👂 How Brian Eno “Tests” His Loops

When we listen to our own music intently and consciously, we often lose our objective ear.

Its becomes increasingly difficult to relate to the ear of our audience—a group of listeners who may have NEVER heard our piece before.

So how can you regain your objective ear and hear your music like they would?

I discovered this trick from ambient/electronic composer Brian Eno a while back, and have been using it ever since.

(Skip to 11:54)

Here’s what Eno says:

“What I do is I get [the piece] running, and then I sit in the other room and I write or I read… and I’m listening all the time it’s playing, and I’m thinking ‘There’s too much of that note’… or ‘This is too dense’, or ‘There’s too much going on in the lower register’.” ~ Brian Eno

By listening away from the computer, Eno acts like a passive listener. This helps him to determine if things are poking out of his music unnaturally to break his flow in other tasks, and allows him to course correct his music.

It’s a strategy I highly recommend if you’re writing game music, as this is the same kind of experience the players would have when listening to your music 👍🏻