"The Art of Listening"
submitted by Bob Parker
I must shamefully admit that this article was copied directly from Reader's Digest (see footnote at bottom). One of the key aspects of singing and performing is the ability to listen. We must listen to the other voice parts, particularly the leads, we must listen to our director, and we must listen to the instruction of people who are trying to help us sing better. On the other hand, the director and anyone else standing in front of the chorus must listen to the members. We have a lot of "experienced" members who have been "around the block" so to speak, and they have much to offer in the way of helpful criticism and encouragement. One of the faults of most teachers, including myself, is that we tend to talk too much to our students without giving them a chance to offer their input. I think this applies to directors, vice presidents, and yes, presidents.
Research shows we learn 85% of what we know through listening, but most of us absorb just 25% of what we hear. Get people to share more, and hear more of what they share:
Let speakers finish!
Interrupting is the most common listening offense, says Melissa Beal, communications professor at the University of Northern Iowa. Finishing someone's thoughts or asking too many questions bugs the speaker - and can make him/her clam up.
Don't multitask!
You miss info if you read or type during a chat, and you may offend the speaker. If you're busy, ask if you can talk later and set a time to do so.
Follow up!
If you don't let people know the outcome of ideas, they feel they weren't heard and that they didn't offer something of value, says Kittie Watson, author of "Listen Up." People offer more ideas if they trust they'll hear back." 1
1. Reader's Digest, "The Art of Listening," The Reader's Digest Association, Pleasantville, NY, August, 2004.
Listening is a skill we all need to work on. Let's not get caught up in our own agendas, and ignore the opinion of others.
Trivia item: The music to "Take me out to the ball game," 1908, was written by Albert Von Tilzer, brother of Harry Von Tilzer, who gave us many barbershop songs. When Albert wrote the music, he had never seen a baseball game. (source: PBS radio broadcast)
A note from your Editor:
Did anyone note that your Pitchburgh Press has a slightly different look this issue? What! You didn't notice that this issue uses Arial font, size 10 instead of Times New Roman, size 11? Tsk, Tsk! How unobservant!
Why, you ask? Because our web master, Bernie Sinwell, copies each Pitchburgh Press onto the web site and for some reason his computer program had a hard time with Times New Roman but handles Arial very well. I just knew you'd be all excited about this bit of info.!
You may also have noticed that I divided the calendar into parts (performances vs. activities). This is another idea I got from Bernie's calendar on our web site. I hope you are all reading the web site each month because Bernie puts a heck of a lot of effort into making it one of the better chapter web sites in the society.
A note from the past....
If the current show chairmen think they have occasional problems, talk to Joe Veltre about when he was Show Chairman for the show in April 1977. Remember Joe? Shortly before the night of the show, the selected emcee, Bill Hillgrove had to cancel out and two of the show quartets backed out. Then just one hour prior to show time, the replacement emcee called in sick and you managed to get Mike McGann of WTAE to fill in. The Golden Triangle Sweet Adelines were on the show and the ceiling collapsed in their dressing room and sent two of the ladies to the hospital! Joe managed to have Tom O'MaIley extend the audience sing-along while he got things under control back stage. Guess that added a few gray hairs, right Joe?
This from the April-June 2004 PROBEmoter:
Notice: SPEBSQSA, Inc., is the official, legal name of
the Society'! By Brian Moore, VP of Marketing & Public Relations.
Over a year ago, the Society Board of Directors approved the use of a new simpler name to identify our organization and our love of singing.
BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY
Much easier to say, and generally does not require an extensive explanation of what all those letters mean.
Once you have signed up a new member, teach him the words and meaning of our Society's official name.