Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Third Ear

To a Taoist, the Third Eye is a very clever bit of natural evolution. It consists of all the senses and mind working together as a larger, more powerful sensory organ. They believe it is located on the forehead, above and between the eyes.

The Third Eye as a sense can be used in many different ways. 1) It opens up the senses to patterns around us. 2) It's used to make connections and answer questions. 3) It's part of empathy where a person can touch and feel the emotions of others.

I believe that as musicians, we develop a Third Ear.

This idea occurred to me recently as I was absorbing a beautifully complex piece of music. I had listened to it several times until the main theme became familiar. I then let the theme go, and concentrated on the counterpart. I suddenly had the feeling that, while I was hearing the counterpart with my ears, I was hearing the theme from a spot in the middle of my chest. Was this a third ear?

1) It opened up my senses to the patterns in the music. 2) It made connections and answered questions about the music. 3) It helped me to reach out to touch and feel the emotions of the composer.

What do you think? Could there be, for musicians, a Third Ear?

1 comment:

  1. I think music is a "living" type of thing- and as with your experience with Loch Lommand sometimes it may take years to speak to us, or it may speak to us again in a new way. Perhaps the 3rd ear is part of that? I think some of this has to do with the "with age comes wisdom" thing- sometimes it takes those years of experiences for that music to suddenly speak to us in a new way. Just as I believe my artwork grows because of my experiences, so to I believe our understanding of the world around us changes throughout life- and so music can become so much more to us through our life experiences. Hope this makes sense!

    ReplyDelete