We usually begin our Saturday mornings (if you're in Europe, it's around lunchtime) listening to BBC Radio Three, a program called This Classical Life. Today's episode profiles harpist Cecilia De Maria along with host Jess Gillam.
Both, today, talked about listening to a lot of different recordings of their chosen instrument as young students. It reminded me that our ears are our most important instrument. How can you know where you're going without a specific goal?
The playlist on this program is always diverse as well, for example today's playlist:
Edvard Grieg - Holberg suite Op.40 vers. for string orchestra: Praeludium (Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi)
Pierne - Impromptu Caprice (Marisa Robles - harp)
Polar Bear - Peepers
Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral March (Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer)
Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air
Dorothy Ashby - Soul Vibrations from Afro-Harping
Allegri – Miserere (Tallis Scholars)
John Williams - Jurassic Park theme
This reminds me of how important it is to have well rounded ears. Listen a lot. Listen to everything. It will improve your playing radically to include your ears.
Find the program here.
Train Your Ears Well by Barbara Ann Fackler are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.