The Musical Mind: Join the Hike

Kevin Ure
  • 5.0 (6)
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Join the Hike as we talk about musical concepts, including audiation, ear training, composition, theory, and much more!

  1. Aug 26

    Stop Trying to Master Ear Training

    Most ear training tells you to get 100% before you move on. I think that rule is the reason your ear stopped improving. When you repeat one drill until you score perfectly, you usually are not training your ear. You are teaching your brain to predict a sequence it has already heard. The score goes up. The skill does not. What works better is uncomfortable: move through the material, do not stop for perfection, and come back around. The second pass catches what you missed. The third pass is where it becomes yours. This is not a sales pitch. It is the thing I wish somebody had told me before I spent years grinding single drills. 0:00 The mistake I see in the comments 0:45 You are memorizing, not learning 1:17 Why ear training apps stop working 2:03 Take the whole thing, do not stop for scores 3:07 Why one lesson for a week burns you out 4:16 Do the math: 750 days 4:49 The time lapse, and why to keep going Free audiation course, no cost and no trial nonsense: https://www.uremusic.com/audiation-inner-ear-training-for-musicians Flawless Ear Training, the full 250 lesson course: https://www.uremusic.com/flawless-ear-training-audio-video Composing Hour, Year 1, if you want the second and third pass built for you: https://www.uremusic.com/composing-hour-music-lessons If this argument bothers you, tell me why in the comments. I read them, and they are where most of these videos come from. #eartraining #audiation #musicpractice

  2. Aug 21

    The Music Stuck in Your Head Is a Skill You Never Trained

    About nine in ten people get songs stuck in their head every week. It's rare to have a truly silent mind, and only 1.5% are actually tone deaf. So what's the difference between an earworm and hearing music you haven't written yet? A trainable skill called audiation. The 60-second test is at 1:30. The five levels are at 5:30. Learn audiation. The real, scientifically-proven skill of hearing music in your head with perfect clarity. This video breaks down 5 levels of audiation and gives you actionable exercises to develop this ability, whether you're a beginner or an experienced musician. 📍 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: ✓ The 5 levels of audiation (playback → recall → editing → new music → fluency) ✓ Why you're not tone deaf—90% of people hear music in their head weekly ✓ The difference between memory and audiation ✓ Why ear training suddenly gets harder (and why that's a good sign) ✓ Step-by-step exercises to advance your audiation skills ✓ How to use audiation for better sight-reading, improvisation, and composition Timestamps: 00:00 The Skill You Never Trained 00:40 The Song Stuck in Your Head 01:24 Audiation Is Real 03:44 Quieter than Real Music 07:23 The 60-Second Test 11:56 Your Ear Isn't Broken 13:48 Recall vs. Audiation 15:05 The Ear Training Floors 16:00 5 Stages of Audiation 17:19 Hearing and Writing Music Gap 17:55 Audiation Weekly Challenge 19:33 The Big Ear Training Mistake 20:17 You're Not Hallucinating Your Ear Training Progress 🎯 INCLUDED TESTS: The video includes two practical tests to discover your current level. See where you start and get personalized exercise recommendations. 🎹 WHO THIS IS FOR: - Musicians wanting to improve sight-reading - Singers and composers working without an instrument - Anyone who wants to develop perfect pitch - Music students struggling with ear training - People who want to understand the music in their head ⏱️ KEY CONCEPTS COVERED: - Audiation vs. ear training (they're different skills) - Internal sound quality and what "hearing it" really means - The breakthrough moment when progress feels like regression - How daily practice works anywhere—no instrument needed - The three-floor model of inner hearing Free course: https://www.uremusic.com/audiation-inner-ear-training-for-musicians 🎧 About This Channel Ear training, audiation, and creative theory for musicians of all levels. 📚 Essential Resources • Resource Guide • Octave Registers by Number • Newsletter • UreMusic Homepage • Books & Courses 👉 All links here: https://linktr.ee/uremusic 🎼 My Books Full list → https://www.uremusic.com/books 💬 Work With Me Consultation → https://www.uremusic.com/book-a-consultation 📌 Tags #Audiation #EarTraining #MusicTheory #Composition 📢 Affiliate Disclosure Some links may be affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the channel. #audiation #eartraining #musictheory #musicskills #HearingMusic #sightreading #musicalmindreader #ComposerTips #musiciantips #musiclearning

