With the explosion of audio technology, at any one moment you can listen to your favorite band on an iPod, video chat on Skype, tune out typical office buzz, watch a singing cat on YouTube, and talk with a friend on Bluetooth. With dozens of sound sources striking your ears at any one moment, how can you train your ears to listen and not just hear (and ignore) sounds? How can you filter out the unimportant noise in your life and focus on truly listening to what matters?

“We know more about hearing than listening.” – Pauline Oliveros

Legendary composer Pauline Oliveros developed the concept of Deep Listening as a unique way to develop the ear in relation to actively listening to sound and not just hearing. Deep Listening fosters creativity in the arts and technology by cultivating improvisation and an “appreciation of sounds on a heightened level.”[1]

In other words, by training your ears and mind to actively listen to sounds, instead of tuning them out, you will enjoy an increased level of audio understanding, deeper levels of creativity, and connectivity with your environment.

In between concerts Pauline Oliveros took the time to share her insight about Deep Listening with Easy Ear Training:

“Deep Listening explores the difference between hearing and listening. Though we receive sound waves through the ears these waves are transduced to electrical impulses by the mechanisms of the ear and transmitted to the brain where listening takes place. The ear does not listen – the brain listens.

Listening is a lifetime practice that depends on accumulated experiences with sound. Listening can be focused to detail or open to the entire field of sound. Listening still is a mysterious process that is not the same for everyone although we have consensual agreements on the interpretation of sound waves delivered to the brain by the ears. We know more about hearing than listening.”

- Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening institute

Click to read the rest…

Here are a few recent developments in the world of music and sound which might help inspire or guide you in your ear training!

Jump to:

• What the iPad 2 and GarageBand app mean for music
• The many benefits of music in schools
• A chance to support a new (truly modern!) opera
• How the brain improvises jazz and freestyle rap
• Help the BBC with a fun online experiment

Music and the iPad 2

Apple recently unveiled their next-generation tablet, the iPad 2 – here’s a short overview of what the iPad 2 means for mobile music creation.

They also had a huge announcement for all iPad-wielding musicians – GarageBand, the easy-yet-powerful multi-track music creation tool, has now been released for the iPad -both the original and the new version. (Summary and video of the announcement)

The iPad has already been used for a variety of exciting new music creativity and music education using apps. Check out some examples of the iPad in the talented hands of musicians, ranging from school kids to professionals:

We’ve previously covered how you can use the Mac version of GarageBand for practising interval ear training, and also how to do rhythm training with this powerful music tool. Click to read the rest…

Hello. My name is Matthew and I am a writer and guitarist from the United States.

I started delving seriously into music during college. I did start to play guitar in high school, but not to any serious point. I started to get serious training in the performance aspects of lead and rhythm guitar with Jimmy Kane. I also spent a great deal of time studying composition, music theory, and orchestration.

Most of my own ear training developed as part of learning to play guitar. The style of guitar I play has several techniques that require ear training to use. Constant repetition of training exercises also contributed to helping certain aspects of ear training sink in. There are also areas of ear training that seemed to develop quickly as I began composing songs.

I have primarily been trained by Jimmy Kane in playing guitar. He has taught me a great deal about the entire process of writing and playing music on the guitar. I have also received lessons from Luca Turilli of Rhapsody of Fire. This was particularly interesting because Rhapsody of Fire was one of my main influences to learn to play the guitar in the first place!

My articles will be influenced by my experience as a guitarist, and in some cases focus on areas of ear training that are unique to guitar. In addition, I would like to draw attention to areas of ear training that might differ from one type of musician to another.



No doubt all you guitar players out there are glad to hear we’ve another six-stringer on board! If you have any topics you particularly want to see covered, don’t be shy! Matthew’s diving straight in tomorrow, with an article on how to listen for broken chords, particularly played on guitar.