Listening - A Simple Anatomy

(Thought-Random)




       I just love listening to this music!  Should you  ask me why..... reasons I might give would be some one hundred and one:  - sentimental,  academic,  familial,  spiritual...?  Could be one of those, actually... and/or a lot more!  One thing that is impressed in my mind at the moment, though,  is that listening,  like speaking, is one communicative skill we take for granted because, perhaps, they just come naturally!  Actually, listening, -just like speaking, or reading or writing, requires much skill and training.

       For some understanding of listening, and picking up some points from Hamilton and Creel,  let me start with the fact that listening is an active process.  This immediately points out to the distinction between hearing and listening because hearing is the passive process.  Hearing will happen anytime you are within an area of sound waves.  You don't exert effort to hear but listening requires you to 'do something' about those sound waves.  Listening requires effort.  Thus, you hear church bells ring but you listen for the ring of your phone - especially when it is a call  from your loved one you're waiting for.

        With listening, you would normally need a verbal message.   But there is more to just paying attention to the words spoken because a good listener will also have to consider the visual and vocal aspects that go with the message.  When breathlessly reaching the coffee shop where your loved one is waiting and she says, "You're late!",  do you recognize a hint of disapproval in her voice... or a flash of irritation in her eyes?  Or is it a casual remark at the speed of time that reaches you - coupled with a touch of tenderness in her eyes...a worry  that you might have had met an untoward event that caused your being late?

        It is said that an understanding of listening goes along with an awareness of some aspects - like selecting what you want to listen to, for one.  You tune out other things like conversations close by or  the television set in the next room to zero down on what you intend to listen to - like advice a family member is giving you. Then you try to understand the message- catch a meaning, - following it with whether you are or not in agreement with what you are listening to.  And finally comes putting the content into memory,  into remembering  - long or short term.

        But some other aspects may yet  stand as barriers to listening    Distractions such as external noise could be conversation or the sounds from television as earlier mentioned.   Ever heard of internal noise?  This may be  manifested, for instance, by physiological or psychological constraints like you feeling sick or tired.... or being angry or worried . Sometimes, you allow yourself  to put significance to appearances, to physical surroundings, to cultural facets - rather than the message. You could also either be not listening enough with lack of attention or with indifference,  or you could be listening too hard that you end up remembering nothing at all.

        Of course listening is there for a purpose.  You need to listen well to enhance your career goals, to help develop and maintain your mental health as well as your relationships with others. And on the basis of these and surely of others, listening has been categorized in diverse ways by various authors.  To mention four of them, let me identify the following:  comprehensive listening - to understand the message of a speaker; critical listening - to evaluate a message for purposes of accepting it or rejecting it ; emphatic listening - to provide emotional support to someone; and appreciative listening - for stimulation, pleasure, and enjoyment.

        And this brings me full circle.   Remember I mentioned that I simply love listening to this piano rendition of  The First of May?   Well,  I do love the entire song, in fact - both lyrics and melody.   I started loving it with the classic Bee Gees.  Then there's this sweet interpretation of Emi Fujita which somehow strikes some chords in my being.  Definitely next, with  Sarah Brightman singing it, I just melt with her voice!    But to me, a simple but refreshing piano arrangement like this one by Gauis Yeong has an unexplainable way of touching my sensibilities for stimulation,  for pleasure,  for enjoyment.  Appreciative listening?

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