Types and Stages of Audiation
Types of Audiation
The types of audiation are not hierarchical. Some of the types, however, serve as readinesses for others.
| Type 1 | Listening to | familiar or unfamiliar music |
| Type 2 | Reading | familiar or unfamiliar music |
| Type 3 | Writing | familiar or unfamiliar music from dictation |
| Type 4 | Recalling and performing | familiar music from memory |
| Type 5 | Recalling and writing | familiar music from memory |
| Type 6 | Creating and improvising | unfamiliar music |
| Type 7 | Creating and improvising | unfamiliar music while reading |
| Type 8 | Creating and improvising | unfamiliar music while writing |
Stages of Audiation
As theorized, the six stages of audiation are hierarchial–one stage serves as a readiness for the next. The table below outlines the stages of audiation as they occur in Type 1 of audiation (listening to familiar and unfamiliar tonal patterns and rhythm patterns in familiar and unfamiliar music).
| Stage 1 | Momentary retention |
| Stage 2 | Initiating and audiating tonal patterns and rhythm patterns AND recognizing and identifying a tonal center and macrobeats |
| Stage 3 | Establishing objective or subjective tonality and meter |
| Stage 4 | Consciously retaining in audiation tonal patterns and rhythm patterns that we have organized |
| Stage 5 | Consciously recalling patterns organized and audiated in other pieces of music |
| Stage 6 | Conscious prediction of patterns |