Of Course Its All In Your Head, But Why On Earth

Should That Mean Its Not Real?

An insight into the educational value of audiation











John Hodge
Professional Teacher
Dr. S. Scott & Dr. S. Chadwick
January 20, 2012

In the world of music education today it is commonplace for band and choral
directors to rely heavily on traditional method books to teach the fundamentals of
instrumental playing and of music itself. While these method books provide educators
with an efficient and simple means of sharing information with students, they fail when it
comes to arming students with some of the most integral skills necessary to grow and
succeed as musicians: the ability to audiate. According to Schleuter, the most important
tools in instrumental music teaching are the teachers and the students ears
(Schleuter, 1984, pg. 24). The ability to audiate is at the pinnacle of ear training and
represents the ultimate level of internalization of music. In most method books
mathematical and visual connotations of note values are stressed (Schleuter, 1984, pg.
19) and arpeggio and chord studies are usually intended as fingering or articulation
exercises rather than as tonality training material (Schleuter, 1984, pg. 19). There is
rarely, if ever, an emphasis placed on the importance of clapping or speaking rhythms or
using physical movement to learn rhythmic concepts in method books. It is even less
common for method books to encourage the vocalization of intervals or basic tonal
patterns to assist in the internalization of basic melodic motives and how they exist in
harmony. Music education putting such a strong emphasis on visual learning as opposed
to ear development is worrisome; undoubtedly it leaves the musical creativity in many
students untapped and sadly undeveloped. In addition to doing a disservice to students,
teaching music visually before it is aurally taught is unnatural: the process of learning
music is much the same as the process of learning a language (Azzara & Grunow, 2006,
pg. 34) and when children learned their first language they did not learn to read it First,
[they] listened to language (Azzara & Grunow, 2006, pg. 34). To attempt to teach

creativity by using notation to one who cannot notationally audiate, or even audiate, is the
handmaiden of folly (Gordon, 1989, pg. 23).
Before we can explore the function and importance of audiation in music
education, we must first have a clear, definitive concept of what audiation is. The term
audiation was coined by Dr. Edwin E. Gordon in the mid-1970s (Gordon, 1989) and has
since been given shorter and simpler definitions along the way, as is the case with any
new word or term that enters the vernacular of an area of study. Stanley L. Schleuter
states, for example, that audiation is simply hearing in your head what the next pitches
should be before they are sounded (Schleuter, 1984, pg. 42). Gordon, however,
conceptualized audiation to include various types and stages (Gordon, 1989, pg. 20,
italics added) which he outlined as follows:
Types of audiation include listening to music, reading music,
writing music, performing music from recall, and
improvising and performing music creatively. The stages
of audiation are not so clear-cut. First, sound is audiated.
Second, the sounds are grouped in audiation into tonal
patterns and rhythm patterns. Third, the tonality and the
meter of the tonal patterns and rhythm patterns are
audiated. Fourth, at the same time that the tonal patterns,
rhythm patterns, tonality, and meter of the music heard
just seconds earlier are being sustained in audiation, the
forthcoming sounds of the music are being audiated. Fifth,
tonal patterns, rhythm patterns, tonalities, meters,
modulations, style, and form, to name only a few of the
dimensions of music, are recalled from music that was
heard days, weeks, months, or even years ago to help
interpret the music which is currently being heard. Sixth,

what will be heard next in the music is being sustained in
audiation. pg. 21 (italics added)

It would appear as though Schleuters much shorter definition of audiation
covered most of what Gordon has to offer regarding the types of audiation that exist.
Schleuters definition of hearing in your head what the next pitches should be before
they are sounded (Schleuter, 1984, pg. 42) certainly applies to listening to music, reading
music, and writing music. In fact, from Schleuters definition, one could argue that
writing music is pure audiation. In a 2004 interview on 60 Minutes, twelve year old
music prodigy Jay Greenberg, who Dr. Samuel Zyman of the Juilliard Music School
called a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history when it comes to
composition (60 Minutes, 2004), stated that he doesnt know where the music comes
from, but it comes fully-written, playing like an orchestra in [his] head (60 Minutes,
2004). Could it be that Jay, already a world-renowned composer at the age of twelve, is
simply an outstanding audiator whos able to flawlessly write down his audiations?
As for the stages of audiation that exist according to Gordons definition,
Schleuters definition falls short. Schleuters definition is congruent only with the sixth
and final part of Gordons definition, which states, what will be heard next in the music
is being sustained in audiation (Gordon, 1989, pg. 23). After all, like any skill, there are
levels, or to use Gordons words of choice, stages, of proficiency. The first stage of
Gordons definition of audiation is extremely basic: sound is audiated. (Gordon, 1989,
pg. 15). Simply hearing musical notes in ones head, regardless of instrument, key,
rhythm, etc. is something that virtually everyone would have the immediate ability to do
no matter the level of training they had in the area of music. The intermediate second,

