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Contextual listening

Listening for the purpose of identifying and gaining information about a sound’s source. It is the opposite of Musical Listening. (also known as causal listening).

Contextual Listening This is a listening strategy in which attention is being given to the relationships between specific sounds and the real or imagined contexts in which they are taking place. Contextual listening sits at the opposite end of a spectrum to musical listening. Some authors (e.g., Katharine Norman 1996) have split contextual listening into two: referential listening (focused on the identification of specific sources) and contextual listening (placing those sources in an aural context).