# Are You Able To Play A Whole Piece In Your Head?



## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

I've been reading Musicophilia and after finishing the chapter about music hallucinations I was quite fascinated by some people's ability to play a whole symphony through their head in the right pitch without a missing note.
I am aware that some can do it even without having the disorder. 
I myself am having quite a difficult time doing so, even though I am able to play non classical songs in my head almost entirely, but since my beginning with CM I don't care much for it now. 
How about you? Are you able to play a whole symphony in your head, or maybe a movement or a few movements?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I can't remember what I had for lunch, but tunes stick in my head pretty well. Still, I can't remember the whole of even the most familiar works of that length.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Yes, the only thing that fails me occasionally, is when a section is played twice and transitions to somethign different each time. In my head I will often loop through to the 1st transition the 2nd time i play the section.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I need to have heard a work many times, and its been a long time since I've gotten to know a piece that well.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

I probably wouldn't be able to give you Medtner, but I think I could do a lot of Beethoven sonatas.


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## suffolkcoastal (Feb 28, 2012)

I used to be rather good at it as a child, singing whole works sometimes, but I couldn't write them down. I have an aural memory ie I can sing back from memory but can't write things on to paper, which is a pain when composing as I have to use the piano. I can still probably play back some favourite works in my memory even now.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Dvorak's New World and Mozart's Horn Concerti I could do from top to bottom in my head.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I probably could, but I tend to get stuck on a loop when I hit a particular favourite passage, not because I don't know what comes next but just because it's like sheer ecstasy.


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## Guest (Feb 29, 2012)

Chrythes said:


> ...some people's ability to play a whole symphony through their head in the right pitch without a missing note.


I'm fascinated by the epistemological aspect of this claim.

I don't have the Sacks at hand, and I don't remember how (or even if) he explains how this kind of thing can be known. What does he say about this? How did he confirm this ability?


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

> I probably could, but I tend to get stuck on a loop when I hit a particular favourite passage, not because I don't know what comes next but just because it's like sheer ecstasy.


This is what usually happens to me, but in my case a section or a motif overwhelms what comes after so I get stuck with an ear worm, which is really a pity. But when I listen to a piece I can whistle almost all the way through it, usually anticipating and knowing what will come next - as if my memory suddenly wakes up, when without the music itself I might only remember certain sections.

suffolkcoastal - that's pretty cool. I presume the singing is in the same pitch as the original music? And how do you remember multi-instrumental music - can you recreate each instrument's voice, from e.g Beethoven's 5th?
I'm just wondering how detailed musical memory can actually be.



> I don't have the Sacks at hand, and I don't remember how (or even if) he explains how this kind of thing can be known. What does he say about this? How did he confirm this ability?


Unfortunately he doesn't explain this, but two cases are presented. One is of Gordon B. a professional violinist who said that those hallucinatory performances are always perfect in terms of accuracy and tonal quality. 
And the second case of Dr. D who decided to hum into a recorder to test the accuracy of these hallucinations, and they were spot on. 
The first case is more interesting, as Gordon can actually "browse" through the music in his head and pick a theme.
It's important to note that they are both musicians though.


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

Mozart's symphony in g minor (the 40th), Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, two pieces that were my introduction to classical music about 25 years ago. Also: Vivaldi's Four Seasons.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

It depends on the symphony. Something familiar I would definitely be able to run through from end to end. Incidentally, I dream musical productions.


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## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

I can memorize twinkle twinkle little star and that's about it :lol: Seriously, I can only remember first part of each movement, that is, if I remember the movement at all.


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## Miaou (Mar 1, 2012)

Does dreaming it count? Not a symphony though, it is the Vogel als Prophet and Eintritt from Waldszenen. I actually 'played' it at a piano in those dreams. Back into reality, I can run through certain piano pieces but it's funny that they're played generally faster in my mind.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Most of the 2nd act of Tristan und Isolde. 2nd half of 1st act. 3rd act I'm quite poor at.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Oh my goodness. How did we go this long without a 4'33" joke? 

Of course the truth is, I'm not sure I can play the whole thing in my head. Not a joke. Monkey mind.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to form, so it's hard for me to figure out what comes next after the most memorable moments in a piece, especially if there's a development section. Even for _Beethoven's 9th_, which I've listened to a bajillion times, I can't get far into the first movement without my mind wandering to another movement. The only pieces I can remember in their entirety are short ones like preludes, fugues and lieder.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I can recite numerous flute solos I know off my head. Not just playing them I mean, but imagining the whole thing with accompaniment in my head.

Once I was able to recite almost the whole Seasons by Glazunov in my head. I should practice it again.


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## stanchinsky (Nov 19, 2012)

Do these people hear the music polyphonically, or is it more homophonic, or maybe just whatever section happens to have the melody or leading part at a certain time?


