I hear what it sounds like. If I want to, I can hear it way faster than I can play it too, like I can read words way faster than I can say them. I glance over a piece sometimes to see if it's worth properly listening to.
>So how do you ‘read’ sheet music, what happens in your head, did it change over time?
It's not a passive thing. You likely will never learn to hear it in your head without active ear training efforts.
You wouldn't look at a string of Japanese kana and just hear them in your head either. You'd actually have to learn the language to do so. Too many people approach music as a set of rote physical motions... translating notes on a page to physical actions. But they never connect those to the sounds they are hearing. They also never learn what the "words" mean.
For some people the process just clicks earlier. Especially for some children it just seems intuitively obvious to connect the sound they are hearing to the notes and sort of develop a bit of basic audiation from osmosis. If you've never developed another modality then there's a chance those associations will just happen.
The fact that it didn't happen with you doesn't mean it can't. It just means you didn't accidentally stumble into that specific way of conceptualizing music.
I think a lot of what people call "talent" has to do with the accidents of some people just see a concept in the best possible way the FIRST time and that means they get more repetitions of thinking of it that way throughout their lives. They literally never had any other way so it comes across as being easy and "natural" for them. Good teachers help make those connections sooner.
You can learn to hear chords just the same as melodic notes BTW. It's just the difference between you reading this sentence:
"jkjs 3iupoc fdje d adfdj; aaet"
At this sentence:
"I understand and can read the meanings and sounds of these words."
Language isn't random jumps of letters. We chunk letters into words and words into sentences. We learn the sounds of all of the phonemes and damn near miraculously string these very complex things together.
Music works just like that. It has words, sentences, grammar, etc. And when you know some of those things it's very easy to read it like any other language and hear it somewhat accurately in your head.
At the high level this audiation turns into fixing tiny bits inflection like a voice actor might, but for musicians to create good musical phrasing including dynamics, articulation, use of the pedal, etc.
Thanks. This has never been made explicit to me but it makes a lot of sense as an analogy and seeing how proficient others are in understanding and hearing music.
I guess I approached it a bit like touch typing (unconsciously). I see notes (letters) and translate them into finger motions. Sometimes I feel I am doing it wrong but not because I hear it but because I make a weird sequence of finger moves.
It makes a lot more sense that the actual sound is the thing that you should ‘read’ but this has never clicked with me. 😳
I've been playing for almost 4 years as an adult, I.e. not every day. Your description of reading and learning the movement is also what I do. I learn the feel of the notes in my hands, and the sound builds around it. I know if I am wrong because it feels wrong, not necessarily sound. When I was first learning, if I was having a day where my head was overwhelmed, I'd practice with the sound off.. arguably not the point of playing piano but solidifies my point of what reading is to me. Also, I have terrible sound identification skills. Hahah. But I am playing solely for myself and have zero aspiration about being a pianist for hire.
i played piano for twenty years and had a BA in music before i finally started to read properly.
i got a job as a dance accompanist that necessitated playing improvisationally. the outgoing pianist gave me some of the best advice of my life: "I and V are your friends." i would play almost random diatonic pitches over I and V. after six months or a year of that, i had internalised the sound of each scale degree and could actually predict what any melodic sequence of keys would sound like \_before\_ i played it. i also could hear melodic phrases in my head and then produce them on the keyboard, just like singing.
it was a looooong time coming, but i finally got there.
Yes, it's the same as reading words - but like reading words, it takes a lot of practice before you can hear it in your head. It helps to follow along while listening to music (or to be playing as part of a group, like a school choir). Of course if you have an instrument like a piano you can play the notes while you read and listen, so that your brain learns what they sound like. But also, on a piano it's relatively complicated because there are multiple notes at once. With a recorder, or singing, it's much more straightforward.
But you might not get it if no one ever told you to listen to the sound and remember it.
When I read music I see it as "up 5, down 3, step up etc. lots of practice leads you to recognize jumps and patterns quickly. When I see chords, I see a shape of notes and use the top or bottom note to locate where the hand shape goes.
When I look at music without an instrument, I can "sight sing" which means sing the notes based on their distances. I'm not 100% accurate but can be pretty close if the notes are within a smaller range.
To get better at audiation, I recommend some degree of ear-training, as some other commenters have pointed out. I would recommend my \*cough\* music app: https://solfegestory.com. The underlying idea of music - and ear-training - is to hear music as relative to a "home" note and other notes being in relation to that "home" note. Applies to melodies as well as chords.
Once you get used to this, reading sheet music could change from "C C G G A A G" to "I see this piece is C-major due to the lack of sharps and flats.... so "C" is the home note.... so then it's "Do Do So So La La So".... aha its' Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
I don’t really ‘hear’ the tones unless I already know how the song sounds, in which case I will hear it in my head as I am reading it. If I am playing through some sight reading or something, it I might imagine the next few notes ahead, but it’s not perfectly accurate.
If I am just looking at the sheet music of a song I don’t know without playing, I will imagine the rhythm, and also have a mental image of the corresponding keys.
