Multiple Musical Processes - Multiple Listening Processes

Last night I got together with three other musicians and played. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? We played.

Baseball teams play .... but what do they play? Typically speaking, they play a game in which one team wins and the other team loses. Sure, how the game is played is important and it influences who wins but ultimately what I believe people remember about a particular game is who won and what play was made (by whom) in order to win.

My play last night had nothing to do with winning and losing and fundamentally I don't think musicians approach music as a game to be played.

So - how do people approach "playing"?

Well, context is critical.

Who's music is it that you are to play? In other words who wrote the music you are going to play *and* do they know what they want you to play?

If you're going to be coming up with parts your experience will be very different than if your parts already exist either in someone else's head, written on paper or recorded on tape, cd, or mp3 etc.

Reproducing a part involves learning the piece of music as a whole, learning your part within that piece and then learning how to perform that part with your fellow musicians.

Coming up with your own part involves learning the piece of music as a whole, creating a part and learning how to perform that part with your fellow musicians.

Throughout these processes there are different kinds of listening a musician will be doing.

Last night I was coming up with parts to music I'd never heard before.

I paid close attention to the various kinds of listening I did in order to come up with parts to songs I was learning for the first time.

Here's a list of listening I noticed myself doing:

1) Listening to chord progressions in order to identify the form of the tune - this requires the ability to hear progressions and identify them within a larger context

2) Listening to main melody to learn the piece

3) Listening to the rhythm of the drums and bass in order to identify rhythmic space

4) Listening for melodic space .... listening for musical holes that needed to be filled

5) Listening for balance of instruments in terms of volume and content

6) Listening to the music inside my head anticipating where to go next

and the list could go on .... there are all kinds of different listening that go into creating music which means that a musician is constantly shifting their locus of focus/center of attention .... this ability to shift is a real skill and something that needs to be recognized within traditional music education. i know personally that there were many times/days/years in which I had no clue where my attention was supposed to be focused in order to create music or that it was okay for me to drift off and listen to the drums or the vibraphone - what was important was that I retain my focus no matter what I was listening to.