This is fascinating. I had heard somewhere that we (generally, I guess) cannot imagine smells, like we can with sights or sounds. I know what bacon smells like, and if I try to imagine it, I can see the bacon in the pan and I can hear it crackling, but I canāt smell it in my mind.
3 Likes
Now itāsgetting more fascinating still. Like @Helen0609 I canā¦ I always thought thatās nothing unusual? 
1 Like
Certainly associating colours and sounds with smells is the hardest to wrap my head around. I can at least imagine what it must be like to have a clear picture in your mind even I donāt really experience that. I guess anyone that has it strongly must have some really awkward moments in life when they are repulsed by something and no one else understands what is going on!
As someone who rarely sees images it is an interesting question wondering if with practice itās a trainable skill or if in reality weāre better off accepting it and learning via different methods. It possibly depends whether itās something hardwired in the brain or not as to how āfixableā it is.
1 Like
Hi Nicole,
Errr 
, I donāt see how that could help meā¦and as mentioned earlier, I have no problem with this and am therefore not looking for new ways of learningā¦ I had already found solutions for it 
, although I donāt think I can (I think) explain it properly ā¦
and @Helen0609 The funny thing remains that Justin, who only recently knew it himself and I only knew it because of the conversation I had with him in his lessons, says imagine in your head on the train or before going to sleep your fretboard of your favorite guitar for ā¦ and the fact that I didnāt succeed made me a bit unsure whether I would learn it about 3 and a half years ago ā¦ so I now realize that I am actually very happy that I did this Now I knowā¦ the man who gave me that insecure feeling has fortunately also solved it (without knowing)ā¦
Edit: the errr is because I often mix up the names of colors when I see them and have to say them (this is the simple abbreviated explanation)
2 Likes
Seeā¦ Thatās something I must have missedā¦didnāt have time for reading everything as attentively as I should have 
Trueā¦ I was wondering about something similar a lot yesterdayā¦ thinking how I could consciously learn to use associations of sound, colour,
or images for improving my guitar playing and learning new techniques. I guess, some things can be improved with hard work, discipline and dedication. Itās a matter of trial and error, limited by how much something is āfixableā as you say.
1 Like
and donāt forget to check it out Adi`s commentā¦
reactions to the colors
The only thing I mean besides a good laugh at/with @adi_mrok 
ā¦ is that the idea of āācolors is being tried outā¦ maybe it will be of some use to youā¦ in any case it made me very happy again.
Greetings
2 Likes
What is this? 
Iām intrigued. Reminds me, bruised left arm meansā¦ PMT learning is on.
EDIT:
This, @roger_holland, led me down a very deep rabbit 
2 Likes
we re all built differently
there are different types of memory and weāre not all using the same memory
some people use the photographic memory , others , the " ear " memory , others will be smells and the re must be a memory linked to the touch too etc etc
what works for some people might not work for others because we do not use the same memory !
someone with an " ear " memory or photographic memory shouldn t try to use the " color " technic because their brain won t understand it
This thread has really caught my attention. So most people can actually see objects or events in their minds, even with their eyes closed or open?! I had no clue that was possible. Iāve never heard of it. I evidently have Aphantasia then, since I donāt see things like that.
Only, as I have aged, some nights, between being asleep and awake, I see what I first thought were spiders in my bed. Or I see large, dark, floating
blobs. But thatās different. I canāt see visuals in my mind. I do dream and can recall some of what I saw in the dreams. I can imagine. I can follow the story in a book and imagine the story, but I canāt see it. I guess thatās why I love movies. The visual is right there.
Iāve always wondered why some people can memorize and retain so much and so easily where I canāt. Is it because they can see it in their minds? Probably not. I know Justin has good memory skills.
But either way, Iām still plugging along with my guitar. Slowly but surely.
3 Likes
I can remember it in my mind but canāt see it like I can see a dream.
1 Like
I caught that and was so fascinated by it.
1 Like
This was one of the reasons that I enjoy video games. It is a way for my brain to focus on something than going over and over the day at work.
