How do you hear a piece in your head?

[fhernand]

First of all, hi!
I have been around for some time, reading and learning from the discussions on this wonderful site, and this is my first post. I have been learning the piano for half a year now. loving it and lamenting that i did not start it earlier (I am 29 now). But, its never too late, right?

So, I wanted to know how you heard a piano piece in your head? I had never wondered about that, but recently I noticed that when I heard a piece (a melodic line, chords, anything on a piano), I heard it as if I was singing it with my voice (like "ta tata", or "la la la", whatever), of course, with the correct pitch, and dynamics, etc, but just as if I was singing it.
I have been trying since then to "shut myself up" and listen to a real piano sound in my head. It has not been easy, I can only sustain it for short periods of time, before I start hearing my voice again, and I only hear it faintly, but it has gotten better with time, and it allows me to catch glimpses of really hearing a piano, with its sound and polyphony. But I have to focus really hard 

That got me wondering how other people heard that.

ok, I reread this and a doctor could easily diagnose me as "borderline insane" or potentially schizophrenic, hehe, so I hope at least you guys and gals kind of understand what I am trying to say.

Thanks and I hope to hear from you.

[beethovenlover]

Well, I always hear the piece in my head, but I never hear it like a piano. When you talk to yourself in your head that doesn't sound like a piano, so why should pitch be any different. I also hear it like I'm singing in my head. I don't see anything wrong with that. AND, if you have to do any aural training, being able to hear your own voice in your head when thinking of a piece will really help you out. So don't feel challenged unless it's just a personal goal to be able to only hear the piano.

 

[fhernand]

hello there

aha, so you hear your voice too. Well its certainly ok to hear my voice. But it would sometimes be better to hear a piano, to hear the polyphony. (there is only one voice in your voice :p)

I wonder if that is possible at all..

[pianistimo]

perhaps you should buy a digital piano and use earphones a lot.  every since i bought one, my ears have been ringing.  i hear passages much clearer when i want to imagine them.  perhaps it is playing the piano enough to engrain them in your mind.  also, as others here have testified, to listening to a lot of recordings (of which i never do enough).  i listen to the radio - but hardly ever take the time to get out a CD and sit down with the music.  to have that mental music/score approach.  to know when something is not meshing with the score at a certain place.  i'm very forgetful on long pieces - but shorter ones - i could conduct i think. 

basically - you are conducting yourself.  hearing it ahead of time helps you plan for what you will do.  it's a very good idea.

[cfortunato]

I have been trying since then to "shut myself up" and listen to a real piano sound in my head.

Why do you WANT to hear something besides your voice?  In choosing dynamics and getting the right feel, it might good to STRIVE for the effect of singing, at least with some pieces (that's what "cantabile" means, isn't it?)

[rc]

I gave it a try and I can hear any instrumentation I'm familiar with, but there's also this tendancy to want to sing it.  Then it morphs into my voice in my head and I notice I'm whispering the melody.  In my head the accompaniment is still piano.

Same thing happens with whistling.

fhernand, I don't think this is something you need to work on.  The more you listen to recordings and your own playing the sound of the piano will become a part of you.  For a while now I've been exploring a lot of orchestral music and now I notice I can hear in those instrumentations too.

Careful listening in the head and in reality are important to cultivate.  My most focused playing does feel a bit as if I were singing it.  I've had some good practice listening in my head while doing the dishes.

[mknueven]

I think it's a blessing you can hear it in your head - if you're hearing it correctly (just listen to a CD to check) you could take care of rythm problems and dynamics easier on the piano - I think.

As to how?  I don't know !

One thing:  Listening to a CD
but for myself - I hear new songs ( as in ones I am writing)  I don't know how it happens, but I am glad it does.

[ryanyee]

stuff the cd into your mouth,crunch it,make sure it's digested,and you've memorized it! nah! just listen to the piece over and over. actually, it is more possible for a 13 year old to hear the piece in his mind than an adult?s

[pianowolfi]

I hear piano all the time. at least when piano pieces are in my head. If it's a Symphony I hear all the other instruments too, with their specific sound. It plays in my head like my head was a stereo system.

[cmg]

I hear piano all the time. at least when piano pieces are in my head. If it's a Symphony I hear all the other instruments too, with their specific sound. It plays in my head like my head was a stereo system.

Me, too, pianowolfi.  But be very careful the music playing in your head isn't still under copyright.  The thought police will get you if you aren't paying royalities.  I almost lost my shirt on York Bowen's "Fantasia."  Too many unauthorized "head peformances," they said.  But, then again, that was some voice in my head telling me that.  Hmmm.  Should I be worried about this??    (I'll have to ask pianistimo.  She'll know.)

[pianowolfi]

Me, too, pianowolfi.  But be very careful the music playing in your head isn't still under copyright.  The thought police will get you if you aren't paying royalities.  I almost lost my shirt on York Bowen's "Fantasia."  Too many unauthorized "head peformances," they said.  But, then again, that was some voice in my head telling me that.  Hmmm.  Should I be worried about this??    (I'll have to ask pianistimo.  She'll know.)

Well I guess we all have some sort of paranoid side in ourselves since probably a lot of us read Orwell's 1984 and Huxleys "brave new world" plus watched a lot of bad news about all the bad things that happen everywhere and about the security measures that are being applicated anywhere. When I travelled to the US 5 weeks ago I was sorta annoyed about how long it took to go through the passport control and how long it took to ask me where I would stay and why I come there and what my goals are and what my aims are and how I would manage to get from one coast to the other and so on and so forth. But after all I found it senseful and even sorta comforting because everyone was VERY friendly and the whole procedure gave me at least a feeling of being somehow safe. And I worried most about my dirty finger nails (because i had screwed a lot on my bike before) when they took my finger prints. Well I was actually disgusted though because the screen where I had to put my precious pianist pointers on was MUCH more dirty even, they seemed not to have cleaned it for hours. If THEY would know what happened in my head during all this time of travelling....sheesh i mean, the music got VERY strong in my head and somehow alive since I couldn't listen to anything anymore( my ipod had run out of energy) and was just busy with my imagination, which gained on (grammar? argh these prepositions ) strength every day. lol.

[mknueven]

cmg -
I don't think you should worry about it -
but now you've got me worrying about you....

[lelle]

I definitely hear a piano. Either it sounds like my favourite interpretation (by some other person ofc), or how I play it myself, or how I believe I play it myself

[gyzzzmo]

I hear pianomusic often too, but if i hear the music in my head i'm also playing it in my head.

[slobone]

I think you should be glad you hear the piece as if it were being sung. That's how I always recommend people play, as if they were singing, to get the phrasing right.

And most classical instrumental music, except maybe Webern, is meant to be played in imitation of the voice anyway.

[term]

i hear in my head exactly what i actually heard. I thought that was the case with most ... Oo