I can just barely read standard musical notation but it’s far from fluent. I’m wondering if, with enough practice you can look at sheet music that you have never heard or seen before and sound it out in your head before ever touching your instrument?
Yes. That is a skill that you spend around the first two years of a music degree learning and perfecting. In your solfege class you learn to read in all keys, and clefs. You learn to identify all intervals by ear and learn to sing them. You even do dictations where you have to write down music you hear.
After that study, yes you can know what the music will sound like by just looking at it.
i learned this when i was ~8, then lost it, and now i miss it like hell
Interesting thanks. It seems like it takes a lot of practice! It makes me wonder if it’s possible for an “earworm” song to get stuck in your head if you’ve only ever heard it with your “mind’s ear”