When I was a kid, the adults in my life often said, “God gave you two ears and one mouth so that you would listen twice as much as you speak.”
As a society, many of us seem to have forgotten that message.
Much public discourse, to our detriment and shame, is really nothing more than attempts to speak over one another. It seems few are willing to hear out any competing viewpoints, and thus many miss out on the learning and growing that occurs in genuine, respectful debate.
This epidemic lack of listening is certainly not good for society, but there is another area where listening is also just as critical: music.
I don’t just mean the obvious — that you interact with music by listening to it. I mean that it’s subtle listening, really listening, that is an art you must master if you want to become a better musician. This includes broadening your musical tastes, refining your ear for music, and focusing on both others’ playing and singing and your own.
So let’s take a look at the four ways listening can make you a better musician.
Listen to good music — period
When I was young, I liked classic rock and, well, not much else. After all, I played the guitar, and the heyday of guitar-based music was the 1960s–80s. Naturally, that is where I focused my listening attention: bands like Tom Petty, Boston, and Petra dominated my CD collection (yes, I’m old).
Now what often happens is that as a person gets older, their tastes solidify. A kid who likes jazz is likely to be an adult who likes jazz. If you didn’t listen to country music growing up, you probably won’t listen to it as an adult. So if you played the odds, you might assume that I’m even more of a classic rock guy now, and to heck with those other, lesser genres of music. Bob Seger FTW! \m/
But the older I’ve become, I’ve actually done the opposite: I’ve learned to embrace music from many different genres. I sometimes wonder what the Spotify algorithm must think about me. I listen to everything from Brahms and Bach to Scrapper Blackwell and Son House, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams, Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Mammoth WVH and Foo Fighters, and Polyphia, just to name a few.
Why did I buck the trend? Because over time, I realized something. I realized that words like blues, country, rap, and rock were terms coined by marketing teams to sell more records. In reality, there are only two genres of music: good music and not-as-good music.
When you remove the boundaries of what good music can be, all of the sudden you realize how much terrific music there truly is out there. You discover bands and entire subcategories of music that you love and appreciate that you never even considered before. I had this happen to me (yet again) recently. I saw Chris Stapleton’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at this year’s Super Bowl. Even though I’m not a big modern country fan, I thought I should give his music a try. And I’m glad I did, because he is ah-may-zing. Imagine what I would be missing out on if I had just assumed because he was a country artist I wouldn’t like his music.
Listening to a wide range of music also helps you develop your own style as a musician. In a recent Wired interview, Tim Henson from the progressive rock band Polyphia discussed how he blended Top 40 with the music of guitar virtuosos like Steve Vai to create his own signature sound. Although few of us will reach the heights Tim has, we can all create new, unique music, and listening to a lot of different kinds of music will help.
Listen to experts listen to music
I honestly don’t know how we learned anything before YouTube.
Yes, there is tons of absolute mindless drivel on the platform. But there is also a vast amount of high-quality educational material.
I have personally learned more about music theory by watching Rick Beato’s videos over the last two or three years than I did being in the school band from fifth through twelfth grade.
Michael Palmisano is another outstanding channel, especially for guitarists. Both channels break down songs to explain exactly why they work. Both men can help you develop your ability to really listen to and understand music.
Teachers like Rick and Michael are miracle workers when it comes to musicians. Just by watching their free content online, you can educate yourself to a degree once possible only by going to a college like Berklee. And you can shave off years of learning music theory by trial and error — like we used to have to do back in the day.
The experts are out there making content, and most of it is free or low cost. So use it.
Listen to your bandmates
I play in my church’s worship band, and in addition to Sunday morning services, we have Thursday evening practices.
Occasionally, either the drummer or the bassist can’t make it to practice. Let me tell you, it is hard to play my guitar when either of those two is missing! This is because I am paying attention to both drums and bass in order to create my part. I need to match intensity with the drums, and I need to play something that complements the bass line.
Listening is a critical part of my own playing music with others, and it should be part of yours as well. Paying attention to what the people around you are playing or singing can help you add to the music. When you’re more focused on your own part, by contrast, you can easily sing over another musician, play too softly or loudly, or even be off beat without realizing it.
Music-making is a group activity. When you find yourself in a band setting, the best thing you can possibly do is listen carefully to what everyone else is doing.
Listen to yourself
This is the toughest one, but it can help the most too. When you play an instrument or sing, there are really two audiences. You perceive your own music in a certain way, and other people perceive it differently. The trick is to understand that how you sound to yourself may be better or worse than how you sound to others.
This is where recording yourself can really help. Maybe you thought you nailed that Eruption cover at your band’s show last night — but the footage says otherwise. Or maybe you felt you butchered singing “Crazy” at karaoke night, but when you review the video on your friend’s iPhone, you realize you didn’t do too bad of a job after all.
Recording yourself can give you objective feedback that is hard to get from any other source. And if you are completely honest and nonjudgmental about your musical performance, it can be a very useful tool to help you quit bad habits and improve your singing or playing.
It’s hard to imagine a more useful skill in life than listening. It can help you grow as a person, it can help society as a whole, and as we’ve discussed in this article, it can even help you develop your musical chops. So why not buck the trend and be countercultural today? Spend some time just listening.