Aphantasia: Do you modify your practice style?

For those not familiar. Apparently humans exist on a spectrum of being able to mentally imagine senses. Usually this is affiliated with site (can you close your eyes and picture an apple), but it applies to sound and scent and taste and feel as well. On one end of the spectrum (hyper aphantasia) people can have full movie quality inner imagination experiences. There is a fascinating story on Radio Lab about a guy who can conduct multiple symphonies in his head. It's called "A 4-Track Mind" and is a fascinating listen.  http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/148670-4-track-mind/

On the other end of the spectrum, just silence and darkness. There is no internal images or sounds. I live on that end.

https://aphantasia.com/what-is-aphantasia

I cannot close my eyes and picture chord fingerings or fretboard patterns, and I cannot mentally imagine a tune or note.

I am curious if anyone else here lives on my end of the spectrum, and if they have modified their practice regimen to accommodate.

Thanks!

Well this is very interesting. I had never heard of it. I took the survey, I guess I am on the dim side. Because I don't see any great amount of detail in my images in my head. But I do have images.

I have never visualized the fret board or tried and if I try to picture a C Major fingering in my head that isn't too clear either. Hmmm. 

Also, I cannot mentally "hear" a note. I am thinking of an "A" right now but I cannot hear it. I have friends who can call it if they hear it, but that also escapes me. Maybe in time I can develop that type of ear. But what you are talking about is in the mind, and mine, while not blacked out, is pretty dim. 

It was a weird discovery late in life. I had just assumed my experience was "normal" and that people were being poetic when using the phrase "in my minds eye"

The information is all still in my head, it is just coded differently. My closest analogy is the difference between raster graphics and vector graphics. One is created by pixels, one is created by math. The comparison is not perfect because they are both still images, but it helps people understand.

I get the worst earworms, but they are only external (to the annoyance of people around me). If I hear a familiar riff, my brain will go crazy until it remembers the song it came from, but that is all happening behind a black acoustic curtain. I can tell the difference between notes / chords, and I know when they sound wrong, but I can't make name associations yet. I think that will come with practice, but I will never be able to imagine a C chord in my head.

I don't think it has held me back, I have had a successful career in architecture which requires a lot of imaginary head work, the data just gets processed and accessed differently. I figure it will be the same with music. I was hoping there were others with tips on practicing to accommodate that difference.

Well that is interesting. I assumed that architecture was like art and you people put on paper what you saw in your mind. 

That is my boss. He can hold an entire building in his head, draw a 3d sketch on a napkin upside down, and make beautiful renderings. He is also a virtuoso guitar player who can improvise and pick apart songs by ear.

I am more on the engineering side of things. How the building is put together, structure, details, code issues etc. I think this is why I find the Guitar Theory side interesting, and have no real intertest in making new music. Understand it, play it,  yes;  create it, no.

Dave,

That's quite interesting. I read the same article about aphantasia. Seems like you're getting along with it. I identified with the other side, hyper-phantastic. I can almost hallucinate at will, no drugs required. It seems like aphantasia might be a potential advantage, musically, because it diminishes the degree to which internal representations. Especially, visual images might compete with awareness of actual sound. For years I struggled because I spent too much energy on how things looked on the fretboard, either in terms of patterns or finger dances. Until . . .

You're posts are funny. I saw the one about selling souls, too. Why not sell someone else's soul? For example, when I was a kid I acquired about 25 souls from folks. I didn't do much with them for a long time. I traded one back for a trinket while in highschool, but that's about it. But a few years ago, I traded two or three for guitar skills. Maybe not the best deal, and my skills aren't supernatural by any means, but now I'm a bit better and still have my own soul - more or less, that sorta stuff does have its price and wears on you. Otherwise, it's like, eternal-cosmic-day-trading. Might be something to consider. 

Cheers,

SG

That certainly explains some of the soulless people I have met in life.... But if that is the reason I had access to "Appetite For Destruction" in my formative years, I consider it an acceptable transaction.

It is very quiet and uncluttered in my head, and this helps me be focused and efficient while working. If I could only figure out how to get my left hand up to speed on timely chord transitions, I am sure it will help with guitar playing as well.