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Audiation from reading a piano roll?

I can't swear it was much, but at one time I could experience audiation from a traditional musical score. I played in High School band, and took music as a minor in college. So my imagination could "hear" the music to a modest degree at one point. A long, long time ago on a college campus far, far away.

Anyway, does anyone here claim to hear music -- experience audiation -- with a MIDI piano roll?

Just curious.

Comments

  • I think I understand what you are asking. I also took many theory courses, one of which was sight singing. When I see the piano roll I am usually able to "hear" what the notes are. With the piano roll it is pretty easy because the durations are drawn in as well as the notes.
    I played guitar in high school jazz band, what instrument did you play?

  • yep, after 2 years of countless hours learning to read sheet music i started to hear music when i look at sheet music. it not automatic, i have to sort of snap my fingers and it quickly turns on.

  • @abf said:
    I think I understand what you are asking. I also took many theory courses, one of which was sight singing. When I see the piano roll I am usually able to "hear" what the notes are. With the piano roll it is pretty easy because the durations are drawn in as well as the notes.
    I played guitar in high school jazz band, what instrument did you play?

    Played clarinet in concert band, tenor sax in jazz band, bari sax in pep band (could make an awesome train sound which the crowd liked.)

  • I can do it with drum parts but complex melodies not so much. If I know the melody then I could
    use the scrolling MIDI as clues and “hear” it pay out with the audio turned off but I’m sure most of us could do that.

    I have heard stories of truly gifted musicians like Nadia Boulanger that could hear new orchestral music
    composed by her students without touch a keyboard. One of my college professors studied with her and had some stories about her skills. My favorite was when she was conducting and heard a note that needed to be fixed… after a few passes she determined it was the bass note in the Cathedral Organ part that was missing an accidental.

  • @joegrant413 said:

    Anyway, does anyone here claim to hear music -- experience audiation -- with a MIDI piano roll?

    I can hear it up to my level of complexity. Being able to hear a basic melody seems not that impressive. It's the level of complexity you can hear that separates the men from the boys.

  • @joegrant413 said:
    Played clarinet in concert band, tenor sax in jazz band, bari sax in pep band (could make an awesome train sound which the crowd liked.)

    haha
    I was always impressed and intimidated by the skills of the other kids in jazz band. Some of them were very good players even then.

  • I'd say hearing sound notated on traditional score is easier, but I was trained that way, so, don't really know. But with just five lines, 4-5 ledger lines above and below the staff, a clef, and accidentals, you can pinpoint the pitches easily and hear them sequentially or vertically in your head. With a piano roll, I'd imagine it's tougher because of spaces/slots needed for chromatic notes? 12 slots per octave instead of 4 slots between five staff lines plus one on the line?

  • @Artj said:
    I'd say hearing sound notated on traditional score is easier, but I was trained that way, so, don't really know. But with just five lines, 4-5 ledger lines above and below the staff, a clef, and accidentals, you can pinpoint the pitches easily and hear them sequentially or vertically in your head. With a piano roll, I'd imagine it's tougher because of spaces/slots needed for chromatic notes? 12 slots per octave instead of 4 slots between five staff lines plus one on the line?

    Good point. Modal melodies would be pretty easy for me; I probably could not hear highly chromatic melodies from looking at a piano roll. But you can learn to do anything with enough practice.

  • edited July 17

    Personally, I believe I can feel basic rhythms by reading the MIDI roll from drum parts.

    I do not believe I hear / imagine melodies or harmonies much at all from MIDI rolls. It's a lot easier to "hear" an octave from a score, for example. And I've played C major and A minor so much in my life that I can "hear" that if I see it in a scorem or just seeing "C" written on a chart.

  • edited July 17

    Now that I think about it, it helps me a lot to be able to see the chord name in any form of music transcription - scores, MIDI, session charts, whatever. That's something I miss when using the MPC.

  • Just tried... not spontaneously, but maybe with practice? I mean it should be far easier with a pianoroll than with traditional notation, as the correlation between the music and the pianoroll is far closer and less abstract.

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