In music education, the rapid evolution of digital technologies often leaves learners feeling excluded or perpetually behind. Frequent updates, redesigned interfaces, and the constant emergence of new tools may create the impression that technological competence is fragile and must continually be re-earned. Such conditions foster anxiety and undermine students’ confidence in their ability to engage with digital environments.This study responds to that challenge by suggesting that many apparent changes are, in fact, variations built upon stable interaction patterns that recur across digital tools. By recognizing these ontological patterns—such as timelines, tracks, or routing structures—learners may reduce feelings of exclusion and approach unfamiliar environments with greater autonomy. Here, ontological reflection is understood as the awareness of structural invariants across tools, which enables learners to perceive continuity amid technological novelty.The purpose of this study was to investigate how digital musical literacy emerges when learners engage with unfamiliar Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and how intuitiveness is shaped by ontological reflection. Specifically, the research sought to understand how students described their intuitive processes, how structural patterns supported knowledge transfer across digital tools, and how ontological awareness contributed to confidence and autonomy in technological learning.A qualitative design informed by phenomenology was employed, privileging lived experience and subjective meaning. Six undergraduate music education students, all with prior exposure to music technology, were asked to perform a simple mixing task using an unfamiliar DAW. To enrich perspectives, participants engaged with the task either before or after viewing an introductory video on ontological thinking. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the analysis of the phonograms produced during the activity, interpreted through phenomenological thematic analysis.Findings indicate that intuitiveness unfolds as a sequence of encounters with the unfamiliar, retrieval of analogous experiences, and logical testing of associations. Students described relying on sound itself as a guiding reference, perceiving the DAW less as a rigid tool and more as an exploratory space. Familiarity with broader technological structures supported their ability to act intuitively even within an unfamiliar interface.These results suggest that cultivating digital musical literacy involves more than mastering software-specific skills. It requires nurturing the capacity to recognize structural commonalities and to mobilize intuition as a reflective strategy. By reframing intuitiveness as a teachable dimension of musicianship, this study highlights a pathway for music education to foster autonomy, adaptability, and critical engagement amid continuous technological change.