Gordon

The Gordon Method of learning music is all about audiation.  Audiation is the ability to hear music in your head without actually hearing or playing it out loud.  It includes a lot of aural perception and discriminative listening that develops the overall understanding of theory.  Here is the eight step hierarchy of his learning sequence:

1. Aural and oral
2. Verbal Association
3. Partial Synthesis
4. Symbolic association
5. Composite synthesis
6. Generalization
7. Creativity and Improvisation
8. Theoretical understanding

Through these steps, students eventually develop the ability to look at a piece of music, and sing it in their head.