Deep Listening

Pauline Oliveros was an American composer who created “deep listening”. In a Ted talk, it was explained that listening and hearing are two different concepts. Listening is the act of actively paying attention to the sounds heard. Hearing is passively taking in sounds but instead of “listening” you don’t actively try to distinguish the main sound from other unrelated sounds such as ambient sounds or random noises. “Deep Listening involves listening, from a deep, receptive, and caring place in oneself, to deeper and often subtler levels of meaning and intention in the other person.” This quote recipicates my statement as explained. It further adds to what deep listening is; the person themself must expel other sounds in order to understand what the main sound is. Usually deep listening is most prominent in meditation in order to take one’s mind out of their environment and focus on a sound. In the case of Oliveros, a band was created that was called “Listening Band”; the members being: David Gamper, Johannes Welsch, Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster. With all these musicians together, Oliveros was able to further express the ideology of “Deep thinking”.  Oliveros then created an activity to showcase this; a class set in a circular position, all seated together, would do certain exercises such as breathing techniques, physical warm ups, and questioning others with comments like “what sound makes you creative” (Page 7).The general use of this activity is used to showcase the use of deep listening and how it is different to hearing. A piece that Oliveros composed whilst in Egypt alongside Andrea Goodman, Alessandro Ashanti heavily uses deep listening. This piece is “Deep Listening Meditations—Egypt”, a meditative genre in which sounds are played to which you must focus on one and expand upon it through the use of deep listening and meditation. 

Pauline Oliveros “Deep Listening”

Pauline Oliveros was an American composer who created “deep listening”. In a Ted talk, it was explained that listening and hearing are two different concepts. Listening is the act of actively paying attention to the sounds heard. Hearing is passively taking in sounds but instead of “listening” you don’t actively try to distinguish the main sound from other unrelated sounds such as ambient sounds or random noises. “Deep Listening involves listening, from a deep, receptive, and caring place in oneself, to deeper and often subtler levels of meaning and intention in the other person.” This quote recipicates my statement as explained. It further adds to what deep listening is; the person themself must expel other sounds in order to understand what the main sound is. Usually deep listening is most prominent in meditation in order to take one’s mind out of their environment and focus on a sound. In the case of Oliveros, a band was created that was called “Listening Band”; the members being: David Gamper, Johannes Welsch, Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster. With all these musicians together, Oliveros was able to further express the ideology of “Deep thinking”.  Oliveros then created an activity to showcase this; a class set in a circular position, all seated together, would do certain exercises such as breathing techniques, physical warm ups, and questioning others with comments like “what sound makes you creative” (Page 7).The general use of this activity is used to showcase the use of deep listening and how it is different to hearing. A piece that Oliveros composed whilst in Egypt alongside Andrea Goodman, Alessandro Ashanti heavily uses deep listening. This piece is “Deep Listening Meditations—Egypt”, a meditative genre in which sounds are played to which you must focus on one and expand upon it through the use of deep listening and meditation. 

Pauline Oliveros “Deep Listening”

Pauline Oliveros was an American composer who created “deep listening”. In a Ted talk, it was explained that listening and hearing are two different concepts. Listening is the act of actively paying attention to the sounds heard. Hearing is passively taking in sounds but instead of “listening” you don’t actively try to distinguish the main sound from other unrelated sounds such as ambient sounds or random noises. “Deep Listening involves listening, from a deep, receptive, and caring place in oneself, to deeper and often subtler levels of meaning and intention in the other person.” This quote recipicates my statement as explained. It further adds to what deep listening is; the person themself must expel other sounds in order to understand what the main sound is. Usually deep listening is most prominent in meditation in order to take one’s mind out of their environment and focus on a sound. In the case of Oliveros, a band was created that was called “Listening Band”; the members being: David Gamper, Johannes Welsch, Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster. With all these musicians together, Oliveros was able to further express the ideology of “Deep thinking”.  Oliveros then created an activity to showcase this; a class set in a circular position, all seated together, would do certain exercises such as breathing techniques, physical warm ups, and questioning others with comments like “what sound makes you creative” (Page 7).The general use of this activity is used to showcase the use of deep listening and how it is different to hearing. A piece that Oliveros composed whilst in Egypt alongside Andrea Goodman, Alessandro Ashanti heavily uses deep listening. This piece is “Deep Listening Meditations—Egypt”, a meditative genre in which sounds are played to which you must focus on one and expand upon it through the use of deep listening and meditation. 

Pauline Oliveros “Deep Listening”