does anyone feel like you find it harder to parse through music? like to understand waht the lyrics or find yourself focused on what's going on?

I have a hard time just listening to music and not doing anything else, my brain isn't stimulated and I get too restless. I love listening to music when I am driving or as a background to working on the computer, etc. but otherwise I can't handle it.

i have this problem where i just cant understand the lyrics to anything, follow them, or even remember them

I've been a D.J. for 25 years. I love music but know the words to absolutely 0 songs. I play guitar and have trouble remembering the words. I do however, remember the tune!

People call me on the air and say, "can you play the song where the guy says he loves her but has to leave anyway?". Listeners are always shocked when I tell them I have no idea as to the song they are referring.

In reality, we never have time to listen to the songs anyway.

Larry-Dale

do you have add also or no?

Yes. I am definitely ADHD.

ahhh, and do you take medication while you listen to music? but you have complete understanding for the rhythm no?

I take my medication daily, like most of us. I find it very difficult to listen to a complete song unless I'm driving or doing some activity. I also have found it increasingly more difficult to sit through an entire concert. Fortunately, as a jock, we can introduce the band(s), then leave.
Larry-Dale

im adhd and i am absolutely obssessed with the lyrics. i love songwriting and songwriters, and won't even listen to a cd until i've read the jacket from front to back so i know what the artist is trying to convey.........sorta nutty, i know!!!

but i cant seem to follow the lyrics, memorize them, or udnerstand what they're saying? is that an ADHD symptom or just me?

I've been a D.J. for 25 years. I love music but know the words to absolutely 0 songs. I play guitar and have trouble remembering the words. I do however, remember the tune!

People call me on the air and say, "can you play the song where the guy says he loves her but has to leave anyway?". Listeners are always shocked when I tell them I have no idea as to the song they are referring.

In reality, we never have time to listen to the songs anyway.
Larry-Dale

There are a couple reasons for this....
One, as a DJ & guitarist, you are probably only paying attention to the groove, chord structure, melody, & tempo, etc. The words are just not an important aspect for you. Plus, like you said, during your gig, you don't really "listen" to them anyway. If that's the case, how COULD you know the lyrics?

I once heard Herbie Hancock say that until he first worked with Joni Mitchell he NEVER paid attention to lyrics. He was only interested in the music, and it's technical construction. He only heard the chord changes, melody notes, rhythm, etc., words were not relevant, he was a "musician", not a singer or lyric writer.....

i think we all have our own gifts and struggles, just like others do. for me, i learn from music. i love to find the meaning underneath the words. or at least the meaning that is my own interpretation.

it's just my thing.

Saxman, you brought up a good point. I do listen to song structure and get a lot of my joy from a good middle eight. I love that! Todd Rundgren kills me with the breaks in some of his stuff.

During my gig, the moment I let one spin and turn off my mic, I'm answering the listener line or getting a bit together. I never really get to hear the song. When my show is over, I really don't feel like listening to my station, but do enjoy public radio or some other format.

This may be politically incorrect, but I feel many more women listen to the words than men. When calling the request line, men can usually hum the tune if I ask, women will just tell me the lyrics and won't be able to communicate the tune usually. That's just my personaly observation.

Hey, do you think we can get a $5 million dollar government grant to study this theory? :D

Larry-Dale

if you can figure it out, please cut me in! it is definitely true in my opinion that more women ADMIT to listening to the lyrics.....but in my own little resarch i have found that not a one of them has really thought about what the artist is trying to communicate.

plus, as far as humming the tune to request a song, i think that has to do with women being, for the most part, more embarrassed about the way they might sound. as for men, i think they're more embarrassed to admit they actually do know the lyrics!!

i personally would request a song by name, artist, and actually singing it on the phone!!!!!! if nothing else they would be more apt to put it on just to get me to shut up!!!!!!

Another great angle on the theory. Make that $8 million for the study!

This is all in the name of science you know.

Larry-Dale

Ok......hold it there. That theory would not apply to a female musician. As such, I tend to listen to structure, patterns, passion in the "sound"....lyrics are final. LOL*** Just drop that figure a little :D

Uh Oh!.....We have another valid option to research. It looks like we're gonna need at least $12 million for this project. :rolleyes:

Seriously, whether or not one is able to keep complete attention on a song or musical piece from beginning to end, isn't really important in my opinion. As both a musician, and a person who brings the music of others to the masses, the bottom line is just to enjoy. Music doesn't always have to send a message, and frankly, the message many musicians send is whack. If it sends a message to you, great. If it makes you cry, great. If it makes you smile, great. As long as there is balance, music doesn't need to be studied. As a matter of fact, beautiful music is not always made by beautiful people.

Reading the post of Rhapsody, I thought of a personal favorite classical writer, Frederic Chopin. He made music that could lift and touch the soul of the most callous individual, but wasn't known as the nicest person in the world.

Here's an odd point I'll throw in for good measure. One of the qualifiers when I go out with a woman, is if she sings. That is, I listen to hear if she hums or sings to herself while just piddling around or whatever. I feel that is a window to one's soul. Isn't that wierd.

