Getting "out of your head"

Hey everyone,

I've been recently experiencing a problem and I've talked to various people about this, but thought maybe fellow composers could offer the greatest insight into this problem.

Over the past year or two my musical inclination has been deteriorating, I've been losing touch emotionally with the music I listen to, not because I've lost interest, but because I'm caught up too much in my head. I always long for those feelings I used to get when I listened to music. What's happened though, is that during music classes the other students would talk about how they saw things when listening to music, and I never did.

Music would just move me and shake me emotionally, I'd see colors and different textures, but never actual images. This made me think that I was listening to music wrong. So, I began to start a bad habit. Now everytime I listen to music I think, what do I see? What do I feel? Now I can't experience music the same way because I've become too analytical about it-instead of feeling the emotions I'm actually thinking "what do I feel right now?". I'm hoping that maybe some of you on here have encountered a problem similar to this, and can offer advice to me and possibly other composers who are experiencing the same problem as to how to get out of this bad habit.

It's very depressing feeling you've lost touch...

Thanks in advance!

The way music moves someone isn't tied to intellectual and conscious thought, in my mind at least. The feelings stirred within by piece must be only felt, not analyzed and obsessed over- the most wonderful part of this is that it's completely personal. Your feelings towards a piece of music are unique and distinct from any other listener and especially the composer's. And not every piece of music will make you FEEL something you can consciously describe to yourself - some may argue this point.

You say your classmates talk about specific images music recalls? That sounds like both bullshit from them and unnecessary hyper-association to me. Not all music is programmatic.

I suffer from this disconnect sometimes too, albeit in a different way. Instead of wondering how the music makes me feel, I'm analyzing it theoretically as it goes along, picking the mechanics apart in my head rather than listening to the piece holistically. that is annoying.

I just go with it man. The same song or piece can give you so many different reactions at different points in your life.

It's like a character in a movie or a book. People tend to latch on to or sympathize with characters that they see in some way similar to themselves. They empathize with what they see in someone else. I think music is similar, in that we tend to find part of ourselves in the music. Just try looking for yourself.

i encountered this problem but not with classical music, i tried to listen to different genres and after a week of listening to a different style , i got in touch with music again.

It sounds to me as if the pendulum has swung for you from one extreme to the other. I often experienced this early in my college career. It felt as if I couldn't enjoy music as much as I used to, because I was listening with completely different ears. Now you're trying to force something that's foreign to you into your ideas about music. I can understand why that's distressing to you. Don't change your ideas about music, you see what you see. You aren't wrong. That's the beauty of music, it evokes different things for every person. Don't let your peers influence you quite so much in the classroom. What I do is when I listen, I just let the music present itself to me, just accept any image that comes into my head, often these images are just shadows and reflections of actual images. Just because some people see hard images doesn't mean you should...just be happy with what you have. You may eventually be able to better explain what you see and feel, but don't change what you're looking for from music. Music is inherently emotional (Note: DO NOT VISIT THE 4'33" THREAD!) and your experiences are just as valid as anyone else's.

As long as you don't lose interest. I wouldn't base judgement that you'll never go back to the way you used to be with music. It's not a bad thing. All you can do is progress your character. You can't escape it. Learn to respect things for what they are and know that there is no need to compare personal understandings in spite of change. You were born to love, so why not just love, and love music?

Try physically going to these places that were imagined. Take a walk through the woods while listening to Brahms. Something, anything to get back in touch with reality, the reality of you. That's what you need. You overlook how original you are. Not everyone can see your design, but I know there is a passion that has never been compared. You were never able to truly compare yourself to your friends. You're complex, distinguished, incomparable.

Music is all around you. But you need to move around. Explore your fascinating world, because there is more than one voice that urges to speak to you. Hear the wind's plea.

I may be able to offer some practical advice.

I too had this problem (and mostly still do).

When I realized it, it was very depressing for me not to be able to feel what I once felt. I've also discussed this subject with my other fellow musicians (band mates, techers etc.) And it all came down to this simple conclusion.

As you get involved into music more and more, when you make it your profession or just a big hobby, you begin thinking about it too much. You're not supposed to think about music. You're supposed to feel it. But we as musicians have no choice to think about it if we want to get better at what we do.

And the way you start to analyze music and use your analytic mind when listening is a kind of a professional deformation.

But I think I have found a bit of a remedy for this situation.

As it goes, you probably listened to some pieces that are your favorite songs, that made you feel something etc. and the problem there is that you know those songs too well, you kind of remember the feelings, and given that fact, you mind won't do the same process twice, so it begins analyzing the music instead. And the solution to this situation is don't listen the same music you listened earlier. Find new music, I can almost guarantee the emotions will return when you hear a fresh piece of music for the first time. It will again take you places, tell the stories and make you experience some emotions. And after a few listening sessions you will begin to analyze that piece too. Move on to the next if you don't want to analyze it. (which is not a bad thing, analyzing, you can't get any more great ideas about music then by listening to it)

And after some time has passed, when you put on some of you old songs you liked, the feeling will return. (but you really need to let the time pass, it took about a year for me to just forget the songs I liked, not completely, but enough)