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Miguel de Maria -> Contour listening (May 25 2004 21:28:04)
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I have been taking up drawing/painting as a hobby. I can't play guitar all day because I'll get arthritis, so I figured I needed to get a hobby. And since here in Phoenix they sell a lot of art, I figured I'd might as well learn something that could make some money.
Well, in drawing there is a technique called "contour drawing." This is a strange thing, where you stare at a line on a model, just STARE at it, and slowly move your eyes along the model. You pretend your pencil is on that point, you try to feel that it is actually touching the model, and don't look at the paper at all. What results does not qualify as art...often just a bunch of squiggly lines. But in only a short time I have received excellent benefits from this practice. My understanding of what I'm actually looking at has improved.
I never thought I had a problem understanding what my eyes tell me, but it turns out that all artists have to go through this process, in one way or another.
Of course, I wondered if there were a parallel in music. It would seem that you should pick out one element, one line or instrument or note, and just follow that note painstakingly throughout a whole recording. And do this for a long time. If the same process applied, one would expect that one's ability to hear and understand what one heard would improve.
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