Listening with your eyes shut.

[Hardbopjazz]

I realized that most of the time when I am listening to music at home I do it with my eyes shut. I guess turning off one sense adds to my ears.

Does anyone else find themselves listeninf with your eyes closed?

[A Lark Ascending]

Often.

Tend to find the darker months especially effective. Turning the lights off also works well. Though, however engaging the music, there's always the temptation to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (this may be age related).

Not recommended when listening whilst driving the car.

Edited October 27, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[paul secor]

Not that I always do it, but listening with eyes shut is the best way to listen.

And, as Bev said, never while driving.

Edited October 28, 2013 by paul secor

[J.A.W.]

And, as Bev said, never while driving.

Glad I don't have a car anymore

[JSngry]

I've come to prefer (mostly) staring to closing my eyes. Just get into that zone and keep the eyes open, wide open. No sense in depriving one sense to serve another unless you have to. Make that zone as big as it can be in your brain, don't focus it, burn it into the whole thing, not just a part of it. Learn how to focus through distraction, not block it out.

[paul secor]

I've come to prefer (mostly) staring to closing my eyes. Just get into that zone and keep the eyes open, wide open. No sense in depriving one sense to serve another unless you have to. Make that zone as big as it can be in your brain, don't focus it, burn it into the whole thing, not just a part of it. Learn how to focus through distraction, not block it out.

That one's more easily said than done for me, Jim. Maybe it's easier for someone who's a musician.

[A Lark Ascending]

I've come to prefer (mostly) staring to closing my eyes. Just get into that zone and keep the eyes open, wide open. No sense in depriving one sense to serve another unless you have to. Make that zone as big as it can be in your brain, don't focus it, burn it into the whole thing, not just a part of it. Learn how to focus through distraction, not block it out.

Have you ever thought of writing one of those Californian self-help books? Books, CDs, tours - you could make a fortune with ideas like that.

Now personally, I always find a good pasty enhances the music.

Edited October 28, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[BeBop]

For me, listening with eyes closed is more about concentration than sensory focus. In this way, it can improve my overall listening experience.

For some music, the experience is improved by firmly planting one fingertip in each easr.

[A Lark Ascending]

For some music, the experience is improved by firmly planting one fingertip in each ear.

Recommended if you get the urge to sing about riding out one bright May morning and encountering milk maids.

[JSngry]

I've come to prefer (mostly) staring to closing my eyes. Just get into that zone and keep the eyes open, wide open. No sense in depriving one sense to serve another unless you have to. Make that zone as big as it can be in your brain, don't focus it, burn it into the whole thing, not just a part of it. Learn how to focus through distraction, not block it out.

Have you ever thought of writing one of those Californian self-help books? Books, CDs, tours - you could make a fortune with ideas like that.

I used to play with my eyes closed, then stopped once I realized that it was creating a false (and undesirable) sense of "separation". I'd be all eyes closed and transported and shit and then stop playing, open the eyes and OH, guess what- STILL HERE! Ask around, yeah, not only that, but you STAYED here the whole time, we saw you, right there. Might have spun/shuffled some, but never left the ground, much less the building, much less the plane.

So I gradually learned to keep the eyes open so as not to go "away" but to be more "here". Experience here in this state of engagement. Here stays here.

"Away" is a nice fantasy, but a fantasy that can't be brought to bear here is just a silly game, really. Escapism from anywhere, but not to anyplace. Very silly, if you ask me.

Eventually it carried over to my listening, which, really, playing and listening, roots in the same place (hearing as unimpeded as possible sound from source), so why not? The only difference is that the source when listening to a record is obvious. Not so much when playing, especially improvising, but still, that's at best a technicality. A big one, perhaps, but...just a matter of engineering, really. Hearing is the main thing, always.

No matter how much we'd like to think otherwise, we never hear away from where we are. Never. It's a "Romantic" notion that we can transport away through music. What we can do is bring music more fully into where we are. "Concentration" is just part of the way there, dig? Internalization, that's the destination. One..sound...at a time. But once you get it for something/anything, your eyes can be wide open and you can be peeing your pants. Doesn't matter. It's there, in you, and in your world. Not "away". Here. Now. Real.

If you're really hearing something, you should be able to slow it down in your mind and sing it. The better you hear it, the better you can sing it (or at least hum it at a very low volume). That's the voice, not a machine-instrument. No theory required, no manual dexterity, nothing required except hearing.

Most of us, myself included, tend to hear blurs of sound, especially at first hearing of a recording or the first impetus of a creative idea. We can feel the contours and the colors, but...reality is more than just initial blurs. Blurs can still make you have a response, but..they're still blurs. Accurate, but not yet wholly defined. Even people who deal in blurs with any sense of integrity (Bill Dixon, first to come to mind) have very distinct blurs in mind.

What convinced me that there was something to this was seeing a photo of Warne Marsh in full flight - Obviously in the zone, and eyes WIDE open.

Then again, different strokes, and all that. Some guys don't move at all and have their eyes wide shut, even when they're not playing. Well, if that works, ok. or more to the point, if you think it works, ok. Just keep in mind that your external reality isn't going anywhere, is not going anywhere, and really "external"/"internal", if there's a perceived dichotomy, then maybe that's what might benefit from further examination, not one's physical projections.

[xybert]

I actually really enjoy listening to music while watching TV or a movie with the sound on mute (particularly like watching animated stuff, The Simpsons etc; i found that Bill Dixon and The Simpsons go together really well) or while flicking through a book of art or a comic book. For whatever reason it tends to bring the music in to focus for me. I do sometimes enjoy listening with eyes closed, particularly if i drift in to that half awake/half asleep state.

[Hardbopjazz]

Gary Bartz listens with his eyes shut. He also plays with his eyes shut.

Vincent Herring also listens and plays with his eyes shut.

another

.

[jazzbo]

Not me. They're open unless I've fallen into a doze.