Listening Room
Experience the Tender listening room.
Deep listening happens most Thursday evenings from 6-9pm. Click on our schedule to register.
You can enter or exit the listening room at any time throughout the duration of the event. Please remove shoes on arrival and place them in pigeon holes provided. We will have yoga mats, cushions and blocks available, as well as a few seats for early arrivals.
We invite guests to make themselves comfortable, rearranging the furniture in the room as you like to suit your desired activities.
Some suggested activities to do while listening: reading, drawing, stretching, playing chess, meditating, taking a nap, nothing.
Deep Listening Sessions are not intended to be social events. Please respect our no talking policy for the first half of the event and try to keep voice volumes soft for the remainder. Tender is not serving alcohol and is not BYO, but there will be non-alcoholic beverages available to purchase.
Deep listening is healing, and meditation through sound. In the process of making this music, I listened more deeply than I had for a long time (for a much longer time, too), and when I was finished, I noticed that I had changed. My mind was clearer and sharper, and I knew myself better. Everything somehow felt easier.
I was surprised, even though there’s plenty of research out there that tells us that music is one of the best things we can have in our lives to combat cognitive decline and improve attention and focus (just like meditation). Surely, then, meditative, attentive, ‘deep’ listening is one of the best things we can do for our minds. Not necessarily for the goal of becoming smarter: I think the end result of being able to listen and ‘give’ our attention better, is that we live more consciously, joyfully and vibrantly, and because of that we act more wisely, mindfully, respectfully and compassionately. One reason we live more joyfully is because we’re giving more of our attention to the works of art that make us feel good or amazing or ecstatic; art that can remind us why we’re alive, or somehow help us come to terms with all of our sorrow, or help us find hope.
I think often we need to be invited or compelled to listen deeply, because it doesn’t seem to be something we tend to make a habit of in our everyday lives, particularly if music is something we usually put on to enjoy while we are doing other things (which makes me wonder what listening was like before recorded music became so widespread). I’ll admit that I’m usually not listening deeply, and that’s okay (maybe I’m absorbing music instead). There’s also a lot of music that probably shouldn’t be listened to all that deeply. But when I fully give my attention to music and sound, the difference then is that I really open myself up to another way of seeing and understanding the world, and another way of being, entirely.
Through deep listening, we’re better able to access an artist’s intention and mindset behind a piece of music; we can better understand its larger context, and the humanity and even spirituality of its creator or creators. If the purpose of that work is healing (which I think it often ultimately is), through deep listening, we’re better able to be transformed and healed through it. Music can really become transcendent and revelatory.
I don’t think deep listening needs to even involve ‘thinking’ about music or sound, in the way we usually characterise thinking. There’s no need to analyse or define, or to try to uncover some sort of theoretical or practical foundation for something; instead the skill is in ‘tuning in’ and opening oneself up to a connection. Maybe we can be more like animals. By relinquishing language and just listening, we can discover more ways to get to the ‘heart’ of something. We can relinquish control, and be passive and attentive at the same time, which can lead to greater understanding. We can be more exploratory, because we’re open to more possibilities. We simply open ourselves up.
- Carolyn Schofield (from Artist notes to Endless Filament)