🎵 Listening... vs. REALLY listening to music

Letterhead Image: Notes from the Piano Prof

Dear Friends,

Before we get started, I want to let you know that my new mini-course Piano Lit is now available! This six-week, self-guided program takes you on a curated listening journey, focused on piano repertoire.

Each week’s listening list is organized around a theme, with historical background and listening notes for each piece. Since the focus is on listening and not on learning to play the music, this is open to musicians at all levels.

If you’ve wanted to explore piano repertoire in a meaningful way, I made this for you! You can learn more here. (If you've already purchased it, thank you! I hope you're enjoying it!)

In light of this new mini-course, which is focused around listening, today I want to talk about something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: what does it actually mean to listen to music?

When I ask my piano students if they listen to music, they invariably tell me they do. They report a wide range of interests: from singer-songwriter to hiphop to jazz, and everything in between.

Since my students are studying classical piano, I have a particular interest in knowing if they regularly listen to classical music. If you’re playing a movement of a Beethoven sonata, and you haven’t listened to the other movements of that sonata, any of his other piano sonatas, or even his orchestral and chamber works, your understanding of that movement will be incomplete. It’s like trying to learn a language only from a textbook, without ever hearing it spoken in its native setting.

Some of my students tell me they put classical music on in the background, for example, while they are driving, doing dishes or studying. While I think that's wonderful, that usually doesn’t let you really get to know the music in the same way you would if you were giving it your full attention.

Listening to music without any visual stimulation or distraction can feel almost old-fashioned these days. It can also be a little confronting. You might worry that you don’t really know “how” to listen or what you should be listening for, which can bring up feelings of uncertainty or self-consciousness. Or, despite your best intentions, you might find yourself feeling bored and noticing your mind wander when you sit and listen without something else to look at.

I believe that some of those feelings of discomfort are akin to what people report when they first start to meditate: their minds go in every different direction and it’s hard to focus.

A dear friend of mine told me that for years, every evening at around 5:00 pm, she and her husband would pour a glass of wine and choose something to put on the record player to listen to together. This became a daily ritual they both looked forward to, and the act of sitting and listening together not only drew them closer to one another, but also deepened their relationship with the music they were listening to, more so than if they had just had it on in the background while they were talking.

Listening to music, with no additional stimulation or distraction, can take practice. It can be uncomfortable at first, if you’re not used to it. But if you do, it can become a satisfying activity of its own, and it can open the door to a much deeper appreciation of the music.

So, this week, I encourage you to set aside some time to sit and listen to music, giving it your full attention. What do you notice? How does it make you feel? How does it impact your practicing?

Have a great week! Happy practicing! 👋

-Kate

Practice TIP of the week:

Here are the most recent practice tips I have covered:
🎵 July 6: Keep Your Eyes Moving Forward
🎵 July 13: Recognizing Landmarks and Patterns
🎵 July 20: Don't Fix Mistakes
🎵 July 28: Sight-Reading as a Daily Habit

Each month, I focus on a specific theme for practice tips. This month’s theme is Understanding Harmony.

Today's Practice Tip: Exploring Cadences

One of the simplest ways to start understanding harmony is by learning to identify cadences in the music you’re playing. A cadence marks the end of a phrase. It sort of functions like the musical version of a period or a comma.

There are four types of cadence:

Perfect: V-I (sounds like a traditional ending)
Plagal: IV-I (nicknamed the “Amen cadence,” it sounds like the two chords at the end of a hymn where the congregation sings “A-Men”
Half: stops on V (sounds like an ending that is more of a question mark)
Deceptive: V-vi (sounds like it is going to end but instead it “deceives” you and goes someplace else)

If you have some theory knowledge, you can identify cadences based on the Roman numeral terminology I used above, but even if you don’t know how to label chords, you can often hear where the cadences in the music are.

Although this is often not the case, it is nonetheless true that in a lot of classical music, phrases are 8 measures long. Often you will hear a cadence, which sounds like a moment of repose, at the end of an 8-bar phrase, so if you are just starting the process of trying to hear cadences, look at the end of the first 8 and the first 16 bars and see if you find some.

You will also find cadences at the end of major sections, before a new theme starts, and often before significant rests. And, of course, there will definitely be a cadence at the end of the piece!

Your exercise this week is to find all the cadences you can in your music and label them, either by circling them or by writing the Roman numerals underneath them if you can identify them that way.

After you’ve found the cadences, go through your piece and only play the cadences in order, to get a sense of the “skeleton” of the piece.

Knowing where the cadences are will help you play more expressively, because you will understand where the individual phrases start and end. You will also be able to map the structure of a piece more easily. And when you perform or play through your piece, you’ll have a better sense of where you are in the overall composition of the piece, because you’ll be able to track the overall structure more easily. Additionally, knowing where the cadences are gives you landmarks to help you in the memorization process.

For more on cadences, this blog post by Ben Dunnett has a very good overview of the four different types of cadence.

Quote of the Week

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

-e.e. cummings

💜 Some of My Favorite Things

🎹 Alfred Brendel – In Memoriam
With the recent passing of Alfred Brendel, the piano world lost a towering pianist. He was the first person to record the complete Beethoven Sonatas. I had the good fortune to hear him three times when I was living in Europe in the 90’s – his Schubert was unforgettable. This Gramophone article revisits ten of his most essential recordings.
🎥 Sheet Music: Czerny – Practical Method for Beginners on the Piano, Op. 599
Carl Czerny’s Op. 599 has introduced generations of pianists to the foundations of good technique. Far more than just finger exercises, these short studies develop hand position, coordination, reading, and musical phrasing from the very first lessons. Czerny’s step-by-step approach makes this collection a classic starting point for young pianists, but many adults return to these etudes for their clarity and structure. If you’re looking for a reliable, time-tested path to solid piano fundamentals, Op. 599 remains a staple in studios around the world. Buy it here.
📖 Productivity Book: Deep Work by Cal Newport.
What does focused, uninterrupted time really do for our creativity—and our practice habits? Cal Newport’s Deep Work explores how to protect the rare mental state where real progress happens. I read this book a while back but it continues to have a lasting impact on how I prioritize my own practicing and projects in relation to my teaching and other responsibilities. Buy it here.

🎹 Stay Connected:

🎹 Sign up for an individual Zoom lesson with me. I have added some new dates in September. You can sign up here.
🎓 Reply to this email to learn about applying to study with me at Butler University at the undergraduate or master's level. Go Dawgs! 🐾
📚 Check out my Amazon page, where I share my recommended books, technical exercises, gear and more!
🎥 Subscribe to my YouTube channel!
📱Follow me on Instagram!

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🎹 Pianist | Educator | Creator
Dr. Kate Boyd
Professor of Piano, Butler University

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Kate Boyd

🎵 Listening... vs. REALLY listening to music

Practice TIP of the week:

Today's Practice Tip: Exploring Cadences

💜 Some of My Favorite Things

🪤 Feeling Stuck in Your Practice? 4 Traps to Avoid

🪑 How to Reduce Tension at the Piano

🧪 Be a Scientist, Not a Drill Sergeant