Audiation Puns

500 responses was way more than I expected, thank you guys! :) I think the response summary is public if anyone wants to see the nice pretty charts and accurate percentages, but I'll hit the high points here.

So, question one: can you play a familiar song in your head. This went about how I expected.

• 97% said yes
• 2% said no or not sure
• the 1% of write-in responses were mostly along the lines of "yes, but with limitations"

Question two: can you alter its volume. The most contentious one!

• 42% said yes
• 32% said no
• 26% said not sure or kinda

This is fascinating to me. I asked this because I have had very occasional success with getting a song out of my head by mentally turning it all the way up and then all the way down until it's off. That said, I think semantics get in the way a lot because I definitely have some thoughts I consider 'louder' than others but I could also imagine someone else experiencing the same thing but not associating it with loudness, if that makes any sense.

Question three: how vivid is your brain radio.

• 68% said 'pretty vivid'
• 14% said 'indistinguishable from real listening' (!!!!)
• 13% said 'not very vivid'
• 2% said 'I don't hear anything'
• the write-ins were a mixed bag but a few people did distinguish between 'hearing' and 'imagining' sound which is super important - really wish I had worded that option differently.

I figured most people would consider themselves somewhere above the midway point for brain radio fidelity, lol, but I am astounded that so many people said it was indistinguishable from the real thing! I'm in the 'pretty vivid' camp and consumed with envy.

Question four: how often do you get songs stuck in your head.

• 58% said often
• 32% said occasionally
• 5% said rarely
• a single, individual blessed human being said never! congratulations!
• the write-ins (4%) were almost all variations on "f***ing constantly"

I though about including a 'constantly' option but I wanted to see how many folks would be plagued enough by earworms that they would make a point about clarifying - because honestly, same. Other than that, IDK, the percentage split on this one just feels right.

Question five! My favorite and the real reason for the survey, though again I think I messed up the wording: do you get songs stuck in your head wrong.

• 70% said yes
• 16% said no
• 12% said not sure (I'm including some 'so

So I always thought that I had pretty good audiation. I'm a singer and I never go off key because I can hear the notes clearly in my head. Most of the time, I can hear chords in my head as well, the only issue is that it's SUPER faint and quiet sounding in my head, so I rely on muscle memory/sheet music instead. But I want to be able to play songs from my head. How can I do that? Does audiation get better with time and practice?

This only seems to happen in the shower for me. Also, am extremely hard of hearing. When I shower and think of conversations in my head or scenarios, sometimes I audiate the thoughts unintentionally. For example, when I replay a conversation in my head, I speak out what I am thinking, both the question and response. I am not conversing with someone not there, but I audiate the conversation unintentionally. Is this cause for concern in regards to mental health?

I literally cannot hear anything in my head. I can remember songs, how they sound, how they are produced, I can figure out a song I know well enough by ear even if I'm not playing it through speakers, just because I can tell which notes are wrong or tell which notes probably fit with this key/chord/etc. But I can't actually hear anything by thinking about it. If you've ever heard of aphantasia, it's like I have that but for my ears.

So I understand that audiation, the ability to hear music in your head, is really important for musicians, so is there any way to learn this? I don't mean improve, although I wanna do that too. I just mean that I'm not even at the starting point yet.

I have recently started having difficulty discerning if pitch is in tune or not. I grew up studying music and playing upright bass, and it’s never been a problem until now. I seem to want to hear everything a few cents lower than what is actually in tune, but it varies. It’s very frustrating to not be able to hear when i’m playing out of tune. Any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks so much!

Audiation is the process by which you hear a note or tune in your head. We all do it when we hear songs in our head. Everyone has a different level of accuracy with this and it's largely dependent on how much exposure you've had to music and how much you have literally practiced matching pitch accurately.

For example- one might play a note on a piano, replay that note in their head, and then vocalize that note. Audiation gives your brain the opportunity to start the vocalization process. It's the first step and it's absolutely essential to singing on pitch.

It's the same thing for singing a song. Before the first word in the first phrase, you need to have that note in your head loud and clear. Your brain will set your vocal coordination up in the proper stance to perform that note. If you skip this, it will be terribly difficult to catch up and you will almost always go out of tune.

This isn't mentioned much in vocal training, I'm not sure why. If you don't do this, seriously give it try! You might just be blown away by how much easier it is to nail that first note. Do this as much as possible throughout the song. I personally audiate the first word of every phrase.

You can test this by thinking about the first note of a song you know well, on the pitch it's suppose to be in, in your head. If you let it, you'll see that your body has a physical reaction to the thought of that note. You mouth will change shape and your vocal chords prep for the sound. It's setting you up. From there, you just let it happen. Skipping this usually results in a late onset and a slightly out of tune note.

Did it work for you?

