7 Ways to Enrich Your Experience of a Musical Event (or Sound in General)
One of my favorite experiences promoting The Art of Noticing (so far!) was a recent event for the book in association with the Birdfoot Festival (a chamber music festival in New Orleans featuring musicians from all over the world).
After I talked about the book, we got a rare chance to actually try one of the exercises — “Listen Selectively” — in real time, with a brief but terrific live performance by Caleb van der Swaagh (cello), Kate Withrow (violin), and Robert Meyer (viola). I mentioned this in the Art of Noticing Newsletter.
But there was another cool tie-in. The printed guide to the festival included a programming overview, artist bios — and, here and there, suggested prompts for paying attention to a music event in new ways. These were modified from or inspired by The Art of Noticing.
I think they work as a nice set of suggestions for taking in a festival, and attending to sound in general. And I love the way they’re presented — discreetly integrated into the official guide, presented as a natural part of the process, yet more of an invitation than a command.
I thought about just converting them into a text-only list, but I think it maybe makes more sense to see them. Here goes:
(In the above left prompt, I love the line: “Can you hear a collective listening in the room?” I can say that I love it, because I didn’t write it. Somebody with Birdfoot did. It’s really nice.)
My deep thanks to the musicians, to Birdfoot’s organizers, and to Octavia Books.
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