The Listening Book, written by W.A Mathieu, describes the authors’ personal experience of listening. While he makes the division of passive listening and active practice, he also mentions the unison of both. He starts his writing by listening experience in everyday environment, including the sense of hearing, the appreciation of nature, and the protection of ear and so on. In this part, he emphasizes the relationship between keeping the ear open while being safe, that is, aware of the sounds around us while avoiding damaging sounds, such as uncomfortable music, even when other seems not affect by that.
Switching from feeling the music to actively joining in it, the author focuses on the description of resonance, a mixture of sound in order. …show more content…
For example, he suggests that practice is very important and we should make a plan and write down our future practice time. I will try this later as I always forget to practice my instrument. I am always too ‘busy’, busy to have fun with my friends or busy with my assignments, and I almost forgot my love for my instrument, qin, or zither, a seven-stringed traditional Chinese instrument. I love the wood, the texture, the timbre, and especially the feeling when I play it. The sound of it is usually very slow and very quiet, and to me, it is similar to church bells. It calms me down, make me feels the self and purify my mind.
A short essay about listening to people in the passive listening part somehow reminds me of a Taoists’ practice, similar to meditation. The practice tells you how to breathe and listen, and the book tells you what to listen. I closed my eyes and started trying: I took a deep breath, made the expiration as smooth as possible and listened to the breath. When I opened my eyes, I found time passes much faster than I …show more content…
We all know the importance of practice but we always have lots of excuses, such as ‘not in that mood’ or ‘today is too busy, maybe tomorrow is better’. The truth is, the ‘tomorrow’ will never come because of the procrastinations. The author provides his experience and solutions to guide the elementary musicians, when they make mistakes, when they are confused, or when they want to give up. In addition, these experiences and advice are quite helpful and encourage them to ‘find their own music’. Not only for the elementary musicians, it is also good for those who have interests in music to read this book because it introduces the method of listening and personal experience with music, as well as some basic music theory rudiments.
Overall, the Listening Book is a great book. It describes music in a nature way and this makes it easy for readers to understand and learn from it. As for me, I am intrigued by this book and doing some listening practice, as well as play my instruments more regularly. However, there is one practical question always comes up when I read this book: How could the author spend so many time on listening? It is so hard to focus on hearing when eyes are open, and it is not practicable to always aware of the surroundings. Maybe one solution is, as he said, ‘carry this book’ to reminds me not forget to
Switching from feeling the music to actively joining in it, the author focuses on the description of resonance, a mixture of sound in order. …show more content…
For example, he suggests that practice is very important and we should make a plan and write down our future practice time. I will try this later as I always forget to practice my instrument. I am always too ‘busy’, busy to have fun with my friends or busy with my assignments, and I almost forgot my love for my instrument, qin, or zither, a seven-stringed traditional Chinese instrument. I love the wood, the texture, the timbre, and especially the feeling when I play it. The sound of it is usually very slow and very quiet, and to me, it is similar to church bells. It calms me down, make me feels the self and purify my mind.
A short essay about listening to people in the passive listening part somehow reminds me of a Taoists’ practice, similar to meditation. The practice tells you how to breathe and listen, and the book tells you what to listen. I closed my eyes and started trying: I took a deep breath, made the expiration as smooth as possible and listened to the breath. When I opened my eyes, I found time passes much faster than I …show more content…
We all know the importance of practice but we always have lots of excuses, such as ‘not in that mood’ or ‘today is too busy, maybe tomorrow is better’. The truth is, the ‘tomorrow’ will never come because of the procrastinations. The author provides his experience and solutions to guide the elementary musicians, when they make mistakes, when they are confused, or when they want to give up. In addition, these experiences and advice are quite helpful and encourage them to ‘find their own music’. Not only for the elementary musicians, it is also good for those who have interests in music to read this book because it introduces the method of listening and personal experience with music, as well as some basic music theory rudiments.
Overall, the Listening Book is a great book. It describes music in a nature way and this makes it easy for readers to understand and learn from it. As for me, I am intrigued by this book and doing some listening practice, as well as play my instruments more regularly. However, there is one practical question always comes up when I read this book: How could the author spend so many time on listening? It is so hard to focus on hearing when eyes are open, and it is not practicable to always aware of the surroundings. Maybe one solution is, as he said, ‘carry this book’ to reminds me not forget to