Now I have found guitar, that does the same, overloading my brain with focus on playing stops other thoughts.
I think it is just a different way of memorizing. I think I depend on a lot of repetition, writing it down does help to get things into memoryā¦
I have great recall for some things, numbers and work details, and much less so for trips I have been on or things I did as a kid. So itās like my brain prioritizes some things over others. With appropriate prompts I can begin rebuilding memories of holidays or things that happened as a child.
So this thread is working like therapy for me, and I am going to change something about my guitar learning as a consequence. If I write things down, that helps me remember, but for the most part I am not diligent in writing out guitar things. I do have a book, but other than music theory I rarely use it. However I am going to try writing out chord diagrams etc. If I do things on a computer that doesnāt aid the memory.
I have written out the lyrics to songs and that has helped me memorize them. This is something that I am going to start doing more. I have been trying to use songbook pro, but I think I need to use that as a memory jogger and writing out the lyrics as part of the learning process.
In fact writing out @LievenDV 's song overview sheet is something that I am going to work on doing to see if the physical transferring of information to paper through my own hand may help. Iām off to find the templates.
2 Likes
Same here, writing stuff down has always worked for me. My main method of revision for school exams was basically writing my notes out again. I lose focus/interest if I just read and typing isnāt the same. I can get away with drawing on the screen of my iPad with Apple Pencil thingy which is my preferred way at the moment as I donāt have loads of notebooks lying around and thereās not loads of things crossed out
Last year I re-taught myself to solve a Rubikās cube (Iāve since forgotten again as I didnāt keep it up). Some people can probably visualise where the pieces are going but I just memorised some series of moves by repetition (eg front, left, front anti, right etc)
1 Like
not for me ā¦ i don t have a photographic memory and writing is just a pain in the ***
Listening was enough for me
what works for some do not work for others ā¦
Same here. I always take notes pen and paper style if I want to learn something new. Makes it much easier to commit information to the brain. Iāll need a new tablet at some point this year, going for one coming with a pen sounds like an interesting idea.
This is something that works very well for me, although I use a simplified version at the moment since Iām still mainly strumming only. It helps a lot recognizing repeating patterns etc.
Once I have written down the structure of a song, I donāt need to look at a lot anymore what Iāve written down anymoreā¦ because I can āseeā a picture of this map in my mind.
Thatās what I would love being able to say. I would want to tell people that Iām an auditory learner. Trouble is, itās not true. I have listened to many audiobooks for example, but weeks later I wonāt remember much of the content anymore
It works well with music, but not as well (yet) as I would want to, though I suppose recognizing chords and notes in songs just by listening can be improved with discipline and hard work.
As soon as I am supposed to learn lyrics for example (and strangely I donāt write down lyrics) I need associated images I āseeā in my mind. Once lyrics are learned, I can āseeā them written down on a lyrics sheet in my mindā¦
2 Likes
so you have a photographic memory
I can learn lyrics after only hearing a song once or twice
The new Gossip song is already an ear worm 
No, no, no. I surely donāt. That would be ā¦ I donāt know ā¦ great or disturbing?! Itās just relatively easy to recall a - more or less correct - āimageā of what I have written down
So question for the aphantasiacs (completely unrelated to music, but something I was thinking about when mentally āchewingā on this)ā¦is doodling not really a thing for you?
Sitting in class as a kid (or even in conferences as an adult), Iād doodle all over the margins of my paper - mostly animals when I was a kid, often imagined geometric designs these days, but really flowers, plants, whatever comes to mind. If you were to do the same, would it have to be drawings of objects/people in the room that you can see?
My doodles were always just a mixture of random squiggles and shapes. If they did include things like trees then theyād be cartoon type trees rather than an actual tree.
I always found I could copy a 2d image from a book cover quite well but wasnāt so good at 3d objects and people although I couldnāt say whether aphantasia has anything to do with that. I certainly couldnāt draw a person from memory and even something like a picture of the front of my house that I see every day would be basic because I know where the doors and windows are