LISTENING REQUIREMENTS - Pauline Oliveros

• Keep a journal of your experiences and perceptions of sound and silence that demonstrates your commitment to the practice Deep Listening.

• Propose a project in relation to your special interest or profession based on your experience of Deep Listening practice and your understanding and study of materials and resources.

• Research readings, and scores from the Deep Listening Portal  and other resources online or in libraries.

• Gain familiarity with compositions by other certificate holders in the Deep Listening Anthology.

• Demonstrate your understanding of Deep Listening by composing your own Listening Exercises.

• Become familiar with other groups studying sound i.e. World Forum on Acoustic Ecology, World Listening Day etc.  Study these groups and assess how their mission and activities are complementary, different or similar to Deep Listening.
• Attend Deep Listening Intensives (on-site or virtually) with Pauline Oliveros at Deep Listening Space in Kingston NY. (See Calendar of Events)
• Participate in DEEPL – a discussion group that extends the experience of Intensives providing opportunity for dialogue with other participants. To join DEEPL via the internet, visithttp://groups.google.com/group/deep-l?hl=en

Commentary
The practice of Deep Listening continually unfolds over time as a multi-dimensional process. Observing this process is a big part of the learning. A Deep Listening Study Group creates the opportunity to practice and experience development of listening skills with others. It is possible to experience and sustain a substantial shift in perception through practice.

Making a proposal <see FAQ page>, which incorporates your Deep Listening experiences and connects with your own special interest can accelerate the learning. If there is a connection with your own interest or area of interest there is more opportunity and motivation to practice.

Keeping a Listening Journal <see FAQ page> (with  movement and dream experience incorporated) is an open form, which can be engaged in every day for as little as a few minutes to some hours. Over a year's time interesting patterns for study will appear in your chronicle of listening. Writing about what you are hearing is another way of listening and can bring about changes in your perceptions. Writing will help to ground your experience and build an overview of your listening and it's value.

Composing your own listening exercises can bring process insight and help to develop your leadership skills.
Much has been written about listening in the last twenty years. Familiarity with the literature and creating your own bibliography with annotations can help to connect your own experiences of listening to the larger community of interest that is continually growing..

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND THAT MAY SUPPORT YOUR PROCESS

Sonic Meditations were composed by Pauline Oliveros beginning in 1970 as part of the curriculum for The Nature of Music - a course for the general student at the University of California at San Diego. Oliveros also used Sonic Meditations for a weekly meeting at her home with a group of women for two years (1970-1972).

Oliveros also engaged in a nine-week research project at the Center for Music Experiment and Related Research at UCSD using Sonic Meditations with twenty people daily. Deep Listening Pieces are a continuation of Sonic Meditations. Many of these pieces have been composed for Deep Listening Retreats and workshops.

Software for People is a collection of essays from 1963-1980. The Roots of the Moment is a collection of essays, poems and scores from 1981-1995. (Also a recording) Sounding the Margins (coming soon in September 2010) is a collection of writings from 1992-2010.

Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice (2005) describes the course that she teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that is continually evolving from the Deep Listening Retreats and workshops.

There is also a CD of an Oliveros piece titled The Roots of the Moment (1988) (hatArt CD 6009) of a solo performance - accordion in just intonation in an interactive electronic environment created by Peter Ward. See the Deep Listening Catalog for more citations.

Organizing a good curriculum helps you to understand the material. Your ability to facilitate a class is directly related to the organization and creative use of the material as well as knowing what the material is.