Page 65... "To illustrate the way we might take on the stance of critical compassionate listeners, the idea of modes of listening can help us consider the ways context, personal experience, and cultural expectations might shape the way we engage as listeners."
It goes on to explore the areas of musical listening that, "different musical genres invite us to listen in different ways and that, as listeners, we can work to develop different modes of listening for different musical styles, situations, or contexts."
Certain music we listen to can invite us to listen to different parts of it, like the vocal capabilities, the message, the rhythm of the music. As we learn to listen to different parts of the music it can shape how we listen outside of the music as well. It transfers into the art of listening to, maybe, a friend better, you have practiced some of the necessary skills needed to engage with that friend. So if my friend was a sad song, I would stop to listen to the words better than if it was a happy song. If my friend was the happy song I wouldn't be listening to the words I would be listening to the rhythm, which would be more likely to be upbeat.
Culture influences how we listen, different situations call of different types of listening. I grew up listening to piano music and instrumental music because my family was a part of an orchestra. I like to listen to wordless music when I study, for one to block out the noise of my angry downstairs neighbors, and two I can better focus on the words in my head than the words of the music. But to someone who did not grow up listening to that and instead listened to heavy metal, they have a better time understanding the meaning of the message rather than the feel of it like I do.
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