The Process of Audiating Music

Many problems in composition can be solved simply by listening to your music internally before setting a note to paper. Developing your powers of audiation to a basic level before you engage in composition or theory lessons can make your lessons much more effective and efficient.

When I was an undergraduate in college, I tried to develop my powers of audiation. I tried many things that worked, and many more things that didn't work.

Explore one of my experiences as I taught to my Audiating Music Facebook group.

... you can join my private group for free if you like.

Developing a System...

Over the years, I began to develop a system that allowed me to accurately audiate music. I started by just trying to audiate challenging spots in a composition I was working on. For troubleshooting a musical work, many composers will improvise on their chosen instrument. But, I found audiation to be much more accurate as a tool.

As I went through the process, I discovered that there are many different levels of audiation. The process of developing your ear for audiation isn't a straightforward progression.

Common Stages

1. Melody or rhythm with indistinct background harmony

2. More defined outer parts, including the melody and bass

3. Improved clarity of harmony

4. Audiation of two, three, four, and more parts becomes easier with generic sounds.

5. Instrument timbre becomes more defined

6. Concert quality sound can occur, but this is rare and usually comes and goes.

In my Audiation Masterclass Series, I don't just teach audiation. I teach a composing process that allows you to create a highly intuitive musical work that grows and develops naturally. During the course, we gradually increase the complexity of your audiation skills until you can hear two, three, and four parts more clearly. At the end of the course, eligible students can get their work performed on my YouTube page in an online concert.

The process of developing the ability to compose music internally captures the imagination. We see it romanticized in movies about composers as this highly refined skill, but it's not a skill that is terribly difficult to develop. It just takes time.

In my experience, age is not a factor in whether you can audiate music. The real benefit to starting young is that you have more time to develop and go deeper into the process of audiation.

An Article on the Alfred Music site discusses some features of audiation, and it gives some good examples of how to audiate music and what it means to audiate versus imitate music. These are two different activities, but they have some features that overlap. Mainly, if you mentally recall a tune in your mind, such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, you are imitating what you have heard previously. When you audiate, you have a greater understanding of the notes and chords that are being used.

The article then discusses a process of audiation with four steps that mostly describes a process of dictation and not audiation. Dictation is taking what you hear and notating it on paper. Audiation requires you to be able to hear the independent lines and rhythms clearly in your music. Audiation does not require you to be able to dictate your music. They are different skills, and must be trained separately.

1. Develop a sense of the resting tone: The article mentions that the first step to audiation is to find the tonal center and continually come back to that center so you know where you are in the melody. This is useful for dictations and ear training, but it doesn't foster a sense of audiation. It only helps you hear where the tonic is. Audiation only requires that you can clearly hear each independent musical idea in your mind clearly. Hearing the tonic can be useful, but it's not necessary.

2. State what meter you hear in any piece of music: Simply describing if you're in a compound or simple meter won't make it any easier for you to audiate music. It will help you to define the music you're listening to, but the process of breaking down work into time signatures is again a process that is more useful for dictation. The act of describing time signatures won't help you audiate more clearly, but it is definitely a useful skill for notating music correctly.

3. Think of and present music to students as series of rhythm and tonal patterns: Recognizing rhythmic and tonal patterns and articulating them is again a process of dictation. It doesn't help you to audiate, but it can help you make sense of what you are audiating.

4. Focus on harmonic functions through the bass harmony: Listening to music from an outside source will not help you audiate music. Again, this is useful for learning to recognize chord progressions and harmonies, but it will not develop the abilit to hear and compose music internally.

The Gordon Institute for Musical Learning offers information on audiation that accurately depicts the process. The website states that, Audiation is the foundation of musicianship. It takes place when we hear and comprehend music for which the sound is no longer or may never have been present. One may audiate when listening to music, performing from notation, playing “by ear,” improvising, composing, or notating music (see types of audiation).

This is a good definition of audiation. The website goes on to list the six stages of audiation. However, many of these stages are basic musicianship skills that don't necessarily help you audiate music.

Let me explain...

Someone can have the ability to audiate, but have no idea how to write music or notate what they are hearing. Still, they can hear the independent lines and clearly differentiate the different musical lines that work together to create harmony.

• Dictation skills allow you to notate what you hear whether it's internal or external.

• Audiation skills allow you to hear music internally and separate the parts in a clear manner.

The best way to explain this is through an example. Watch the following video to learn more:

I would like to invite you to take my Audiation Course and see how deep you can go into the process of audiation. I've listed some prerequisites you should know about before you enroll.

• You should have a basic ability to notate music and know how to read music.

• You don't need to know anything about chords or progressions, but you should know what the notes are in the treble and bass clef.

• You should also perform music on an instrument by reading sheet music.

If you don't have these basic skills, I encourage you to Schedule a Consultation with me. I can help you find options for moving forward in your musical journey, whether that path involves taking my courses or following another path.