Hello there!

beginner musical theatre singer here. I've been singing for 9 months now but I still have some intonation issues and I kind of realised it's mainly because I sometimes struggle to hear music in my head. The way I described it to my teacher is like being in a dark room at night, sometimes I can hear things quite clearly, other times I can only hear something somewhat and other times it feels like I know there should be something playing but can't really hear anything.

Do you guys have any tips or exercises to improve the ability of hearing music internally? I have very few issues when I hear the note or a melody and sing it immediately after hearing it or even if I let it play briefly in my head, but if I tried playing C3 in my head without hearing it played first I will sometimes hear it clearly and sing it well and other times I'll sing it a semitone or a whole tone off. Problem being I don't really notice I'm not singing C3 until I check with a tuner or I play it on a keyboard and realise oh oof I was actually singing B2 or C#4 or D4.

Idk if this belongs here or r/singing but I thought you guys might know this stuff in more detail!

I realise that most people on here have imagination beyond most people's but it seemed like a better place to ask than /r/aphantasia.

When you listen to music in your head (i.e. the music isn't coming from anywhere other than your own mind), how similar is that sense to (what for the sake of simplicity i'm going to call) "real" hearing?

I know that it probably varies from person to person, but I'm interested in people's answers.

If we could pick up the sounds from in your head in the same detail you're imagining them and play them back through headphones, so you're "actually" hearing the sound you're creating in your mind, would that be the same experience? Would it make a difference whether the headphones were actually on or not? How different (if different at all) are the two, for you?

Hey guys recently ive been having an amazing experience its always when i'm lucid just before sleep or just waking up from sleep. Its a form of audiation (hearing music that's not actually played, essentially in your head.) I have been hearing some amazing songs usually with multiple instruments, so far it is; Drums, piano, guitar, violin. harmonica, bass, electronic. I never hear vocals, and im not passively listening either, i can usually tune in on one thing and change it example; changing the rhythm of drums. however i can focus in and out almost always at will. I am aware that what i have is quite unique and that a lot of people wish they could have this. I decided to attempt to recreate the music that i hear. At the very least i want to attempt to be able to capture this music and put it on paper. I'm currently looking to learn how to compose music so that i can actually record what i hear. My main question is what do you guys think i should do? I think learning how to compose music would be greatly beneficial, but i dont know how I would compose drums, guitar, bass and other instruments all in one set.

Any advice is extremely appreciated!

Edit: sorry for my ignorance in music, i'm very new.

Edit 2: im seeing that a lot of other posts about audiation and their comments are saying that when they are falling asleep they are experiencing the same thing as me! which is super cool., i didnt think i was the only one who has had this happen to them, i just didnt know anything about it!

After some googling, I think Type 6~8 Audiation is what we are describing, although I don't understand what difference there is between silence / reading / writing. I mean when you read or write you're also in silence right??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_music_learning_theory

Also, just googling "compose music without instruments" gives many results, so this is probably not that rare. At least the famous composers in history can all do this, so there's gotta be more people who can do this but didn't become famous.

There are limited studies, some of which say musical training has no effect on the vividness of auditory imaging. Has anyone had experience with this subject? I personally struggle with writing in my head because I can't hear ideas very loudly or clearly.

I’ve begun learning solfege and sight signing recently but have trouble with audiating. What’s the best way to practice and improve?

I teach brass lesson lessons at a secondary school, and it seems a lot of my students have issues with audiating and hearing the music before they play it. I know this isn't uncommon for their age group, but it is something that I think is an important skill that I hope to get them on early to.

Does anyone have any suggestions for incorporating brief ear training and audiating tasks into a 30 min lesson? Naturally they are all reluctant to sing parts and in many cases are unable to do so accurately.

I've been on a long quest to develop my mental hearing, and am finally making some strides into the most basic of 2 part counterpoint (why is this such a difficult skill to develop? sigh).

Anyhow, I once asked a respected music professor and composer (from the university I attended) about mental hearing and developing it. In the course of conversation, I asked him if he could mentally hear a 3 part invention - like Bach's. He responded "if it is well written." That strikes me as odd (and did then, too). Why is it not a yes or no thing? Shouldn't one be able to hear a poorly written invention as well as a good one? This professor/composer has written a lot of music that gets into the modern atonal kind of realm. If you can't hear a badly written 3 part invention, how can you hear that sort of thing (modern atonal music, and so forth)? Furthermore, this professor teaches both 16th and 18th century counterpoint classes, so it's not like they aren't versed in this sort of music.

I've also read that Mozart, despite legends to the contrary, "needed" a clavier to compose. I'm not sure in what way he needed the keyboard, but it makes me wonder. (Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozart%27s_compositional_method - the always reliable source that is wikipedia!)

