Being able to imagine sounds clearly will make your thinking more flexible and creative. You will get more enjoyment from music and be able to change your internal dialogue to make it supportive and positive.

The next exercise will develop your auditory representational system. Notice which parts are easy and which parts are more challenging.

• Close your eyes.
• Make a noise by hitting your fist against your chair.
• Now hear that sound again in your mind.
• Now imagine it again, first louder, then softer. Make the sound again if you have difficulty remembering it.
• Now imagine the sound coming from across the room.
• Imagine it from above you, then from below you. It may help if you imagine hitting your fist against the chair again.
• Now imagine the voice of someone in your immediate family. Hear them saying something. It may help you if you make an image of them and see them opening their mouth and speaking. It may help if you look across to the side. This eye position makes it easier to hear internal sounds.
• Next, imagine some of your favorite music.
• Make it louder, then softer.
• Make it faster, then slower.
• Make it come from different parts of the room.

There are two strategies that may help you hear sounds more clearly in your mind:

1. Visualize other people making the sound. See them strumming a guitar, blowing a trumpet or hitting the drums. As you see that, the sound will come naturally. This strategy works well if you are good at making mental pictures.
2. Imagine yourself playing the instrument. It does not matter whether you really can. Imagine yourself strumming the guitar, blowing the trumpet or hitting the drum. Hear the sounds as you do. Make it an "associated" picture, as if you are really there, looking out through your own eyes. This strategy works well if you find it easy to imagine feelings.