We just published a new article on audiation over at EasyEarTraining.com, and I wanted to see if the singers and choir directors here at ChoirPlace are using these kinds of exercises in your choirs?
There are different terms people use to refer to the skill, for example audiation, auralising, musical imagination, inner hearing. What we're talking about is being able to clearly hear music in your head, or to put it another way: it's the aural equivalent of visualisation.
A simple way to practice it is to sing through a melody you know, and then repeat the process but only singing alternate lines. For the missing lines you "sing" them in your head instead. You can then extend this to just singing the starting note of each phrase.
It can be a really effective way to get over those troublesome entries in a piece, where nobody's quite sure how to pitch their note!
It's also just a great exercise for any musician to develop their sense of pitch.
If you're interested in learning more about how you can practice audiation in a choir, or just for your own singing practice, you can read the full article here: "The Secret Music Practice Skill: Audiation"
If you are already practising audiation, I'd love to hear how you do it and if it's helped you and your choir!
