Guided Listening

[m19834]

Let's have a course here  .

Okay, but what I am really wondering is if you would describe the "kind" of listening you do when you spend time listening to music.  What are you listening for ?  As much detail as you are willing to go into would be appreciated. 

And, how many times do you listen to a piece of music or a particular artist before you start to feel that you know what it's/their "about" ?

Also, if you have taken any formal "guided listening" classes in school or otherwise, I would be very interested to learn what that was like.  What did you listen for ?  What did you listen to ?  That type of thing.  I don't think I had a formal course like this, though in my music history class we listened to some music just to learn of its existence.  I may have started a course for a couple of terms but transferred schools ... and I don't remember what the class was actually like.

Thanks .

[scottmcc]

Let's have a course here  .

Okay, but what I am really wondering is if you would describe the "kind" of listening you do when you spend time listening to music.  What are you listening for ?  As much detail as you are willing to go into would be appreciated. 

And, how many times do you listen to a piece of music or a particular artist before you start to feel that you know what it's/their "about" ?

Also, if you have taken any formal "guided listening" classes in school or otherwise, I would be very interested to learn what that was like.  What did you listen for ?  What did you listen to ?  That type of thing.  I don't think I had a formal course like this, though in my music history class we listened to some music just to learn of its existence.  I may have started a course for a couple of terms but transferred schools ... and I don't remember what the class was actually like.

Thanks .

if you're going to start a thread like that, the least you could do is suggest a recording worth listening to.  I'll help:  Wilhelm Kempff complete Beethoven Sonatas.  Beautiful.

ok, now that that's out of the way, I listen in several different manners.  I almost always have some kind of music playing when I'm driving, as I do a lot of that for work.  But I'm usually not listening very intently to that, and certainly not "studying."  When I'm learning a piece, I try to find a good recording and listen to it several times with the score in front of me.  Sometimes I'll even listen to a few different recordings to compare interpretive ideas.  And of course, I like going to concerts but I live in an area that doesn't have the highest quality so I don't go too often.  But throughout, the reason I listen to music is enjoyment, not work, so my perspectives are different.

With each artist it's different regarding how many times I have to listen to a piece.  I usually know within a few seconds if I like a piece enough to keep going, but I really try to listen to the complete piece at least once before passing judgement.  But almost every piece of music worth listening to needs to be heard at least 3-4 times before I truly "get" it, and probably 10+ to really understand it.  I'm always confused when I read posts by people who say they have to listen to something 30 or more times to tell if they even like it.  That seems like a lot of wasted time, especially when there's so much likeable music out there.

I didn't take any music classes in school.

[go12_3]

While I was in college as a Piano Performance Major for a couple of years, one of the classes I took was Ear Training and that was an interesting class.  I had to listen to musical passages and identify each note.  Plus, the intervals.  I think that guided listening has begun when I was a little girl because music was within me.  I played a little toy piano and sang a lot.  I don't listen to a lot of music except when I drive somewhere; it is classical music.  When I want to learn a piece, I listen to it and it is easier for me to get the feel of the piece.  As a violinist for the past 8 years, the finger placement has to be perfect in order to play the correct notes.  And that has not been a problem because I could tell right away if I am off pitch.  I hear the music in my mind most of the time.  Sometimes I prefer silence just to rest my mind from listening and playing music.

best wishes,

go12_3 

[m]

Many years ago I was teaching very similar class in college for quite some time. Usually, I'd take a few different interpretation and compare them. Since the art of interpretation (as any other art) is directly connected with historical aspects and values that was the very first starting point, which would lead to more detailed analysis in a form of essay.

Best, M

[m19834]

Many years ago I was teaching very similar class in college for quite some time. Usually, I'd take a few different interpretation and compare them. Since the art of interpretation (as any other art) is directly connected with historical aspects and values that was the very first starting point, which would lead to more detailed analysis in a form of essay.

Best, M

The only thing I have truly come close to doing that with is the Bach inventions, but that was completely on my own and I simply became frustrated.  I made fresh copies for each individual artist that I had, and then I went through about 4 artists, marking in as many different things for each score as I possibly could hear, sometimes just inventing markings that wouldn't make sense to me later. 

The reason I only made it through 4 artists (out of 7 or 8 ) is because after those 4, it became very apparent to me, or at least it seemed (perhaps if I had persisted I would have learned otherwise), that I wasn't going to reach any kind of conclusion about anything.  It just confused me more.  I didn't understand why artists chose what they did, and that just made me angry.  It actually made me so mad I have never committed myself to doing anything quite like it again, and it's even a hidden reason that I sometimes don't want to listen to music in general ... hee hee ... though, that was now several years ago.

[m19834]

Many years ago I was teaching very similar class in college for quite some time. Usually, I'd take a few different interpretation and compare them. Since the art of interpretation (as any other art) is directly connected with historical aspects and values that was the very first starting point, which would lead to more detailed analysis in a form of essay.

Best, M

Okay, I apologize profusely that it has taken me apparently 6 months to come to better grips here with this, but I *think* I may be getting a handle on this project  .  I guess I have felt extremely overwhelmed by the amount of repertoire that I don't know, and I haven't known actually how to start to learn even about all of this repertoire out there, or even how to wrap my head around listening.  However, I have recently realized that I don't have to start by listening to the entire piece of each composition, but that I will concentrate rather on learning the motive/subject/theme of each piece, first, and then continue studying harmony, history and analysis in order to build better mental space for what I want to learn.  Reading through your posts, I ran across this thread and part of what I am apologizing for now is that you actually gave me a starting point in your post here, and I really do see that now.  I just couldn't quite understand even a more basic starting point, but now I do.

So, what I am going to do is learn these motives/subjects/themes by ear and on the piano, I will listen to various artists and concentrate on just these little musical nuggets, first.  I will listen for how each artist deals with the opening subject or motive or theme.  And, of course, I wonder from there if it's possible to learn how a particular artist is going to play an entire piece, just by learning what they do with the opening.  I will make comparisons and read up on the artists themselves as much as possible, and try to find out information (like history at the time, performance practices, etc.) about what could have led them to make the decisions they did.  I have decided to start again with the 2-part inventions, then sinfonias (for some reason these always seem to me to be a significant starting point in the bulk of the repertoire).

Thanks !

[goldentone]

The reason I only made it through 4 artists (out of 7 or 8 ) is because after those 4, it became very apparent to me, or at least it seemed (perhaps if I had persisted I would have learned otherwise), that I wasn't going to reach any kind of conclusion about anything.  It just confused me more.  I didn't understand why artists chose what they did, and that just made me angry.  It actually made me so mad I have never committed myself to doing anything quite like it again, and it's even a hidden reason that I sometimes don't want to listen to music in general ... hee hee ... though, that was now several years ago.

It occurred to me that possibly the reason you got so upset was that, having been unable to discern why the artists made their choices, you were left with the unsavory thought that interpretation reduces to merely one'e aesthetic inclinations, and has no real significance or meaning, as opposed to stars in their courses.   

[m19834]

It occurred to me that possibly the reason you got so upset was that, having been unable to discern why the artists made their choices, you were left with the unsavory thought that interpretation reduces to merely one'e aesthetic inclinations, and has no real significance or meaning, as opposed to stars in their courses.

Well, basically, yes.  Anytime I try to add a single thought besides just answering "yes," it is a never ending flow that I can't tie up nicely and neatly in words.  I had started trying to write it out, but thus far it would be ridiculous to post it.  So, I will just repeat, yes, with the single addition that it is something to me very deep though, and somehow the answer "yes" is just not perfect ... but it's seemingly the best I can do.