what do you mean by listening "actively"?

[varunkapahi]

i think it deserves its own thread, to grow as a musician it is essential to listen 'actively'. but what is active listening really?
you pay attention to the rhythm, melody, harmony. but how?

often i cant really "hear" the chord progression as in mentally know whats happening relatively, unless its the usual I VI V IV progression which i can recognize sometimes. how do you learn to recognize more of such progressions?

[Eminentbass]

I think actively listening refers in part to listening closely enough to be able to sing a line or part. Many people struggle with figuring stuff out by ear because even though they've heard something, they haven't fully absorbed the sound. If you can sing it, then it's just a case of searching for the notes on your bass until they match what you're singing. This process covers melodic and rhythmic aspects simultaneously.

For me, playing by ear has been a blend of hearing intervals or root notes and knowing what the diatonic chord functions in a key are. It's also about knowing where inversions are commonly used e.g if a bass part in C goes down to B, chances are the chord is G/B, not B minor as many people get wrong. There are certain cliches and patterns that occur in songs and eventually your ear begins to recognise them and musically contextualise what you may have known in theoretical form. Once that sinks in you'll be able to hear when songs deviate from a diatonic chord structure. You may not instantly be able to identify how but you'll hear that some characteristics sound different than usual.

In short, learn theory but also just plod through figuring out as many songs as possible until it sinks in and becomes second nature Dabbling on a chordal instrument helps too. That way you can hear chords voiced properly and not just as arpeggios which helps absorb their characteristics.

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by varunkapahi

how do you learn to recognize more of such progressions?

just learn the chords of songs you know, and break them down into their functional I-VI-V. Then the next tiem you hear a song that sounds of like it...try to sing the old song's melody over the new song..if it fits, it's probably the same progression.

proof of concept:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I
the progression is I - V - vi - IV

Do you play guitar or piano? If so work out the Blues, I-IV-V, and rhytm changes and really familiarize yourself.

and of course, whenever learning a bass part for an existing song, absolutely learn the chords as well.

[mambo4]

A second point about recognizing harmony:

The reason that you tube bit works musically is that for a given progression, you can produce a reasonable approximation with simplfied chords.
there is an approach to harmonic theory that seeks to treat every harmonic variation (within a single key) as either a I, IV or V.
A I - V - vi - IV would probably work almost as well (with the melody) as a I - V - I - IV
Because the I ( CEG for example) shares tones with the iv (ACE)
There are many "easy piano" or "easy guitar" books that present "reduced" version of popularsongs, where the chords are reduced in a similar way.

So an active listening approach could include simply trying to hear if the chord change is going to a Dominant (I-V) feel or a Subdominant (I-IV) feel.

Which doesn't mean that as a bassist you can freely change any song you're playign to a simplified combo of I, IV and V.
In fact, youre role as a bassist, with control of the root, could be seen preventing that from happenig

[Chris K]

My problem is that I just cannot listen to music passively. At every party I start analyzing what the band is doing, which often kills all the fun I might have.

'Active listening' is a pleonasm, since listening is an active process as opposed to hearing. When you listen (to music or speech or whatever sound) you'll always try to figure out something.

When listening to music, in many cases, something will strike you, like playing out of tune or tons of mistakes. In other cases, you will only want to know the one answer: why is this music so good?

IMHO that is your starter question. To reach a little more focus, you could subdivide that main question into the various aspects of music: What is good in this particular music about: sound - rhythm - tuning - harmony -dynamics - articulation - tempo - feel etc.

[varunkapahi]

Originally Posted by mambo4

just learn the chords of songs you know, and break them down into their functional I-VI-V. Then the next tiem you hear a song that sounds of like it...try to sing the old song's melody over the new song..if it fits, it's probably the same progression.

proof of concept:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I
the progression is I - V - vi - IV

Do you play guitar or piano? If so work out the Blues, I-IV-V, and rhytm changes and really familiarize yourself.

and of course, whenever learning a bass part for an existing song, absolutely learn the chords as well.

Originally Posted by mambo4

A second point about recognizing harmony:

The reason that you tube bit works musically is that for a given progression, you can produce a reasonable approximation with simplfied chords.
there is an approach to harmonic theory that seeks to treat every harmonic variation (within a single key) as either a I, IV or V.
A I - V - vi - IV would probably work almost as well (with the melody) as a I - V - I - IV
Because the I ( CEG for example) shares tones with the iv (ACE)
There are many "easy piano" or "easy guitar" books that present "reduced" version of popularsongs, where the chords are reduced in a similar way.

So an active listening approach could include simply trying to hear if the chord change is going to a Dominant (I-V) feel or a Subdominant (I-IV) feel.

Which doesn't mean that as a bassist you can freely change any song you're playign to a simplified combo of I, IV and V.
In fact, youre role as a bassist, with control of the root, could be seen preventing that from happenig

thanks that was pretty cool