third, fourth and fifth stages outlined by Gordon, however, are steps that require large
amounts of training and musical experience to reach and master. These intermediate steps,
the ones that include the grouping of tonal and rhythm patterns, tonalities, and meters are
the ones that will most apply to and benefit music education and school music of all
varieties.
Now that we have a foundational knowledge of what audiation is and why it is
imperative for students to develop this musical ability, we must explore the question of
how as in how can we teach our students to audiate? Warren Haston believes that the
most efficient way to teach new concepts and skills is through call-and-response
[where] the teacher models and the student imitates (Haston, 2007, pg. 27). A key
component of this exercise, states Haston, is that the teacher should [not] explain to the
students what they are playing, or what it looks like in print, or where [they] are in the
music (Haston, 2007, pg. 27). In doing this, Haston forces students to rely solely on their
musical ears without providing them with a visual crutch to lean on. Haston recommends
that call-and-response sessions begin each rehearsal at every grade level (Haston, 2007,
pg. 28), meaning each time students play their instruments in band class, the first thing
they are challenged to do is develop their musical ear. Azzara and Grunow also speak in
favor of the call-and-response method of teaching, stating, the objective [of call-and-
response] is not to memorize the tunes rather, the objective is to internalize so many
melodies and bass lines that you begin to hear harmonic progressions (the changes, or
patterns in music) and generate your own melodic lines (Azzara & Grunow, 2006, pg.
46).

Similarly, Mark Wolbers feels strongly that one of the main focuses of band
rehearsals should be the development of musical syntax (Wolbers, 2002, pg. 40).
Wolbers recommends utilizing vocaliz[ation] in band rehearsal[s] [to] help students
develop their aural skills (Wolbers, 2002, pg. 37) and enable them to think the sound
they wish to produce before they play it (Wolbers, 2002, pg. 38). This practice has great
value for developing harmonic recognition skills, as beginner-level students are given the
opportunity to sing basic intervals and more advanced students are given the opportunity
to analyze simple chords and identify nonchord tones (Wolbers, 2002, pg. 41) of
chorales. Wolbers even recommends going as far as to ask advanced students to compose
a melody over the progression (Wolbers, 2002, pg. 41) after they have been able to
identify one of [the] chord progressions (Wolbers, 2002, pg. 41).
Haston gives directives not only in favor of the general use of call-and-response
techniques in music education, but also explores the most effective ways in which to
utilize call-and-response techniques to assist and encourage student learning. Haston
recommends model[ing] different rhythms, styles, dynamics, and tonal patterns, all taken
from the music that will be rehearsed that day (Haston, 2007, pg. 29). This means that
educators should select their call phrases carefully and attempt to play them according to
what will appear later in the selected repertoire. For example, if the piece a classroom of
students will be working on later in the rehearsal is in the key of A minor, a music
educator may want some of his or her call phrases to include the raised seventh (G#)
resolving to the tonic A. It would be highly beneficial for students to become aurally
familiar with this resolution because it includes a note not normally in the key of A minor
and, therefore, sounds foreign to the untrained ear. To provide a further example, if a jazz

