And speaking of tools , the last word goes to Dourado , who , when asked what his go-to sounds and / or instruments are , he instead talks about a tool that has nothing to do with technology , but the tools we all have and should depend on more than any others …
“ In our community , we sincerely practice listening together ,” Dourado says , “ which consists of a sitting practice and a listening practice . In the listening practice , we listen to the environment as though it was a composition , and we learn to listen to sound without judgment . Learning to listen this way offers the compositional approach of imagining how we could hear any variety of sounds from our pianos or sound generators . For example , what would it look like to play the sound of waves crashing on a synthesizer versus a piano ? What would it look like to play the sound of a car driving past ? How could you differentiate these sounds on a piano ? There are enough really functional open-ended aspects to this way of working to generate endless material .”
Kevin Young is a Toronto-based musician and freelance writer .
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 57