{"id":353,"date":"2011-11-16T14:08:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T01:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=353"},"modified":"2011-11-16T14:09:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T01:09:30","slug":"listen-carefully-and-listen-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=353","title":{"rendered":"Listen carefully and listen well"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=352\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-352\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-352\" title=\"PianoKeys\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/PianoKeys-300x287.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/PianoKeys-300x287.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/PianoKeys.jpg 592w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I recently had lunch with a chap who is a more-than-competent pianist.<\/p>\n<p>At one point during our conversation, I asked him a vaguely technical music question.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m the wrong person to ask,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 \u2018What I know about music theory could be written on the back of a very small postage stamp.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>This surprised me.\u00a0 I had heard him play \u2013 and play very well.\u00a0 I also knew that he did quite a bit of composing and arranging.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018So what\u2019s your approach?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n<p>He thought for a moment or two, and then he said: \u2018I suppose I just listen \u2013 you know, carefully and well.\u00a0 And then I just do what works.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The pianist\u2019s approach reminded me of something Joan Didion once said about grammar.\u00a0 \u2018[It\u2019s] a piano I play by ear. \u00a0All I know about grammar is its power.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>If you want to write clear, attractive prose, there\u2019s a lot to be said for listening carefully, listening well, and then just doing what works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently had lunch with a chap who is a more-than-competent pianist. At one point during our conversation, I asked him a vaguely technical music question. \u2018I\u2019m the wrong person to ask,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 \u2018What I know about music theory &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=353\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}