Audiation, Mental hearing, Composing/Reading scores without sound reference?

Question

Many composers in the past (as well as the present) were known to do that. So, are there any ways in order to achieve this? Any exercises and so on?

Answer 1

It is possible to achieve this by using Relative Solfege. You have to practice singing diferent intervals like a minor third or a major 6th until you are able to recognize those intervals. The idea of this is that it doesn't matter what the actual note sounds like, but what maters is the distance between the notes; because a Minor Third will always sound like there are 3 semitones between 2 notes. For example if you play an E and a G note, and then you play an A followed by a C note. In both cases, sure, the A and C sound higher than the E and G or viceversa, and the texture might be different, but the distance between both notes is the same so it will always sound like there is 3 semitones in between the notes. That's the concept. Forget about the real tone of the Note. Focus on Intervals! Focus on the distance between notes.