Passive Listening vs. Active Listening

Even when you’re not paying attention to the sounds you’re hearing, your ears are constantly sending sound signals to your brain. Most of the time your ears do this automatically, even if you don’t realize it. This is called passive listening. You’re aware that there are sounds in the background, but you’re not focusing on them. When you’ve got music on in the background you’re listening to it passively. It’s very common for people to experience music this way. There’s music playing, you hear it, but you’re not really thinking about it.

Active listening is what you do when you’re focusing on what you hear, for example when you’re having a conversation with someone. You pay attention to the sound of their words. You’re taking in how fast they speak and their tone of voice. All of this helps you understand the meaning of what is being said. Now imagine applying that kind of attention to a piece of music that you hear. When you listen actively to music, you’re focusing on what you hear and trying to understand it.

Why Active Listening is Important

Active listening is the key to developing a good musical ear. Often in beginning music lessons we train the eye to read and the fingers to play, but we don’t train the ear. Many music students don’t realize that they can learn a lot about music just by listening, without ever seeing notes written on a page.

A well-trained ear is essential for good musicianship. You might think of a musically trained ear as something magical, something you’re either born with or you’re not. This simply isn’t true. Having a good musical ear is a learned skill like anything else. True, some musicians with highly trained ears can sit down and write out a piece of music they just heard, or pick a single voice out of a choir of hundreds. Not everyone will get to that level, but everyone can improve their ability to hear and understand the music they listen to through active listening.

Even beginning musicians can get a lot out of active listening. You don’t need to have a technical understanding of music theory. You don’t need to know how to analyze chord progressions or identify key changes. No matter how much or how little you know about music, you can listen more actively by asking yourself some simple questions.

Active Listening Activity

Choose a piece of music. Start out with something you like that you’re familiar with, something you want to listen to. Play the music and really focus on what you hear. As the music plays, ask yourself the following questions.

How Does it Make You Feel?

Is the song happy? Sad? Exciting? Does the feeling change during the song? Why does the song make you feel this way?

What Instruments Do You Hear?

For some people this is easy, but for others it can be hard to tell what instruments are playing. Can you hear drums? Wind instruments? Strings? Voices? Synthesized sounds? If you don’t know the specific name of an instrument, simply describe it.

Is This Song Fast or Slow?

To help you decide, try clapping or tapping along with the song. Listen for fast parts and slow parts happening at the same time. Sometimes songs have a fast pulsing beat underneath a slower melody, or slow chords playing an accompaniment while the melody moves faster.

What Is the Melody?

The melody is the part that will be sung if there are words. If there aren’t any words, then find the melody by listening for what you’d hum along to if you were humming with the music. Usually the other sounds, like the bass and the accompaniment, are there to showcase the melody. Can you tell what instrument is playing the melody? Do different instruments take turns playing the melody throughout the music, or is it always the same instrument?

Use these questions to ask what you hear, and then describe it. You don’t need to be too analytical to be engaged in active listening. You’re trying to interact with the music rather than letting it wash over you as you do when you’re only passively listening. Engage your brain on a higher level and really listen.