Q&A: What can you do if you struggle to audiate (imagine music)?
Audiation is one of the most powerful ways to develop your musicality - but what if you find you really struggle with it?
In this clip from the archive of live member Q&A calls at Musical U we share some practical tips to help you audiate. Enjoy!
Watch the episode: musl.ink/pod241
Links and Resources
About Audiation - www.musical-u....
Audiation and Thinking Music, with Cynthia Crump Taggart - www.musical-u....
How to “Hear Like A Musician” - www.musical-u....
The Secret Music Practice Skill: Audiation - www.musical-u....
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Пікірлер: 25
Mate, I love your videos. It’s so hard to find anything on the internet that gets so into these kinds of topics. Thanks!
I have been looking for this information for years, Thank You.
this has been the holy grail of music for me. I have an extremely difficult time "hearing" music in my head. I do mostly improvised music and of course in Jazz it is a must have skill. These techniques might be a big help for me. We, shall see....
That makes so much sense. Thanks for the breakdown.
@MusicalU
2 ай бұрын
Awesome, glad it helped! Audiation is such a valuable skill to improve, helps throughout your musical life 👍
This is really good. My issue is I try over and over to audiate, but all I ever get in my mind are muddled sounds, not clear musical sounds. I can listen to music and hear things clearly, in sort of a non musical sense. However, when no music is playing, and I try to create sounds in my head to the degree that I can identify them, they are never clear enough to do it. Plus, I can never generate the sound of a musical instrument, just my voice, in a muddled way. Does you program help with this issue.
@MusicalU
3 ай бұрын
Gotcha. That's really common, even among quite accomplished musicians. Audiation is deeply tied to musical memory. The more vividly you can imagine music in your mind's ear, the easier it is to remember it, and vice-versa. At Musical U we consider Audiation a core, fundamental skill, alongside singing, active listening, and superlearning. So audiation practice is woven into almost everything we do, rather than being something we teach in isolation. And in terms of "how to learn it", we'd always start from "what's your end goal that you want better audiation to support" since audiation in itself is rarely the thing musicians are really wanting to nail. If you'd like to share a bit more about what's made you want a more vivid and powerful musical imagination, I can probably provide more specific suggestions!
I'm 72 and have played the double bass on and off for many years. I'm embarrassed to say I have put very little time into audiating in favor of focusing on technique and reading. I've always had an issue with making mistakes when I play, and recently, I've linked the cause of the mistakes to my inability to "hear and play" the song in my mind. When I try this, I never hear the bass. Rather, I hear my voice trying to perform the song, but it's not clear, and I can't link the sounds in my head to my fingerboard. I also lose focus because the sounds in my head are not clear, so I feel it's a lost cause, and I go back to reading the music. This process is frustrating, and I'd rather like to hear the music and be playing it as I'm hearing it, not hearing it somewhat after I play it, if you know what I mean. I'd also like to get better at improvising, and I'm finding that without audition, it's just a lick city. Anyway, I've been looking for sources to address what I see as a big shortcoming in my musical world, so if your course can help, let me know. On a related note, I have a causing who is a successful musician, and he tells me he spends most of his time chasing and trying to capture and duplicate the music he hears in his head. I don't have that talent, but I would like to have at least some audition skills.
Esther
So I wanted to be able to play on sax what I hear in my head. I wrote out 60 diatonic patterns (Example: 5,4,,1, 7, 6, 8). Then I would pick a key and sing these patterns while fingering notes on the sax. I did this for a couple of months and got no results. Do you think I gave up too soon?
@MusicalU
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for the great question! From what you've said, my one-liner answer would be "Don't be discouraged, I think you're just trying to make too big a leap in one go". I responded to the question in more detail in our livestream today! Here's the replay: kzread.info/dash/bejne/mWZqqNqrpKawqag.html Please let me know if that helps :)
You mention active listening to a Beach Boys track in an earlier episode. Can you point me to that episode?
@MusicalU
5 ай бұрын
Hi Prof. Smith! This was referring to a mini-challenge which happened inside our membership site as part of our membership program. We do have these two previous episodes about Active Listening which may be of interest though! www.musical-u.com/learn/what-it-means-to-hear-like-a-musician/ www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-hear-like-a-musician/
@Profbriandsmith
5 ай бұрын
Thank you. I’m beginning my active listening journey and enjoying it. I’m a very early alto sax player and a huge Brian Wilson fan.
@MusicalU
5 ай бұрын
@@Profbriandsmith Terrific! I think you'll love how active listening wakes up your ears in a new way and gives you greater awareness and expression when you play. Brian Wilson tracks are a great option to practice with, there's typically a lot to discover!
skipping a bar or two... nice!
I believe according to Edwin Gordon audiation isn't memory
I am audiating a child screaming in the background.
Singing or internally hearing music, audiation, is independent of reading notation. You should not have lead off with suggesting otherwise. Big and misleading error! One does not need to read notation or be able to identify the intervals between successive notes in order to be a top notch audiator. Matter of fact the best audiators do not identify the intervals used and may not even be able to do. There are two things one needs to be a top notch audiator: 1. The automatic playing of what you hear in your head and 2. Getting good stuff in your head. That is all. Notation enters into audiation nowhere.
@VeguldenZilverling
2 жыл бұрын
That's not completely genuine, notation helps immensely to make explicit what you play.
@calcal5135
2 жыл бұрын
@@VeguldenZilverling Sound is as explicit as music gets.
@nathanielfaerman
2 жыл бұрын
That’s interesting. A bit of context - I have visual aphantasia, therefore I can’t imagine any picture or image. I know what my mother looks like, but I can’t „see“ her; to do so, I would have to walk out of my room into her room, and there, I would see her. However, my audition skills are basically hyper-realistic. I can „hear“ anything, really anything. Having said that, I can’t immediately play what I hear in my head - I need to figure out the key at the piano or violin first, then understand, which intervals I’m playing and then, and only then I can play it. Just my two cents. Edit: Just in case anyone asks - no, I do not have perfect pitch :D Dk why, thought it might come up.
what do i do if i CAN'T stop audiating entire songs all the time?
"...can do it while waiting for the bus to come..." Yes, bit of metro-liberal net zero lifestyle thrown in for us lol
@Andriale
Жыл бұрын
tf are you on about