How to Get a Song Out of Your Mind

Most people get stuck with songs that hang around in their heads every week or two. These symptoms are often called “earworms” or “brain worms,” and they can be both pleasurable and relaxing for you or can be a nightmare for you. Keep reading this article to learn how to process songs and get them out of your mind.

Table of Contents

Focus Your Attention on the Song

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Listen to the whole song. Most tunes that get stuck in your head, or “deep in the ears,” are actually part of a song, such as a catchy chorus or even a line or two. Listen to the entire song from beginning to end. Your brain will probably repeat this chorus because it’s “stuck” and doesn’t know what to do next. Listen to the song from beginning to end. This is the most effective solution, although there are times when it does not bring the expected results. ^{[1] X Trusted Source PLOS ONE Go to Source}

Not everyone can do this. If you don’t like having to listen to that song over and over again, skip this step and move on to learning distraction techniques for yourself.

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Search lyrics. Lyrics can also “disable” your brain. Look for lyrics online. Sing along to the lyrics or “sing” silently to help your brain process the song.

It would be better if you could memorize all the lyrics because this way your brain won’t be able to keep the song in your head because it’s too long.

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Use an instrument to reproduce the song. If you can use an instrument, try to recreate the song. Understanding the song and finding ways to re-enact the song can help many musicians solve the problem.

Try making adjustments and adding different changes to break the cycle of song repetition.

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Visualize the change in the song. Even if this can be difficult for you, being in control can help you feel less anxious about the situation. For a few minutes or until you start to feel frustrated, try to change the song in the following ways:

Imagine that you are lowering the volume of the song until the volume of the song “sounds” like a whisper.
Imagine that your mind is a room that contains many other rooms within. Build a barrier in front of the song, gently confining it to the distant areas. Every time you form a barrier, the volume of the song becomes smaller and more muffled.

Create Distractions for Yourself

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Chewing gum. For many people, chewing gum can interfere with their ability to “listen” to the music in their head. ^{[3] X Trusted Source PubMed Central Go to source} This can also help you skip the track in the next step.

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Let your mind wander. A study has shown that struggling with songs will often make them repeat more often and longer in the future. ^{[4] X Research Source Beaman, CP and TI Williams (2010). <i>Earthworm (trapped music syndrome): Learn the natural history of intrusive thoughts</i>. British Psychological Research 101(4): 637–653.} Try to ignore the tune by thinking about something else. You won’t always be able to do this, but give it a few minutes and give it a try.

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Puzzle. Anagrams, crosswords, and other puzzle games can help you get the song out of your mind. ^{[5] X Research Source} When you think about words, your brain has to use the same function as it does when thinking about the lyrics of a song to solve them. Try to stay focused and your brain can only handle one of two tasks.

If this method makes no difference to you and leaves you feeling more frustrated, stop. Occasionally, ear decay can get worse if you try to fight it. ^{[4] X Research Source Beaman, CP and TI Williams (2010). <i>Earthworm (trapped music syndrome): Learn the natural history of intrusive thoughts</i>. British Psychological Research 101(4): 637–653.}

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Create a distraction for yourself through the use of language. Relaxation can work if you’re concerned about your symptoms of ear decay, or feel anxious because you can’t control it. Here are a few methods you can take to gain focus on your brain’s listening and language centers: ^{[1] X Trusted Source PLOS ONE Go to Source}

Recite or read a text aloud.
Chat.
Meditate.
Pray.
Read a book.
Watch TV.
Play games that use language and/or text.

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Listen to a song that has the ability to “heal “ . Always remember to choose songs that you like to eliminate the possibility of them repeating in your head! It’s best to use “healing tunes” that can help you get old songs out of your head without getting them stuck in your mind. Most people’s “healing tunes” are different, but in a previously conducted survey the following songs seemed to be the most popular: ^{[1] X Reliable Sources trust PLOS ONE Go to source}

God Save the Queen
Karma Chameleon (Life of a Gecko) performed by Culture Club
Happy Birthday To You (Happy Birthday)
Soundtrack of the movie The A-Team (Action Squad)
Kashmir presented by Led Zeppelin
Sledgehammer (Sledgehammer) performed by Peter Gabriel
If you don’t like listening to these songs, continue to learn tips on how to find your own songs.

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Sing along to a song you don’t know well. Let’s start with a song that is unlikely to be memorized by the mind. Avoid listening to “easy to remember” tunes, and your best bet is to look up a song you’ve heard once or twice before. The harder the song is for you to sing along, the harder it will be for you to keep it in your head.

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Sing along to a song you know well. If the above methods don’t work, it’s time to take stronger measures. However, this cure won’t be able to get rid of your brain, but hopefully it will make you less uncomfortable. Here are a few genres of music that might get “stuck” in your head:

Songs that you know well, especially songs that are associated with your nostalgia or a certain memory. ^{[6] X Research Sources Williamson, Victoria J. and Sagar R. Jilka. <i>Early Inquiry: A Study of Involuntary Musical Imagery</i>. The Psychology of Music: September 2014, vp. 42, no. 5, pp.653-670}
Songs that you can easily sing along to. These songs often have long stretches and don’t have much change in pitch. ^{[7] X Research Source} Most popular songs (pop music) fit this description quite well.
Songs have repetitive tunes. These include children’s songs, songs with repetitive choruses, and, again, popular songs.

Advice

Use your fingertips to create different melodies.
Listen for “white noise”. Although the song stuck in your mind is not caused by the eardrum, the same nerve cells will be affected. White noise improves the condition of these neurons.
Sing together many thirsty songs like remix music.
Talk to yourself out loud.
Listen to songs from the movie. These songs are usually quite long and are often divided in such a way that they do not repeat themselves.
Listen to another song. Try listening to a song with a different tone or genre.
Try playing the song in the opposite direction in your head!

Steps

Focus Your Attention on the Song

Create Distractions for Yourself

Advice

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