Musical and artistic development in the system of training of musicians is of priority importance and is the most important task of musical pedagogy. The search for innovative methods of artistic education of musicians is complicated by the empirical approach to solving this problem. For scientific understanding of this phenomenon it is necessary, first of all, to determine the scientific apparatus that provides unambiguity in understanding the essence of the studied. The core of musical and artistic development is musical thinking. It determines its qualitative characteristics. However, numerous definitions of musical thinking are characterized by a variety of characteristics that neither reflect the essence of the phenomenon, nor have the necessary unambiguity. Often, they miss the main thing that distinguishes musical thinking – its sound-like basis. At the same time, musical thinking is a system of mental mechanisms operating with musical and auditory representations for the implementation of musical activity. This definition must be supplemented by a description of the structure of musical thinking. It consists of specially organized, musical and auditory representations, forming musical and auditory images. The latter are largely determined by emotional and intellectual factors. They provide the figurative sphere with an individual shade, reflecting the specific properties of each person's thinking. It should be noted that emotional and intellectual factors do not constitute separate types of thinking, but activate specific properties of the figurative sphere. This does not mean that musicians do not use or possess abstract logical thinking. It, undoubtedly, functionally helps to solve the problems facing the person. But when it comes to musical thinking, its main link is the musical-auditory image.