Research library

Musical Reasoning without a Mind’s Ear: A Comparative Case Study

Tolman · Auditory Perception & Cognition

Three classically trained musicians who report no inner hearing, a pianist and two singers, were interviewed about how they learn and rehearse music. They described relying on the feel of their hands, voice and breath, on memory of the written score, on silent syllables or number codes, and on music theory, and none had noticed their lack of inner hearing when they began training. The author suggests inner hearing may not be needed for several kinds of musical reasoning and rehearsal, and that teaching should offer other routes, though the study rests on interviews and did not measure performance.