Music Cognition · Reference Guide

The Language of Inner Hearing

Audiation, auditory imagery, motor imagery, inner hearing, mental practice—and where these concepts overlap.

Pianists have been talking about the “inner ear” for generations. Cognitive science has given us a much larger vocabulary.

Audiation. Auditory imagery. Motor imagery. Kinaesthetic imagery. Subvocalization. Multimodal imagery. Auditory-motor integration.

These terms sometimes describe experiences pianists know intimately. Sometimes they overlap only partially. And sometimes a familiar pedagogical word turns out to contain several quite different processes.

So what, exactly, are we talking about when we say: “Hear it before you play it”?

Inner Hearing & Auditory Imagery

Research termAuditory imagery / musical imagery: Experienced asHearing music inwardly; What it describesInternally experiencing or representing sound without the corresponding external sound being present.PubMed
Research termAuditory imagery vividness: Experienced asHow clear the imagined sound seems; What it describesThe subjective clarity or lifelike quality of an imagined sound. This is distinct from whether someone can manipulate it accurately.PubMed
Research termAuditory imagery control: Experienced asDeliberately changing something you hear inwardly; What it describesThe ability to intentionally transform or manipulate an auditory image. The Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale distinguishes control from vividness.PubMed
Research termAuditory feature imagery: Experienced asImagining pitch, loudness, timbre, melody, harmony; What it describesAuditory imagery can preserve or manipulate particular features including pitch, timbre and loudness, as well as more complex musical structures.PubMed
Research termTimbre imagery: Experienced asImagining the colour or quality of a sound; What it describesA mental representation of timbral qualities in the absence of the corresponding external sound. Timbre is an established dimension studied within auditory imagery.PubMed
Research termLoudness imagery: Experienced asImagining how loud or soft something sounds; What it describesA mental representation of auditory intensity or loudness.PubMed
Research termMusical-contour imagery: Experienced asImagining melodic shape; What it describesAn internal representation of the pattern of pitch movement within a melodic sequence.PubMed
Research termHarmonic imagery: Experienced asImagining harmony; What it describesInternally representing harmonic musical information. Reviews recognise harmony as a form of complex auditory imagery, although the term is less standardised than "auditory imagery."PubMed
Research termVoluntary auditory imagery: Experienced asDeliberately deciding to hear music inwardly; What it describesIntentionally generated auditory imagery, in contrast with involuntary imagery such as earworms.PubMed Central (PMC)

Audiation & Reading Notation

Research termAudiation: Experienced asHearing and understanding music when the sound is absent; What it describesIn Gordon's terminology, hearing and comprehending music when the physical sound is no longer present, or may never have been present. It is broader than simply having an auditory image.Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Research termNotational audiation: Experienced asLooking at notation and hearing it inwardly; What it describesSilent reading of musical notation that results in auditory imagery. Research suggests it can also involve phonatory or kinaesthetic-like processes.PubMed
Research termVisuotonal modality transfer: Experienced asSilently turning visual notation into imagined sound; What it describesThe transformation of visuospatial information in musical notation into an internally represented auditory experience.ScienceDirect
Research termScore-induced auditory imagery: Experienced asThe score immediately evokes sound; What it describesAuditory imagery elicited through silent reading of notation. “Notational audiation” is the better-established term for the same phenomenon.PubMed

Pitch

Research termPitch imagery: Experienced asImagining an exact pitch; What it describesInternally representing pitch without the corresponding external tone. It can be experimentally manipulated and measured.PLOS
Research termPitch-imagery acuity: Experienced asHolding an imagined pitch accurately; What it describesThe precision with which an internally represented pitch can be maintained or matched.NYA Science Publishing
Research termRelative-pitch processing: Experienced asRecognising a melody regardless of its starting pitch; What it describesEncoding the relationships or intervals between pitches rather than their absolute frequencies.Wiley Online Library
Research termAbsolute pitch (AP): Experienced asKnowing a pitch without being given a reference; What it describesThe ability to identify or produce a pitch without an external reference. This is not the same as vivid auditory imagery.Nature

Anticipation, Prediction & Planning

Research termAnticipatory auditory imagery: Experienced asHearing something before you play or sing it; What it describesAuditory imagery generated in advance of an upcoming musical action or event.Wiley Online Library
Research termAnticipatory image / internal representation: Experienced asImagining the sound you intend to produce; What it describesAn internally generated representation that can precede action and contribute to planning and execution.PubMed
Research termAction planning / motor planning: Experienced asOrganising the movement before actually making it; What it describesThe preparation and organisation of an upcoming action before execution. Musical imagery has been proposed to contribute to this process.PubMed
Research termPrediction / anticipatory processing: Experienced asKnowing what should happen before it happens; What it describesGenerating expectations about forthcoming musical events or actions before sensory feedback arrives.PubMed
Research termFeedforward control: Experienced asPlaying from an anticipated result rather than waiting to hear what happened; What it describesControl based on prediction or an internal model of an upcoming action or result, rather than relying exclusively on feedback after execution. It is related to, but not treated here as identical with, PianoWell's idea of hearing before playing.
Research termAuditory feedback / feedback control: Experienced asPlaying, hearing the result and correcting it; What it describesUsing the sound actually produced to evaluate and adjust ongoing or subsequent action.
Research termInternal model: Experienced asInternally representing how an action will produce a result; What it describesA cognitive or motor representation relating actions to their predicted consequences. Internal models are among the mechanisms proposed to support musical imagery, planning and execution.PubMed

