You Can Hear the Chord. Naming the Root Is a Different Skill.
Two Judgements Happen in the First Second, and Only One of Them Is Trained The most common report I get from students working through ear training i…
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A Note That Refuses to Move Creates the Tension Every Cadence Depends On
A Suspension Is Three Events Across Three Beats, Not One Tense Moment Most of the students who send me counterpoint make the same mistakes. They wri…
Audiation: The Skill That Separates Composers Who Hear From Composers Who Guess
Every composer I have ever taught arrived with the same unspoken problem, and most of them had misdiagnosed what was actually wrong. They believed th…
Beethoven Composed the Ninth While Deaf: Audiation Made It Possible
In 1824, a composer who could no longer hear conducted the premiere of one of the most celebrated works ever written. That paradox is only possible b…
Why Compositions Stall After Eight Bars, and the Training That Fixes It
Every self-taught composer eventually asks the same question: why do my pieces stall after the opening, and what would actually fix it? The honest an…
Sonata Form Only Works When You Can Hear It: Audiation and Structure
Sonata form is the most important large-scale structure in classical music, and the composers who use it well share one trait: they can hear the arch…
The Power of Audiation-Based Composition Instruction
Audiation, the ability to hear and understand music in your mind, is a transformative skill for composers. It allows you to internalize and realize y…