See the Note, Play the Note, Hear the Note
Using your ears to play music is like using your eyes to move something! Have a look at an object that you’d like somewhere else. You see the object and intend to move it, and then you move it by hand. Now you see it in a different spot. You can imagine seeing this object in the new spot before you move it, but then you carry it by hand, and your eyes aren’t involved in the action.
Now, imagine you are playing a note on the piano. When you want to play a note, you move your finger to push the key and produce the sound, and only then do your ears hear it. It is a physical act done by the body in which our ears are not involved. We cannot hear a note until we have played it. Using our ears to play music is like moving something with our eyes. So we cannot use our ears.
Your Aural Imagination
Where does the desire or intention to make a note come from? We can use our imagination to see an object elsewhere, decide to move it, and then move it. Do we imagine we hear something before we play it? Yes, we do! We can hear things that are not there.
Don’t worry. You are not crazy. I hear the note before I play it. Most musicians do, even if they are unaware that they are doing so. They rely on their inner hearing, or aural imagination. Though we use our ears to develop this inner hearing, we turn inward while playing and use the aural imagination to produce the desired sound.
Playing The Dream
When I’m playing in an orchestra, I have to play in tune with other musicians and be aware of my surroundings with my ears, but the sound I produce comes from within. I’m singing from my aural imagination and playing the dream!
I’m sure you have experienced the extraordinary or annoying (depending on your attitude) occurrence of having a song in your head. It’s not playing, but you can hear it playing, in a way. You are “hearing” the music in your aural imagination. A musical dream or unconscious singing begins, and suddenly, “The weather outside is frightful…” and it’s Christmas in July. You might ask, “How did that song get in my head?” Your aural imagination has a little dream.
The Song in Your Head is the One You’re Playing
We can use this inner hearing when we play an instrument or sing. Make the song in your head the one you are playing, and your body will know what to do. You’re giving it clear signals about what you want it to produce, so it will respond. The body remembers what finger to put down because you’ve already trained it to do that when you played this song in the practice room.
You’ve already had ample practice time singing the sounds as you played while you worked it up. It remembers how to breathe efficiently because you’ve trained it to take great breaths each time you play. The body knows how to phrase because you are singing it as you want it in your imagination. Never lose the idea of sound. Trust your inner singer, and you will sing out the phrase. http://www.rogerrocco.net/2013/
Easy, Like A Walk in the Park
The next time you watch amazing feats done on an instrument or with a voice, ask yourself, “Is that person thinking about their body?” We don’t think about our legs when walking, and music played from within can seem as natural as a walk in the park. The musician may not even be aware of what they are doing. You can ask them what they were thinking, and they might say they were not thinking. Making it look easy, they are out of their senses, at least enough not to be distracted by them. In their musical world, telling a story, they hear the sounds within before they play and send them out for us to enjoy with our ears.
We are the audience, and they are the performers. We use our ears, and they don’t. No thinking, just mentally singing, cutting out the middleman, eliminating the voice in the head, or any thought telling them which finger to put down. They are just doing it. Those high notes coming up are not a worry. Instead, they sing them out, thinking of the sound they want only when it is time. They do it. It’s just singing.
Practice Anywhere, You’re Never Bored
Memorizing music is easy. Play the song in your head. If you make an error, it doesn’t interrupt your music because it is easy to keep singing if you practice that way and form good habits. Music has momentum, and the body loves and responds to rhythm. Try to stop a catchy song stuck in your head, and you will see that this can be a difficult mental task. Music is indeed powerful!
You might find it difficult at first, but with training, you can use your imagination to rehearse at any time. Use your imagination to hear the perfect sound you want, or see if you can make it through the whole piece from memory. This is a cure for boredom while waiting in line anywhere.
Your Inner Hearing gets Clearer
At first, your mental hearing might be fuzzy and blurred. As your ability to use your aural imagination increases, your inner hearing gets more detailed, and your ability to create the sounds you want on your instrument will grow. While singing in your imagination, the body can find the most efficient way to produce the sounds you desire. As your inner hearing grows, you’ll experience different sound qualities as the sounds you can imagine expand and get more precise.
The horn you play has less to do with how you sound than you’d think. This is why a cheap instrument, in good hands, can sound fantastic. Hear the notes with a beautiful tone in your head, and the body finds the instrument’s sweet spot to make it match. It is not something done consciously but instinctively. We have faith in our work in the practice room. We let go and free the inner musician inside to play anything imaginable.
Use Those Ears
How do we expand our aural imagination? We use our ears! We listen to music. Listen to the great players playing your instrument and other instruments. Players with beautiful sounds that you soak deep into your subconscious and remember later when you are playing. Imitate those sounds, and you’ll start hearing from others how good you sound. You won’t know because you won’t be using your ears to listen to yourself. You will be creating the sounds you imagine from within. I will be listening with my ears to your playing, and I look forward to hearing your sound! Happy playing, everyone!
