ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author explains two techniques used to expand awareness while listening to, writing, or rearranging a song. He explains what the state is like, and then discusses each technique so producers can experience it for themselves. When producers are in this state of awareness, they are in the music. They have become the music. The analogy in music is that instead of focusing on one single detail of the arrangement or the mix, producers are the mix and they not only hear every sound as it happens, but they also hear it in relation to all of the other sounds. In Theta, more than anything else, producers are aware of timing from moment-to-moment because they hear every event as it happens. During the late ’70s and ’80s the author was vocal director and first piano chair for the university jazz orchestra, playing big band standards as well as his own compositions and arrangements.
