How do you define listening?

Well, I define listening as being present and paying attention. It does not necessarily mean hearing a sound or a voice but listening by being present. That is important. Sometimes, I could be standing before an instrument in my practice room, imagining a phrase of music, not making any sound. Being with that phrase in that environment gives me the differences in interpretation and feel. So, listening to me is about presence.

Please share an example where listening was crucial to the success of a collaborative project.

Listening is the crux of what happens in our daily lives. Everyday living gives us an opportunity to zoom out of our situations and evaluate whether that worked or not. Was that successful or not? However, we define success as being. Was there a bridge created that helped people connect? Did that inspire convergence, cohesion, and change? That, for me, is this constant everyday collaborative experience. For example, people see me as a successful musician and a successful person. Well, it is a product of the collective listening of so many people who work with me behind the scenes and out of the public face. We are all part of that process, and that involves an awful lot of listening.

In your opinion, what are some of the barriers that prevent people from listening to others?

Oh, I think our attention. It is just how much attention we can give, and listening is all about the opportunity. The explosion of social media has bombarded us with messages from all directions, significantly affecting our attention span: zapping our energies, and not leaving enough in the tank to listen. Listening requires clear space, as it were the only thing. So, the attention must be solely on what you are listening to. If you are looking at your telephone or listening to music while walking down the road, there is no way you will observe the birds or the river. You might see the birds and the river, but to listen to nature and experience those things is very different.

Often, preconceived notions steal our opportunity to listen. People make assumptions too quickly by what they see or think. Sometimes, we interject and finish people's sentences or stories. We are all culprits of this. Sometimes, I catch myself having to say; hold on a second, Evelyn, you are too quick off the mark there. Reminding listening is an amazing opportunity to recognize the infinite possibilities of interaction.

How did you manage to silence the challenges in your life and listen to your heart to pursue your career in music? What gave you that courage?

I really do not know. A lot of my particular journey has been about listening to myself. Although that sounds very selfish, it is really important to listen to yourself, the chatter in your head, and the messages you're sending to yourself. Otherwise, it is very easy to be pulled in different directions because everybody has opinions. Even though they're important, ultimately, you have to feel and listen to yourself and what it is that you are saying to yourself because you have to make that step to do x, y, or z. So, for me, as a performer, there is no one else on the stage who will do that thing there and then. Yes, countless people can play percussion, and this repertoire; is not what I'm talking about.

Ultimately, You have to decide to play and then deliver the goods so you can't stand up and say, oh, well, I can play this part, but I really can't be bothered today to play that particular movement. So, we will forego that. So, it is all about "Listening to yourself," listening to what feels right for you and the pace of what you feel is right for yourself. So, this can be a massive issue for people at school and in colleges and universities because they're comparing themselves with others. So, Johnny over there, wow! He has done this, that, and the next thing. But I have not done any of that. Well, that is okay.

We all move in different ways and at different paces and tempos. I know I can be quite a slow learner with some things, and then at the last minute, everything just seems to click, and the penny drops, and that has happened with me a lot in many things that I have done. But I do not panic about it because that is how it seems to work in my mind and body. That is something that I listen to and manage, as it were. So, I'm not pushing myself because somebody else has learned something much quicker. So, it is about listening to yourself. And yes, with that comes the feeling about what you want to do with your life. And you need to feel it, not just words. That is internal to everybody. But that feeling is all about listening.

Your hearing declined at an early age, what gave you the courage to pursue your dreams?

I really do not know. I had a very normal and stable family upbringing. Initially, my family was concerned that being a solo percussionist was a bit of unknown and suggested I try something else. However, they became extremely supportive once they realized this was what I wanted to pursue. It helps greatly if people around you are stable, level-headed, and there to listen to you.

Nobody can hold anyone back if they have the vision. Really! If you have the vision, listen to your calling, and go for it; you don't see it as courageous. Then find the best way to make that work. Otherwise, it's very easy for people to put you into boxes based on their understanding.

Then, there is always the realization of things not going your way. I draw upon my upbringing on the farm and being a farmer's daughter, given that I saw a bad harvest, dead livestock, and many things like that, and that's just life. Nature has this real balance of the ebbs and flows of things. The ultimate aim was always etude on my forehead. It is about keeping everything simple. So, you keep sight of that vision; there will always be ups and downs, doubts, or people will always think that it should have been done this way or that it cannot be done at all. And so, you must decide what you listen to and how much you listen. But ultimately, it comes back again to listening to yourself. That was the key thing in pursuing my career as a solo percussionist.

Also, resilience is crucial in any industry. Certainly, the music industry can be competitive. It can be tough going, where you never take anything for granted. You are reliant on what the body does and how it functions at a very high level, there are days when you do not feel like practicing, and there are days you feel okay. Then, there are days you feel like practicing. But you can't get anything to practice on because you could be traveling or other things happening during the day. And so, both mental and physical resilience is crucial.