Larry-Dale

Viktoria, hold on my friend!!!!!! i am a musician and singer as well, and i wasn't applying that theory to those of us who have a deeper understanding or appreciation of the art. i agree with what you said. for folks like us, there are many aspects that come into play. my comment was in regard to the people who don't really think about the music in any deeper sense at all, and certainly aren't as passionate about it as are some of us.:)

i listen to all sorts of music depending on my environment, my mood, all sorts of things. i listen to music that has no underlying message at all, no matter how hard you try to find it, just because the rhythm fits the mood! it's just that for me, the artists i most appreciate are the ones who write their own music and lyrics, and whose songs have something to say that can in some way enlighten my mind. those are the folks that i remember. those are the ones that i respect. but that's just me, and considering i'm an adhd member of this site, i doubt i need to tell you that i can be completely loony at times.:D

zippy, since you don't mind a girl who sings, perhaps i shall begin calling in my song requests to you!!!! actually, truth be told, i listen to cds all the time anyway!

i'm not asking about the concentration when listening to music, but the ability to HEAR the lyrics and understand them.

sushix,
I am self-diagnosed as having an Auditory Processing Disorder.
In terms of hearing sounds, I have excellent hearing.
In terms of taking the sounds and interpreting in my brain into something meaningful, its a whole 'nother story.
I lot of times I hear spoken words, but when they come into my brain, they don't make any sense at all. Sort of like an echo or being under water; then after a few moments, my brain can "unscramble" the sounds and it becomes coherent.
This makes listening to the words in music a very difficult task; I listen intently, and while I'm unscrambling the first three words, I completely miss the next three.
Two people talking to me at once is horrible!
Oh yeah, add ADHD to the mix, and I completely forget to pay attention after this point. :D
This processing difficulty isn't a constant thing that happens with everything I hear. It's more of a intermittent short-circuit that occurs at random times.

sushix, i think this is but one more area where each person is different. for me, it isn't a matter of having to concentrate to the music or lyrics to really hear them. music is simply a passion of mine, and i seem to be wired for the maximum enjoyment of it.

Reading the post of Rhapsody, I thought of a personal favorite classical writer, Frederic Chopin. He made music that could lift and touch the soul of the most callous individual, but wasn't known as the nicest person in the world.
You just picked one of my favorites to listen to, Zippy :) But for singing, one composer I cannot go past is Rachmaninoff. Many do not even know he wrote for the classical singer, and yet he wrote almost concerti for singers. The singing of Rachmaninoff's works become a duet between singer and orchestra, nothing like with other composers. The passion of Bizet also grabs me:D

http://http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/9981/rach.html

He even sounds a little ADHD to me by reading the above link.

Viktoria, hold on my friend!!!!!! i am a musician and singer as well, and i wasn't applying that theory to those of us who have a deeper understanding or appreciation of the art. i agree with what you said. for folks like us, there are many aspects that come into play. my comment was in regard to the people who don't really think about the music in any deeper sense at all, and certainly aren't as passionate about it as are some of us.

i listen to all sorts of music depending on my environment, my mood, all sorts of things. i listen to music that has no underlying message at all, no matter how hard you try to find it, just because the rhythm fits the mood! it's just that for me, the artists i most appreciate are the ones who write their own music and lyrics, and whose songs have something to say that can in some way enlighten my mind. those are the folks that i remember. those are the ones that i respect. but that's just me, and considering i'm an adhd member of this site, i doubt i need to tell you that i can be completely loony at times.:D

zippy, since you don't mind a girl who sings, perhaps i shall begin calling in my song requests to you!!!! actually, truth be told, i listen to cds all the time anyway!
Free!!! So nice to meet a fellow singer on the forums ;) I didn't know you were a musician. Thank you for telling me. I relate to what you are saying. Despite the genre I work in, I listen to many different types and styles of music, and the words mean little to me, the feeling is in the music, it speaks it's own language. Even if I am the singer, the lyrics are still motivated by the music, the lyrics remain secondary for me, probably primary for much of an audience, but in "feeling" the music, I believe the lyrics sound more meaningful if the singer goes within.

I do like lyrics written by the original artist and appreciate them when they are meaningful....but I'm looney too, remember?:D:D.......hehehehhe..so is Zippy ;)

Well, here's another two bits from a looney musician! :p I love music....have played piano and clarinet, recorder, and am now wildly into hand drumming (oriental drums and anything else that makes the "right" sound! Oh yes, I also sing in a small (ecclectic) choir. Music feeds my soul, frees my soul....

However, I also suffer (and have been officially diagnsoed) like Swamp Donkey in that "hearing" words is almost impossible due to the fact that I "hear" everything all mixed up together. I can listen to a song and it sounds like they are singing in a foreign language and I know they are singing in English.

I cannot watch TV and have a conversation at the same time, or listen to music when anyone is about unless I have earphones in! It is not fun, but there is nothing wrong with my ears, just my brain!