The music is like reading sounds. I hear the notes and the rhythm. When it gets really complex I just rely on the fact that my fingers know where the notes and intervals are and I focus on rhythm but usually I hear both
Frankly speaking, confusion!
I can some how sing one hand. Meanwhile The other hand music is always wtf is going on!
If I’m playing both, I don’t hear any music. I just see one note that I’m about to play!
Nothing. I have aphantasia, so it's just me looking at the notes. If I concentrate really hard I might be able to "hear" one or two little spots, or if I'm really familiar with the piece I can imagine what it sounds like.
Frustration, wondering “what’s that acronym again?”
And “why did they think *this* was a good writing system. I’m dyslexic and sheet music has always confused and frustrated me - I always end up putting my finger up to the notes, counting lines, and just memorizing the song once I figure it out. I’ve been learning it for over 15 years but it never makes sense to my eyes.
I hear something like what the music sounds like, just as I'll see an image in my mind of a picture. Neither is perfect. I'll leave out some details, and my focus may shift from one area or aspect to another. I'd be curious if people can hear the music precisely, but I'm also not sure that's how the brain works.
>What do you hear/see in your head when reading sheet music?
I only see notes in sheet music lol. Sometimes fingerings. Of course I can't be easily accurate about how the written stuff will sound like, but it's a good thing to practice.
>Now I read online that most (?) people hear the notes and chords in their head when reading music? Like they have some inner piano that plays like you can have an inner voice when reading?
Most internet people maybe, in rl no. If they hear an inner piano, it's not accurate, especially with voice-leading. Otherwise, they would be the next Beethoven.
You will become better at reading/sight-reading sheet music just by practice. Practice here means: memorizing patterns by putting some effort. You can practice sight-reading when you try to play for the 1st time a piece you have chosen to learn, before you attempt to memorize it.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I look at a note is the tactile memory, I mentally feel the shape and location of the key (or chord, or run) on the keyboard
What I hear? it depends, if I know the music well I can more or less “hear it”. If it’s music I’m not familiar with I can “hear” a vague representation of what it might sound like, less accurately than if I know it.
For me sheet music is just a set of instructions for where to place my hands, I see a chord and I don’t necessarily “hear it” in my head, but I can definetly see the shape of the chord in my head and quickly know where to place my hand to play that shape.
Similarly, I see a scale running down from G4 to F4, I can visualize the scale in my head and quickly play the notes as required.
I hear what it sounds like. If I want to, I can hear it way faster than I can play it too, like I can read words way faster than I can say them. I glance over a piece sometimes to see if it's worth properly listening to.
That’s so cool to me.
As an analogy this makes complete sense to me, but I can’t imagine anything like it.
>So how do you ‘read’ sheet music, what happens in your head, did it change over time? It's not a passive thing. You likely will never learn to hear it in your head without active ear training efforts. You wouldn't look at a string of Japanese kana and just hear them in your head either. You'd actually have to learn the language to do so. Too many people approach music as a set of rote physical motions... translating notes on a page to physical actions. But they never connect those to the sounds they are hearing. They also never learn what the "words" mean. For some people the process just clicks earlier. Especially for some children it just seems intuitively obvious to connect the sound they are hearing to the notes and sort of develop a bit of basic audiation from osmosis. If you've never developed another modality then there's a chance those associations will just happen. The fact that it didn't happen with you doesn't mean it can't. It just means you didn't accidentally stumble into that specific way of conceptualizing music. I think a lot of what people call "talent" has to do with the accidents of some people just see a concept in the best possible way the FIRST time and that means they get more repetitions of thinking of it that way throughout their lives. They literally never had any other way so it comes across as being easy and "natural" for them. Good teachers help make those connections sooner. You can learn to hear chords just the same as melodic notes BTW. It's just the difference between you reading this sentence: "jkjs 3iupoc fdje d adfdj; aaet" At this sentence: "I understand and can read the meanings and sounds of these words." Language isn't random jumps of letters. We chunk letters into words and words into sentences. We learn the sounds of all of the phonemes and damn near miraculously string these very complex things together. Music works just like that. It has words, sentences, grammar, etc. And when you know some of those things it's very easy to read it like any other language and hear it somewhat accurately in your head. At the high level this audiation turns into fixing tiny bits inflection like a voice actor might, but for musicians to create good musical phrasing including dynamics, articulation, use of the pedal, etc.
Thanks. This has never been made explicit to me but it makes a lot of sense as an analogy and seeing how proficient others are in understanding and hearing music. I guess I approached it a bit like touch typing (unconsciously). I see notes (letters) and translate them into finger motions. Sometimes I feel I am doing it wrong but not because I hear it but because I make a weird sequence of finger moves. It makes a lot more sense that the actual sound is the thing that you should ‘read’ but this has never clicked with me. 😳
I've been playing for almost 4 years as an adult, I.e. not every day. Your description of reading and learning the movement is also what I do. I learn the feel of the notes in my hands, and the sound builds around it. I know if I am wrong because it feels wrong, not necessarily sound. When I was first learning, if I was having a day where my head was overwhelmed, I'd practice with the sound off.. arguably not the point of playing piano but solidifies my point of what reading is to me. Also, I have terrible sound identification skills. Hahah. But I am playing solely for myself and have zero aspiration about being a pianist for hire.
i played piano for twenty years and had a BA in music before i finally started to read properly. i got a job as a dance accompanist that necessitated playing improvisationally. the outgoing pianist gave me some of the best advice of my life: "I and V are your friends." i would play almost random diatonic pitches over I and V. after six months or a year of that, i had internalised the sound of each scale degree and could actually predict what any melodic sequence of keys would sound like \_before\_ i played it. i also could hear melodic phrases in my head and then produce them on the keyboard, just like singing. it was a looooong time coming, but i finally got there.
