have a score that just tears at the heartstrings, so I guess there is a theme here after all

Heck, I can tear up seeing a marching band, not that one sees marching bands very often any more. 😥

Rob

I like to compose (purely as a hobbyist, with no formal training) simple pieces, and almost every one, is based on a visual scene. An old man staring out of the window on a dismal autumn day. A sailing ship embarking on a sea voyage. A music box ballerina who comes alive at midnight to dance freely, once more. Nostalgia for my homeland, and many more.
I just can't help seeing images when I play.

ranjit

Rob That's very interesting! I have found that my dreaming and waking states are "coalescing" more, where I imagine pieces I'm playing or listening to in my sleep, and likewise imagery which I would typically have more in my dreams is something I'm more able to access more during the waking day (it feels like "day dreaming").

Stub

I have had a few pieces that brought me to tears. They were sad pieces for the most part.

Pallas

Stub Me too! I once saw the Marine Drum & Bugle Corps and Silent Drill. Tears and Goosebumps. And the Blue Angels, every dang time. And marching bands of all kinds.

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