Movement & Motor Imagery

Research termMotor imagery: Experienced asImagining movement without actually moving; What it describesThe internal simulation or representation of an action without overtly executing it. In musicians it can accompany auditory and visual imagery.PubMed
Research termKinaesthetic imagery: Experienced asFeeling what a movement would feel like; What it describesImagery centred on the felt bodily or movement experience of an action, rather than primarily its visual appearance.Frontiers
Research termAction simulation: Experienced asMentally simulating the act of playing; What it describesThe internal simulation of an action. In music-performance research it is one proposed mechanism supporting prediction, planning and coordination.PubMed
Research termAuditory–motor integration / coupling: Experienced asSound and movement becoming linked; What it describesThe interaction between auditory representations and the motor processes involved in producing, predicting or responding to sound.PubMed
Research termAuditory-guided action: Experienced asImagined sound seems to guide the coming movement; What it describesA research framing for situations in which anticipated auditory outcomes contribute to the planning and execution of musical actions. It is not a standardised synonym for the PianoWell process.PubMed
Research termSubvocalisation / covert singing: Experienced asYour voice seems faintly involved although you are silent; What it describesSubtle activity of the vocal apparatus associated with auditory imagery without overt singing. Studies have measured increased laryngeal and lip-muscle activity during anticipatory auditory imagery.Wiley Online Library

Mental Practice & Memory

Research termMental practice / mental rehearsal: Experienced asMentally rehearsing without physically playing; What it describesRehearsing aspects of musical performance covertly, often using auditory, motor, visual or kinaesthetic imagery.Frontiers
Research termKinaesthetic imagery training: Experienced asPractising the bodily experience without the instrument; What it describesThe deliberate rehearsal of the felt movement component of performance without overt execution.Frontiers
Research termAuditory working memory: Experienced asHolding imagined musical information temporarily while working with it; What it describesThe temporary maintenance and manipulation of auditory information. Auditory images held in working memory can support prediction in performance.PubMed

Timing & Coordination

Research termSensorimotor synchronisation (SMS): Experienced asMoving accurately in time with what you hear; What it describesRhythmic coordination between perception and action—for example tapping to a beat, playing with a metronome, or synchronising with other musicians.OUP Academic
Research termAnticipatory imagery / temporal prediction: Experienced asAnticipating another musician's next sound; What it describesInternally anticipating forthcoming events in order to coordinate with other performers.PubMed

Multimodal Imagery & Performance

Research termMultimodal musical imagery: Experienced asHearing, seeing and feeling aspects of the same imagined performance; What it describesMusical imagery incorporating more than one modality—for example auditory, motor or kinaesthetic, and visual representations.Frontiers
Research termMultisensory / multimodal representation: Experienced asThe imagined performance seems to contain sound, movement and notation together; What it describesA representation in which information from multiple sensory or motor modalities contributes to the imagined musical event.Frontiers
Research termMusic-performance imagery: Experienced asImagining yourself playing an entire passage; What it describesMental imagery associated with performance, potentially combining auditory, motor and visual components.PubMed

Involuntary Imagery & Individual Differences

Research termInvoluntary musical imagery (INMI): Experienced asMusic suddenly playing in your mind without choosing it; What it describesConscious musical imagery that arises without deliberate attempts to initiate or maintain it—often called an "earworm."PubMed Central (PMC)
Research termAnauralia: Experienced asLittle or no voluntary auditory imagery; What it describesThe absence or marked limitation of voluntary auditory imagery. Definitions and boundaries are still developing, so the term is used here with care.Frontiers
Research termIndividual differences in auditory imagery: Experienced asDifferent musicians experiencing radically different degrees of inner sound; What it describesVariation between individuals in properties such as imagery vividness, control and accuracy.PubMed

What follows places the two languages side by side. It is a reference, not an argument: each entry pairs a way a pianist might describe an experience with the established research term and a careful account of what it denotes. Nothing here should be read as a claim that PianoWell's method has been scientifically validated—the intention is simply to help you move between everyday musical language and the terminology used in the wider field.

Terminology in music cognition continues to develop, and some terms are more standardised than others. Descriptions here summarise how these concepts are generally used in the research literature; they are not a substitute for the primary sources.

Return to the Music Cognition collection