When I talk about “listening differently,” I don’t just mean hearing music in a new way, I mean shifting how we approach it.
Aaniin! I’m Anang Binesi. I’m an Anishinaabe percussionist, composer, and musician from Manidoo Bawitigong, Treaty #3, and I grew up in two very different musical worlds. On one hand, I had the structure of classical piano lessons, scales, exams, metronomes ticking away (although I didn't stick with it for too long). On the other, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a lot of powwows and experience my community's songs that have been passed.
For a long time, I didn’t think much about how these worlds collided. But the deeper I go into Western classical music through studies, rehearsals, juries, endless hours in practice rooms, the more I noticed how much focus is on “perfection”, and how little we talk about the relationships behind the music.
Listening differently, for me, means slowing down and asking:
Where does this music come from?
Who carries it?
What’s my responsibility to it?
It means holding space for both the precision I continue to learn from my classical training and the reciprocity I learn from my community. It means respecting that some music is meant to be shared, and some is meant to be protected.
That’s what this blog is about… finding ways to bridge my two worlds. I’ll share personal thoughts on decolonizing music and music education, and on what it looks like to treat music as a living connection instead of just a performance or object.
If you’re here, I hope you’ll stick around, join the conversation, and maybe start listening a little differently too :)