So I understand, you can’t reproduce a melody from memory at all? Or you just can’t reproduce it in the voice of the original singer?
Yes.
I know the shop around the corner, but it‘s more a topological map than a photograph. And I couldn‘t describe my dad if my life depended on it.
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That’s the story of my life really. I love music but have always struggled to remember it. Like, I just can’t hear it in my head without a reference. I play guitar and some piano and I love to sing, but I’ve always had to have a crutch to rely on like playing the song just before or asking my wife to help me start a melody that I’ve heard thousands of times before.
While singing, I actually concentrate on the feeling of the sound in my head and chest in order to remember how to reproduce it.
A spectrum, indeed, since I’m probably an 8-10 with visualization and have the whole inner monologue thing.
I’m probably not a 0 with music though because I’ve been able to make some improvement the last few years while really working on it. I’m probably a 1 that’s been able to get to 3. lol
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That‘s actually an interesting question, all I can tell you that recognition and memory is not linked to imagining.
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does aphantasia include more than just images?
can people with aphantasia recall how certain feelings or emotions felt?
for example, the feeling you get when you stand near a huge drop, maybe near a cliff or on a tall building looking down, can you conjure up that feeling in your mind and remember how it felt?
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The term aphantasia only covers the inability to conjure or retain (much of) a mental image of something. I don’t know if there is a word for people that might struggle to retain information like emotions, but that wouldn’t be part of aphantasia (as far as I understand it all.)
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Strictly speaking, no. Aphantasia is the inability to visualize images. All other senses can have something similar as well, although (as of a few years ago anyways) there is no formal word for those conditions.
It does seem as if there’s a correlation with aphantasia and SDAM (severely deficient autobiographical memory) though. SDAM is like you describe, where you are largely unable to recall things like the feelings experience during past events.
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I’m like a 1 on the scale. I can ‘see’ some kind of black outlines of flat black shapes devoid of any detail on black background is what I would describe it. It feels more like I have a super rough concept in mind than something tangible. Completely useless. Feels like my brain is teasing itself. 
Never questioned or thought about this until about half a year ago or so. It’s a bit sad so I was bummed for a few minutes lol but no biggie
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i don’t have aphantasia, but i’m completely faceblind. and if you show me a face without context, i won’t recognise it. i don’t even know what my own face looks like.
that doesn’t mean that i don’t recognise people, there are tons of other aspects about people which allow me to recognise them, like hair, or movement and gait, or dress style, etc. add to that context (i.e. i expect the person to be in that location/doing that thing), and i i can usually recognise people. but if you remove context, i’ll fail to recognise even the people i’m closest to, even family and lovers.
training didn’t help. i taught myself to draw portraits, and became quite good at it. i can look at a person and pick apart their features and transfer them to paper and get a good likeness. but if i try to hold all those features in my mind, in order to remember the face of someone, it just falls apart. when i try to imagine a person, the face is just a smudge.
i don’t know what aphantasia is like, because i can visualise other things quite well. but just as i can recognise people most of the time, even without being able to visualise their faces, i don’t doubt that people with aphantasia can recognise things in their own ways ^^
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At least in my case, I can remember what things look like, I just can’t “make a picture” of those things.
I suppose that does dampen the value of things like a beautiful sunset, because no, I can’t lie back on a tree and dream of things I’ve seen like that. And yes, it means I hate sitting doing nothing. “Daydreaming” is not a thing for me.
Still awesome to see cool things, since I can still see them.
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I definitely can’t reproduce it with the voice of the voice of the original singer. I think I am able to reproduce a melody from memory but only with certain songs and its pretty difficult for me. Like for “happy birthday” I actively have to remember a moment when I sang the song but then I can do it I guess or at least a few lines with melody. If I haven’t sung the song myself I don’t think I can do it.
But if someone were to say: “Think of you favorite song and play it in your mind”
I’d draw a blank. I could tell you the name of the song, which singer is singing which part (if it is a group) and what parts I like or don’t like and maybe the words or even the text but I can’t hear it in my mind. So I can’t give you a melody or rhythm or anything.
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Yup this is me. I’ll know the lyrics backwards and forwards from listening to it so many times but the melody always eludes me unless I’ve just listened to the song.
Interestingly enough, I can hear pitches in Japanese and Mandarin easily and I love studying accents.
For that one, I do the thing I mentioned earlier where I know how to make the sound with my voice and that’s the part I remember. Once I start singing I can hear it in my head.
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Even though I barely get outlines when trying to imagine pictures, I can conjure up songs pretty easily (often without realizing I’m doing it). For example, I was scrolling through Netflix earlier today, encountered Angel Beats, and immediately started humming the first part of the opening song (about the first 12 seconds).
I’ve even had times where I start humming a song I haven’t heard in a while, for no discernable reason. A few weeks ago, I started humming Connect by Claris (the opening theme of Madoka Magica) out of nowhere, even though I hadn’t heard it in weeks or months. At first I couldn’t place the song, and I had to repeat it over and over for a few minutes to figure it out. Even after I figured it out, I still had no idea what (if anything) triggered me to start humming it.
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So does aphantasia mean you can imagine something but not see it. And people with phantasia can literally see it?
Like, you can look at this pen (below) and see it with your eyes. Then walk away close your eyes and literally see it in your mind. Not just remember facts about it but like actually see it?
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Yeah, that’s how I would describe. I conjure up the image in my mind.
In school I would often answer rote tests well by memorizing the page layout and text in my notebook, then imagine the page while taking the test. Like ”oh yeah this was on page 21 where I had this drawing, and below it were 5 bullet points. Second one was quite long so it was this.”
Then I would forget everything after a week 
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That’s really interesting. Cause I can do similar things, but I don’t feel like I can see anything. Like, I remember I drew a picture on page 21 near the 5 bullet points and the second one was long. But they’re all facts, I can’t see anything. I just remember. And having context helps the memory form.
I make stories up to help with the kanji.
記: キp up (keep up) and write down what the znake says.
I can imagine an archaeologist saying that to his assistant in Egypt. That gives me an idea of like two pyramids by a river, with a third on the other side, a clear sky and a bright sun behind them.
But I can’t describe it as seeing, it’s more like abstract ideas, special awareness and radio.
Edited to make it a bit clearer.
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What Kanji is that?
i used to think that imagining whole scenes in your head could only be done in cartoons and just brushed it off, until a few years ago when my friend told me about this. for me it’s very frustrating when someone tells me to imagine something, when i obviously can’t. as a result i found it hard to memorize or visualize the mnemonics. the only thing that has helped me is connecting it to a vague idea like memory i have of a similar scene in a movie. i don’t know a better way of describing it, but it does sometimes help, and not so much in other cases
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記する、to write down. It’s an extended story of my mnemonic to remember the meaning.
Ah, thank you. Why pyramids and river? I totally got that meaning wrong I think? And the assistant, I should have a look again. How does that image work for you?
Sorry, I still have cero clue on how visualizing a scene helps me to remember a meaning 