  3. Aug 17

    The Ear Training Sleep Track I Broke (And What I Learned Fixing It)

    ▶ Listen to the full 10-hour track for free here: https://youtu.be/Axr-_z6FTqE ▶ Free download (Perfect Fifth, 1:58 hours): https://www.uremusic.com/sleep-free ▶ Flawless Ear Training, the complete course: https://www.uremusic.com/flawless-ear-training-audio-video ▶ Start the free audiation course: https://www.uremusic.com/audiation-inner-ear-training-for-musicians ▶ Read My Recommendations for Beginners: https://www.uremusic.com/blog/audiation-for-beginners-how-to-start-ear-training-from-scratch I sell a sleep track for ear training. I put my own product under a microscope, and I found three things wrong with it — one bad enough that I rebuilt the whole thing and I'm giving the new one away free, no email, no gate. This is dense and it runs about twenty minutes, so I'd rather you watched it properly than had it on in another tab. Everything I found is in here, including the two things that make me look bad: a file that quietly ran out forty-seven minutes early, and a synthetic drone I almost shipped underneath an ear-training track. Along the way you'll get the actual research behind why sleep tracks work at all — Walker 2002, Antony 2012, the Göldi reversal that shows a cue that wakes you doesn't just fail, it damages the memory it was reactivating — and the four rules I now follow after years of breaking two of them. One risk I didn't cover in the video, and should have: if you sleep with any continuous sound — mine or anyone else's — it raises the level at which you wake up to everything, not just the track. That's the mechanism, not a side effect. Don't use it if you're the person who needs to hear a smoke alarm or a child at night, and if you want the single best fix for that risk, look up a 520 Hz low-frequency smoke alarm. In the research, it wakes sleeping adults four to twelve times more reliably than the standard high-pitched kind, regardless of what's playing in the room. That's true whether or not you ever touch my track, and it costs you nothing to check tonight. The 1:58 version is a free download — Perfect Fifth first, in a louder and a quieter mix. The full ten-hour version is free to listen to on the channel, or available to buy if you want the file. Major Third goes up next week, Major Sixth the week after. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:10 Three things wrong with my own sleep track 0:42 Quick favor before I start 1:10 Finding one — 47 minutes of silence 1:56 What a sleep track is actually supposed to do 2:12 Walker 2002 — sleep finishes the learning 3:34 Antony 2012 — the whispered cue 4:46 The big one — my track vs. deep sleep 6:07 The confession — I guessed right 7:06 Why not ride the sleep cycles 8:20 Finding two — what was hiding inside the rain 10:27 Finding three, and the claim I won't make 12:18 The reversal — when a cue wakes you 13:18 The one almost nobody in music knows 14:32 Four rules for any sleep track 15:48 How the rebuild satisfies them 16:52 The offer — free download 18:21 How to use it safely 19:15 Close — the five minutes that matter most ▶ From the album Sleep Sounds for Musicians: https://www.uremusic.com/intervals-for-sleep-meditation-and-study ▶ Flawless Ear Training, the complete course: https://www.uremusic.com/flawless-ear-training-audio-video

