Music is a Language - Listening (Part 2)

For this series, I've decided to follow a format where each aspect of practicing music as a language will be explored in ways that I call either external or internal. For example, in this article I will be covering the aspect of becoming a better musician by being a better listener, just like somebody becomes a better communicator by improving their listening. Listening can either be external (listening to somebody else) or internal (listening to yourself).

External listening:

Some say we get our first taste of communication while still in the womb through experiencing vibrations and other bodily sensations. I'm not a scientist, so I'm going to play it safe as most of us can agree that most of our earliest communication whether in the womb or in infancy takes place in the form of experiencing or listening to external stimuli. Our first taste of language is by hearing it from our parents and family. It is also how we first begin to enjoy music.

Listening to music externally means listening to music that you didn't personally create. As musicians, listening to and understanding others' music is as important as an able child listening to and understanding the speech of others to learn how to speak a language.

There are different degrees of what to listen to, beginners of a language learn best from simple language, so beginning musicians can benefit from listening to simpler music. You don't want to remain a beginner by only listening to top 100 though as it is basically the musical equivalent of fast food, it may taste okay and satisfy your hunger but it's made of cheap materials, is bad for you, and bad value for money. Just as a beginner chef cooks a burger that tastes "good", finding their inspiration from other simple burgers, so can a beginner musician recreate simple music by listening to it. But a master chef can sense the exquisite, sublime, and nuanced balance of seasonings, condiments, spices, quality ingredients grown in optimal climate conditions, and cooking methods to recreate an absolute masterpiece of a burger that those who don't understand the first thing about cooking thoroughly enjoy - the musical equivalent being a virtuoso whose every note touches listeners who may only be accustomed to simple tunes.

For the past few decades, musical comprehension has severely declined and consumerism has greatly increased. Our modern society mostly consists of simple-minded and musically illiterate consumers that do not understand the language of music. To stay relevant and to continue making profit, modern music producers catch and retain the attention of such consumers through hypnotic rhythms and melodic motifs. At best, these mass-manufactured audio manifestations are accompanied by themes of puppy-love, heartbreak, and dancing. Unfortunately, the more common themes of popular music tend to be debauchery, money, power, status, and even violence - even pre-teens are happily dancing to Nicki Minaj on TikTok. By being musically literate and promoting good music, you are doing society a favour.

You will find deeper appreciation and relation to music, and more control and freedom of expression as you mature in musical eloquence and articulation, skills gained by exposure and practice of more sophisticated music. Just like opting for quality food as opposed to fast food to discover culinary delights and inspiration for recipes, opting for quality music over Taylor Swift's hundredth song about her hundredth ex-boyfriend (Yes, I went there, fight me) will expose you to a whole new world of beauty and freedom of expression.

Internal listening:

As an infant absorbs the sounds spoken by its parents, it makes unashamed attempts at creating its own sounds. The musical equivalent to this would be just to make sound on the instrument. It is normal to be self-conscious of how we sound when we begin playing an instrument, but nobody in their right mind would knowingly criticise an infant for babbling, so those who mock a musical beginner are the foolish ones.

Babbling still has its place in music through the standard practice of jazz musicians in skatting, and also communicating to those who are less rhythmically inclined. Have you ever been in that situation where you're trying to describe a melody or riff of a song and you explain it to your friend like "what's that song that goes dun, dun dunnuh, dun dunnuh, dun dunnuh!" or "la da da da, da da da daadaa" and they're like "Oh yeah that's Call me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen". Don't be afraid to make stupid noises as even the pros do it.

From infancy to adulthood, it is important that we listen to our own voices. We must be aware of our tone and choice of words to accurately and meaningfully communicate. No matter what level of musical experience you have, it is vital to listen to your playing. Focus less on what your hands or body is doing, ignore expectations and preconceptions about how you sound, and experience your musical voice unfiltered from distraction or bias.