Do you ever have music playing over and over in your head, making you nutty because you can't remember the name of the song or the composer? Or am I the only one who has this discombobulation occur? It happens to me all the time with classical music. I am pretty good about distinguishing a Mozart from a Bach, but there is always that illusive piece I can't quite put my finger on. So, I embark on a wild quest to identify it. If I don't, it stays in my head like a broken record, and drives me mad.
It doesn't help to hum it to WT. First of all, he's not really an expert on classical music. And secondly, even though I am lucky enough to have perfect pitch, my voice seldom does what my brain tells it. So, when I la-la-tee-da in my monotone style, no one can tell what the heck music I'm conveying, even though it's playing perfectly loud and clear in my head.
I'm happy to say, since the arrival of the internet, there are a few options that help me avoid total classical music insanity.
1. Post the question on a classical music forum. For example, you can ask if anyone can tell you what piece starts out with CCGEE, etc.
2. Search albums on Amazon. There's usually sound clips from each piece. This might take a while, but if you've narrowed it down to a composer, it can help.
3. If you've heard the piece on the radio, and know approximately when you heard it, you can email the station and ask them. My dearest local WOSU has been very helpful in this matter.
May all your earworms be beautiful, my friends.
(photo from google images)
Good tips Willow for tracking down that elusive tune!
ReplyDeleteLove your poem and daffodil pic.
Jeanne
Oh yeah that happens to me but it's usually a jingle from a commercial, nothing so pleasant as real music.
ReplyDeleteword verification...resingu
Ya that happens to me too. I can sometimes remember the artist if it is from a recording I have heard and you can put that name in. Some of the really old ones have no videos of course, just the song and pictures. I can always remember the tune in my mind and can no way sing it or even hum the tune.
ReplyDeleteQMM
I really like the changes happening to your blog. The coloring, the set up, clean and easy to read, very very nice. Music is something hubby and I talk about so much of the time. I like classical a little more than he does but then I also like rock better than he does. There are just certain times for different genres.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the sure fire trick to drive any earworm away is to sing "Polly Wolly Doodle." It's almost infallible!
ReplyDeleteHi Willow,
ReplyDeleteThis happens to me often. I'll frequently have a piece of music stuck in my head. Sometimes it's something I've heard recently. Sometimes it's something out of the blue. I often do not like music that is terribly catchy for this reason. The music in my head is usually recognizable to me though. If you ever need help identifying a piece, you can always call me.
Best,
David
http://www.globalaroundtown.blogspot.com
TechnoBabe, thank you! I've already had some complaints, but I like the way it turned out. I'm keeping it for awhile. Glad to know it's easy to read.
ReplyDeleteOkay, David. I'll give you a call next time it happens, and let you decipher my la-la's. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat tips!
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, it's not the songs I can't remember I find bothersome, it's the ones that are catchy that I hate. Commercial jingles or anything by Abba will usually have me mentally screaming even while I keep repeating the tune as if I had Tourettes. I can only calm myself by singing "Don't Fence Me In" and breathing deeply. Once again Roy Rogers saves me. He is my guru.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't happen to me all that much. I am pretty good at picking out the artists, but then again, I am talking popular music and not classical!
ReplyDeleteOh Willooooooow...
ReplyDeleteI need your snail mail address!
: )
xox,
Susan
dreams.underfoot.blog@gmail.com
If you have the "Shazam" app for the I-Phone, you can just point your phone at the radio and it will tell you what song is playing.
ReplyDeleteI borrowed a long playing record from the library when I was sixteen. My friend made fun of my mispronounciation of the Russian composer's name. All my life I have whistled the tunes to record store managers and radio programmers. I dream that I will one day rediscover the actual music. I would not know how to define it by notation, however also years ago, I heard that someone was compiling a dictionary of tunes based on "same, same, same, down, up, same, same, down," etcetera, but then I never found said dictionary.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I don't get worms, because I simply replace a repetitive tune with another, and then another, and then another....
I usually know what I'm humming. The mystery for me is figuring out how a particular tune got into my head in the first place!
ReplyDeleteThank God for the internets!!
ReplyDeleteI whistle classical tunes from time to time but never have any idea what they are or who wrote them. Usually SWMBO knows what it is and tells me and she is She Who Must Be Obeyed!
ReplyDeleteI was going to say try singing another song. OH, try to remember words to an old song.. I works for me.
ReplyDeleteBlog looks goog. We have had down pours, raining cats and dogs..
yvonne
According to my niece, the Shazaam ap for Iphone also will interpret your hums...in addition pointing it as the earlier poster suggested. Good blog. :) I'm glad I stumbled onto you...
ReplyDeleteThe mysteries look like music.
ReplyDeleteYou are compulsive dear Willow ... or maybe just a lot younger than I.
