Tip: you don't have to recognize sounds in order to compose music.
I have aphantasia and can't memorize sounds or recall them. For decades I thought I'm deaf (Ockham say hi). But I picked up piano, play for 3 years, can't discern C from G if my life depended on it but my friends tell me I'm pretty decent composer.
Writing this so people don't get disappointed about themselves just because they can't pick ear skills.
First I’ve heard of aphantasia applied to sound / music. Though I have on a number of occasions thought about the concept.
I have (visual) aphantasia. But am better able to remember / hear notes and timbres in my head than images. Never really tried composing and for the number of years I took piano lessons I’m pretty crap at it (lessons don’t matter if you don’t practice in between).
But sounds stick with me more than visuals. So interesting that it’s all on a spectrum with these various facets.
I've been doing these exercises regularly for years and haven't made much progress ;). I still perform music regularly and get positive feedback. I do hope that some day I'll get to where these exercises seem easy - I haven't made much progress, but I do make a tiny bit at a time.
the inverse is true as well-- I can produce or identify any note with zero reference and imagine entire melodies and harmonies and yet am still probably mediocre at best at composing.
can you tell if a piano is out of tune? I'm curious since I don't know anyone with aphantasia. Can you tell if someone is playing your composition correctly?
Yes I can.
That's also the reason why I can compose at all. The analogy would be like: I don't know how pink color is named, but I can say it's pretty.
And on the output: I don't know what colors I used, but the image is pretty.
Only my music teacher tried to play and I knew it didn't work well. It's a peculiar thing.
It's possible to tell from one note. The reason is that the unisons will be out of tune with one another and change the tone quality.