Instrumental melodies - what "words" do you "sing"?

[cypressfog]

First, a quick introduction - I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I first picked up a guitar 20 years ago when I was in high school (making me one of the younger forum members, apparently). Played intensively, mostly strumming and singing, for about 7 years, then more or less put it down for the next 13. Picking it up again now, and getting more into fingerstyle accompaniment and solo playing, mostly folk-rock-like stuff (e.g., Paul Simon, James Taylor, Don McLean, etc.). I've learned a ton from these discussions and hope to continue to do so!

So here's my question: when you play instrumental melodies that don't have lyrics, what "words" are you "singing" in your head as you play? Possibilities might be

- Note names (C D G C...)
- Scale degree numbers (1 2 5 1...)
- Some sort of grunt (dah dah doh doh...)
- Nothing?

My first instrument was a violin, and I always said the note names in my head while I played it. On guitar, I mostly grunt, but it seems like it might be more useful to "sing" something like scale degrees to reinforce the structure of the song, particularly as I'm learning it.

How about you all?

[billyfamilyvide]

A lot of times I catch myself humming the notes to myself in my head. I don't purposefully do this. It just happens.

[JohnDWilliams]

Seems distracting to try to add a layer of abstraction with note names or scale degrees. When I'm playing either a known melody or improvising it's pretty closely coupled to the sound.

My only thought is "finger here sounds like this" and I am not conscious of it at all. Only thought is where the melody needs to go next. The goal is to instinctually know what sound you'll get from each finger/fret/string choice.

Once in a while I might think I want something more bluesy so I need a flatted third here. It's usually lost by that point.

[Pitar]

All my instrumentals I render from songs. The words to those songs simply become notes on the board.

I memorize the melodies of lyrics. That's what I use to write the instrumentals from. It's all about the notes and knowledge of where they are on the board after selecting the best key. Finding the extreme range from high to low notes and the progression that's easiest in between them to play is my method.

[Tico]

IMO this is the best 'instrumental' piece of music I've ever heard that has a vocal track.

Pedro Anzar on vocals (voice but no words) and some nobody dude called Pat Metheny on guitar.

My favorite 9 minutes ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7SZvGlB8Q

[Silly Moustache]

Tico's video is "blocked" in my country. I suppose you realise that this means war!

Seriously, I don't sing in my head - apart from visualising the melody..... "visualising"? Yes. I can't explain it more.
Further , when I'm soloing - I often close my eyes because I can "see" the fretboard more easily.

[Tico]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Tico's video is "blocked" in my country. I suppose you realise that this means war!

Well ... I never! ... You should move.

[cypressfog]

Thanks all, interesting. Maybe it's too many years of singing, or more likely my un-advanced guitar playing, but it's tough for me to hear the notes of a melody in my head without adding some sort of words/vocalization to them. Of course when there are lyrics, we can just use those - but without those, I tend to default to adding some other kind of words. (Maybe I should clarify I was thinking of "singing" words along with the actual pitches, not just speaking words in rhythm without the melody going too.)

[islandguitar]

I think, for me, there are at least 4 factors which contribute to my original instrumentals:
-A single chord I might happen on
-trusting my ears
-A visual that's in my mind
-knowing intuitively when a "noodle" is not a Noodle but truly something which needs to and can take shape and form as a fully developed (at least to my ability) song to pursue.
I have songs where single chords have started the ball rolling. Example: one evening I was following TE's Antonella's Birthday and he has a chord in there within the tuning he uses. that single moment brought me hours later to my song "Evening Rain", and another one Sweet Honey Daze some years later.

Other times my wife will offer a potential song title to something I'm seriously exploring and this gives me something to shoot for, often in visual form. This was true with my song "While I Wait For You". I imagined a lonely person waiting at a train station platform for someone,a lover, relative......never sure they would arrive....wondering....waiting.......and in this song, I sang a melody line which came along with the composing. I like and search for discernible melodies though I may not actually sing them with each song I work on.

If I get stuck, I may turn to some theory to instruct me as to options in the song I can choose.... a bridge, let's say or other pattern. Other times, I play a section over and over waiting for my mood, or emotions or trial and error( ie: perhaps a different guitar, different place to practice, or capo up the neck to change the key) to take me unconsciously to the next phrase or segment giving in to where my fingers might lead me. This can take days or weeks, but I have confidence that I can reach a destination if I don't force things or give up.

My process is blended....not just one item. I suspect others have the same approach with perhaps different variables they apply.

[TBman]

I don't hum any imaginary words. You become part of the guitar and the guitar becomes the song. Instrumental guitar music, to me, is what guitars are made for. Singers just use them as a back up "band". I'm not saying that in a mean way, I just enjoy putting the guitar first. Probably because when I sing birds drop out of the sky, lol.

[Alex6strings]

I don't sing along at all, I'd ruin the whole thing.

[Kalani]

No "words" in my head, just the melody and whatever else I feel like saying on the guitar.

[mickthemiller]

One of my all time pet hates is people putting words to music when there were none. Some great classical pieces are ruined forever once the words get into your head. Holst's "Jupiter" is a prime example. A beautiful piece trashed by turning it into "I vow to thee my country". Just my two penneth!!

[RodB]

I only play instrumentals - I am listening to the sound, thinking where I might change it and how. On slower pieces where I have time, I am thinking ahead to the next phrase, where is it, what options I have, what intervals are involved. Putting names to the notes would just get in the way.

However occasionally if I know the words to a song set to the tune I am playing I might hear them in my head from time to time, but this is not voluntary - happens most when the words are rather poignant (e.g. when playing 'Vincent').

[Bob Womack]

I don't have anything in my head except the tune that I know as tones. If it is new to me I might be thinking of hand positions but there comes a point in rehearsal where the mind and heart leave that behind.

Bob