Music and Awareness Expansion
When playing it’s important to understand your role. Each part is important and adds to the overall piece. Not centering your concentration on your task is a bit like being distracted while driving. Sure, you can probably make it to your destination safely, but you greatly increase your chances of this by giving your attention you the task at hand. In this regard, if someone is not as aware we can take preventative measures to better take control of the situation. As Stephen Covey once said “Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
When learning a new skill, it can be easy to forget practicing awareness. Awareness is a crucial, albeit oftentimes overlooked, aspect of learning. When being aware of music you give it your undivided attention. The more aware you are, the easier it will be to for you to learn and the faster the process will be.
You can expand your awareness of music by concentrating and attending to it. Feel the music as well as listen to it. One method to help expand the awareness you have towards music is to closely listen to the music you are producing as well as the music of others (be it if you are in a band or if you are alone). Ear training will help with this as well. Learning your instrument well will greatly aid in this process.
When you are with other musician be aware of how your part fits in. This entails looking at the parts as a whole, but also as separate parts. Who is playing the melody, who is playing the harmony? But understanding the differences in each role you can better improve your skills to fit into the piece of music.