At the bar after our concert today we were introduced to a friend of one of our friends who came to the concert that afternoon. She asked a wonderful question about whether musicians are better able to listen to people in relationships because they spend so much time listening to one another in an ensemble. So many ways of listening and do they relate to one another? How do musicians listen, to what do we listen when we play? How do people listen when they talk to one another? What are they hearing, what are they understanding?
One of the things that I love about being here is how much it has opened me to listening in new ways. It is easy to react to something unfamiliar with defense, tensing up when someone speaks for fear of incomprehension. Or to tune it out when it doesn't make sense.
But there is listening apart from words. There are gestures, there are facial expression and intonations and movement patterns, motivations, intentions. There is some space that exists outside of words and without words, this becomes so much more important. There are so many challenges and opportunities to learn from this new environment. It was nice to meet someone who chose this question as some of the few words spoken in the evening.
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