Critical listening is more than turning on the radio while you are in a car. The difference between listening to a piece of music casually versus critically is like:

• skimming a fashion magazine, vs. dissecting Paradise Lost for an English essay
• putting cat pictures on your desktop background, vs. closely examining Rembrandt in an art gallery
• leaving the TV on the sports channel while you eat, vs. screaming with the fans in the stadium

However, don’t be fooled into thinking that critical listening only happens in special halls with the best works of art. A song could come on the radio and captivate your mind for the rest of the day. Or, you could attend a posh opera and fall asleep in the comfy chairs (I’ve done it). You can practice critical listening anywhere and on anything, just easily as you can forget to listen altogether.

What to listen for

• Creative instrumentation: Composers are always pushing the boundaries of what instruments can do. Listen for weird and unusual timbres and textures, especially in modern pieces. Remember that every sound was revolutionary when it was first used, whether it be trombones in Beethoven’s 5th symphony or the stratospheric bassoon solo in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
• Repetition, the key to form: Repetition is the glue that keeps music in one piece. Good composers reuse their material extensively, but great composers also hide this reuse in clever ways, by changing the key, timbre, duration, and/or style of the repeated material. When you notice interruptions or abrupt changes in the music, ask yourself “Is this something I’ve heard before?” Does a section, a theme, or a motif come back, perhaps in disguise?
• Quotes and reference: Composers love to show off their learning by putting bits of other composers into their music. This can range from the obvious quotation, like Elton John throwing The Girl from Ipanema into his solo, to the more obscure reference, like J.S. Bach’s throwbacks in the Well Tempered Clavier to the great polyphony masters of the Rennaisance. Composers even use the style of a piece to associate themselves with an era or a philosophy. Does something in a piece of music sound familiar, or out of place? Is that the tune of a folk song, or a well known composer? Does the piece “sound like Bach”, or Brahms? The more music you listen to, the more references you will recognize.
• Inner voices: Many pieces of music are like a monologue – you only have to listen to one voice or line: the melody. However, a complex symphony can have up to a dozen voices talking at once, each with something different to say. You can find quotations, repeated themes, motifs and other secrets all hidden within this musical texture beneath the melody. Try to follow just one voice or instrument as it weaves through the texture, and then follow a different voice when you listen to the same section again.

Guiding principles

1. Pay attention: Listen to music when there are no interruptions, your surroundings are quiet, your body is occupied, and your mind is free. Put away distractions and focus on what you hear. Try closing your eyes as you listen. Listen to something more than once. A professor who taught me listens to music on his 2 hour highway commute. Incidentally, I find critical listening easy while drawing, doing chores, and other physical/repetitive tasks, but impossible while writing or exercising.
2. Don’t be hatin’: Approach every piece without value judgements. Imagine if you walked into class on the first day and everyone laughed at your appearance. Well, that’s what you’re doing when you decide a piece of music is “bad” before you’ve even finished listening to it! If you find yourself getting bored, impatient, annoyed, or angry (believe me, we’ve all felt that way – music has caused riots before!), try asking yourself, “What part of the music is causing me to react this way?“, and “Why?“. In the same way that (red hot) chili peppers aren’t bad just because I don’t eat them, don’t let your personal taste stop you from appreciating all kinds of music.
3. Be inquisitive: Like that sound? Find out who the composer is! Read their biographies, browse Wikipedia, search up a score, put the track on your phone. Follow the Youtube link road from one piece to another. And lastly, just because you are listening critically doesn’t mean you can’t have an emotional response to the music. Remember, people listen to music for fun.