Category: Just Listening

Blog posts about the Just Listening workshop or experience ne will be found here.

The starting point is energy. 

All of music reaches us initially through our ears, which modify complex physical vibrations into analogous streams of electrochemical energy that pass into the brain. The transformation of vibration into energy is first a physical, mechanical phenomenon, and the further into the brain it gets, the more it becomes a psychological phenomenon.  Thus there is… Continue reading The starting point is energy. 

Drawing musical energy

In my teaching, I have a habit of getting people to draw their account of a piece. Since I call virtually everything into question, a natural thought arises: what’s that drawing all about?  Drawing asks for an embodiment of a visual sort, which helps a person put the thoughts they may have about a piece… Continue reading Drawing musical energy

Grateful for Being Noticed

This spring I was awarded a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to support my workshop, Just Listening. It matters deeply to be noticed, recognized for what one does. I’ve been working on a new venture for several years now, always returning to the idea that I am bringing an experience of value to others.… Continue reading Grateful for Being Noticed

Energy Words

We know immediately if a word describes high energy or low energy: for example, lethargic instantaneously suggests low energy. It also immediately implies musical factors: slow tempo, low volume, probably not high-pitched. Doesn’t this tell us a lot about our everyday language and its implications for the analysis of musical energy? Another word that comes… Continue reading Energy Words

Following the Need

The Just Listening workshop began as an attempt to promote the analytical practice I call the Sound-Energy Aggregate. At a time of great distress about my own future, having had most of my teaching cut one fall, I reached out to a career coach to get help in developing a way to promote the SEA.… Continue reading Following the Need

Music and Community

One of the most important books to have influenced my thinking about music and music-making is Christopher Small’s book, Music, Society, Education. Among the many things it helped clarify for me, one thing that probably drew me into his thinking was that he used Grateful Dead concerts to demonstrate the growth of community in shared… Continue reading Music and Community

Melody as relationship

One of the most simple, yet striking realizations to come from the SEA theory is the fact that melody is a relationship. It’s so often talked of as all about the pitches, what they convey, and that’s not wrong. Many point to the value of rhythm – Ornette Coleman’s saying that rhythm is like oxygen… Continue reading Melody as relationship

Evolution of a practice

As I’ve begun this blog, I’ve had in mind sharing ideas on music facilitated by experience in meditation, thus the title, Contemplating Music. Regular readers and those who know me well will have noticed that there is a divide in my writing, between technical issues surrounding my SEA analysis technique and the more general, socially… Continue reading Evolution of a practice

Contradiction as a Path to Truth

Some years ago, at a conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE), I got excited about an idea brainstormed with a group, and the thought keeps popping up in various ways to this day.  The idea, of how contradiction is a pathway to truth, may seem strange to some, so it’s… Continue reading Contradiction as a Path to Truth