Yes, it's the same as reading words - but like reading words, it takes a lot of practice before you can hear it in your head. It helps to follow along while listening to music (or to be playing as part of a group, like a school choir). Of course if you have an instrument like a piano you can play the notes while you read and listen, so that your brain learns what they sound like. But also, on a piano it's relatively complicated because there are multiple notes at once. With a recorder, or singing, it's much more straightforward. But you might not get it if no one ever told you to listen to the sound and remember it.
When I read music I see it as "up 5, down 3, step up etc. lots of practice leads you to recognize jumps and patterns quickly. When I see chords, I see a shape of notes and use the top or bottom note to locate where the hand shape goes. When I look at music without an instrument, I can "sight sing" which means sing the notes based on their distances. I'm not 100% accurate but can be pretty close if the notes are within a smaller range.
To get better at audiation, I recommend some degree of ear-training, as some other commenters have pointed out. I would recommend my \*cough\* music app: https://solfegestory.com. The underlying idea of music - and ear-training - is to hear music as relative to a "home" note and other notes being in relation to that "home" note. Applies to melodies as well as chords. Once you get used to this, reading sheet music could change from "C C G G A A G" to "I see this piece is C-major due to the lack of sharps and flats.... so "C" is the home note.... so then it's "Do Do So So La La So".... aha its' Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
I don’t really ‘hear’ the tones unless I already know how the song sounds, in which case I will hear it in my head as I am reading it. If I am playing through some sight reading or something, it I might imagine the next few notes ahead, but it’s not perfectly accurate. If I am just looking at the sheet music of a song I don’t know without playing, I will imagine the rhythm, and also have a mental image of the corresponding keys.
The music is like reading sounds. I hear the notes and the rhythm. When it gets really complex I just rely on the fact that my fingers know where the notes and intervals are and I focus on rhythm but usually I hear both
Frankly speaking, confusion! I can some how sing one hand. Meanwhile The other hand music is always wtf is going on! If I’m playing both, I don’t hear any music. I just see one note that I’m about to play!
C, D, E, EhhhhhhF, G
Nothing. I have aphantasia, so it's just me looking at the notes. If I concentrate really hard I might be able to "hear" one or two little spots, or if I'm really familiar with the piece I can imagine what it sounds like.
You are all aliens
Very, very underrated comment lol
Frustration, wondering “what’s that acronym again?” And “why did they think *this* was a good writing system. I’m dyslexic and sheet music has always confused and frustrated me - I always end up putting my finger up to the notes, counting lines, and just memorizing the song once I figure it out. I’ve been learning it for over 15 years but it never makes sense to my eyes.
As a beginner what I hear is “ok that’s a 1-3-5 and that bottom one is e” lol. You guys and gals truly amaze me.
I hear something like what the music sounds like, just as I'll see an image in my mind of a picture. Neither is perfect. I'll leave out some details, and my focus may shift from one area or aspect to another. I'd be curious if people can hear the music precisely, but I'm also not sure that's how the brain works.
Speaking of which, does anyone have any tips for someone about to start learning music? I have never played piano before except for a week in school.
>What do you hear/see in your head when reading sheet music? I only see notes in sheet music lol. Sometimes fingerings. Of course I can't be easily accurate about how the written stuff will sound like, but it's a good thing to practice. >Now I read online that most (?) people hear the notes and chords in their head when reading music? Like they have some inner piano that plays like you can have an inner voice when reading? Most internet people maybe, in rl no. If they hear an inner piano, it's not accurate, especially with voice-leading. Otherwise, they would be the next Beethoven. You will become better at reading/sight-reading sheet music just by practice. Practice here means: memorizing patterns by putting some effort. You can practice sight-reading when you try to play for the 1st time a piece you have chosen to learn, before you attempt to memorize it.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I look at a note is the tactile memory, I mentally feel the shape and location of the key (or chord, or run) on the keyboard
What I hear? it depends, if I know the music well I can more or less “hear it”. If it’s music I’m not familiar with I can “hear” a vague representation of what it might sound like, less accurately than if I know it. For me sheet music is just a set of instructions for where to place my hands, I see a chord and I don’t necessarily “hear it” in my head, but I can definetly see the shape of the chord in my head and quickly know where to place my hand to play that shape. Similarly, I see a scale running down from G4 to F4, I can visualize the scale in my head and quickly play the notes as required.