TIPS FOR ENGAGED LISTENING
Consider some of the strategies outlined below (certainly not an exhaustive list) as a means of beginning to explore some of the ways in which we can listen to what music and sound has to say to us.
1. Don’t be a passive listener. When you listen, you shouldn’t be doing anything else. If you put on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony while finishing your problem set or scrolling on the phone, you have not “listened” to the music. Rather, the music has been relegated to the level of background noise – intelligible only as some kind of vaguely pleasant sound and as little else. When you listen, give the music your full attention.
2. Set aside a regular time for listening. Having a scheduled period of time in your week for listening will help to make the act of listening part of your daily schedule. Don’t try to fit it in “when you have time” – you’ll likely be in a rush and worrying more about your next commitment than the music that you are hearing.
3. Listen to the same music repeatedly. Do not be satisfied with having heard a piece of music only once. As with any kind of learning, repetition is an essential component of listening. With each repeated hearing, you’ll be building on things that you’ve heard before and discovering new things that you might have missed. Occasionally, try to sing or hum along with the recording. Test yourself later to see if you can recall (and maybe even sing) some of the principle melodic ideas.
4. Don’t try to listen to too much music at once. Listening is hard work, and one can easily be overwhelmed by the daunting task of listening to something like one of J.S. Bach's Passions in one sitting. Don’t turn your listening into some kind of feat of endurance. Little is gained if you’ve managed to make your way through all three hours of an opera by Verdi and, at the end, realize that there’s little that you’ve remembered. It’s much better to listen carefully to small, manageable portions of music and to really think about them before you try to make your way through an entire piece. Instead of listening to all of the Verdi opera, make yourself a schedule and listen to focus on certain parts for several days in succession. Spend time listening and re-listening at a local level before you try to listen to the entire work. If, after listening, you can remember (and maybe even sing back) a few tunes, you’ve been listening well.
5. Use a score only if it helps you. You should not feel that following along with a score is necessary at all times. If you are comfortable with musical notation, then a score can certainly be of help to you at times. But, even for those that are comfortable reading music, the attention and energy that it takes to follow a score can sometimes be so great that it can actually detract from our efforts to listen to the music as closely as we can. In our effort to keep track of the score, we might actually miss out on something that we might hear without the score. Try listening both with and without a score to see which method (or combination of methods) might work well for you.
6. Write down your reactions to the music that you hear. Get in the habit of keeping some kind of written account of your listening. This need not be exhaustive or highly sophisticated. Just record things that you strike you as interesting, odd, unexpected, dull, etc. For example, “What is that unusual solo instrument that is playing in that opera aria?" Does something strike you are really fantastic or really terrible? Try to identify why you have certain reactions? Bring your observations and questions with you to seminar. If you have a very specific point or question, make note of the work and recording timing.