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You might think of a musically trained ear as something magical, something you’re either born with or you’re not. A well-trained ear is essential for good musicianship. Many music students don’t realize that they can learn a lot about music just by listening, without ever seeing notes written on a page. Often in beginning music lessons we train the eye to read and the fingers to play, but we don’t train the ear. Why Active Listening is ImportantĪctively listening is the key to developing a good musical ear. When you’re actively listening to music, you’re focusing on what you hear and trying to understand it. Now imagine applying that kind of attention to a piece of music that you hear. All of this helps you understand the meaning of what is being said. You’re taking in how fast they speak and their tone of voice. You pay attention to the sound of their words. Active listening is what you do when you’re focusing on what you hear, for example when you’re having a conversation with someone. There’s music playing, you hear it, but you’re not really thinking about it. It’s very common for people to experience music this way. When you’ve got music on in the background you’re listening to it passively. You’re aware that there are sounds in the background, but you’re not focusing on them. Most of the time your ears do this automatically, even if you don’t realize it. Active ListeningĮven when you’re not paying attention to the sounds you’re hearing, your ears are constantly sending sound signals to your brain. With so much to say about the different ways of listening to music, we knew Matt’s knowledge of the subject would make a great post on active listening exercises for our readers. He recently dazzled us with a Facebook Live broadcast about passive and active listening. Matt Sazima is a piano teacher and an Assistant Director of Piano Studies at Hoffman Academy in Portland. Discover 8 active listening exercises try while listening to music