Have you ever practiced listening to music? What does that even mean? Listening to music is often treated as a passive activity: you sit or stand while music is played at you, whether in person or through speakers. Your ears hear what’s coming at you whether you’re trying to hear or not. Because of the way music is commercialized, it is often relegated to the background, heard but not listened to, in the car, at the store, in a café.
There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is just what ears do regardless of intention. Listening, on the other hand, involves focus. Listening is active. And it is a skill that can be developed. Indeed, in order to progress as a musician, you need to learn how to listen better, so it is important to practice listening just like you practice other aspects of musicianship like rhythm, tone, and dynamics.
Playing music without active listening is like having a conversation without listening: it’s going to end up feeling flat, unidirectional, and impersonal. Music is an art of exploring relationships—rhythmic, harmonic, social, cultural, and so on—and listening is an essential ingredient to deeper relationships.
How can you practice listening? Start by thinking about what you usually do when you listen to music. Perhaps you do chores, work out, drive, or talk to people while listening to music. Consider that these things pull your attention away from music, so you’re not hearing it as closely as you could. Then find a way to remove such distractions, to really listen to music without dividing your attention.
Music lends itself well to multitasking. Unlike television and movies, you don’t need to use your eyes for it. But people don’t usually sit down and just listen to music the same way they sit down to watch TV. The predominance of screens in daily life can make it hard to tolerate a lack of visual stimulus, so music ends up getting combined with other things. For some reason, it feels odd to do nothing but listen. We are compelled to find something to look at, or something to do with our hands. That’s unfortunate. There are many deep levels to the art of sound that you can’t really access if you’re distracted.
Try to listen to a song without doing anything else. Sit or lay down, close your eyes, and just listen. Notice how your mind reacts to the challenge. Do you get bored? Do you feel a compulsion to do something else? Or do you notice something you’ve never noticed before?
Active listening involves not just hearing but thinking about what you’re hearing. It can help to take notes while listening. Write down something you notice while actively listening that you think you otherwise wouldn’t notice. Maybe it’s the way a singer adds some extra oomph to a phrase, or the way different members of the band interact with each other. Pick out particular moments when the piece really sparkles or shakes.
Pull out a notebook or word document and try to describe what you’re hearing. Imagine you’re trying to explain what it sounds like to someone who can’t hear it. Search for words that capture the feel of a beat, the color of a chord change, or the character of a voice. This exercise introduces a conscientious, cerebral element to the act of listening, which is ordinarily more passive and subconscious. In turn, it will make you more likely to noticing details in music even when you don’t consciously intend to. It will also get you used to seeing the shape of all the little events that make up a song.
Another way to guide active listening is to come up with a question or set of questions before listening to the song. How many people are in the band? How do they change their dynamics throughout the piece? How does the singer add emotional weight to the lyrics? What patterns is the drummer using, and how does she switch it up? Questions like these can open you up to hearing music from perspectives you wouldn’t habitually inhabit. That’s the core of all of these practice exercises: to disrupt passive habits of listening in order to create possibilities for new kinds of listening.
Listen to a genre of music that you’re not familiar with, and see how many true statements about it you can write down. Listen to some music that you typically don’t like, and pinpoint things about it that grate your ears. Listening to as many different kinds of music as possible will help you develop a sharper ear because it defamiliarizes the act of listening and shakes you out of your unconscious habits.
Another way you can critically explore the act of listening is to watch music reaction videos on YouTube, like these guys listening to Miles Davis or any of our Song Theory breakdowns. These videos are great because they feature people giving their undivided attention to music and reacting to it moment-to-moment. This kind of alertness is similar to the attentiveness required of good musicians who know how to interact with what they’re playing, who they’re playing with, and who they’re playing for.
Listening to music with other people can be very enlightening. Talk to a teacher at Arabella’s Voice Studio about your listening habits. Ask them what their habits are. Put on a song and talk about what you hear as you’re hearing it. See what you notice and what they notice. Sometimes, even just having someone next to you while you listen can expand your curiosity about what can be heard.
There are countless ways to practice listening. Perhaps what ties all these suggestions together is the idea of listening in a way that you haven’t listened before. That means reflecting on how you usually listen and imagining a new way to approach listening. As musicians, we have to stay alert to music as it unfolds so that we can better participate in it, and the best way to do that is to disrupt the complacency of going on autopilot and challenge ourselves to explore the limitless possibilities of listening.
If you found this article interesting, also check out our article Vocalizing Theory: A Musical Guide.