But there are composers, like Schumann if memory serves, who suggested that one should write music away from an instrument, using the mind to hear everything. And it seems there are a good deal of people who can do this (elite though they may be). (Edit: And what about Beethoven, who composed some of his most harmonically daring works after losing his hearing?)

It simply makes me wonder about the nature of mental hearing. I wonder how many of you more advanced folks feel about the subject and the value of good audiation ability.

For me it seems like having basically all the awesome ability of a modern DAW inside your own brain. Seems worthwhile to develop.

I'm always curious to hear what people have to say on the subject. To me it is a fundamental theory issue, as it has much to do with how we HEAR music - there is a strong psychological component to this, as I would think there is for all music theory that aims to describe how and why a piece of music works for the listener.

I was listening to an oscar peterson album the other day and there's instances where you can really hear his voice while he plays. But I'm wondering why I only hear him sometimes. Then it occured to me that nobody really sings all the time while they play. So do you think theyre still audiating what they want to play, and if so, why not do one or another at all times? Why switch?

Ever since I was a kid, I've always been good at imagining original music in my head whenever I wanted, which was kinda what made me really passionate about music production years later. But recently I discovered this was actually something called "audiation" and is more of a learned skill that not everyone has. When I found out about this, it kinda blew me away because I had always assumed everyone could just do it. Also just to clarify, I don't mean hearing songs that already exist, I'm talking about hearing music that you know is original and is also in, or at least around, the same quality as an already existing song. (Perc, leads, piano, etc.)

It's been kinda tough finding discussions about this, so I wanted to hear about some of your guys' experiences with this. And if this is something that you don't have, or something that you're trying to learn, how do you go about writing music if you're not able to hear the music you want to write?

Beginner violinist here.

I hear that if you want to learn to improve your intonation as a violinist, you have to hear the note in your head (Audiate) before you play it.

So far, the method that I rely on is just playing, and listening for any notes that sound wrong, and then try to correct them. But I don't hear the notes in my head, since that requires quite some mental effort in addition to the playing.

However, if it is a necessary skill, then I'm willing to try learn it.

Is this what you guys do when you play? Like do you hear the notes vividly in your head as you are playing them on your instrument?

I've worked with all my drum students making sure they can audiate everything by making them sing to me what they try to play (beats, rhythms, fills, etc). When learning songs, I also get them to learn some lyrics of the song off by heart to have some reference points. I've read Edwin Gordon's "Learning Sequences" and looked at a bunch of little resources online as well.

I'm aware of how powerful singing is for developing audiation, but wanted to know how you all like to teach audiation to your students. What works? what doesn't? If anything is general vs. Instrument specific?

TL;DR how you teach audiation to your students?

I've heard that imagining the sounds before you play them is the best way to improve intonation, but how do I imagine a sound based on a note on sheet music?

A friend just sent me a photo of a three part score in the background of some kids book and asked if it would actually sound good. I can make some guess based on whether notes make sense with the key signature and reasonable phrasing, but I can't hear much just looking at it. I know some people definitely can, but I wonder how common it is.

https://imgur.com/2nGcoC3

I've been practicing basic score reading (audiation) exercises for a decent while now, and I still find it uniquely difficult. It seems like such an elusive/otherworldly skill, like being able to breathe under water or something.. Is it true that if I just keep hammering away with the 'play one part and sing the other' method, things will eventually start to click? Thnx for any advice!

Hey r/musictheory! I realize this isn't strictly a music theory question, but I was wondering if anybody had any advice/methods for practicing audition. In particular, audiating ORIGINAL melodies as opposed to music one is already familiar with. Most resources I find tell me to audiate Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or other simple folk melodies, however this doesn't really help me when it comes to composing original tunes. Thanks in advance!

What I want to ask here specifically is whether or not you could come up with a tune or song in your head, on the spot, if someone asked you or if you just wished to do so. please specify in the comments if you need some external stimulus first (like a starting note or melody), or if you can just do it off the bat, and what kind of clarity do you have while audiating, and also the easiness or comfortability of it.

I ask this because for the longest time I've just assumed that everybody can make completely original music in their heads, and have recently found out that it isn't the case, even though when asked, basically everyone says that they can imagine a painting/scenery/something visual which is completely original, so I do this for personal research

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Hello r/musictheory!

I'm trying to improve my aural skills and intonation on my instrument. To do so, I need help with audiation! This might seem silly to you, but it is killing me!

What's going on? I feel like when I try to audiate, that my inner ear/voice is mute and cannot make a peep! I've tried imagining that I am screaming at the top of my lungs inside my head, but it's like I'm fighting in a dream. No matter how hard I try, I cannot do it.

On a side note, when I audiate, should I feel as though I am preparing to sing? Such that, I "set up" to produce the desired pitch?

Any help will be greatly appreciated and if I need to post in another subreddit, please direct me to the correct one!

Thanks!