Bassist Amy Shook told me, "Listen harder than you play."

Amy Shook is this amazing DC-area bassist with whom I've had the pleasure of recording and performing from time to time. (She's several leagues above me in terms of accomplishment and experience; I call her when I've got a gig or a session date, but she would never really need to call me for one of her projects, there being many, many great pianists in this area...)

In a classroom setting I once heard Amy say, "Always listen harder than you play." During camp, Medeski and Martin and Wood (along with their friends Ribot and Bernstein and Scofield) continually reinforced that message, explicitly in what they taught, and implicitly in how they played and interacted with each other.

I figure listening is both an attitude and a skill set. I think I can rearrange my attitude readily to become a better listener, but it sure would help if I knew and thoroughly understood what I'm hearing. In that spirit, I've decided to start spending serious time again in ear training studies. I've got a great software tool for this but have been neglecting lately. I'd really recommend this program to anyone who wants to grow bigger ears: Ear Master Pro 5. Check it out.

I've got other tools--some of jazz educator David Baker's materials, as well as the relative pitch course from that guy who also advertises his "perfect pitch" course in all the music magazines--but for now I'll stick with Ear Master and try (slowly, steadily) to live up to its title....