What is active versus passive listening?

We all experience music in different ways,

at different times, and in different

environments. Sometimes the focus of

our activity is on the music with few

outside distractions. You may be in a

darkened room listening to music, doing

nothing but sitting there attentively

listening. You block outside distractions by

letting the phone go to the answering

machine and you ensure others are out of

your way.

This is active listening.

At other times, you are actively engaged

in other activities and the music is in the

background. You might be typing a paper

or playing on the Internet with music

streaming in the background. This is

passive listening. Both of these are real

examples, but don't really address the

heart of active versus passive listening. It

would be easy to postulate that if the

focus of our activity is listening to music

then we must be active participants. We

could also surmise that if we are engaged

in other activities and we have music in

the background then we must be

experiencing music in a passive fashion.

Flawed Logic?

To my way of thinking, these views are

flawed and really don't address the heart

of the matter. Both active and passive

listening are attitudes that you pursue to

achieve a final goal or state. If you

pursue a passive listening experience my

guess is that you will get a passive or

benign experience. Bear with me on this

one and hear me out before you write me

off as a looney tune!

Lets take the first example. You can do

many things to address your environment

such as darkening the room, participate in