The he(Art) Of Listening II: Hear The Music

It is essential for music teachers to listen to music. Listening continually enriches us, so we can share the music we love with our students. Our excitement to explore a wide range of musical styles exemplifies our openness to discover new musical cultures. It broadens our musical horizons and infuses the spirit of lifelong learning and curiosity that we seek to instill in students.

Listening to all styles of music is remarkably the same. At the core, the basic elements of music - rhythm, form, register, articulation, phrasing, harmony, texture and dynamics - remain the same across musical styles, be it pop, rap, funk, jazz, Western classical or traditional Asian music. Despite their commonality, each musical style is also delightfully unique. Each piece of music is shaped by its specific regional context and social purpose. An intricate web of meanings, perspectives and beliefs differentiates and underlies the meaning of a particular musical expression. As such, each piece of music reveals a special story about where it comes from and how it originated. Through the music, we could learn about the economical, historical, geographical and political circumstances that give the music its final form.

How do we listen to music? Each piece of good music is skillfully crafted to clearly express the emotion and message with which it is encoded. But so much is going on in the music. How do we deconstruct music to understand and get more out of it?

Organisation of time 1

• Listen to the organisation of the music in time, such as rhythm and tempo. What does the tempo of the music express?

• If the rhythm slows down or quickens, how do these changes affect the pace of the music? What is considered fast/slow in the tradition that it is performed?

• Is the rhythm “straight” or syncopated? How does this create a sense of turbulence or equilibrium?

• Is there metrical ambiguity (such as hemiola, for example 2 against 3 beats) to generate rhythmic tension?

• How is the rhythm or tempo similar or different compared to the norms of the musical style and its contexts?

• What constitutes a rhythm pattern in the context of a culture?

Organisation of sound layers 2

• How are individual sounds and instruments assigned/played so that each sound/instrument/ voice interacts freely with the others?

• How does the sound/timbre of that instrument compliment the sounds of the other sounds/ instruments in the music?

• Is the texture thick or thin? How many instruments are there in the music? How do they depart from the norms/practices in the context of the genre?

• Do the sounds/instruments/voices sound together (note for note) or are they rhythmically disparate (pointillistic)?

3

• When a specific layer is added to, or taken away from, the music, what does its presence or absence contribute to the musical flow?

• What is the sequence of timbres that unfold in the musical flow?

• Is the harmony, if any, consonant or dissonant?

What does that express?

• How are the sounds manipulated and what narratives do they tell?

Form/Structure

• How does the music grow from the sounds/motifs/themes that came before? Do these sounds/ motifs/themes grow and evolve or return and stay the same?

• What surprises are contained in the music to hold the listener’s attention?

Stylistic aspects of performance 4

• How is the intensity conveyed in the context of the musical style/genre (e.g. drum patterns, dynamics, melodic contour, sound engineering effects)?

• How do dynamics (loud or soft) contribute to the flow of emotion?

• How is the music articulated (staccato, tenuto, legato, accent etc.) ?

• How are the melodies phrased?

• What is the meaning of the text, if any? How are the lyrics, if any, expressed musically?

• How do the performers interact? How does the music sit with the space and context of performance?

Engineering 5

• How do sound engineering effects, like echo, panning, chorus, equalisation and flanger, shape the music?

• How are the instruments mixed, according to their volume levels relative to one another?

Here are four concluding suggestions to get the most from listening to your choice of music:

Continually adapt and apply what you learn from the music to your daily playing and teaching of music. Reinterpret and reinvent the music with your own imagination and originality.

A great piece of music is limitless and inexhaustible. Today, we may learn something new from a song, but tomorrow and 10 years from now, it will have many other lessons to teach us. Music is the best teacher.

We are continuously bombarded and overwhelmed by the dizzying diversity of music that the internet opens up. Fortunately, we do not have to listen to it all. Just pick and choose the specific music you like to listen to and learn from.

While we develop preferences for certain types of music, let us remain curious and be open to different types of music as there is much learning from the different types and forms of musical expression that will enrich our lives.