Hey everyone,
Hope you’re all well! In this article I want to talk about how important listening is to us as musicians, and the importance of listening as part of the learning process.
When we talk about improving as musicians our thoughts often turn immediately to practice: time spent with the instrument, 10000hrs, getting more vocabulary under the fingers…but we sometimes forget and/or neglect the listening part of the process and in many ways that listening is as important as having the instrument in your hands when it comes to making progress.
Listening is what made us love music in the first place!
It might sound like an incredibly obvious place to begin, but it’s important to sometimes touch base with what made us want to play in the first place…the love of the music! I sometimes see students asking about maintaining motivation and how do you keep motivated to practice and my honest answer is staying in regular touch with music that inspires me, music that piques my curiosity and makes me want to pick up the bass and play!
I would imagine that most of you will have a commute to work, commute to do the weekly shop, have things to get done around the house…these are all excellent times to actively check in with the music that inspires you, whatever that may be! Actively work to keep that music in your daily life and your motivation to grab the bass when you have the time will most likely tick up!
Listening = Learning
Listening is how we take in and make sense of musical information in way that we can actually action when we come to play. We can see the information on a piece of paper, and we can understand it in theoretical terms but if we want to be able to use it on command, we need to know how these concepts all interact sonically.
Take the modes for example. You can understand what Lydian is in a theoretical sense, but have you heard what Lydian sounds like in context? Likewise with Dorian, have you listened to music that is built around Dorian? Both of those modes represent very different sonic characters. It’s one thing to know what they look like on paper, another to know what they sound like when they are interacting with harmony.
Likewise with rhythmic ideas. It’s one thing to understand what a 3:2 clave looks like on paper, have you listened for the clave within latin music? Or some of the polyrhythmic ideas you find within modern progressive metal? You might know what they look like notated, do you know them when you hear them?
You want to learn language? You HAVE to listen to it
Music and language are often compared and while there are definite differences that have been written about elsewhere, immersion in language is considered one of the most effective ways to learn it, because you are exposed to the sounds, the rhythms and the phrasing of that particular language.
The exact same thing is true within music and I feel this is something we sometimes lose sight of in our quest to learn and improve. We’re very concerned with the technicalities, but if we are not hearing them in context, how can we possibly use them effectively?
The long and short of it is, if you’re looking to get good at playing salsa, you need to surround yourself with salsa music. You want to master progressive rock? How much progressive rock are you actually listening to? I’ve had several quite surprising conversations with musicians recently where they are busy learning to play a particular style of music but they are spending no time at all actually listening to it! I see this particularly within jazz, people want to learn to play walking bass but are not listening to the great masters of it, the likes of Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Scott LaFaro, Jimmy Garrison, Ron Carter. Which brings me to something I feel quite strongly about…
Are you playing the music you actually enjoy?
This might sound like a daft question, but when I’ve asked people if they listen to the music they are working on I’m surprised at how often musicians answer negative. Now, I agree that some music does make for excellent academic study (Jazz being a good case in point) but if you’re really not into jazz and want to learn more about harmony…why not go and transcribe some Stevie Wonder? My Cherie Amour for example is a fantastic study piece if you want to learn more about harmony, my point being that there is jazz-adjacent music you can work on if jazz really isn’t your thing…and if you’re really not wanting to play it and are going to resent every minute you have to spend studying it? You’re going to wind up in an unhealthy place absolutely dreading the time you spend with the instrument. Find music that will give you that academic study you want, but that will also enable you to enjoy the learning/playing process at the same time! You don’t want to listen to, play or work on the music? Find something else. You’ll find that your practice becomes that much more fun and enjoyable when you do!!
Hopefully some of this is resonating with you and inspires you to listen to more of the music that you love! Above all, listening to music is fun…something that we sometimes lose sight of in our quest to learn. It never hurts to remember that :)
On that note, here are a couple of things that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying listening to recently!
Alive - Meshuggah
The Meshuggah gig I went to in 2014 remains one of the loudest and certainly the most aggressive shows i’ve ever been to, it was a physical experience as much as anything else! The Alive album captures their music spectacularly well in a live setting and is often my go-to when the world (and my inability to change it decisively) becomes a little much. I’ve also (thanks to mr Anthony Muthurajah) become very interested in the rhythmic quality of their music. I’ve linked to New Millenium Cyanide Christ because this is my go-to track on this record.
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Convergence - Bjorn Meyer
At the polar opposite end of the aggression spectrum is Bjorn Meyer’s new solo record, Convergence. Bjorn is my current favourite bass player and the way he manipulates rhythm, melody, harmony and texture is mesmerising to me, something i’m actively trying to develop myself. And the sounds he produces from his bass?….the quality of the recorded bass sound is stunning and further confirms ECMs commitment to recording excellence. It’s possible i’ve already found my ‘Record Of 2026’. Gravity was the first single released but I heartily recommend the entire record (available now via ECM!)
Ghost In The Machine (The Police)
This was sparked by my current interest in overhauling and developing my rhythmic awareness. Sting is one of the most interesting bass players rhythmically in the world of mainstream music and this particular record is a real education in how you can use rhythm to create awesome bass parts!
I have literally this week discovered that having music on in the car or the background when I'm cooking or whatever does not count as Listening....... this post is perfect timing. I think this is why I have struggled with ear training. To actually assign time to properly listen and dissect a piece without distraction is a massive hole in my learning. Not any more. Thanks Ben