Musical coincidence?

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I noticed that a lot of us are musicians. Is that a coincidence or do a lot of Spectrumites seem to gravitate in that direction?

I think that's a coincidence while being due to great potential, not that others do not have the potential, but I don't think that it's directly related to being on the spectrum. I don't really know though.

Well, I believe listening deeply to music and playing it requires a sort of intense focus that many of us possess.

I'm also a musician. Or I used to be, anyway. I gravitated towards it because I had no friends and it was something I could do by myself unlike, say, sports. I know there are musical autistic savants. They can't cross the street but can play a Mozart sonata just from hearing it once. Music is also mathematically influenced. It's rules are strict and finite, something the autistic mind can comprehend.

i've long been a nominal musician even though my talents were only modest at best. but if it were not for perfect pitch and a good sense of rhythm i would not have made it, however.

I can't speak for anyone else, but it's the only thing I could ever do right.

Music is non-spatial. Therefore it can easily fit into my own "world."

Music is highly organized. Therefore it does not produce negative sensory overload.

I am very interested in music. Especially Bach music. Also, my PhD thesis is about music. I used to play cello in an orchestra, but my social alienation in music school resulted in relative failure in musical practice. But music is one of the very few things that trigger genuine, positive emotions in me.

I found an interesting research paper considering your question, skibum. According to a study by Blackstock (1978) autistic children are naturally oriented towards musical stimuli instead of verbal.

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I didn't have much of a social life while growing up, so I had plenty of time to study music and teach myself to play a few instruments - nothing that's concert-grade, but I know my way around a keyboard.

I never got phenomenally good at any of my instruments, piano, classical voice, I also took a semester of each orchestral group in college when I was a music major. Even though I was never great at them because I am not as disciplined as I should be I found it very easy to learn most of them. I also find that the music that I love really reaches me very deeply, to the core of my being and can really relax me and even help me when I have meltdowns. Music that I don't like can really do the opposite though and push me over the edge. I am also very good at coming up with my own and studied music composition in college. But this is really fascinating to me. I will have to read that article.

I notice very, very much that I notice musical mistakes much easier than the people around me, and I also play clarinet quite well. I am typically at the top scoring of my band class. I am also obsessed with whistling, even entires concert songs in detail.

Some of those musical mistakes can be rather nerve wracking!