Did you ever find yourself singing a song in your head all day and it annoyed you? Even if you can’t read a single musical note, can you whistle songs like “Jingle Bells”, “America The Beautiful”, “Blow The Man Down” or any of the other 172 easy songs found in the Yankee Collection?
As long as you can hear it in your head, you can whistle it. This concept is known as “Audiation”
Meredith Wilson, who wrote “The Music Man”, based his entire Broadway musical on the “Think System”, a variation of the term…… “Audiation”.
Mozart, while having dinner in a restaurant, started writing down melodies on a napkin that he heard in his head. Guess what……..”Audiation”
As you know, Beethoven was deaf the last third of his life but actually wrote his best music with that handicap. It had to come from his head….”Audiation”. If there was a silver lining, he had no audible distractions to deal with.
Years ago, I was teaching a 2nd grade general music class and asked my students to sing Jingle Bells in their heads without making an external sound. After a few seconds, a little hand popped up. When I acknowledged her, she proclaimed: “Mr. S., It feels funny in my head!” For me, that was a set the hook and reel them in”” moment.
I guess you know that I was floating on air knowing that “Mr. S” got 8 year olds to experience “Audiation” as did the great composers throughout history.
Humans are the only known creatures on earth able to hear high and low pitches (as well as tone colors) in their minds and transfer these sounds to hard copy so others can silently audiate them, all without making an audible sound, vocal or otherwise.
So, if you hear a known song going through your head, focus on it and practice singing it silently. Enjoy audiating! If you don’t recognize your melody, you may have created a new main theme for the world’s next great symphony, or maybe a #1 rock hit.
CONGRATULATIONS!
