# Do you hear words in your head as you read?



## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

I would think musically inclined people should. How words sound is far more interesting than what they mean!


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

How would one know? *bekow*


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Yes. It means that I read rather slowly but I do savour what I read and remember it well. When I was at university - my degree was in English, so I had lots of fat novels to get through - I decided to try out one of those schemes to speed up reading. But after a short time, I couldn't bear to proceed. There was no joy in skimming. The sound of words has always been important to me and remains so. I like to read poetry aloud.


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

One would enjoy singing in an exotically mystic and unknowable language. Pure music and playfulness is intended.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Dialog - certainly. Descriptive language - only on occasion. And poetry.

But always when I write. Not only my attempts from time to time at creative writing, but also much of my writing as an attorney.


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

Every word has meaning. Musically it will have rhythm of vowel and consonant and assumed to relate to what comes next. When this relationship fails, a bad nonsense is suspect.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> I would think musically inclined people should. How words sound is far more interesting than what they mean!


What about a tonal language like Mandarin, where the sound of the syllable confers meaning?


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Sometimes hear the words when I read but that's not possible when skimming.

When writing, no question grammar and logic are involved. But it has to sound right, still am working on that.


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## verandai (Dec 10, 2021)

Yes I do. But the musically more interesting question would be: Do we hear the music when reading scores?

At least for piano sheets, I do. At orchestra sheets, I can only do it very slowly (instrument after instrument), as I'm still not trained enough to summon the overall sound at once while reading.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode in which George didn't like reading because he didn't like the sound of his own voice. He thought a solution was to listen to a book on tape. He went to a doctor and pretended to be visually impaired, so he could access books on tape. In the end, the narrator on the tape sounded just like him.


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

Couchie said:


> What about a tonal language like Mandarin, where the sound of the syllable confers meaning?


What about a language where every phoneme has meaning ? These languages exist traditionally; may also be invented. Essense of wild/music pure.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

verandai said:


> Yes I do. But the musically more interesting question would be: Do we hear the music when reading scores?
> 
> At least for piano sheets, I do. At orchestra sheets, I can only do it very slowly (instrument after instrument), as I'm still not trained enough to summon the overall sound at once while reading.


I've had this weird experience while playing.. I come to a passage and I know so well how it sounds -- and then my hands just play it without even thinking about anything specific in the notation. I usually don't approach a score like this so it surprises me. It's a 'mindless' habituation (like walking). But then I think, maybe this is the way I should be playing all the time or at least I should continually strive for that kind of effortlessness.


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

Luchesi said:


> or at least I should continually strive for that kind of effortlessness.


Seems a funny paradox to strive for effortlessness. Could as well surrender to effortless and then strive for something anew and more pleasantly natural. Oops. Nature may be another pair a' ducks.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Luchesi said:


> I've had this weird experience while playing.. I come to a passage and I know so well how it sounds -- and then my hands just play it without even thinking about anything specific in the notation. I usually don't approach a score like this so it surprises me. It's a 'mindless' habituation (like walking). But then I think, maybe this is the way I should be playing all the time or at least I should continually strive for that kind of effortlessness.


From what I learned in my piano studies that is cognitive "chunking" and a "ballistic" projection of learned patterns. Wherever you are at with those processes is determines how your attention need to be deployed. I don't see effortlessness in itself as a value. Others might see it differently.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

verandai said:


> Yes I do. But the musically more interesting question would be: Do we hear the music when reading scores?
> 
> At least for piano sheets, I do. At orchestra sheets, I can only do it very slowly (instrument after instrument), as I'm still not trained enough to summon the overall sound at once while reading.


Yeah of course. Why else would you read scores?


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Yes; I always have. I've never quite figured out who the speaker is, however. It doesn't sound like my voice.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Tikoo Tuba said:


> Seems a funny paradox to strive for effortlessness. Could as well surrender to effortless and then strive for something anew and more pleasantly natural. Oops. Nature may be another pair a' ducks.


Yes, playing a keyboard is one of the most unnatural things a human can do. Glenn Gould said that he himself couldn't imagine sitting through a piano recital, and he didn't know how all those people could do it.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Roger Knox said:


> From what I learned in my piano studies that is cognitive "chunking" and a "ballistic" projection of learned patterns. Wherever you are at with those processes is determines how your attention need to be deployed. I don't see effortlessness in itself as a value. Others might see it differently.


Those are helpful terms. We experience a little every time we're warming up? The metaphorical world gets within reach, again..


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

We can write lyrically. This is the most pleasant reading. It may as well portray operatic dialogue.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Tikoo Tuba said:


> We can write lyrically. This is the most pleasant reading. It may as well portray operatic dialogue.


So many people can write well. But so few people can play well.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Yeah of course. Why else would you read scores?


Mr. Pedant here......For study purposes. Yes you hear it too but orchestration is a vast and complicated affair that also requires much technical study not directly related to the written notes. Reading scores is inspiring too and can fire the imagination.

Thus ends the pedantry.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Ingélou said:


> Yes. It means that I read rather slowly but I do savour what I read and remember it well. When I was at university - my degree was in English, so I had lots of fat novels to get through - I decided to try out one of those schemes to speed up reading. But after a short time, I couldn't bear to proceed. There was no joy in skimming. The sound of words has always been important to me and remains so. I like to read poetry aloud.


Same here. Slow reader (it took almost the whole of 2021 to read Hastings biog of Churchill: The War Years), made slower by having to reread some sentences, with accompanying voice, as attention wandered.

On the other hand, it took only a week to read the autobiog of a football referee, a much less rewarding book.

How I got my Eng Lit degree is a mystery.


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