Why do we have to listen?
08/10/22 14:03
Listening to recordings…
This is a very important part of musical training. Why?
1. We can hear what the other person is doing!
Often we're playing with an accompanist and having an awareness of what they're doing as part of the music is vitally important.
2. Our interpretation!
How would you like to play it? Listening to a VARIETY of recordings from other sources, we can hear other people's opinions on phrasing.
3. Ah! Oops!
This is particularly apparent when listening. All those wrong notes and rhythmic inaccuracies? When we hear our version and then compare it to someone else's, we often realise we've made a few mistakes.
The story below will highlight all this!
This is a small collection of CD's that I have from my degree. (Remember having to go to a shop to buy CD's?!)
Here's a little story that happened to me back in the dark ages of 1999.
Out of my four year degree, there was only ONE piece that I couldn't get the recording or the sheet music for. It was for my final recital. I ended up on a legal photocopy and I performed it without not being able to hear an interpretation of it.
Twenty years later, I found a recording on iTunes and I discovered that my version had a few incorrect pitches… no-one had ever picked up on.
(Since then, it's now on iTunes and freely available).
This is a very important part of musical training. Why?
1. We can hear what the other person is doing!
Often we're playing with an accompanist and having an awareness of what they're doing as part of the music is vitally important.
2. Our interpretation!
How would you like to play it? Listening to a VARIETY of recordings from other sources, we can hear other people's opinions on phrasing.
3. Ah! Oops!
This is particularly apparent when listening. All those wrong notes and rhythmic inaccuracies? When we hear our version and then compare it to someone else's, we often realise we've made a few mistakes.
The story below will highlight all this!
This is a small collection of CD's that I have from my degree. (Remember having to go to a shop to buy CD's?!)
Here's a little story that happened to me back in the dark ages of 1999.
Out of my four year degree, there was only ONE piece that I couldn't get the recording or the sheet music for. It was for my final recital. I ended up on a legal photocopy and I performed it without not being able to hear an interpretation of it.
Twenty years later, I found a recording on iTunes and I discovered that my version had a few incorrect pitches… no-one had ever picked up on.
(Since then, it's now on iTunes and freely available).