Here's what people have said about the workshop they experienced:


From the workshop at Maynard High School, March 2023:

I think I went into it looking to make smart, sophisticated, unique comments on it, but now I think the best comments come from a place of embracing what we don’t know.


I was able to understand more based on the feedback others brought up.

John Morrison’s Just Listening event was rewarding and bracing—I left with renewed energy and curiosity for listening practice! The workshop creates a space in which we are invited to attend to our senses and engage freely and playfully with intuitive responses; it charts a path through the joys of group exploration and creation of shared experience. Anyone with any level of musical experience can benefit from this process of opening to what we really hear in sound and how we experience it. I felt like we all got closer to our actual sensory experience, and also closer to a genuine understanding of the music and each other. It’s wonderful!
Evan Chambers, Professor of Composition, University of Michigan

From the workshop at Fitchburg State University, March 2022:

Each time I listened, I was able to hear something different, or apply another student’s understanding each time.

I like how it encouraged thinking in layman’s terms.

I liked the professor’s enthusiasm towards the topic, really made me want to understand more.

Crowd-sourcing comments helped me see different angles and think about my own comments differently.



John Morrison gave a most interesting and rewarding workshop.  I admire the way that he got the students to listen thoughtfully to music they had not heard before, and how he elicited reactions and discussion from students who were not used to engaging in music in such a way.  I was interested in how Dr. Morrison kept the approach easy-going yet kept gently prodding the students to open their ears and minds.  The instant set of opinion polls via cell phone was a particularly innovative touch - it gave the students immediate feedback about how their reactions compared with everyone else's.  Dr. Morrison is enthusiastically invited to come back - I look forward to seeing what else he has to present to our students!
Dr. Robin Dinda, Professor, Humanities (Music), Fitchburg State University

From the workshop at Illinois Wesleyan University, March 2021:


I really liked the time that we spent talking about the energy and the relationships that we heard in the piece, writing down different ideas and coming up with different things to look for or to be aware of in our next listen through the piece.

I really liked hearing everyone's different responses. It changed my perspective about the music.

I started looking at music as more than what I've trained for.


From the workshop at Wheaton College, November 2019:

Listening to the music more definitely helps. I began to picture it in more details and the structure started to form in my head.

I will think of music in wider ways.

I was able to think of music as more of an evolution (or progression.)



From the workshop at Illinois College, October 2019:


I learned to analyze things I wasn’t aware of before.

I liked hearing what everyone else thought of it.

I liked that what we said was exactly what was written on the board.

I liked learning the lesson of practicing not knowing.


Dr. Morrison's Just Listening workshop draws in both the experienced listener and the novice.  Both my first-year students and my music faculty responded very positively to his presentations and we could follow the shape and form of the music through his insightful graphics.  His explanation of the Sound Energy Aggregate was also very clear, especially for young musicians and audiences who have a limited vocabulary for describing sound and music. 
Timothy Kramer, Edward Capps Professor of Humanities, Professor of Music and Composer, Illinois College

From the workshop at Divergent Studio, June 2019 (a summer composition festival at Longy School of Music):


I was freed to enjoy the music while listening and not worrying about the “right answer”.

I made connections that made each event more interesting than on their own.

I liked that there was an attitude of no pressure and open-minded exploration.

The atmosphere was very relaxing, but during discussion time it was really energizing to hear everyone’s ideas and perceptions.

I enjoyed “crowd-sourcing” our ideas of what we heard. I think this was most important.



From the workshop at the Emerson College, Boston, MA. (filmmaking class):


It was interesting to hear how others heard the music, it made me listen with a different ear each time we listened again.

Hearing the energy others felt from the piece changed the way I understood the music and my own reactions to it – really a beautiful way to learn.

I really loved the drawings of what people mentioned in class. Being able to have a visualization of sounds helped us form a consensus on the piece.

I really enjoyed the facilitation! It was great how affirming John was. I also liked the shared listening experience.


From the workshop at the Greater Boston Zen Center, Cambridge, MA.:

I loved that being “the expert” simply means you must be even more open-minded in all walks of life.

I appreciated how open the teacher was to everyone’s comments.

(What I liked best was) the sense of community that developed as a result of the discussion – the “sound haven”.

I was very grateful for the respect you engendered amongst the group.

John Morrison’s Just Listening focuses on the tools necessary for active listening. His presentation elicits an intuitive approach for analysis, one that engages the ear based on the direct aural experience of a composition. He begins with tapping into the mjusical energy found in a work, and moves into seeking expressive and meaningful values from the simple act of hearing. This method is backed up with evidence-based techniques and theoretical models, from the smallest detail to the over shape and form of the work. It is how we should approach all music, whether a musician, a composer, or an audience member. His presentation was well structured and fully engaging, and I can recommend him to any group or audience, from experts to music-lovers, who desire a totally committed approach in the goal of unraveling the power of expression found in music.
David Gompper, Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa

From the workshop at University of North Carolina-Greensboro School of Art:


Sympathy, compassion. Deep thought. I got a moment of peace, an opportunity to listen.

I like that we get everyone’s opinion. There’s no right or wrong.