  4. Jul 29

    The Path to Audiating Melodies Clearly... Imagine Music

    Most musicians can hear a melody just fine. Holding one. Keeping it alive in your mind long enough to sing it, play it, or write it down — is a different skill, and almost nobody teaches it. That gap is why a melody can be right there in your head and still evaporate before your pencil moves. This is a working session, not a lecture. I'll play short fragments at the piano and leave you silence to work in, so don't skip ahead. The silences are where the training happens. We'll go after eight breakthroughs: holding a note after the sound stops, replaying a line at any tempo, catching contour before note names, filling in a vanished note, predicting what comes next, transposing in your head, chunking long melodies, and holding a melody against a drone. If you've ever searched for melodic dictation practice or wondered how people transcribe music by ear, this is the skill underneath both. If a drill stays murky, you're not behind. That murkiness is the edge of your current ability, and the edge is exactly where the pathway gets built. Comment as you go. Type YES if melodies dissolve on you, tell me whether the missing middle note came back, flickered, or stayed silent, and type PATH if you want me to send you the guided version. I read and answer everything myself, and your answers genuinely decide what I make next. Chapters 0:00 The Gap: You Can Hear It, but Can You Hold It? 0:59 Breakthrough 1: Hold the Last Note 1:59 Breakthrough 2: The Replay 3:58 Breakthrough 3: Shape Before Notes 5:54 Breakthrough 4: The Vanishing Middle 8:15 Breakthrough 5: Finish the Line 10:22 Breakthrough 6: Move the Melody 11:58 Breakthrough 7: Chunking 14:22 Breakthrough 8: Melody Over a Drone 16:16 Why You Couldn't Write It Down 18:38 Recognition Ends, Audiation Begins 19:16 Where to Go From Here 21:18 Your Homework ▶ Start the free course: https://www.uremusic.com/audiation-inner-ear-training-for-musicians ▶ Flawless Ear Training, the complete course: https://www.uremusic.com/flawless-ear-training-audio-video ▶ Composing Hour, for creators: https://www.uremusic.com/composing-hour-music-lessons ▶ Originally Aired on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IK_3xu2w6zA

  5. May 21

    Stop Drilling for 100% — It’s Putting Your Ear to Sleep

    For years I was telling my ear training students to drill until they scored a perfect 100%. I watched it slowly put their ears to sleep. This video is about the practice model that actually works. Why momentum beats perfection, why a frustrated ear is functionally the same as a deaf ear, and why a few honest errors in your training material may help your development rather than hurt it. If you've been grinding the same interval drill or chord exercise for weeks chasing a perfect score, this is for you. Chapters 0:00 — The confession 0:51 — Thesis: momentum over perfection 1:58 — The 7-day rule 2:48 — Why this works (desirable difficulty) 4:02 — The physical layer no one talks about 5:19 — When the definition of mastery has to flip 6:52 — Music works like spoken language 8:23 — What happens when the training material has errors 9:15 — Pillar 1: Categorical perception 10:29 — Pillar 2: Overfitting and noise injection 11:23 — Permission to move on Tell me in the comments The single interval, chord, or exercise that's tripping you up the most right now. Be specific. I read every one and pull the most common ones into future micro-exercises. About I'm Kevin, a composer and ear training educator. I've worked with over 1,400 students refining how musicians actually build their ears — not by drilling harder, but by training smarter. More at [UreMusic link]. 🎧 About This Channel Ear training, audiation, and creative theory for musicians of all levels. 📚 Essential Resources • Resource Guide • Octave Registers by Number • Newsletter • UreMusic Homepage • Books & Courses 👉 All links here: https://linktr.ee/uremusic 🎼 My Books Full list → https://www.uremusic.com/books 💬 Work With Me Consultation → https://www.uremusic.com/book-a-consultation 📌 Tags #Audiation #EarTraining #MusicTheory #Composition 📢 Affiliate Disclosure Some links may be affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the channel.

  6. May 18

    A Song Stuck in Your Head Is Not Audiation

    🎧 Start your audiation journey: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoSeDrmcZDEv0SdiDEMzOHGCZxVtJsQYq&si=STb2uT5nshBB_a9e Most musicians think audiation is hearing a song in your head. It's not. If you've ever had a song stuck in your head, that's mental recall and not true audiation. Real audiation is the ability to create internally and know what you're creating. It's what allowed Beethoven to keep composing as he lost his hearing. It's what separates musicians who can hear what they're writing from those who can only guess. In this video I talk about what audiation actually is, how it develops, and why most musicians never build it. And it's not because they lack talent, but because nobody teaches them the right process. I also share how I use it as a composer, how my students are developing it, and what you can start doing today with nothing but a piano and five minutes. If you're serious about developing your ear and your musical imagination, this is where it starts. 🎁 Free Resource Guide Start your audiation journey → https://www.uremusic.com/resource-guide 🎧 About This Channel Ear training, audiation, and creative theory for musicians of all levels. 📚 Essential Resources • Resource Guide • Octave Registers by Number • Newsletter • UreMusic Homepage • Books & Courses 👉 All links here: https://linktr.ee/uremusic 🎼 My Books Full list → https://www.uremusic.com/books 💬 Work With Me Consultation → https://www.uremusic.com/book-a-consultation 📌 Tags #Audiation #EarTraining #MusicTheory #Composition 📢 Affiliate Disclosure Some links may be affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the channel.

