learning to listen

Considering that music is based on listening, I loved this article about listening in a different context.

Photo credit

From the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School:

Contrary to popular belief, active listening doesn’t mean sitting patiently while your counterpart talks. Nor does it simply entail saying “I understand” or establishing good eye contact. Rather, active listening is a dynamic process that can be broken down into three different behaviors: paraphrasing, inquiry, and acknowledgment.

And:

Here’s how you might respond using the three aspects of active listening:

• Paraphrase: “It sounds as if you’re satisfied with our component overall. But if I understand correctly, you need me to assure you that we can increase production if large orders come in. You’re also concerned about our proposed per-unit price and our willingness to work with you to create an acceptable arrangement. Have I captured your main points?”
• Inquire: “You mentioned that you found our proposed price to be unacceptable. Help me understand how you came to this conclusion. Let’s also talk about how we might set up a pricing structure that you find more reasonable.”
• Acknowledge: “It sounds as if you’re quite disappointed with various elements of our proposal, so much so that you have serious concerns about whether we’ll be able to work together over the long haul.”

Full article is here.

via {barking up the wrong tree}

The brain on music

Music is easily the widest-reaching, most universal emotional facilitator. Anecdotally, it shapes so many of life’s everyday experiences: An epic movie would fall flat without a cinematic soundtrack, a party without dance music is unthinkable, and a run without an upbeat playlist feels somehow much more tiresome. Scientifically, music has been shown to impact anything from our alertness and relaxation to our memory to our physical and emotional  well-being.

Today, we take a look at just how music affects our brain and emotion, with Notes & Neurons: In Search of a Common Chorus — a fascinating event from the 2009 World Science Festival.
But before we launch into the geekier portion, here’s a quick improvised treat from phenomenal jazz and a cappella performer Bobby McFerrin, who embodies the intimate relationship between music and the human element.
Read more:


World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Improvises A Cappella, Song One of Two
from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

The panel — hosted by John Schaefer and featuring Jamshed Barucha, scientist Daniel Levitin, Professor Lawrence Parsons and Bobby McFerrin — takes us through a series of live performances and demonstrations that illustrate music’s interaction with the brain and our emotions, exploring some of the most interesting questions about this incredible phenomenon.
Read more:


World Science Festival 2009: Notes & Neurons, Part 2 of 5
from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

And while we’re at it, we highly recommend neuroscientist Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain — an utterly fascinating read about the extreme effect music can have on our cognitive and emotional lives.
Read more:
via {brain pickings}

dualism in music

"Music," he will say, pinching the bridge of his nose, "is indivisible. The dualism of feeling and thinking must be resolved to a state of unity in which one thinks with the heart and feels with the brain."

from a 1963 article about Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra

free cello

In case you have not seen this yet...

So my sister gave me this cello a couple years ago. It's a nice cello. Actually, it's a great cello. It's probably the best cello, but I don't really know much about cellos. Also the neck snapped off. Of the cello. So it's really more like 3/4's of a cello, but the other 1/4's still there, it's just not attached. It's kind of like you're getting two cellos, only one of them doesn't have a body and the other doesn't have a neck. But if you stand them up next to each other it's like old times. You could probably fix it with like some music glue or something like that.

She also gave me a cello bag that I can give to you too, now that I won't have a cello. It's a really nice cello bag. You can fit everything in it. Actually, there might even be a bow in the bag, I'm not sure. I don't want you to think that there's 100% a bow in the bag. It's way over there, I can't check right now. But if it's in there it's yours.

If you're like me and you don't know how to play the cello then you could use it as a coin bank. It's hollow and there are two S's on the front that you could drop the coins through. Then when it's filled up you could drop it off of your roof or carry it around like a change purse. Ooh, in the cello bag. It'd be like a cello purse. I'd do it but I'm moving across the country and it won't fit in my car. What else could you do with it. You could saw the front off and use it as a sled. Or give the neck to a baby as like a wizard stick for Christmas. Totally give this cello to someone for Christmas. Or Hanukkah.

Please come get it. I'm in Echo Park. I'd actually go somewhere to meet you if wherever we're going is a cool place. Like the desert or something.

I'm 90% certain the bow's in there.

craigslist is awesome.

Best letter to the editor ever...

from the son of a favorite violist of mine, Mischa Amory,

in response to Mr. Tomasinni's project to rank composers in the venerable NY Times.

February 15, 2011, 8:00 AM
Top 10 Composers: A Young Reader Responds

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

"My two-week project to select the 10 greatest composers, which involved a series of articles, blog posts and videos, concluded with an article in the Arts & Leisure section on Jan. 23. But I continue to receive lively, interesting reactions from readers. My favorite was a hand-written letter from Lucas Amory, who is 8 years old and lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Lucas is a serious piano student and the son of two noted violists, Misha Amory of the Brentano String Quartet and Hsin-Yun Huang.

Lucas attends the Special Music School at the Kaufmann Center (in his letter he says that he goes to the Lucy Moses School, which occupies the same building). He writes that he adores music and offers two lists: “THE TEN GREATEST COMPOSERS AND: THE ONES I LIKE BEST.” He clearly understands the difference between all-time greats and personal favorites — quite impressive for an 8-year-old.

To remind you, my list of greats, in order, was: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Debussy, Stravinsky, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner and Bartok. Lucas has a passion for the Romantics so Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Schumann appear on both his lists. On his favorites list there is a photo-finish contest for the top spot between Schumann and Tchaikovsky, which Lucas illustrates with a drawing.

Here is Lucas’s wonderful, strong and articulate letter."

via {ny times}

talent

Malcolm Gladwell finishes this interview that talent is using one's imagination to see opportunity in situations that would be torture to 99 out of 100 people, such as the Beatles' 8hr rehearsal days 7 days/week in a Hamburg strip club.


{CNN}

hit and run

15 ISO musicians made an impromptu appearance at the Keystone Fashion Mall in Indianapolis on Jan. 29, 2011 and surprised (and delighted) shoppers with a little Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi.