Don't think - it's harder done than said

The key to listening is to pay attention to what "kind" of listening you are doing. I find that I hear things differently when I am focusing on the music - just sitting and listening - as opposed to what I hear when I play background music while I'm eating or painting the garage, but also as opposed to what I hear when I'm sitting at the piano listening to something I'm trying to play. I see sort of intuitively why this might be, but I don't really understand it. The music isn't changing, and neither is my brain, per se. I think it comes down to what you are listening for.

When I sit and listen to music (which is a relatively rare occurrence), I generally don't listen for anything specific, but I do hope - and therefore I guess I listen - to hear something I never heard before. A subtle nuance in a certain note, or maybe a click of the bass string during a solo that adds a rhythmic touch. You never know what to expect with a new recording or a recording you haven't actually sat and listened to, so it is impossible to quantify beforehand, but I think there is something to it.

When music is just in the background, you hear something, but you don't really acknowledge what. So ultimately, only something that grabs your attention actually makes it to the foreground of your brain to be recognized and "heard" heard. In a sense, it isn't really listening at all, but nonetheless, I've had profound moments of constructive hearing while engaged in some mundane task, such as when I rediscovered Eric Dolphy while, that's right, painting the garage.

The ultimate listening for me, however, is when I'm learning a tune. If I'm seated at the piano and playing a CD over and over again, after a while, the way I hear the music, and what I actually hear, changes. Some parts of the song don't even exist when I'm listening that way. I may be interested in a rhythmic pattern or discovering a fill, or something along those lines, but then it becomes necessary to ignore parts of the song to hear certain other parts. That sort of listening I have done, but not yet mastered. Fortunately, I've found a parallel but unrelated skill that helps.

Sometime back I read about a relaxation exercise that involves stopping thinking. The human brain has a continual and unending stream of thoughts, generally not even interrupted for sleep, as far as scientists can determine. The exercise involves training your mind to not think of anything. It sounds easy but is deceptively difficult. In fact, it is damn near impossible. I have been practicing this exercise now for about two years. I can successfully stop all thoughts for what I estimate to be ten seconds or so. (I can't time it, because then I would have to think about that, and that would ruin the exercise.) Again, you have to NOT THINK ABOUT ANYTHING. Not your breathing, not about how dark it is behind your eyelids, not about the heartbeat you hear in your ears, or ANYTHING ELSE. Like I said, this is extremely and deceptively difficult. But, when I do this before listening to music, I do hear differently.

I don't know what any of this means. Just thought I would share it with late-to-jazz readers. Maybe someday I'll have some further perspective and better observation to share on this.