ABSTRACT
In creative music making (CMM), listening goes hand in hand with playing. Good listening is the key to well-rounded musicianship. It improves the ability to perceive nuance, and to reach a greater depth in intuitive, nonlinear modes of understanding. In performing free-form improvisations, the musical ideas that have been internalized through past listening and performance experiences are the reservoir from which performance ideas may spring. In the first CMM session, before listening to the playback of recorded free-form improvisations, the facilitator might ask participants to offer their own thoughts on good listening techniques. In subjective listening the listener looks inward and identifies a very personal mood or emotion the effect of music upon the listener. The facilitator can select the recorded music to be heard, or the participants can each be asked to bring recorded music to a CMM session for listening. A supplemental listening session might also include listening to less familiar recorded music classical; new age; or world.