  7. May 10

    The Music Transcription Trap: Reactive vs. Generative Ear Training

    Want Practical Exercises? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoSeDrmcZDEv0SdiDEMzOHGCZxVtJsQYq&si=STb2uT5nshBB_a9e Many musicians work hard on ear training yet still feel that their progress does not remain consistent. This video explores one possible reason for that experience. Modern musicians often learn through recordings, and recordings are shaped by engineering choices that influence how sound is perceived. Microphones, compression, equalization, and mixing can guide the listener’s attention in ways that may not always support the development of internal hearing. Before recording technology existed, musicians relied more heavily on memory, singing, improvisation, and internal generation. Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven developed their musicianship in environments that encouraged strong internal models of sound. Their hearing was often predictive and generative rather than primarily reactive. Some modern approaches to ear training may reverse this relationship by encouraging musicians to respond to external sound without always strengthening the internal structures that support audiation. This conceptual video considers how recordings may influence perception, how the brain forms musical categories, and why reactive listening alone may contribute to plateaus for some learners. It also discusses the idea of the Transcription Trap, which describes situations in which expectation may influence what listeners believe they hear. If your ear training has ever felt unstable or difficult to retain, this perspective may offer a useful explanation. Understanding the difference between reactive listening and generative hearing can help musicians build a more reliable internal reference. Check out the free series on practical applications: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoSeDrmcZDEv0SdiDEMzOHGCZxVtJsQYq&si=STb2uT5nshBB_a9e Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 02:53 The Problem With Modern Ear Training 04:09 Historical Perspective 05:41 Acoustic Coherence and Engineered Sound 07:06 How the Brain Learns Through Prediction 09:28 The Beethoven Principle 10:24 The Transcription Trap 11:36The Flawless Method 12:58 Moving Forward Additional Research: -- Bregman, Albert. Auditory Scene Analysis: The Perceptual Organization of Sound. MIT Press, 1990. -- Deutsch, Diana. The Psychology of Music. Academic Press, 2013. -- Friston, Karl. “The Free Energy Principle: A Unified Brain Theory.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 11, no. 2, 2010, pp. 127–138. -- Gibson, James J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton Mifflin, 1979. -- Gordon, Edwin. Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Patterns. GIA Publications, 2012. -- Helmholtz, Hermann von. On the Sensations of Tone. Dover Publications, 1954. -- Huron, David. Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. MIT Press, 2006. -- Kraus, Nina, and Bharath Chandrasekaran. “Music Training for the Development of Auditory Skills.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 11, no. 8, 2010, pp. 599–605. -- Kuhl, Patricia. “Early Language Acquisition.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 5, no. 11, 2004, pp. 831–843. -- Leman, Marc. Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation Technology. MIT Press, 2008. -- Sacks, Oliver. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Vintage Books, 2008. -- Schaeffer, Pierre. Treatise on Musical Objects. University of California Press, 2017. -- Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Destiny Books, 1994. -- Sterne, Jonathan. The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Duke University Press, 2003. 🎁 Free Resource Guide Start your audiation journey → https://www.uremusic.com/resource-guide 🎧 About This Channel Ear training, audiation, and creative theory for musicians of all levels. 📚 Essential Resources • Resource Guide • Octave Registers by Number • Newsletter • UreMusic Homepage • Books & Courses 👉 All links here: https://linktr.ee/uremusic 🎼 My Books Full list → https://www.uremusic.com/books 💬 Work With Me Consultation → https://www.uremusic.com/book-a-consultation 📌 Tags #Audiation #EarTraining #MusicTheory #Composition 📢 Affiliate Disclosure Some links may be affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the channel.

