[thomseddon]

The question that has always puzzled me is why do we feel compelled to sing along to music?

I mean, we are invariably worse singers so it surely makes it sound worse and this is besides the fact that signing ourselves drowns out much of the original sound anyway!

(Note: this is not to say I'm a silent listener, i'm a big fan of singing to myself ! :)

[JonnieCache]

In terms of my little framework, you're exercising the pattern engine by making predictions and immediately having them validated. Notice how some people will try to sing along to a song even when they've never heard it before, and how the best pop songs make this very easy to do.

[drivers99]

This fits in with an observation (internally, of myself, so probably not scientifically valid) that when I dance to music, it starts to feel like I'm creating the music with my movements. Of course I'm just moving to what I know the music is going to do, but it feels good when you feel like you're doing the opposite.

[nollidge]

Is this true for everyone, though? I've sung in choirs and played various instruments over the years, so my experience of music is almost always one of deconstructing it, and so my unconscious motivation to hum along (or tap my fingers or beatbox) is to facilitate picking apart the different voices and instruments.

But not everyone has that musical background, so maybe not everyone is so compelled as you or me to sing along.

[coldtea]

>I mean, we are invariably worse singers so it surely makes it sound worse and this is besides the fact that signing ourselves drowns out much of the original sound anyway!

I like Chesterton's quote on the issue: "Once men sang together round a table in chorus; now one man sings alone, for the absurd reason that he can sing better. If our civilization goes on like this, only one man will laugh, because he can laugh better than the rest".

See, this "I make the song worse" is a total cultural distortion, a byproduct of the rise of "specialists" (singers, artists, athletes) which other people passively admire.

In past human culture, for example, singing is a shared community experience that belongs to everyone, and all participate in. It doesn't matter if you do it better or worse than somebody else, because the joy is in doing it, and in the participation.

[unlimit]

Another question that has puzzled me is why do we sometimes sing or hum a tune totally randomly?

And why do we choose to sing or hum that tune?

[JonnieCache]

More fuzzing I guess.

[oneiros]

I'd be interested to see the results of this study if the participants were exposed to ambient drone music, such as sounds of a didgeridoo or a Steve Roach piece, that music often consists of long drawn out tones that don't fluctuate frequently and often lack a "melody". For me, it puts me a deep trance like state of mind that is very calm and peaceful. Humming along to the long tones also feels good, it's like your body resonates with the music.

[JonnieCache]

>Steve Roach

Steve Reich

[blacksmith_tb]

Could be either... (I like both, though Mr. Reich has probably changed the world a bit more).