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Only those under 1 and half minutes!


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Chrythes said:


> I've been reading Musicophilia and after finishing the chapter about music hallucinations I was quite fascinated by some people's ability to play a whole symphony through their head in the right pitch without a missing note.
> I am aware that some can do it even without having the disorder.
> I myself am having quite a difficult time doing so, even though I am able to play non classical songs in my head almost entirely, but since my beginning with CM I don't care much for it now.
> How about you? Are you able to play a whole symphony in your head, or maybe a movement or a few movements?


North & South as well as East and West? Or simply East and West? East and West is "doable" esp. with 18thC Symphonies.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

some guy said:


> I'm fascinated by the epistemological aspect of this claim.
> 
> I don't have the Sacks at hand, and I don't remember how (or even if) he explains how this kind of thing can be known. What does he say about this? How did he confirm this ability?


He cut the subjects brain open and wired 'em up to super sensitive machines which digitally recoded the electric activity in the synapses into sound, rather like radio wave scans from Hubbel are transliterated into photographic images.

And I am Mozart, I never died 

I read Sachs' "Musicophilia" and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in music, though 'music' as literature, aesthetic is not the topic of the book. Fascinating read which held my attention, though I did skip a few chapters more 'case-book medical' here and there.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

stanchinsky said:


> Do these people hear the music polyphonically, or is it more homophonic, or maybe just whatever section happens to have the melody or leading part at a certain time?


Depends. I can usually hear at least the melody and bass lines, and probably the most important counterpoint. I'd say three lines is my usual maximum. One if it's something I'm only a little familiar with.

I can recall the entirety of the first movement of Mahler's 6th symphony without any major gaps. I generally have to know something REALLY well to do that, though.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

I can listen to many works in my head, at the right pitch and without missing a note.

But here's the problem, I can do so only after listening to a piece three or four times, and the exact version that I have in my head becomes, for me, the only correct version--because it's the one that I know so well. When I hear other recordings, the differences drive me crazy.

It has happened a few times that I've had to commit a new, better recording to memory. But I must listen to the better recording many times in order to forget the old one.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

stanchinsky said:


> Do these people hear the music polyphonically, or is it more homophonic, or maybe just whatever section happens to have the melody or leading part at a certain time?


Once in my teens, I was so keen (I suppose obsessed) with Bartok's music or stringed instruments, percussion and celesta that I listened to it repeatedly, while following the miniature score I had purchased. After a while, but With The Score, I could manage to 'run' the whole 'in my inner ear' with a feeling of actually hearing it. Whenever I did, I noticed it took the duration of its real running time. Over that, with that much dwelling on a piece, maybe once or twice I did it without score. That is all about repetition, and like working another muscle at the gym, a developed strength -- similarly, if you don't use it, you lose it 

Conservatory training and after, performing and career, for those pieces memorized (piano) I would also 'know the score' - the few concerti I learned a full miniature, other chamber works, well, they're often in the piano part as miniature anyway. Those too, I could run in my head, depending upon the degree of 'super careful memorization. For the concerti' I know I did not 'hear everything all the time' of the orchestral part, but enough of the whole, and especially for those areas where solo piano and a few instruments become an interdependent 'chamber ensemble' I knew and could 'run' those other parts.

So yes, polyphonic, homophonic, single instrument or orchestral, it is possible, with a lot of work, for about any active musician to train themselves to have the capacity. (I am in no way even 'precocious' but tell the tale to illustrate how it can be possible -- tons of concentrated and focused work, doh -- even if initially you think it not!)

Thre are those with both the ear and a remarkable innate ability who can consistently do the same.

George Solti seemed to have in memory just about all of common practice repertoire. He knew the piano accompaniment to about every lieder, chanson, sonata, piano + chamber piece, as well as legions of orchestral works. He was famous for it, and no doubt he could run any or all of it 'in his head.' Dmitri Mitropoulos knew scores inside out, conducting Wozzeck from memory not long at all from first studying the score. This sort of musical talents with their phenomenal memory are able to absorb and run just about any piece of any type, 'from memory in their heads.'

A concert pianist acquaintance has, in memory banks, at least two hundred concerti in store, as well as miles of solo piano repertoire. Any of it can be 'dusted off' within one week and ready to go, from Medtner, all the 'dense' late romantics, all the Beethoven, Tchikovsky, all the Mozart, etc. He always purchases the conductors score, and initially learns the piece from that, with all the orchestral 'data' as well. The guy is also a true polymath.... to mere mortals like myself, though he is completely matter of fact and himself, I am at the least a little in awe and find it nearly intimidating.

There are some people with remarkable musical memories out there, both developed and 'innate.'


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