Originally Posted by loose_lips_sink_ships

Well, I'm just wondering, but it seems as though a lot of great composers and musicians have melodies and parts of songs come into their heads and they then write it down or document it in some way. Beethoven is a great example of this, he was totally deaf when he composed some of his last symphonies (and they were the best in my opinion), yet he was able to pull these melodies out from his head even though he had not heard a damn thing in years. That says something to me, that's proof that musicians don't just dick around on an instrument and say "ah, this sounds cool, let's put this in a song.".

So how do these melodies come about? Where do they come from? And if I can't hear them in my head does that make me unfit the be a musician? I ask this because I want to be a musician one day, but I for the life of me have never been able to come up with a melody. I mostly just play around on guitar and record things that sound "cool" to me. I feel like a horrible person because I try to make music, but I don't have the "gift". So, what should I do? Give up? Or can this be learned?