I don't think this has anything to do with me being female unless females suffer with this syndrome more often than men....another aspect to that study, better bump it to 15 million and let me help, okay? :D:D

I take music (like the rest of my life) in through every pore. I will listen to the words and suddenly be distracted by an instrument and...there you go! I have to say that, for me, listening to music is most pleasurable when I am dancing. Then I simply "ride" the music. I get frustrated at my co-dancers because they can't feel the music like I do!

Otherwise, choreographying my own music and singing are the best ways for me to experience music. Active involvement is the key.

Okay, added to my list of woes is the inability to remember a title or artist unless they are exceptional! I'd be one of the hummers you get, Larry! ;)

So, will you accept my application to participate in your study? :D

Kim

how do you ge diagnosed with this?

http://www.neurodiversity.com/auditory_processing.html

This is where I learned about it.

Like I said, I'm self diagnosed. Athough I've wondered for years and years why it seemed that I couldn't hear like other people do, I couldn't put my finger on it until I came across the Neurodiversity website.
I don't have it severe enough to consider myself handicapped by it; its more just an annoyance.

FWIW, I have a diesel pickup truck, and its fairly loud when when the engine is idling, making a metalic clattering sound. My ex-wife would always try to talk to me when I was beside the truck with the engine running, and I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I would repeatedly ask her to stand beside me and speak loudly into my ear from a distance of one or two feet so I could understand her, but she never would.
I thought it was very rude of her to speak to me from a distance of 8-10 feet and expect me to be able to hear her, and I told her so, but she acted like I was playing games with her, or pretending to be deaf.
Then one day I decided to turn the tables and play her "game" on her, to show her how irritating and unreasonable it was.
So, I said something to her in a normal tone and volume of voice from about 10 feet away. She had her back turned to me, and I was absolutely stunned when she turned around and answered me because she heard me perfectly and understood exactly what I said.
We had a nice talk that evening; she realized that I wasn't playing deaf, and I realized that anyone else could hear under those conditions, so she wasn't being unreasonable expecting that I could.

I went to an ear, nose, and throat specialist because I thought I was just hard of hearing. They diagnosed me officially.

I'd be one of the hummers you get, Larry! ;)

So, will you accept my application to participate in your study? :D

Kim[/QUOTE]
Kim,
If you would like to rephrase that, I'll look the other way for a minute.images/icons/icon6.gif

Larry-Dale

Someone help me as I keep messing up the little smiley face dudes.

LD

What do I need to rephrase? Did I stick my foot in my mouth AGAIN!? :p:o:eek:

Kim

I usually have some line from a tune running through my head for half the day. I can usually only remember that line though and then the rest of the lyrics blurr out. It's usually when their bad lyrics though. I think when singers think they have a nice voice they can sing what ever lyrics they want. But no one wants to hear the same story over and over again you know. I don't care about some chick whose boyfriend was a dick. Don't tell me a story sing me a song. Lyrics have to be rhythmic they have to flow with the other elements in the song. The lyrics I can remember from a song fit the rhythm. I thinks it's a theory thats often overlooked but the reason new songs don't stick around these days is because it's a loss of the original artist. Jim Morisson didn't let anyone else right his lyrics. Do you think Hendrix or Zepplin did either. Maybe they did I don't really know. I havent seen a music video in a while but the artist usually doesn't make that either. It's a loss of original thought. It's the compilation of alot of crap just because it sells. Someone else writes the song the singer sings it and it sells maybe it's always been that way somewhat in the music industry but quality tunes are being sacraficed. Brittney sells more CDs than Dave Matthews because it's about money not music. But Dave Matthews is always good to listen to because it's more about music. Hopefully in the future the music will prevail.

can anyone tlel me more about this auditory listening disorder? and its symptoms? i might have that

this is so interesting, but i still dont know enough about APD, i mean i haev symtoms for both? do i have both? one or the other? weird

Sushix, serious question.....are you "looking for a disorder"??? Only a Dr can diagnose a disorder you "may" have. We aren't Dr's here, well, some may be, but we are not permitted to diagnose.

It really would help if you went and saw a Dr and told him/her all of your symptoms without relying on others to tell you "their" symptoms. That way, you will get a clear diagnosis. I hope you get to see a Dr soon to help you as I think you really need some type of help with your problems. Good Luck! :)

for some reason i have a paranoia of having these disorders on my record, as if they can be use a prejudice from other people in the future that might see them. is this absurd?

Sushix, perhaps you could speak to a Dr about being frightened of being ill and having something on your record. Being scared of prejudice is not absurd at all, and I really feel sad that you are so frightened. This fear is stopping you from getting medical help. Right now, I'd say the fear [anxiety] is not healthy for you, but it certainly isn't something that anyone would hold against you on a record.

Also, medical records are kept private. If you want them kept private, then never allow a Dr consent to send them elswhere, other than to another Dr or specialist. But everyday people, friends, employers, cannot see your medical records without your consent.

I hope that helps a little, but if not, then keep asking questions around the forum. There are so many people here with losts of knowledge, and others who may relate to exactly your fears. I hope you find an answer, and some inner peace.