When we listen to someone speak we must retain in memory their vocal sounds long enough to recognize and give meaning to the words the sounds represent. Likewise, when listening to music we are at any given moment organizing in audiation sounds that were recently heard. We also predict, based on our familiarity with the tonal and rhythmic conventions of the music being heard, what will come next. Although musicians audiate all aspects of musical sound, including timbre, volume, and style, Music Learning Theory is concerned specifically with the tonal and rhythm dimensions of music. Through development of audiation students learn to understand music.
Understanding is the foundation of music appreciation, the ultimate goal of music teaching.
Recent research, however, reveals that music aptitude, like all human characteristics, is normally distributed in the population. All persons have the potential to achieve in music. Music Learning Theory is unique among music teaching methods in accounting directly for students' differing potentials to achieve in music. Students of average aptitude are taught more tonal content and rhythm content than low aptitude students, and high aptitude students learn more content than average aptitude students. By teaching to students' individual differences , teachers lessen the risk of boring students with high potential and frustrating students with lower potential.