ReplyDeleteAt my advanced years I just enjoy the music usually it is something I love anyway so I just thank the universe for giving me a command performance. Usually when I have moved through Schubert, Tchaikovsly, Puccini and a few others, someone switches the lightbulb on Ind I have a revelation.
Jimmy crack corn...
ReplyDeleteTell me about it! This happens to me ALL THE TIME. Drives me nuts. It can go on for months, usually when I'm out walking.
ReplyDeleteI rather like it! Bisou, Cro.
What I hate is when it happens at night when I'm trying to fall asleep and then when I do finally, it is still there when I wake up to use the loo! Eeeekkkkk! Sometimes I have to sing Jingle Bells to make it go away.
ReplyDeleteI ask my father. He usually knows.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, classical earworms! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love listening to classical music stations, to broaden my horizon, among others. Luckily, Austrian PR lists all the pieces played over the course of a day on their website. Most helpful also when you hear a piece of music performed by a particular artist, and fall in love with his or her interpretation.
Good listening and may you always solve those earworm mysteries!
N.B.: Your post brought back memories of Peter Schickele, I loved to listen to his show on NPR (the "Very Full Professor Peter Schickele" of the "University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople" - how I miss him, what a shame that there's no money in radio anymore for shows like his!).
I typically have to listen to AM radio in the hopes that whatever it is someone magically gets played... and that I'm still listening when the announcer says what it is.
ReplyDeleteI do get earworms often. Not always classical either- I often recall lines and that makes songs easier to track down.
ReplyDeleteI have such a wide taste in music, I get many varieties of earworms!
Good post. Helpful tips about a common experience. Should be very popular. Certainly deserves to be.
ReplyDeleteI love your sense of humor, Willow, and I can identify with your voice-brain conundrum. I'm not monotone, but I'm certainly not the tone I think I am!
ReplyDeletePolly Wolly Doodle, Jimmy Crack Corn, Don't Fence Me In, Jingle Bells...oh, wow, what would I do without my bloggy friends?! Why look it up, when I can just erase it from my mind with one of these beauties?
ReplyDeleteI know very well what you mean, but I tend to suffer with this problem with lyrics rather than tunes. I can get a portion of a particular lyric going around and around in my head but I am often unable to move the lyric on to reveal the tune. But as you say, these days you can always Google for help - which is a bit like having one of those computers which solve crossword puzzles.
ReplyDeleteperhaps this affinity with music was passed on to your daughter who is a singer I thinK?
ReplyDeleteGood ideas, Willow. Yes, this happens to me, too!
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading a cool book about this very thing called Musicophilia. It's actually about a guy that gets hit by lightning and afterward becomes filled with music in his head. The brain is so amazing!
ReplyDeleteHope you will always have wonderful tunes playing full blast in your head.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Right now I have Josh Groban earworms. I need to try some Jingle Bells!
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten about that term, "ear worm" Lately one from the 50's that I heard on the Oldies station will not leave me, "Let the Little Girl Dance" This has been stuck for weeks now and I am trying to replace it..any suggestions on that? How to dislodge an earworm tha burrows in??
ReplyDeleteRight now I have an ear infection and maybe there are some worms in there, but then I also suffer from tinnitus and so I always hear the same constant tune every minute of every day. I do not think there is a name for it, but I wish this was one worm that I could get rid of. Very big sigh.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It is amazing how easy it is to find just about ANY information, with the internet, isn't it! I often think back to when I had to literally go to the library to research things that are now virtually at our fingertips. It's mind-boggling and wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHappens to me all the time, but it is usually with stupid little jingles or one line from a song.
ReplyDeleteIt's much harder with classical music but if I hear a tune on the tv or radio and don't catch its name or the name of the band, well I try and catch a few words from the song and then have a google.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I fell in love with The Killers music - heard a bit of 'Human' (without knowing it was called that) and the rest is history.
ah the curse of the earworm....my friend with an iphone swears by some app she has to identify music she can't name
ReplyDeletewv efiestis....sounds like some sort of infestation or perhaps an ear inflammation?
What is just as maddening is to know the music and maybe 2/rds the words, if it has words, and cannot recall the remainder forever and ever until you see them in print!
ReplyDeleteOur family favorite (classical song) is this one:
ReplyDeleteda dum da dum da dum de dum da dum da dum de doo de de dum...
(The Bach double! Scrumptious!)
I can identify pretty much all of my earworms, but only if I trap them first thing on waking. Once the impedimenta of the day are in place, not a chance!
ReplyDeleteI get that too, Willow, ans always with classical but for me it's made up symphonies in my head. So lush and beautiful and yet no way to write them down as I can't sing at all and can;t write music. I hear every instrument as well sometimes when between that waking and dream state.
ReplyDelete