But also taking responsibility is equally essential, Taking responsibility for your actions, mental state, thoughts, and reflection. That is all tied to listening. Drawing from my experience as a musician, after a performance sometimes people say, oh, that was lovely! That was wonderful, but ultimately, you know how things went. Whilst you accept and appreciate those lovely comments. It would help if you thought, do I need to go back to the drawing board? The bottom line is what you say to yourself, which things must be sorted out, addressed, or improved. So otherwise, there'll be this decline because you need to zoom in on those tiny subtle details that make the big difference in your performance.

You have explored and built an intimate relationship with your instruments. In your interviews, you mention your mallets are an extension of your hand. Could you suggest some activities for children to understand "Glennie's technique" of learning?

That is very funny! That is the first time I have seen that. I do not know. But I can share what I found interesting working with children with various challenges. For example, children who are sight impaired or blind spend a lot of time just feeling the instrument's shape, texture, temperature, and material and building a tactile relationship before they start striking it. And you do get a sense that the instrument becomes part of them. As we further explore the instrument, we slowly build up a conversation about their feelings and their imagination of sounds. This physically tactile vision gives us a nonmusical and incredibly expressive vocabulary, giving me ideas regarding interpretation.

Then, deaf children want to connect with that instrument through vibration. That is a different kind of tactile experience. And so, they pay attention to the actual impact of striking much sooner than a child with a sight impairment. However, they will spend time waiting, waiting, waiting for that vibrational hearing to fade. They are patient in handing over a sound to another person. For example, rather than just going bump, bump, bump on with four different people, it will be bump………. how long is the resonance? And we are all waiting. And then the next person plays, who may have a noticeably short, resonant instrument so that it could be bump …bump…bump. That way, we get away from, oh, you missed the beat and the rhythm; it becomes about finding the instrument's voice with respect to the type of acoustics. The whole thing is to develop an experiential understanding; it takes much longer in a wet or reverberant acoustic than in a dry one. Sometimes, you ask the kids to listen to the environment; other times to identify the instrument. Is it that triangle or castanet? The triangle, castanet, and other instruments are just like ingredients in the kitchen. So, you can have your fish, vegetables, and potatoes laid out on the kitchen bench. But then, what do you do with the potatoes? You can put them in an oven, cut them up, or put them in a pan whole. You can put them in cold or hot water, then create whatever meal you have in mind. So, it is the same with music. You are making a "sound meal," which depends on the tools you have in that room. And our tools happen to be the acoustics.

Scientific evidence shows your way of listening by perceiving and feeling sound waves via vibration is similar to how a baby hears in the womb, knowing that we can start nurturing a child with sound even before birth. What kind of music would you create to help nurture? (Like prenatal vitamins – Glennie's prenatal sound meal)

Oh, I know what you are saying here, like prenatal vitamins -Evelyn Glennie's prenatal sound meal.

That is lovely, you are right. There has been a discovery that sound is crucial whilst the baby is in the womb. Hearing impairment can now be diagnosed whilst the baby is in the womb. Earlier, deafness could only be detected when the baby was about two years old, which then is too late for speech development. At that age, it becomes challenging for the child to understand inflection, placement of speech, and dynamics.

Although I am not an expert, my gut feeling is to think about sounds, not so much about music. Think about frequencies and combinations of frequencies. A low and resonant sound would be very comforting. And not too busy either, it could be interesting. They have experimented with playing Mozart and Beethoven, which can be busy music. My instinct would be to strip everything out and think about resonance and frequencies so that there's time for the fetus to perceive that vibration, then, when the baby is born, to translate that through the voice, through the voice box, and to have the baby right there close to the mother and father's necks and chest. So that there is patience in registering a sound and then an expression; finally, music is fed into the process, bit by bit, so the story becomes more wholesome. That may be the way.

Would you be interested in creating your prenatal sound meal? I am eager to listen to prenatal sound meals for babies in the womb with bated breath. It would be a wonderful gift to humanity.

It is very interesting. You have given ideas to link the music and medical world. There are so many entry points; it is fascinating. It is something I have not thought about in this way. However, I have always wanted youngsters to be exposed to different sound colors. It would be fantastic for them to individually experience the double bass, tuba, accordion, bass drum, timpani, or cello. And then express themselves through what they are experiencing.

We all love music, but what is it? What does it consist of? It consists of many things that can sometimes be confusing and make us think we do not understand. But when you dissect it, you recognize that sounds have been put together structurally and skillfully.

Also, I am a big believer in linking sound with the human voice; it nurtures, giving people an extra dimension other than the one we take for granted, but something they feel. Whether inwardly or outwardly, when people use their voice based on something they feel within themselves, they have more weight in their words and how they express themselves in communication. And again, that goes back to listening.

In my book, I is for Imagine and C for Create. For the word Create, I give an example of how, when I was in India, I saw two street kids playing Badminton without rackets, but just brown paper bags tied on their hands and a broken shuttle. Not having a racquet did not prevent them from playing and enjoying the moment. Also, in your talks, you often mentioned that you did not have access to traditional means of learning music while growing up on the farm. Could you share your method of learning that can inspire children who may not have many resources?