band was scheduled to rehearse Miles Davis So What, a jazz standard piece that
harmonically resides purely in the dorian mode, a music educator may select call
phrases only from the dorian mode. This would be essential for students to aurally
become accustomed to the major sixth interval, which separates the dorian mode from the
otherwise aurally familiar natural minor scale.
Haston warns educators about the differences between teaching by call-and-
response and teaching by rote. While call-and-response is an educational practice Haston
holds in great favor and has found to be highly effective, Haston warns that teaching
students by rote actually denies students the opportunity to learn (Haston, 2007, pg. 30).
The difference in the results of teaching by call-and-response and by rote is, according to
Haston, the transfer of learning students will develop if taught in the style of the former
(Haston, 2007). That is to say, if students are taught figures and patterns (whether they be
rhythmic or tonal in nature) in a call-and-response setting, they should be able to apply
the concept in new and various contexts (Haston, 2007, pg. 29), opening the door for
them to play various styles of music from written or recorded sources. Haston argues that
teaching students by rote, however, develops no transfer of learning because teaching by
rote is not based on playing figures or patterns, but repertoire and songs. Haston states
that teaching students a song by rote is akin to a math teacher solving the problem for the
students or telling them what to write down at each step (Haston, 2007, pg. 30),
providing for them no process of learning or musical growth.
James S. Hiatt and Sam Cross would disagree with Hastons belief regarding by
rote musical dictation. Hiatt and Cross believe that the best way to teach students to

audiate is to apply audiation to performance study. The process set forth by Hiatt and
Cross is as follows:
1. Require the student to listen to, learn, and sing back
familiar tunes for his or her instrument. The student thus
becomes acquainted with the idea of audiation and
acquires a mental repertoire that can later be translated
into performance.
2. Begin technical instruction at an elementary level.
Always teach the student to associate physical motions
with a mental sense of pitch.
3. Require the student to practice basic technical
exercises such as scales and arpeggios while applying the
principle that audiation must guide performance. pg. 48

Here, Hiatt and Cross introduce, outline, and promote the same by rote teaching
approach that was dismissed by Haston as a lackluster and reasonably ineffective
educational practice. While Haston believes that teaching students music by rote fails to
truly teach them anything, Hiatt and Cross believe that teaching students songs and tunes
by rote is valuable because of the intermediate step of vocalization of various melodies.
After students have had the opportunity to listen to selected melodies, Hiatt and Cross
require them to demonstrate memory of the tunes by singing them (Hiatt & Cross,
2006, pg. 48). Through this process, Hiatt and Cross state that students will form [a]
mental image of the tune that can eventually be translated into performance on [his
or her] instrument, with or without notation (Hiatt & Cross, 2006, pg. 49).
This reference of Hiatt and Cross to what they call a mental image (Hiatt and
Cross, 2006, pg. 46) of the music is very similar to what Steve Oare has called aural

imaging (Oare, 2011, pg. 42). Oare recently published an article about how to teach
novice students to practice effectively. He states that there are four major interrelated
components [to good practicing]: motivation, goals, strategy choice, and assessment,
[which are] all influenced by supervision and aural image (Oare, 2011, pg. 42). To
further emphasize the importance of the ability for students to form an aural image of the
music at hand, Oare adds, students need to have an aural image of the music they play
before they play it (Oare, 2011, pg. 42). According to Oare, teaching students to develop
aural imaging is fairly simple: students begin to develop an aural image of characteristic
tone and style as [they] listen to recordings and live performances of bands and
orchestras (Oare, 2011, pg. 43). Here, Oare expands on the belief of Haston that
providing students with audio examples for the purpose of developing their ability to
audiate should be taken from the music that will be rehearsed that day (Haston, 2007,
pg. 29). Instead of focusing the listening of a student directly towards a piece or song
they will be required to perform, Oare believes that listening to any piece, provided it is
performed by an ensemble which is instrumentally comparable to the student ensemble, is
enough for students to develop aural imaging. This belief of Oare is highly reminiscent of
a statement made by trumpet legend Wynton Marsalis, who said: there are many ways to
listen, and as for musicians, if we dont listen, we cant play (Carter, Marsalis,
McCurdy, Modell and Thomas, 2008, pg. 68).
With this information regarding the overwhelming importance of the ability for
students to audiate taken into account, we must ask ourselves why teachers are unwilling
to break away from traditional music education methods and begin new developments in
the field. According to Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, every good teacher knows something;

