Essay #2

Sydney McBee

Essay #2

10/26/15

Deep Listening

            Deep listening involves a certain discipline of control and patience. It can be explained as taking in all the sounds around one, but also, having the ability to focus on one sound and expanding the world around one with sound. A better explanation comes from Pauline Oliveros from a short writing she wrote back in 2003, “Deep Listening is a practice that is intended to heighten and expand consciousness of sound in as many dimensions of awareness and attentional dynamics as humanly possible,” (Oliveros, 2003). Thinking of deep listening, what comes to mind is a song. First, a listener takes in the whole song, then a listener can depict certain elements of the song. The listener can hear clearly the drums, the guitar, and the bass. The listener is able to focus one instrument. That is a quality of deep listening. Deep listening can be seen as kind of a broad concept. One needs to determine whether he or she is listening or hearing. Listening involves the act of focusing in on sounds and creating a culture with what one is hearing, according to an interview with Oliveros, (Baker, “An interview…”).  “Deep Listening is a process. I guess the best definition I could give is listening to everything all the time and remind yourself when you’re not listening. You also have to understand that there’s a difference between hearing and listening,” (Baker, “An interview…”). Listening is understanding the sounds going around oneself. It is important not to just hear the sounds but understand them. It is always good to depict the sounds around oneself. For instance, a person sits on a hill. He hears the wind through the trees, cars on the road, people chatting besides him, birds chirping, and his own breathing. If he can zero in on each of these sounds and realize their presence, he is deep listening. Deep listening is a process used to gain better understanding of a culture and an environment.

 Works Cited

Baker, Alan. "An interview with Pauline Oliveros." American Mavericks. American Public Media, Jan. 2003. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.          

Oliveros, Pauline. "Introduction." N.p., 24 June 2003. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.