1) Get quiet, get centered, and listen in the dark with your eyes closed.
2) Consider it your job to identify every single instrument and effect on a track. Are there 1 or 2 or 3 guitars? Can you tell a single-coil from a humbucker? (or better yet, a Stratocaster from a Telecaster? How many horns? What keyboard sounds are present? Is that a Rhodes or a Hammond? Can you differentiate the kick drum from the bass notes?
3) After you're able to pick apart all the individual instruments, you realize that your next job is to appreciate how all these parts are put together. It's quite the zen trick to register the components and the whole (like figure and ground) at once. But once you reach this point, you're a Listener.
4) Take ear breaks. After 10 or 15 minutes of music, you often need 2 or 5 minutes of silence.
5) Have fun.
2) Consider it your job to identify every single instrument and effect on a track. Are there 1 or 2 or 3 guitars? Can you tell a single-coil from a humbucker? (or better yet, a Stratocaster from a Telecaster? How many horns? What keyboard sounds are present? Is that a Rhodes or a Hammond? Can you differentiate the kick drum from the bass notes?
3) After you're able to pick apart all the individual instruments, you realize that your next job is to appreciate how all these parts are put together. It's quite the zen trick to register the components and the whole (like figure and ground) at once. But once you reach this point, you're a Listener.
4) Take ear breaks. After 10 or 15 minutes of music, you often need 2 or 5 minutes of silence.
5) Have fun.