I can read sheet music, like… I know what the symbols mean and the scale and timing etc… I can’t hear it when I am reading it though. I’ve sometimes wondered if that’s common or if I am a freak.
I think this might come down to what instrument you used. I played clarinet for several years and could never hear the notes in my head, I just associated them with fingerings. Now, I could tell if a note was in tune, but only by hearing it.
On the other hand, if you’re a vocalist of some kind, you need to be able to sing the correct note based on the sheet music. The closest I ever got was getting the correct key and then basically shifting pitch based on whatever key I’m in.
I never took any music theory classes so I’m mostly just talking from my own personal experience
Maybe I should find a class on it, just for the sake of learning it. Personally, I don’t really see the point other than that. I’m of the mind that you can create good music without knowing jack about it. Just start making sounds that make you feel things. Eventually you’ll make a banger; even if you’re the only one who thinks so.
I guess it is a matter of how “fluent” you are in the language. With some foreign languages, e.g. when I started learning a bit of Japanese, I could recognize some kanji, understand some bastc sentences, but still had no idea what it would sound like. Maybe it’s similar to that. We get good at recognizing patterns and interpret them just enough to accomplish what we need, and if we haven’t had any use for “knowing exactly what it sounds like” (maybe just enough to recognize we are missing some notes while playing), we save the energy needed to learn more.
But a conductor would definitely need to know what it should sound like (or how they would want the orchestra to make it sound), so it is part of the interpretation of the pattern.
Same for lords patrician and other intra-audiophiles.
I can read sheet music, like… I know what the symbols mean and the scale and timing etc… I can’t hear it when I am reading it though. I’ve sometimes wondered if that’s common or if I am a freak.
I think this might come down to what instrument you used. I played clarinet for several years and could never hear the notes in my head, I just associated them with fingerings. Now, I could tell if a note was in tune, but only by hearing it.
On the other hand, if you’re a vocalist of some kind, you need to be able to sing the correct note based on the sheet music. The closest I ever got was getting the correct key and then basically shifting pitch based on whatever key I’m in.
I never took any music theory classes so I’m mostly just talking from my own personal experience
I never took music theory either… 🤔
Maybe I should find a class on it, just for the sake of learning it. Personally, I don’t really see the point other than that. I’m of the mind that you can create good music without knowing jack about it. Just start making sounds that make you feel things. Eventually you’ll make a banger; even if you’re the only one who thinks so.
I guess it is a matter of how “fluent” you are in the language. With some foreign languages, e.g. when I started learning a bit of Japanese, I could recognize some kanji, understand some bastc sentences, but still had no idea what it would sound like. Maybe it’s similar to that. We get good at recognizing patterns and interpret them just enough to accomplish what we need, and if we haven’t had any use for “knowing exactly what it sounds like” (maybe just enough to recognize we are missing some notes while playing), we save the energy needed to learn more.
But a conductor would definitely need to know what it should sound like (or how they would want the orchestra to make it sound), so it is part of the interpretation of the pattern.
Same for lords patrician and other intra-audiophiles.