The workshop allowed me to slow down and focus on singular elements — this helped me to pay attention to the repetitions in energy and sounds.
I liked the pacing of the workshop. I loved the music and listening to it repeatedly was a real pleasure. It was an opportunity to listen more than I usually get the chance.

(What I liked best was) listening to the same piece several times — letting our teeth sink into the feelings and the sounds, letting it sit for a long time.

I seemed to get to know it more and more each time I listened. I experienced it differently at each listening but felt I had a sense of the overall structure and development by the last listening.

(The most important thing I got was) the realization of how much is truly missed from just listening once. Also that other people’s narratives and feelings can change what I hear as well.


From the workshop at University of North Carolina-Greensboro School of Music (graduate and undergraduate composers):

 I realized that a lot of people would relate what they heard to something else they know rather than simply observe what actually happened.

I was able to understand the form of the piece much better as a result of the workshop.

I started listening more for elements that seemed “obvious” at first and it began to feel more intentionally constructed the longer I listened.

I found a deeper connection to the real foundational characteristics of the music.

It encouraged listening to things I might not otherwise hear. It also emphasized sound over notation.

The concept and idea of allowing myself to “not know anything” and come into music just listening, engaging, and reflecting over what I find.

The need to let go of what you think you should know to be able to listen.

Last month, my church hosted a workshop called Just Listening, led by a professor of composition at the Longy School of Music, John Morrison. A diverse group of people gathered in a room and simply listened to a short contemporary piece that none of us had ever heard before. We listened to it four times, and after each listening, Dr. Morrison asked us to describe what we had heard. This was an eye-opening experience for me, to listen to people with a little or a moderate amount of musical experience describe what they were hearing in non-technical terms. They noticed things like the energy in the piece, or the shape, or the feelings that were evoked. It became a group endeavor to illuminate the essence of the piece. What I learned was that, by setting aside what we think we know about music--our expectations, our analytic brains, our inner criticisms of performers or styles--we can experience music more fully and deeply. Our own feelings of either superiority OR inadequacy have no place here, and thus we develop compassion for ourselves and lessen our need to be super-critical perfectionists. We develop compassion for others who have different and equally valid things to bring to the experience. In addition, when we listen openly even to music we expect not to like or relate to, we are liable to find something new to experience or learn from.
Jane Cain, Music Director of DCPC

From the workshop at Salem College School of Music, Winston-Salem, NC (graduate and undergraduate music majors):


 I liked listening multiple times to the piece.

I liked how the listening was a community effort.

The piece’s structure gradually emerged as I listened more.


From the workshop at Davidson College Presbyterian Church (DCPC), Davidson, NC:


More enjoyable, listenable with familiarity. Like knowing a complex friend.

Different perspective - especially with multiple participants and technical explanation.

Empowering the novice - or making the novice feel at home and capable. Beginner's mind welcomed and honored.


From the workshop at Divergent Studio, June 2018 (a summer composition festival at Longy School of Music):

It allowed me to take many steps back from my usual mode of listening.

Being able to step back from everything we know as musicians is very valuable, and helps to hear music from an audience perspective.

I like the attitude of staying engaged, which I think at times lacks in the western classical world.


From the workshop at The Laurels at Highland Creek (an assisted living facility outside Charlotte, NC):

What sounded initially like opposing/contrasting sounds developed into a more synchronized event.

Change in my understanding of "the nothing" to the appreciation of his style.

The speaker was entertaining and engaging with the audience.


From the conference, Contemplative Practices for 21st Century Higher Education, Chapel Hill, NC:

Sense of community after just 45 minutes.

I feel as though I have entry into the music now. I want to listen more.

I love the template... this template of contemplative listening seems full of so much potential.


From the workshop at Food For Thought, Follen Church in Lexington, MA:

The challenge to engage actively, even though I didn’t verbalize much, caused me to think about what was going on and define it in my head, thus opening me to greater understanding.

Much greater depth and dimensionality as a result (of the workshop).

Loved it!


From the inaugural workshop at the Community Music Center of Boston:

I liked how it was entirely directed by the audience – our contributions were what directed the workshop. I also liked how we listened to the piece many times to develop our understanding.

At first listen, prior to hearing others’ comments, there didn’t seem to be that much of a concrete meaning or changes. With more listens, a stronger sense of the work became clear.

(I liked most the) shared discussion and repeated listening, and (John)’s ability to get more and more thoughts out of people and being very supportive of answers.

I liked how many people contributed with many different ideas.

It was interesting that we were able to verbally create a diagram of the piece.

(I liked most the) shared experience of the music.



From a former student:
As a student of John Morrison's, I deeply appreciated his contemplative approach to music. I found it to be a breath of fresh air, and largely missing from academia. I think that musicians can be the worst audience of all for music because they often can't turn off their analysis. They can have the most trouble just experiencing a piece sonically, and seeing how it affects them on a physical level, apart from their knowledge as a musician. I believe that this is the most important way to experience music, and that this is the way in which it can have its most profound effect. I so appreciated John Morrison giving us all a chance, and encouragement, to do just that in an academic setting. After all, that is the setting where many of us most deeply ingrain the habits that will prevent us from ever doing that sort of listening.
Damen Eastling, MM, composition, Longy School of Music