brettworks

Something in the track doesn’t sound right: a rhythm is off, it’s boring, there’s timbres clashing, too many sounds, a cliché chord, a predictable structure, the intro isn’t long enough, the mix is murky, and the fade out should be the only part. When something doesn’t sound right we know it. Our knowing is not theory knowing or rules knowing, but knowing from experience listening closely. Our ears are learned, skeptical, and expert navigators of sound’s terrain, bearers of knowledge so tacit that they don’t know how they know. Our ears say, Hold on a second, something here is amiss and could be improved. A track that doesn’t sound right invites us to practice listening closely, to feel the music’s feel and understand its sources. So use your ears to ask: Is this how the music should go?