Activate Your Inner Musician!

Most of us know the story of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), arguably, one of the greatest composers and musicians ever to live. Beginning somewhere around 1802, he began to experience a progressive loss of hearing until, as records indicate, by 1816, he was almost completely deaf. Yet he continued to compose music until his death in 1827. To some, this puts Beethoven in the league with the gods, as he was able to write some of his greatest music while he was deaf! How could he write music that he could not hear? The reality, however, is that Beethoven could hear his music because he had a highly developed “inner ear,” that is, the ability to hear music in his mind. Can any musician learn to develop an inner ear, or is this a skill that either one is born with, or is the result of a genius-level musical intelligence? Beethoven was certainly a genius. And I’m not going to suggest that just anyone can learn to write music of his caliber with fully functional hearing, let alone being deaf. But learning to hear music in your mind, is something you may already be able to do, but you never thought to try it. Still, to develop this skill more fully takes effort, but it can be done and will make you a better musician, even if you don’t have what is sometimes referred to as absolute pitch.

Beethoven lived in the late 18^th through early 19^th centuries when hearing and listening to music were very different than they are today. We take for granted that when we want to hear music, we play a recording. If we don’t own the recording, we buy it. And I still marvel at how much more accessible music has become since the advent of the Internet. Also, it is very difficult to go anywhere without hearing some sort of music (e.g., restaurants, shopping malls, etc.). What’s more, many of us have music playing all the time: in our cars, walking with an iPod, CD player at home, and the list goes on. As if all these things are not enough, it is not unusual to hear a multitude of musical styles (pop, jazz, rock, classical, hip hop, rap, etc.) in a single day!

Passive and Active Music Listening

Because our world today is saturated with music, we have become, for the most part, passive listeners, that is, hearing music without really listening to it. In a recent issue of Parade Magazine (April 11, 2010), Marilyn vos Savant lists music as an activity that does not require one to focus. And she’s right. However, if you are an aspiring musician, you owe it to yourself to learn to be an active listener, or more precisely, focus on the music that you are hearing. Doing this will help to develop your inner ear and improve your musicianship.

Let’s get back to Ludwig’s day for a moment. Try to imagine what it was like not having recordings, iPods, CD players, or any other way to hear music without hearing it live. Of course there were plenty of opportunities to hear music in Beethoven’s day, but it was nothing like it is today. And if you were an aspiring musician, you had to make an explicit effort to hear music. When you did, you would most likely listen actively, since you had to put forth the effort to be in the presence of the music playing. And since you could not learn music from recordings, you studied scores and learned to play them at a piano, even if the music was not written for piano. You might also copy music from other manuscripts. All of these concentrated activities, led to a more developed inner ear, because you were actively involved in the music. (It was not merely going in one ear and out the other!) Because of Beethoven’s thorough musical training, and the musical environment in which he grew up, when he started to go deaf, he was able to rely on his inner ear to hear music in his mind.

You don’t have to give up your iPod, your CD player, or your mp3s, and you don’t have to go deaf to develop your inner ear. But you do need to be an active listener and make an effort to develop one of the most valuable skills a musician can possess: the ability to hear music in your mind. Next time, I’ll talk about some things you can do to develop your inner hearing, or as I like to say “Activate Your Inner Musician.”