Evolution of a practice

A central purpose of this Substack is to share ideas on music facilitated by experience in meditation, thus the title, Contemplating Music. Here I bring together thoughts surrounding music theory and its pedagogy, and socially meaningful aspects of music processing that surround my workshop, Just Listening. Time to explore the connection between the two, and provide a bit of background on how my teaching evolved into its current state.

The workshop grew from teaching practices developed using the SEA (Sound-Energy Aggregate) method in classes for 20+ years. At the Longy School of Music of Bard College, I have offered a class once per year in Topics of 20th-21st Century Analysis, and we have always used the approach. I began to notice that people would be very happy, in a great mood after the first class, during which I explained the technique and how it is based on paying attention to factors that everyone hears. Students and others found great relief and an avenue to intuitive understanding of modern music, whose approach to harmony often takes real expertise to unravel and is thus frightening to many.

As time went on, I utilized the simple question, “What do you hear?”, to point to the sounds and energies that constitute the SEA. This allowed easy participation: simply stating what one hears is not difficult, and participation of this sort allows a person to utilize their extensive experience listening to music quite naturally. In retrospect, I can see that this was already in the contemplative spirit, devising a practice that tapped into beginner’s mind – in short, the state of not knowing – to reveal truths seasoned musicians might easily overlook. Responses inevitably pointed to important spots in the music, and very frequently were loaded with insight. These remarks served as opportunities to expose important concepts and allowed me to help everyone realize more fully the depth seemingly simple observations reach.

Having experienced this awakening time and time again in class, I began to realize that honoring the state of not knowing is incredibly helpful in removing barriers to the appreciation of modern music, but more importantly that embodying not knowing leads to reduced stress in learning across the board. By sidestepping preconceived notions about the difficulty of understanding modern music, the Just Listening experience creates a state of joy as participants realize they can do what seemed impossible. That realization is quite empowering, but especially so when it is founded on collecting thoughts from everyone on what they hear. We all notice – but do not always remark upon – loud spots, the music growing faster, and so forth. Leave it to the uninitiated to notice the obvious, and comment on it! The obvious things are usually the basic musical elements which are the focus of SEA analysis, and the most powerful in shaping responses.

There is yet another very important part of the Just Listening paradigm, having to do with community. In the first place, there is something that currently defies explanation in the phenomenon of listening to music together. Opening one’s mind and simply listening to the same vibrations in the air has its effect, creating what my friend Claire Garabedian refers to as a sound haven. Beyond that, honoring each person’s observations on what they remember from listening, and then listening again, starts to create connections between participants. Doing the listen-commenting cycle a few more times yields an account of the music that is a shared, implicit analysis unique to that group at that time whose value lies far beyond the analysis itself. A group has learned something about each other beyond the usual confines of identity – something ineffable, spiritual, deeply meaningful.

For many who experience this process, to have one’s insights be part of an insightful awakening is deeply satisfying. I collect reactions from participants in the Just Listening workshops as a matter of course, asking what they liked best. “I like the fact that he wrote exactly what I said on the board” is a common sentiment reflecting a sense of feeling deeply respected. That sense is incredibly valuable, of having one’s lived experience be immediately honored, accepted, and part of a group effort that produced joy and understanding.

Doing such work with groups is inherently rewarding for me, but even more so when working with those in marginalized groups. And doing the process with musical styles that people associate with marginal populations engenders respect for those who create the music. One of my favorite pathways for Just Listening is to enact the process repeatedly with a group over a period of time, encouraging participants to bring in music for the experience that is not understood, or is in fact disliked or feared. (This process is the foundation of my course, Just Listen.) By listening repeatedly, hearing the comments of others about what they hear, it is hard to leave the experience without a greater degree of appreciation for what the music brings, and for one’s companions in the process of discovery. The question of whether one “likes” the music rather recedes to a background position.

To bring these comments to a point: observing the most obvious features of music is to account for fundamental factors shaping the musical experience which are too often left out of the accounts of the highly educated music listener. These factors are the foundation of the Sound-Energy Aggregate method, and they are incredibly important to a full understanding of how music is shaped and how it affects us. It just so happens that paying attention to them invites everyone to take part in musical analysis, a process that builds community and subtly but deeply works for social justice and compassion.