I find It happens to me when Im walking around shopping. Especially if I’m out doors and hear music very faintly and the bass is gone so its just a bit of washy midrange and you can’t really tell what the root of the piece is.

it can be quite interesting, so then the major chords could seem different because they could seem minor if you think the bass note is something that it isn’t.

I find I’m often disappointed when I get closer to the sound source and can hear the full range of the sound and it’s like a High pass filter is rolled off and re set and I can here the key and then the piece of music gets very boring. all the mystery disappears.

I had a artist I used to produce, a singer, and he swore his best melodies came when he was very bored at work because his mind would try a flee the boredom and escape to a ‘happy-place’. He was smart enough to cary a pocket dictaphone to document the idea on a tape. as he had a closet full of these tapes he would often bring several into the studio and use that as start point for a new composition.