Thinking about listening

A while ago I wrote a post about listening and not just consuming music, and ever since I wrote that it has been on my mind. I have wanted to do something that demonstrates what that listening to music is important, at lease to me.

To begin with I thought I would start a listening group. Something a bit like a book club or reading group, but for music instead. I think it is a good idea, but I’m not sure that I am ready for it just yet, and I think I’d want to plan out how to do it properly first.

Then I had an idea as I was thinking about January and what I wanted to do in the month. I thought that perhaps I would listen to a song each day for a month. That might sound fairly straightforward, but there would need to be some strict criteria wrapped around the listening experience. Such as:

1. I can’t be doing anything else whilst listening to the song, like working, using any kind of computer etc
2. I have to listen to the song all the way through. If I have to stop for some reason then I must take a break and start again
3. If possible I should have my eyes shut whilst listening
4. I can listen to more than 1 song by the artist on a given day, but the main purpose is to listen to 1 song critically each day

How does that sound? I’m starting to think about the songs and artists I’d like to listen to in January. At the moment I like the idea of listening to material I know already as a way of getting into the listening process, and if it works well I might consider doing something different in Feb.

Anyway, that’s one thing I have planned for January, I have a few more ideas too, but perhaps I’ll write about those tomorrow.