Sensuous Plane
This level is the sheer pleasure of listening to music. You let the music wash over you. This is the level of listening when you hear music in an elevator, grocery store, or when you turn the car radio on by habit when you start the engine. People often lose themselves in music on this listening plane. Music here is used as an escape. Although this isn't the most intelligent level of listening, it is important; even the most highly trained musician enjoys this level of listening.
Expressive Plane
All music has a certain meaning behind its notes that can be hard to express. Good music often will have different meanings every time you come back to it. That is what makes the Beatles better than Madonna or Beethoven better than Debussy. A novice listener always wants to put a concrete meaning to music-sometimes this is impossible. At this level, the music may sound like a quiet sunrise, snow falling, or a horror movie. Most music written for movie soundtracks is meant to be heard on this level.
Musical Plane
This is the highest level of music listening. On this level, you begin to hear and visualize the instruments being played. You will hear the elements of music within a composition, i.e., melody, rhythm, harmony, tone, and color. Intelligent listeners must be prepared to increase their awareness of the musical material and what happens to it. We will start our study of music with the elements that will help you learn on the musical plane.
