Actively listening to music can be done in many types of environments. At concert halls, in studios, theaters, or from your living room, people engage in the listening experience for many different reasons. One technology that has changed the way we listen to music is the invention of headphones. Instead of hearing music live or through speakers, the headphones directly plug your ears into a music source and create an entirely different musical experience. You can hear much more detail and differentiate between instrumental parts easier. The use of headphones in the music education world has many applications.
In my experience I have been able to learn music much faster with headphones. Using speakers can sometimes distort the sound a bit or leave out important parts, especially bass. As a bass player it is hard to pinpoint what my part sounds like sometimes. If I need to learn a song using my ear, the headphones are my best friend. Unless I am blasting music with really good quality speakers it can be impossible to learn the music.
Some musical artists now consider how many people listen to their music exclusively using headphones. In the recording studio there are small details that can be added to mixing and mastering music that make the listening experience more enjoyable. With each listen more content can be discovered making each listen feel like a new experience.
Headphones allow music to be more accessible to a larger audience when compared to before its invention. When paired with portable music players almost every setting can and has been turned into a musical landscape. Headphones can be utilized for the musician: droning a constant note for intonation practice, quickly refreshing a musical sound before a performance, or for the joy and relaxation music offers.
I agree. Headphones helps a lot, when listening to music, watching videos online and etc. Anything that involves sounds; headphones will help. I think, it helps to keep private space as well, since everyone listens to different music. I feel like people ignore this but listening too much music with headphones isn't that great, it can harm your ears sometimes. (just saying)
ReplyDeleteI agree! Headphones are a great form of technology for musicians and those who casually enjoy a good listening of music. For you, it would make much sense to use them to learn your music rather than just listening to it through your speakers, so you can get a deeper sense of where your part lies within the music. I think it could also be great for meditation; noise-cancelling headphones can really take a person into their zone while listening to calm, soothing sounds.
ReplyDeleteHaving headphones will definitely create a more intimate experience. For a lot of musical experiences the more intimate the better, after all this is an art and what we want is emotion and thought provoking to happen. I completely understand what you are saying with listening for the bass part. I hate having to have to blast music just to hear the low end when there aren't higher quality speakers at one's disposal. It is an ugly truth. In the class room not only will headphones give students a more intimate experience with their music but it would be chaos if each student was working on a music project in a computer lab and they all played their music when they needed to listen back without headphones. These things have saved our lives more time than we probably even realized.
ReplyDeleteWhile I feel that it might be a little
ReplyDeletedifficult to use headphones as a teaching aid in a general classroom,
I think you've hit a great point that they have changed the way we
listen to music (and other sounds). However, it is tough to do any
more than encourage students to use headphones without amassing a
large budget for headphones in a classroom for every student.
Where would I be without my headphones! I love music and I am always using headphones. So to integrate them into a classroom would be really cool. It helps create some privacy and at the same time it helps certain students to concentrate. I know I concentrate more in public spaces when I have my head phones in so I am sure it will help certain students focus.
ReplyDelete