Musician from the UK here!

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Hi everyone,

I'm a 20 year old guy, diagnosed with high functioning autism. Music is my special interest which probably annoys the people I talk to haha. If I listen to a song I know instantly what the key and notes are in it and rhythm etc. I guess that could be connected to my autism and certainly a positive to it.
It certainly comes with its negatives though which is why I wanted to join this community, so I don't feel as isolated with my concerns and worries and hear from others with similar experiences. Though I'm a musician, I am hypersensitive to many things and this includes loud noise and sounds. So I never really go to loud places or concerts. I also don't really have many friends as I'm mostly my own company just making music as I can find social situations hard, and have difficulty multitasking and this has affected me learning to drive and I just made a thread on that)

I hope to get to know others in this community with similar experiences and I hope to feel better about my self esteem sooner than later. I would recommend a book called Asperger Syndrome and Anxiety by Nick Dubin, I've learnt a lot from recognising my anxiety so far.

Thanks!

Welcome LimboMan,

You've certainly come to the right place if you're looking to find people living with similar experiences - it's been a total eye-opener for me since I signed up a few weeks ago.

Thank you Trogluddite, that is great to hear. Just wanted to thank you also about your reply on my topic about driving. You've made me feel much better about the whole situation.

I'm happy to hear that, you're welcome.

I was just explaining to a friend the other day why being on the spectrum can seem so lonely. We're only a tiny fraction of the population. It's pretty common, especially if we don't know our diagnosis, to be desperately trying to camouflage ourselves anyway, and to not get out as much as others. It all reduces the chances that we'll recognise each other by accident very much 'in the wild'. As with any community, there will be some people you like more than others, but my impression of the forum so far is one of generosity and compassion - and some stuff that has me nearly wetting myself from laughing too hard!

Hello, welcome to here ... musician? what kind?

Yeah the more I put myself out there or I join autism related groups, the better chance I may feel less lonely. Locally, there doesn't seem to be much support around dealing with sensory overpowerment (like sensitive to sound, loud people) communication or general support for autism. Has anyone had support for things like that and has it helped?

Oh, I like to play instruments of all kinds such as guitar or any percussion but nowadays I mainly play keyboard and I am primarily creating electronic music. I love learning about synthesisers and the interesting sounds you can create with them!

Hey LimboMan welcome.

Welcome to WP! It's cool that you're a musician What sorts of performances do you do?

I second that thought. I used to play in punk bands in my youth, but stopped performing publicly because of my anxieties. Oddly enough, it wasn't "stage fright" in the usual sense - I was quite comfortable on stage playing my music in front of people. But I couldn't stand the stress of being cooped up in the back of van with people when touring, and I hated being expected to join in the after-gig partying with a different set of strangers every time.

I still "noodle" about making music. The best thing that I did when I was last working was to treat myself to a 6-string bass, one that felt "just right" under my fingers (I have an odd style of playing - I treat the bass more like a baritone guitar and use a lot of power chords). I also drum, and play a little bit of keyboards (I use the PC to transpose/scale-map notes to get around my limited keyboard skills).

I also do a little bit of coding, to build my own VST plugins. If you enjoy learning about synthesisers, I can heartily recommend playing with one of the modular 'synth-building' environments, like FlowStone or Usine. Making a synth of your own from basic parts like oscillators and filters is a fascinating way to "get under the hood" of synthesis and develop a detailed understanding of how a sound hangs together. There are plenty of folks on forums who will gladly help out beginners if it seems a bit daunting at first.

Hiya, unemployed sax player from the uk here, welcome to the site.

Hi LimboMan!
I joined just yesterday - also from the UK, also a music lover
I'm a guitarist personally - my interest does tend to focus into that more than music overall. Generally prefer playing/creating than just listening a lot of the time, but equally happy to be tweaking/optimising/cleaning or just plain ogling guitars - so even when they're not actually doing anything particularly musical at the time lol!