Is the voice in your head polyphonic ?

[newsense]

Although we humans hear polyphonically, the vast majority of us can only sing monophonically. Nevertheless, the fact that we physically hear, and psychologically distinguish, multiple simultaneous frequencies, allows harmony to be one of the most important features of music.

Like most people, I can sing a tune in my head; that is, not "out-loud", but totally within my imagination. Its not difficult and is clearly one of the techniques we all use to memorize tunes. Howver, the voice in my head is regretfully devoid of harmony. It is almost totally monophonic. That is, I find it almost impossible to "imagine" harmony or chords to accompany the song I am imagining in real time, even though I fully appreciate them when listening to "real" music. To be clear, whilst listening to a tune from a physical source, I can imagine a harmony to it in real time, but I cannot play "in my head" both the tune and the harmony or chords simultaneously.

I often wonder whether this is a major impediment to my progress as a musician, particularly in the context of improvisation. I also wonder whether the majority of people are in the same situation and if so, are those who can sing harmony with their inner voices distinguished by a higher level of musical capability ?

Please contribute to this thread by sharing your thoughts on whether your inner voice is mono- or polyphonic and, if the latter: (i) does it greatly aid your musical abilities and (ii) whether it is something we can all train ourselves to do ?

Thanks,

Andy

[ksjazzguitar]

My inner voice is semi-polyphonic. I can hear simple counterpoint, alla Bach's two-part inventions, etc. On the jazz side, I can also hear jazz harmony, hear the chord changes (assuming they aren't too bizarre) and hear the important guide tones and dissonances and resolutions.

I think that it's useful. It's just something that develops over time. The counterpoint thing developed because I spent a lot of time on counterpoint. I developed hearing the chord changes because I spent a lot of time thinking about and listening to who guide tones and dissonances resolve (as opposed to paving over everything with scales.) It's like anything else, it just takes time.

Peace,
Kevin

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Monophonic, but there's a bunch of voices

[ksjazzguitar]

Monophonic, but there's a bunch of voices

Maybe you can get the voices to sing harmony.

Peace,
Kevin

[Reg]

I can look at pretty much any score or chart and hear what ever I see... and can hear what ever i'm thinking.... poly or whatever...probable from years of composing music . But I'm pretty sure I could hear that way as a kid... just wasn't aware of what I was hearing. I remember back at Berklee one of my writing classes was pumping out Big Band charts in about 1 hour. The instructor was Frank Wes... worked in Vegas during the music hay days. Anyway the class was meant to teach methods of arranging styles etc... mechanically... but I remember being able to simple write out what I heard... and I don't have perfect pitch... It's hard to tell anymore... when you play all the time relative takes over, you always have reference...Reg

[newsense]

Reg - thanks for these insights.

But I'm pretty sure I could hear that way as a kid... just wasn't aware of what I was hearing.

I was wondering whether anyone would come back with this obervation, which suggests that polyphonic imagination may be something we can be born with, but doesn't rule out that we can develop it through practice later in life - its just more difficult that way.

Incidentally, the idea for my orignal post came after listening to your recent posts on the Bright Size Life thread. I was wondering how I could "practice" improvising BSL in my head whilst being away from my instrument for a week. However, I discovered this to be almost impossible without actually playing the backing track on my laptop - I couldn't be both Pat and Jaco in my head, or even "sing" a more simple chordal backing track.

[max chill]

Don't orchestra conductors hear symphonically? I would think it would be a skill that an arranger, composer, and orchestrator would need to have.

[ksjazzguitar]

I assume that you can hear anything in your "inner" ear that you can in your "outer" ear, in the same way that there is nothing that you can see in your regular eye that you can't see with your mind's eye. I think that some people assume that because we can only monophonically, that our "inner voice" can only do that as well. But our mind is not limited by our larynx. The point is just to train your imagination to imagine and control these sounds. It's really not that hard, it just takes practice. In the same way that an architect can imagine and create a mental image of a building and visualize it with a staggering amount of detail, a trained musician can imagine music and audialize with tremendous detail. It's just a matter of training.

Peace,
Kevin

[Banksia]

The voice in my head is definitely polyphonic and definitely a fan of Basie and Ellington. Whoever it is up there is definitely channelling some of the old big band arrangers.

[cmajor9]

The voice in my head is polyphonic, and studying composition definitely helped me hear the inner polyphony more clearly. But it (or do I say "he"?) also likes to imagine a good melody by itself sometimes.

[Stackabones]

Yes, but I think it tends to start monophonically and then the polyphony comes in later as I start to imagine things.

I'm actually a fan of monophonic music, for I run a small Gregorian chant group. I love the power of a single melodic line.

[patskywriter]

do you mean hearing tunes that are already familiar to you (via CDs or LPs)? or do you mean original tunes that you're working on in your head?

in my case, i usually hear familiar tunes pretty much as they are on the CD/LP. when i'm working on original tunes, i hear the chords i've figured out on guitar, that is if i have figured them out. otherwise, i sort out different chord changes in my head until i find some that i like. the hard part is remembering what i figured out until i get my paws on my guitar!

[MarkRhodes]

when i'm working on original tunes, i hear the chords i've figured out on guitar, that is if i have figured them out. otherwise, i sort out different chord changes in my head until i find some that i like. the hard part is remembering what i figured out until i get my paws on my guitar!

I've done that too, written a tune and then had to set about finding what progression to use for it.

[billkath]

I can "hear" full arrangements. I think, though I'm not positive, that I could always do that-hear the whole tune, harmony, drums-the whole arrangement. When I'm writing original songs, 9 times out of 10 I have the whole thing worked out in my head-I just transcribe it.

[newsense]

I'm begining to wish I'd never asked this question. Its starting to look like I wasn't born with the gift to be a jazz musician !

[cmajor9]

No need to feel that way IMHO. Lots of great players are all or mostly "single-line" players; its melody that touches most people the strongest. And you can develop hearing polyphonically if it seems important - but maybe more important for an arranger or bandleader than a guitarist.

[TheCaffeinatedOne]

Interesting idea; I never had occasion to think it out. I assume I hear polyphonically, but there must be a place where my mind is providing 'sounds" that my ear might not be registering, simply as that is what my mind expects to be hearing. It'll take me a while to even come up with an answer.

But as to whether it's "good" or "bad" - don't think yourself into a corner here. One way to approach it might be to take whichever way you do hear and turn it to your advantage. For instance, in hearing a line monophonically you may well be able to concentrate on that line to a greater degree than one who hears polyphonically.

I have two brothers who are deaf. Both can hear low frequencies and have severe to profound hearing loss in the mid to high frequencies. One brother shared with me some of his extensive testing over the years, including a test to determine his ability to filter out background sounds when trying to stay focused on a particular, known tone. He measured right off the charts in his ability to do that; however the technician nearly stopped the test a couple of times as the degree to which my brother was tensed, sweating, moving, seemingly unaware of his surroundings and so forth became alarming. At the end of the test he was exhausted. Somehow he had developed his ability to differentiate between useful and distracting sounds to an extraordinary degree as a mechanism to compensate for his inability to hear so much of what was around him.

All of which is to say that if your mind perceives a need to build a skill or talent that you may appear not to have at the moment, it will do so. Don't think the way you hear should ever keep you from immersing yourself in any musical style you want to be part of. I don't think our systems really work that way. They adapt.