Duration
Visualization
55sPrompt
Session
This is not a musical instrument. The instrument is your attention. Choose a duration, press begin, and listen.
The instrument is your attention. The score is whatever is happening right now.
This is not a musical instrument. The instrument is your attention. Choose a duration, press begin, and listen.
Deep Listening was developed by composer Pauline Oliveros, who spent her life exploring the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is passive — it happens to you. Listening is active — it's an instrument you play with your attention.
Oliveros believed that most of us live in a narrow band of awareness, filtering out the vast majority of sounds around us. Deep Listening expands that band — you begin to hear layers, textures, and rhythms in the everyday world that were always there but never noticed.
This experiment is a guided session. Open your microphone and the room around you becomes the score. Gentle prompts redirect your attention — to the farthest sound, the closest sound, the space between sounds. The visualization shows you what your ears are already hearing.
Try it: choose 5 minutes, start the session, and close your eyes between prompts. When it's over, notice how differently the world sounds.