Hmm, it is a great story about the racquet, and sometimes less is more because then the imagination comes into play, which kids have in abundance. And it is so important to hang on to it as adults. The playfulness in what we do, being allowed to improvise, and having an experimentation platform is crucial. No matter what we do in life, it is just letting our minds go in different directions, whether within the discipline or something completely different. If somebody told me, Evelyn, spend a week designing a push bike and do whatever you want. Then, I would undoubtedly come out with something, a drawing, a list of ideas, or finding some materials. But the result will be, based on my freedom as a musician, knowing anything is permissible, and anything is allowed to happen with imagination.

While growing up, we did not have many means of acquiring music because it was a farming community near Aberdeen. It only had one music store, mainly selling pianos but no percussion music. The school had basic percussion instruments. It was through the skill of the teacher and this belief that you do not need fancy things to help you improve. You need imagination and the right support system at school to say Yes! Absolutely! It is possible to do so. Since we did not have percussion music, we stole music from the violin, flute, and piano repertoire. But then, it was our responsibility to decide if it would work on our instruments, not work, if we needed to adapt, or if we could take the ideas from that piece and make it completely different. For example, once, my teacher asked us to play a violin Partita by Bach on the snare drum; now, people would think you cannot play a violin Partita on the snare drum, but we could. While playing it, we got this sense of touch within ourselves. We had a feel of the G minor key, the ebbs and flows of the phrases, the dynamics, and so on. We were playing the snare drum in a very unconventional way. It was completely different and was allowed.

Although you cannot be playing the snare drum like that at an audition, these exercises help you manipulate your body differently. It enables you to fire all cylinders from your imagination. It will give you a sound world that you won't learn from a book, method book, or system. It is, simply, an exploration of taking something unlikely and putting it on something very unlikely, and lo and behold, you have a situation where you're discovering sound colors, things about the sticks, the head skin on the drum, and manipulating your body, and all of it is necessary in building your unique sound world. That has been an absolute godsend because it has given me the opportunities to write music and to be part of composing music for media purposes, for films and television, and computer games. After all, that is all about thinking outside of the box.

So, we had a situation at the weekend where I was making some film music, and the recording engineer said he had recorded so many thunder sheets before. Still, I've just never seen a thunder sheet being played like that before, and I've recorded many, many, many over my career. That gave me a real buzz and happiness, which stems from those early years with exploration by not having masses of thunder sheets, by having less, but by getting the imagination working for you.

How was it different?

Oh, heavens, gosh! The conventional way is to bow or strike those metal sheets, which has been going on for years and years, but we were finding separate ways of manipulating this thunder sheet. Well, first, we put a thunder sheet over a large resonant drum. In doing that, we combined the resonance of the large timpani and the thunder sheet which gave us a completely different instrument Typically, thunder sheets are played vertically. We put it horizontally. Why not? And then we started using a super bowl and scraping those along, then we used spring coils. And another person held the thunder sheet up at an approximately 45 degrees angle so that it was partly off the drum. And then we got another sound world. Again, it was just thinking about the placement, what you are using on that thunder sheet, and all the different ways of manipulating it.

In your interviews, you mentioned how you created your expression of the tractor and made it your own. How would you express mind skills from my book and make it your own? How would you interpret, visualize, hope, and joy using all the experiences and instruments in your repertoire?

Hmm, that is interesting. Well, I have not thought about it. However, what we do as a musician is constantly dealing with emotions. We are constantly thinking of Ooo, I would like this sound to be happy, sad, or lonely, or I would like this to be gentle or loving, or I would like this to be nervous or aggressive. The difference in manipulation brings these descriptions, come alive. So, if you are going to play something sad, it clouds the entire body posture in sadness, and that posture adds to the feeling of expression. The challenge you are bringing here, which is a really interesting one, is how can people digest that through sound only. And I would like to have some time to think about it.

Of course, some instruments have a cheeky or joyful sound, a threatening sound, a contemplative sound, a thoughtful or sharp sound, or a scary sound. So, we can find sounds in that respect. But what you are saying, for example, is a hopeful sound. This expression differs from one person to another. What might feel hopeful to one person may feel less hopeful to another, so a matter of opinion comes into play. It is a fascinating concept, but we need a lot of thought for inclusivity purposes. Because for kids with hearing impairment, a sound has a different kind of expression because it takes them a while to register that sound, so they may not immediately see that sound and put it to a description such as hopeful or loving or whatever it might be. They might have a different attachment to a sound, so it is a whole subject that I need to think very carefully about, and I do not know the answer. I love the fact that there could be ABC’s but to think not everybody might latch on to that sound in the same way. I am going to give that a bit of thought. You have just presented so many wonderful ideas and perspectives in this conversation. It is fascinating.