What's In Your Soundscape?

We work on our sound for a lifetime.  Today we are going to put our sound in the context of the soundscape to see what it yields.

This idea really hit home for me one day as I was listening to a mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  As I lie in my space I began to recognize how the sounds around me were like listening to a symphony orchestra, some were more continuous, some were intermittent, some were low pitched, some high.  I started sensing the “layers” of sound around.

I brought this revelation into my practice, listening to the layers of sound or the soundscape as I prepared to play.  I noticed which sounds I could hear as I played and which were lost to the volume of my sound.

At that moment, something magical happened, the sound I made had more dimension, more color.  I could practice for a lifetime, but without the expanded hearing I was using, I would have never reached this moment of hearing depth and dimension to my sound.

Simply hearing the soundscape as you prepare and as silence allows lets any sound enter your experience and is way less likely to throw you off.  Think a person in the front row coughing and opening a cough drop.  Or panelists in your jury or audition begin typing as you play.  You won’t be surprised because your hearing is broad and flexible.

Today, practice hearing your full soundscape as you move through the day.  Then when you come to your instrument allow your hearing to broaden and take in all that is around, birds tweeting, cars passing, conversation or the phone ringing.  When you have the soundscape, deliver your instrument and play.  Notice which sounds you can’t and can hear.  See what you feel as you play and hear in your playing.  Be curious!