The Case For Active Listening

Music is everywhere. We listen to it in the car, while we're working, when we're exercising, and while we're doing things around the house. With streaming services, smartphones, and wireless speakers, it's probably easier to listen to music now than at any other point in history. I think this is a great thing.

However, I'm not sure we're always really listening.

There's nothing wrong with putting on an album while you're doing something else. I’m often listening to music in the background when I’m doing some task.

I can’t imagine driving for any distance without having some kind of music or audio on the radio. I often like to have music on when I’m working at my day job. But there's a difference between hearing music in the background and actively listening to it.

Active listening means giving the music your full attention. Instead of treating it as background noise, you focus on the song and try to understand what's happening. You listen to the melody, rhythm, arrangement, production, and individual performances. You notice how the different parts work together and how the song changes from beginning to end.

For guitar players, I think this kind of listening is especially important.

When I first started listening to music, I mainly paid attention to the most obvious parts. Usually that meant the vocals, the drums, or the guitar solo. If a song had a great riff or an impressive solo, I liked it. I didn't spend much time thinking about some of the more intricate parts of the arrangement or production.

As I became more interested in playing music, I started hearing songs differently. I began noticing what the rhythm guitar was doing underneath the solo. I paid more attention to how the bass connected the guitar and drums. I noticed that a drummer could change the feel of a song without playing anything particularly complicated.

The songs hadn't changed. The way I listened to them had.

One of the benefits of active listening is that it helps you understand why a song works. It's easy to say that a song has a great groove or that a guitar solo sounds good. It's more useful to figure out what creates that groove or why the solo fits the song.

Maybe the drummer is playing slightly behind the beat. Maybe the bass player is leaving more space than expected or maybe even playing busier than expected. Maybe the guitarist starts with a simple phrase and gradually builds towards the hook of the song. Maybe the producer removes instruments from a verse so the chorus sounds bigger when everything returns.

These details can be easy to miss when music is playing in the background. When you listen closely, they become much more obvious.

Active listening can also help musicians develop better timing. Instead of only following the main riff or melody, try focusing on the relationship between the bass and drums. Listen to where the snare lands and how the bass notes line up with the kick drum. Pay attention to whether the musicians are playing directly on the beat or pushing and pulling against it.

This is especially useful when listening to blues, jazz, funk, and other styles where the feel of the music is difficult to communicate through written notation alone. Two musicians can play the same notes and still sound completely different. Often, the difference is in the timing, dynamics, and phrasing.

Dynamics are another thing that become more noticeable through active listening. Many of the best performances aren't played at the same intensity from beginning to end. The musicians leave themselves somewhere to go.

A guitarist may play softly during the first verse and become more aggressive during the solo. A drummer may move from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal to open up the sound. A singer may hold something back early in the song so the final chorus has more impact.

If you're only listening for the loudest or fastest parts, you may miss the way the musicians build toward those moments.

For guitar players, active listening is one of the best ways to improve phrasing. It's tempting to focus on the number of notes a player uses or the difficulty of a particular lick. However, some of the most memorable solos aren't especially complicated.

Listen to where the guitarist begins and ends each phrase. Notice how long certain notes are held. Pay attention to the bends, vibrato, slides, and spaces between phrases. In many cases, the notes that aren't played are just as important as the ones that are.

Tone is another area that rewards careful listening. Guitar players spend a lot of time thinking about guitars, amps, pedals, and pickups. Those things are important, but recorded guitar tone is also affected by the player's touch, the arrangement, the microphones, and the way the guitar sits in the mix.

A guitar tone that sounds thin by itself may work perfectly in a full band arrangement. A large, heavily distorted tone may sound impressive on its own but cover up the bass, drums, and vocals. Active listening helps you hear the guitar as part of the entire recording rather than as an isolated instrument.

A few ways I go about active listening is to listen to the song a few times in a row, focusing on a different instrument or aspect of the song each time.

For example, during the first listen I might just experience the song as a whole piece. I might just focus on the guitar part on the second listen. Then, the drums and how the rhythm impacts the song.

Once you’ve listened to the individual parts you want to focus on, I suggest listening to the song as a complete piece again. See if you hear something new.

Headphones can be useful for this, especially when listening for subtle parts. Depending on the recording, you may hear instruments panned to different sides, background vocals buried in the mix, or small production details that aren't obvious through speakers. These types of things often get lost when playing music on your phone or in your car with a lot of ambient sounds.

However, you can listen actively even if you’re aren’t using headphones. The most important thing is to remove as many distractions as possible and give the music your attention.

It's also useful to compare different versions of the same song. Listen to an original recording and then listen to a cover. Compare a studio version with a live performance. Pay attention to what changed and what stayed the same.

A live version may be faster, heavier, or more loosely arranged. A cover may use different instrumentation or emphasize a different part of the melody. Sometimes a musician will change a song so much that it becomes something new while still preserving the qualities that made the original work.

These comparisons can teach you a lot about arrangement and interpretation.

Transcribing music is probably one of the most focused forms of active listening. You don't necessarily need to write the music down. Simply learning a part by ear forces you to pay close attention to the notes, timing, articulation, and tone.

At first, it can be frustrating. A phrase that sounds simple may be more complicated than expected. On the other hand, an impressive-sounding lick may turn out to be based on a familiar pattern played with excellent phrasing.

Either way, the process helps connect what you hear with what you play.

Active listening also makes it easier to move beyond your primary instrument. A guitarist who only listens to guitar players may eventually begin repeating the same ideas. Listening closely to singers, horn players, piano players, bassists, and drummers can introduce new approaches to melody and rhythm.

I like to think of active listening as part of my practice routine. Time spent with an instrument is important, but so is time spent understanding how great music is put together. Technique gives you more options. Active listening helps you figure out what to do with them.

If you find yourself mostly listening to music passively, try putting on an album and doing nothing else; no phones, no television, just the music. Listen to instruments you normally wouldn’t. See how they interact with the guitar and work within the song. You might be surprised by what you’ve been missing.

If you’re not including active listening as part of your musicianship, give it a chance and see if it helps you improve how you hear the guitar within a song context.