Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 15/05/2015 02:50:01
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Furqon Alam asked the Naked Scientists:
I compose music as a hobby.
My problem is whenever i compose music, whether i am playing it on piano or guitar or violin, my eyes water up. It is very disturbing. People around me even think that i am crying, which is definitely not the case, because i don't feel like crying, it just pours from my eyes.
This is not occasional, it happens every-time i compose or play something new, something from heart, during the creation process.
I am not an emotional person, i am a day trader at stock exchange. And this tear build up happens only when I am composing music.
I want to know why and whether anything is wrong?
What do you think?
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maybe last life you were a great musician, but no one agree with you.
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... whenever i compose music, whether i am playing it on piano or guitar or violin, my eyes water up. It is very disturbing. People around me even think that i am crying, which is definitely not the case, because i don't feel like crying, it just pours from my eyes.
Tears of Joy ?
Tearing is a way of visually & chemically-signalling (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/226.abstract) our mood to others.
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Furqon Alam asked the Naked Scientists:
People around me even think that i am crying, which is definitely not the case, because i don't feel like crying, it just pours from my eyes.
Do you have any other physical symptoms? Tightness in throat or chest, tingling sensations? Do you get similar effect when listening to music?
I don't think there is anything wrong with you. Music affects us all in different ways, sometimes when I hear a new piece I can feel the hairs on my neck stand on end. Music often triggers emotional responses and they show themselves in different ways, it's very common for people feel a tightness in the throat or chest.
Anyone else out there who gets physical symptoms when playing or hearing music?
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I have the same sensation - without any particylar reason though - in that I can feel tears welling up on occasion when there is no particular stimulus. Sometimes it makes it difficult to talk and I have to take a breath and pretend I am thinking before I can compose myself. I'm not a particularly emotional person either in terms of sentimentality or the more superficial forms of emotion. I wrote to the guy who wrote a book about music and the brain once and he couldn't answer the question about music -This is your Brain On Music- Daniel Levitin -which I thought was the most important one really. Someone did say once to me that it meant i ahd all sorts of buried distress etc which may be true but is probably true of most of us and most of us don't have this tearing/choking up problem. If anyone has any ideas about it please post - or do a thesis on it!
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I have the same problem and am a very creative person. I cry when I compose a story that's personal, play certain chords on my guitar and listen to Spanish music. I also tear up when I see a child win a talent contest or make an outstanding performance. I also have vivid dreams that seem very real. I am only seventy two. :)
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Congratulations on being a composer! That is a significant accomplishment!
whether i am playing it on piano or guitar or violin, my eyes water up.
Possibly a more mundane cause: Are your instruments or your music studio dusty? When you play them could you get dust in your eyes?
my eyes water up.... i don't feel like crying, it just pours from my eyes.
I can only recall one occasion when that happened to me, and I think that was due to excessive sun glare. Maybe a lampshade on your music stand?
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I have the exact same problem and have never heard of an explanation. It happens only when I'm composing new music. Oddly it doesn't happen when I play on the guitar, but it does when I play the piano or sing. It is a little annoying, partly because the tears make it very hard to see.
It is definitely not that I'm moved by the music, it is more of a physiological reaction. When I cry listening to a song I feel the emotion, but this situation is more like when you cut onions. Maybe it's triggered by certain parts of the brain being activated simultaneously? Maybe that is why it doesn't happen when I play accompanying chords but it does happen when I'm working on more melodic lines, like with the piano and voice?
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I did a Google search on crying when I play piano and ended up here...
Glad to see it's not just me. Guitar is my main instrument and I've played it much, much more, but I took piano lessons when I was really young and for some reason, piano just feels more natural to me. I can't play it as well (in terms of advanced playing) as I can play guitar, but I sound much better when I play piano and rhythmically and the pedals and everything just all feel so much more natural to me than guitar ever has.
Anyway, sometimes when I play piano and, more frequently when I'm singing, and it doesn't matter what kind of song... happy, sad, whatever, I'll just start crying. I'll stop crying as soon as I stop playing, but I can't continue playing.
It kinda sucks. It makes me pretty reluctant to ever want to play piano in front of an audience.
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Thanks for sharing your experience. I think this sort of reaction is actually quite common. It shows a powerful emotional connection to the music and the instrument. Some people seem to be more attached in this way than others. I suspect it makes people very good musicians because they are highly emotionally invested in the music, which adds an extra dimension to their playing - a bit like adding emphasis and drama to the lines of a play.
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I finally had to do a search on this to see if this was a normal reaction. This happens to me often.
I typically write and play instrumentals, but sometimes a melody starts to vocalize itself (not always words, maybe just a hum) and this is when it occurs most often. This is why I play alone, in my apartment ;D
I am beginning to think that when one plays, especially their own piece, they start to fall deeper into themselves. For me this can be very meditative, a detachment from the ego even, and almost Theta state at times. This is a very powerful and vulnerable place to be. You have found the most real, fundamental part of your being, a part that is so unobservable by any other that you have to translate it into this language of art in order to make it somewhat tangible. And you just touched it, and that is an overwhelming thing.
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I also have this problem. I once talked to a doctor about it and he suggested some meds, which i did not take, because i dont feel it i right becuase i think there is hidden a deeper problem.
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I mostly listen to metal and this happens to me nearly every time. I'm a very emotionally empathetic person and am currently being treated for different.. things, but it still amazes me that I have absolutely no control of myself listening to Judas Priest. Or Sepultura's first two albums. Or Fates Warning's Awaken the Guardian. Or Maiden. Or Megadeth's first album.
Full beautiful fast guitars or operatic vocals or both (in the genre I enjoy) are what seem to set me off. But it happens daily, and more so with vinyl! About an hour ago I cried during the song Exciter, just like yesterday, and the day before.
I'm willing to bet that since the song's release, most people crying during Exciter were having their '76 gran torino repo'd.
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I do this too for no reason, especially organ music. I also do it at other times which are not connected to music or emotions- most embarrassing. But re the music - Daniel Levitin wrote a book called the Brain on Music and even in that the phenomenon wasn't explained, so i wrote to him asking what he thought and he didn't have any explanation. But it doesn't happen with culturally foreign music, like Indian or Chinese music.
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Organ for you and heavy guitar for me. And for some reason, not culturally foreign music. So weird. I keep having to take breaks during Motorhead songs of all things.
But as you were saying you cry at other times not connected to music or emotions, I do the same. I tend to have it as a physical response to random things that happen and I can't predict it. And yes, embarrassing. They've tried to shove pills down my throat because of this and while I agree pills need to be shoved down my throat for other things, I don't know if this is one of them.