Yeah I was thinking about looking into one of those schools, or just an art school in particular. My great grandfather did the same with traveling to different places to study, even the warsaw conversatory where Chopin studied. I think that would be rad to do that.

Learning to listen takes time, learning to use your ear takes work. It's like hearing a dominant 13th chord for the first time, first its strange and you probably wont be able to think of it in your mind or recognize it when you hear it in a piece of music. But as you listen to it more and more, you start to hear it in your head and notice it in music. That takes time and it's a different lenght of time for every person. Yeah drummers don't have a clue because they don't need to have an ear for pitch. Transcribing is the best way to learn how to use your ear, but as you get a grip on transcribing others' work. Try transcribing ideas out of your head next, start slow and work up to where you can transcribe your thoughts straight to music. It shouldn't end with transcribing others' but like in the dreaded english class where you were told to write so many pages of just your thoughts without stopping. Do that with music. In my opinion that's the ultimate in music, pulling your ideas out of your head clearly and quickly.

When I'm driving I do listen to something, but then again sometimes I don't. Especially if theres other people in the car and I'm not driving, I rarely pay attention to the song playing. Alone different story. I try to play more than I listen.

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 11-07-2003 at 10:32 AM]