every master teacher will teach to the why (Lautzenheiser, 2011) and not get hung up
on the what (Lautzenheiser, 2011). This means that for music teachers to be truly
effective in educating their students, they must begin their lesson plans and approach
their rehearsal techniques with the question: Why am I presenting my students with this
information in this particular way? It is from this starting point that educators can work
towards building all of the things they do in the classroom, be it classroom management,
assigning work, selecting repertoire, teaching methods, or disciplinary action.
Brent Gault, an elementary music educator, states that he is a person with poor
eyesight (Gault, 2005, pg. 8), and he, accordingly, relied on [his] aural skills
throughout [his] school career (Gault, 2005, pg. 8). Gault admits that oftentimes he
[has] a propensity to de-emphasize visual aspects of music when teaching, something
[he] must constantly be aware of to create learning experiences that meet [his] visually
oriented students needs (Gault, 2005, pg. 8). According to Schleuter, most
instrumental music teachers teach the way they were taught as children; they seldom
examine or question traditional methods and techniques of instruction with regard to
current theories and knowledge about music learning (Schleuter, 1984, pg. 19). It would
appear as though educators sometimes teach in an uneven fashion, catering to one style of
teaching, be it visual, aural, or kinesthetic, due to the natural tendency for them to favor
their own personal learning style. However, in order to become truly effective teachers,
music educators must engage in constant re-examination of the effectiveness of their own
teaching and be unafraid to experiment with methods of teaching that may not come to
them in a natural fashion.

Steve Oare believes that a key goal for music teachers is to develop literate
musicians who no longer need us (Oare, 2011, pg. 45). The best way to accomplish this
goal is to reevaluate the traditional means that we so heavily rely on to teach our students
to play and perform music. Music educators must realize that learning to play music is
much the same as learning a new language, and, therefore, the process by which we learn
music should reflect the process by which we learn language. It is important to remember
that children learn to talk and later read through first hearing language (Schleuter,
1984, pg. 21). If we are to reflect this process of learning language, then we must focus
the early years of music making not on reading musical notes and figures, but rather
experimenting with auditory music making. It is only through this process that we can
properly equip our young musicians with the skills they need to be musically successful
and develop the ability to audiate, arguably the most important skill a young musician
could have. Failure to properly equip our students with the skills they require to become
well-rounded, successful young musicians could lead to truly disastrous results. Without
developing the ability to audiate and becoming well versed in the language of music
students become button-pushers to whom notation only indicates what fingers to put
down (Schleuter, 1984, pg. 23). If given the proper tools they need to grow and thrive
musically, young students can make the job of any music teacher much easier; students
who are able to audiate and have well developed musical ears become independent
students who do not feel the need to wait for instruction from an adult before daring to
experiment with music making. If we, as music educators, are able to instill feelings of
confidence and independence in our students the value of these lessons is no longer
merely about music education, but a lifelong learning process on a much grander scale.

People who are confident and independent tend to be successful and happy and that,
without a doubt, is what the ultimate goal of education should be all about.






















Works Cited
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Improvisation. Chicago (IL): GIA Publications, Inc.
Carter, Marsalis, McCurdy, Modell & Thomas (2008). Teaching Music through
Performance in Jazz. Chicago (IL): GIA Publications, Inc.
Fager, Jeffrey (Producer). (November 28, 2004). 60 Minutes Bluejay [Television series
episode]. New York City: CBS.
Gault, Brent. (2005). Music Learning Through All the Channels: Combining Aural,
Visual, and Kinesthetic Strategies to Develop Musical Understanding. General
Music Today, 19:1, 7-9.
Gordon, Edwin E. (1989). Audiation, Music Learning Theory, Music Aptitude, and
Creativity. Suncoast Music Education Forum on Creativity, 80, 75-104.
Haston, Warren. (2007). Teacher Modeling as an Effective Teaching Strategy. Music
Educators Journal, 93:4, 26-30.
Hiatt, James S. & Cross, Sam. (2006). Teaching and Using Audiation in Classroom
Instruction and Applied Lessons with Advanced Students. Music Educators
Journal, 92:5, 46-49.
Lautzenheiser, Tim, personal communication, October 21, 2011.
Oare, Steve. (2011). Practice Education: Teaching Instrumentalists to Practice Effectively.
Music Educators Journal 97:2, 41-47.
Schleuter, Stanley L. (1984). A Sound Approach to Teaching Instrumentalists. Kent
(Ohio): The Kent State University Press.
Wolbers, Mark. (2002). Singing in the Band Rehearsal. Music Educators Journal 89:2,
37-41.