The Biggest Mistakes are Made by Not Listening

(exercises in critical listening)

by Bill Gwynne

What is the difference between Listening and Hearing?

Hearing is something we all do in our day to day lives; we hear the ambulance approaching, the speaker at the drive-through, the chatter in a restaurant. But what is Listening, and why is it different from Hearing? Are there different degrees or depths of listening? I believe that the difference lies in being able to properly interpret what you hear; to be able to take the sound coming at you, and use your brain to hear it as a combination of many individual sounds that make up this thing we call music.

As a guy who listens for a living, it is always amazing to me and sometimes saddening to see the wide variety of listening skills posessed by the people who play music at our studio. I can look back on many great (and not so great) projects and feel good that with very few exceptions, people left here with what they wanted, or the best they could achieve given their budget. But there are those few sessions that started out with the kernel of something truly good, and during the long and convoluted process that invariably surrounds a big project, things went astray and the project didn't really maximize it's potential.

I've always looked for some kinda root cause to these problems; sure you can say it was this non-grooving drum part, or an overplayed keyboard, or too many guitarists clogging up the mix, but those are just the symptoms. What is the root cause of these "failures of potential"? I believe that it stems from the fact that many people have not taken the time to train their hearing and are without the mental tools to properly discern and analyze the sound they are hearing at the time.

It took me many years to realize that I hear music differently from the general public and indeed most musicians who have not had formal training or developed critical listening skills on their own. You see, as a brass player (trombone) who started in school band in 5th grade, you are always playing in large ensembles whether they be bands or orchestras. In large groups you have it pounded into your head "Blend with everyone else, play together as a section matching your intonation, note attacks and releases as to achieve the effect of one large instrument. While you are doing that, as a group you need to balance your section with the other instruments in the band on a moment to moment basis." I didn't know it then but I was being taught critical listening skills that are a tremendous asset in the recording biz. Because of this training, when I listen I can actually hear 3rd Trumpet in a horn section, or the English Horn countermelody in some big symphonic extravaganza, a fact which I took for granted until people I work with kept saying "What? oh there I hear it now... How do you hear all that little stuff?"

So I began to wonder, since you can't go back and play band instruments in 5th grade band (well most of us can't), what listening exercises could I think of that would help people listen to their projects more clearly. After all, you can't be critical of the performance of the 3rd guitar playing that little pickin' part in the background unless you can hear it!

So try these listening/perceiving exercises on a relatively short piece of music that you've heard before but aren't particulary fond of; at first you need to avoid being distracted by the musical content, we're going to be focusing on the little stuff here. Remember, critical listening is as much about focus and concentration as it is about hearing and perception.

1. Listen to one instrument only for an entire song. I don't mean just listen to the song and occasionally check in and see what the target instrument is doing. Listen to the instrument and nothing else for the whole song! Pick an easy to hear element such as a drum set component like the hi-hat or perhaps the bass or rhythm guitar. Really focus on it and try and understand what he/she is playing and why what is being played supports the song and the groove at that moment. Then start the song over and listen only to a different instrument, analyze the performance, Notice how it is placed in the mix and it's volume relationship to similar instruments. Frequently the electric bass and kick drum frequently work together to create the foundation of the song. Note how they play together and how they differ. Where is the target inst. in the stereo perpspective (headphones help a lot with this) hard left? Soft right? Dead center?

2. Listen to the whole song and diagram it by section (Intro, verse pre-chorus, chorus, Verse, 2 bridge, solo, breakdown etc.), then take inventory of each instrument in each section of the song; try and hear which new intruments or lines are introduced for each section. In addition training your hearing, this will give you a good perspective on how successful sonwriters and producers, arrange their songs.

3. Listen only to the backgound vocals, note where they happen and don't. Try and hear each individual harmony. Are the vocals both a musical 3rd up AND down from the vocal (sandwiching the melody between the two adjacent harmonies, or is it the melody on top and one or two harmonies stacked underneath. Are there places in the song where the method of harmonizing changes; likes voices moving in contrary directions or one note held steady while the others follow the harmony.

4. Transcribe the lyrics-ALL of them, actually write them down so you are sure you've heard (and understood) every word. Warning, this could drive you crazy (I'm remembering the scene in the movie Jumpin' Jack Flash where Whoopi Goldberg tries to transcribe the Mick Jagger pronounciations of the song of the same name. Hilarious)

This doesn't look like much when you go to write it down, but by using these techniques and practicing a lot, you will not only be a better recordist, but a better writer, producer, and arranger as well.

I tried to really rack my brain to come up with the best possible exercises, and would be interested in hearing from all of our clients and web site visitors if they have a particularly successful exercise technique to enhance their hearing perception. If you send me your idea, I will post it here and you will be duly credited.

Good luck and enjoy listening to music in depths you never knew existed before!