  8. May 1

    Why Real World Sound is Unstable

    Audiation – Inner Ear Training for Musicians: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoSeDrmcZDEv0SdiDEMzOHGCZxVtJsQYq&si=STb2uT5nshBB_a9e Real‑world sound is never stable, and this video demonstrates why ear‑training fails when students anchor their hearing to external audio. “Every sound that you’ve ever trained your ear against was already wrong before it ever reached you” and “the actual sound in the room… was never a fixed target” (00:00–00:17). By examining variables such as room acoustics, instrument instability, physiology, and playback coloration, you will see how external sound constantly shifts and why audiation provides the only reliable internal reference. Through guided demonstrations, this lesson illustrates how perception changes with ear‑covering, head movement, and environmental conditions, even when the pitch itself remains unchanged. “When your ear is anchored to sound… your reference shifts with every room,” but “when your ear is anchored to audiation… the reference begins to become more constant” (00:04:18–00:04:43). The video concludes by presenting audiation as the foundation of stable musicianship and invites viewers to explore a free introductory audiation course. 00:00 Why Real World Sound Is Unstable 00:07 The Ear Training Problem 00:29 Sound Is Not a Reliable Teacher 01:36 Ear Training Variables You Cannot Control 02:55 The Ear Doesn't Stabilize 04:12 Ear Training vs. Audiation Approaches 05:16 Audiation Is the Stable Model 05:51 External Sound vs. Internal Audiation 06:39 Perception Demonstration 10:48 Your Ear Isn't Broken 13:01 New Knowledge 13:51 Build Your Inner Reference 🎧 Ear Training, Audiation & Creative Theory for Musicians | Kevin Ure 🎶 Learn music from the inside out. This channel explores ear training, music theory, and composition using audiation-based methods—designed for beginners, professionals, and even babies building tonal awareness. 📚 Featured Resources • Resource Guide → https://www.uremusic.com/resource-guide • Octave Registers by Number → https://www.uremusic.com/octave-registers-by-number • Subscribe to the Newsletter → https://www.uremusic.com/subscribe • Amazon Bookstore → https://amzn.to/44SsSAJ • UreMusic Homepage → https://www.uremusic.com/ 🎧 Learn & Connect • Schedule a Consultation → https://calendly.com/uremusic/consultation • Support on Patreon → https://www.patreon.com/c/UreMusic • Explore Services & Products → https://linktr.ee/uremusic 🔔 Subscribe for new videos every week and start sharpening your inner ear today. 📌 Topics Covered #Audiation #EarTraining #MusicTheory #MusicComposition #ComposerTutorials #VoiceLeading #Counterpoint #FormAndAnalysis #AspiringComposer #MusicEducation 📬 Affiliate Disclosure Some of the links below may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase—at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel and keeps the educational content flowing. Thank you! 📚 My Books on Music Composition Available on Amazon or UreMusic: https://www.uremusic.com/books 🎼 Composition Series • Elements of Music Composition → https://amzn.to/44O2OIi • Music Composition Technique Builder → https://amzn.to/40FwgOa • Technique Builder Workbook → https://amzn.to/40FwgOa 🎻 Orchestration • The Study of Orchestration → https://amzn.to/3U0jkyI 📝 Composition Foundations • Fundamentals of Music Composition → https://amzn.to/3H5h8Tu 📘 Music Theory • Style and Idea → https://amzn.to/471BdVm • Theory and Harmony → https://amzn.to/3TWT4oT • Structural Functions of Harmony → https://amzn.to/4kZYaM6 🎵 Schenkerian Analysis • Analysis of Tonal Music (Schenkerian Approach) → https://amzn.to/4ffGgUu • Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis → https://amzn.to/4o6ZmQw • Structural Hearing: Tonal Coherence in Music → https://amzn.to/4o9Rs94 🎶 Counterpoint • The Study of Counterpoint → https://amzn.to/457BXpg • Counterpoint (Kennan) → https://amzn.to/44TtA24 • Counterpoint in Composition → https://amzn.to/40ze6h6 📎 Bonus Reading • Gustav Mahler: Letters to His Wife → https://amzn.to/4lU03LI

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Join the Hike as we talk about musical concepts, including audiation, ear training, composition, theory, and much more!

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