Emotional qualities:
Listen for mood in the music. Listen for expression and emotion in the music.
What feelings does the music evoke in you?Listen for musical expression based on small variations of tempo, sound quality and volume.Sensory integration and embodiment:
Hear the music as movement.
Hear the music as voices.
Hear the music as gestures and body movement.Describe the instrumental music as speech: ”If the melody is speech, what does it say?”
Is the instrumental music similar to song or dance?Listen for light, shadow and darkness. Color associations. Tactile qualities.What is the physical impact of the sound?
Does the music hit or touch your body?
Does the music fill your body? Does it penetrate your head or your body?Context-related descriptions:
Listen without a title. Listen according to a title.What associations and images does the music evoke?Listen for statements and responses, “call and response”.Hear the music as persons acting on a scene.
Hear the music as a narrative.
Hear the music as the soundtrack of a movie.
Where does this music belong? What kind of place, culture, history?The aim of the above summary is to provide an array of listening intentions which can be selected,
combined, modified, and supplemented in a listening strategy. Some of these intentions may coin-
cide with already existing listening practice in music therapy research.