Listening Book

This is a delightful collection of essays on how to sensitize yourself to and appreciate all the sounds around you, from frogs and birds to dinnerware clinks to foreign languages being spoken. I read the book in Chinese, since that was all our library had. I only give the translation a B, but the meaning mostly came through, and I don't think I missed too much from the original English. My favorite section was the one on musical composition. It contains several practical suggestions that I haven't seen in other books on how to compose your own tunes. I had discovered the notion of AMAPFALAP ("As much as possible from as little as possible") independently before, but Mathieu's approach provides a concrete and excellent starting point to developing your own musical ideas and stretching and firming up your musical muscles. Mathieu ends with some thoughts on why his students would always say "thank you" for all they learned in his music workshops, but just "that was interesting" in reaction to his concerts of improvised music. He seems a bit miffed, but ultimately comes up with a rationalization he can live with. Music is more than just Beethoven and playing the notes on the score; in this book, Mathieu helps you find out just how much more it is.

W.A. Mathieu is utterly in love with vibrating air molecules, and this thoughtful, warm, and fun collection of short essays is bound to impart some of that to you. This is not a book about composition, about developing your own personal style or anything of that sort. It is a way of focusing on and developing your relationship with your ears, with sound, with what sounds good to you in music and in nature and in all of the world, both inside and outside of your head. In playful exercises for musicians and non-musicians alike, we examine the nature of a single note played on an instrument, or sung alound, or even just a series of spoken or drawn-out syllables. There are ways to bring music into a group of people; there are ways to draw it out of inanimate objects; there are ways to find it in silence. He's not trying to convince anybody that traffic, barking dogs, and 3 AM garbage trucks are as beautiful as a Bach piece; some things will sound better to you than others. But practice makes perfect: if you practice hearing, you will hear more, and you will hear better, and you will find more things that sound good, and you will get a richer enjoyment of them. This is "Discovering Your Own Music."

This inspirational book shares a unique and exciting perspective on the process of music making and the beauty of discovering rhythm and melody in our natural envireonment. If you can get your hands on it, his self-narrated cassette audio book version of this title is even better. He is an enthralling storyteller! Get a few copies - give one to a friend!

I have a degree in music composition plus some graduate hours. Out of all the books I've read on music both in and out of music school, this one out shines them all. Mr Mathieu shows us how to listen to everyday sounds and find the music that is there. He helps us open our ears with simple excersises that are fun and flexible. Its not theory. Its not rules. Mr Mathieu gives us the gift of his own experiences in beautifuly written prose. His serves as a guide that leads us to our own experiences; discovering our own unique music. No one ever taught me how to listen before. Thank you Mr Mathieu.

I have shared this book with friends, students, colleagues, and total strangers over the years. Everyone can find him- or herself in its pages. Mathieu, a fine composer and teacher, wants to help us all tap into music in a more rewarding and spiritually nourishing way. He accomplishes this with little stories about how to listen, how to practice, and how to tune your mind so that it will be ready for the sounds you haven't heard yet. You may not know it yet, but you need this book -- just buy, then read. Then listen.