[Trombone-l] Question

[Richardson, Timothy A Mr CIV USA IMCOM-Europe]

It has been discussed here that part of the process of playing trombone
is a feedback loop, comparing the ideal tone concept we hold in our head
to what we hear out of the horn, and making corrections to get closer to
ideal.  

Both tasks are problematic.  We encourage students to listen to good
tone and internalize that concept, to hear what they want in their head.
But they have to learn that auditory recall. 

And hearing what the horn is doing, especially while holding a desired
tone in your head, isn't easy either.  I know I struggle with it.  Doing
the one seems to interfere with the other.  I speculate that most of the
difference between the great players and the rest of us is that they
learn to hear themselves more quickly, perhaps are even born with the
innate ability.  Once they can hear themselves and establish the
feedback loop, the corrections come naturally.  

Yes, I hear my playing inside my head, but I'm not always sure there's
one-to-one correspondence with reality.  

I also suspect it causes me to vocalize softly at times.

Related anecdote:  When I was in college I had an Extra class ham radio
license and listened to quite a bit of code, but I was in awe of a
fellow ham who could copy CW at 30+ wpm while doing crosswords or
driving a car.  He said if he knew the person he was listening to he
actually heard their voice in his head instead of dots and dashes.  If
he didn't know them he heard his own voice.    

-----Original Message-----
From: Samuel Jay Keyser [mailto:keyser at MIT.EDU] 
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 5:00 AM
To: Trombone-l at samford.edu
Cc: Samuel Jay Keyser
Subject: [Trombone-l] Question

I've got an odd question I'd like to ask the listers.  Since I  
anticipate a lot of you will answer, let me apologize now for not  
replying to each of you. I am just curious about what you would say  
about this.

Everybody knows that we can "hear ourselves" thinking in English (or  
whatever our native language might be) even though we are not actually  
speaking out loud .  For example, we can say our name to ourselves and  
actually hear it inside our heads.  If you aren't sure about this,  
just think of what you are doing as you read this.

Now, I'm wondering if the listers can hear their trombone playing in  
the same way.  That is, listening to the language inside your head is  
called "silent speech."  Can you listers also hear "silent music?"

Jay