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| How Would You Rank the Quality of Your Regular Weekly Listening? |
| 100 - Active Listening (Ideal Conditions) |
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18% |
[ 2 ] |
| 90 - Active Listening (Very Good Conditions) |
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18% |
[ 2 ] |
| 85 - Passive Listening (Ideal Conditions) |
|
9% |
[ 1 ] |
| 80 - Active Listening (Less than Ideal Conditions) |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| 75 - Passive Listening (Extremely Good Conditions) |
|
36% |
[ 4 ] |
| 70 - Passive Listening (Very Good Conditions) |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| 60 - Passive Listening (Good Conditions) |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| 50 - Passive Listening (Less than Ideal Conditions) |
|
9% |
[ 1 ] |
| 25 - Background Music Only (I wish I could find time to listen to study music) |
|
9% |
[ 1 ] |
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| Total Votes : 11 |
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| Author |
Message |
Derek Reaban
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Posts: 4221
Location: Tempe, Arizona
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 Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:39 pm Post subject: The Listening Poll (Lounge) |
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I’ve been considering the listening process lately. Most, if not all, teachers and players recommend daily listening to their students in order to plant the seeds for a great internal sound concept. The better that a player can imagine what they want the horn to sound like, the closer they will come to this goal. And the best way to do this is through frequent and detailed listening.
I thought it would be interesting to see how people spend their listening days (on average) against a somewhat subjective scale. I know that players will say, “I listen to music 3 hours a day” or maybe “I wish I had time to listen to more music. At most I listen to the classical or jazz station on the way to work or school”.
So, this is a poll directed at focused listening for learning purposes (study literature). Background music will get very low scores on this poll. I’m posting this both on the Lounge and the Orchestral forum to get a different cross-section of players. You can take the poll in both areas if you’d like!
I found an old post that I wrote about the different kinds of listening that seems to be appropriate to add to this message:
| Quote: |
Consider that there are several different ways that we can listen to music. There is listening where the music is simply background music, there is passive listening, and then there is active listening. I consider “active” listening to be sitting down with either the part or score in front of you while listening to a specific recording. This is the time when you are absorbing the most information about a piece of music. Passive listening is when you are driving and can take advantage of listening to music, but at a different level of conscious awareness. It’s very close to “active” listening if you have done your homework and know your part well. It’s a chance to explore the music over and over until the music has a chance to penetrate. You will know when you have “arrived”, after you have immersed yourself in a piece of music so completely, when you hear the music in significant detail in your mind when you are quietly sitting in a room. This will be when you are doing something else (not music related) and all you can hear is this piece of music.
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With the noise of daily life, I feel like my regular listening is typically in the “passive” listening range (I don’t even turn on the radio in my car – all study music all the time given my limited listening time). Even then, I feel that my passive listening could be better.
Here’s the best “subjective” scale that I can come up with…
100 - Score open, earplug type (sound canceling) earphones, in a quiet room alone with a world class recording, singing passages frequently
90 - Score open, in front of your home stereo, in a quiet room alone with a world class recording singing passages frequently
85 - Sitting on stage with a full-time orchestra in rehearsal
80 - Score open, in front of your home stereo, air conditioning on, noises in other rooms, listening to a world class recording (singing occasionally)
75 - Attending a live concert of a quality ensemble as an audience member
70 - Driving with earplug type earphones, listening to a world class recording
60 - Driving with the CD player on, listening to a world class recording
50 - Driving with the CD player on, the air conditioning on full blast, listening to a world class recording
I think that all of us would like to spend as much time in the active listening mode as possible. I like this quote from Phil Myers (Principal Horn in the New York Philharmonic):
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My real pleasure, frankly, comes from looking at music, not playing it. I spend four or five hours a day looking at music, analyzing music. For me, that's joy. Last week, I was looking at a piece by Benjamin Britten and, as I saw what he was trying to communicate and how he did it, my respect went waaaay up for this guy!
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For an average week, where would you put the quality of your listening to “study music”. If you do some work with the score in active listening and some work in the car as passive listening, take an average of the scores.
I find myself between a 50 and a 60 (the drive home from work is with the air on full blast in the car for the majority of the drive) and I know that the quality of the sound that I am hearing is reduced because of this. I could sing much more than I currently do, and take little credit for this in my preparation (a very honest personal evaluation). Given that I play along with the CDs that I am listening to during my daily practice right now (reading the part), I would put my average score in the 75 range.
After you put in a number for the poll, if you would like to detail an average week of your study music listening approach, I would certainly like to read about it!
Thanks for taking the poll!
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest |
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vivace
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 06 Nov 2001
Posts: 3203
Location: BYU! Provo, UT
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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i always have the music on. Sometimes it is background, but for the most part I am listening since my roommates are a drag and our tv doesn't work well, I stay in my room and listen a lot.
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"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing no song." - Louis Armstrong |
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trumpetmike
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Posts: 11315
Location: Ash (an even smaller place ), UK
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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Nearly always on in the car, often at home in a variety of ways - from background music to TH, through to actively studying the score whilst listening.
If I am studying a new piece, having the part in front of me really helps. If this is whilst the recording is playing, even better. |
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