My critical listening is done sober. I find it quite easy to set myself up for it. I go through all manner of listening styles, choose one, and just proceed from there.
It comes from an old creative writing class where one of the disciplines we cultivated was to close our eyes and listen to sounds the teacher made. We were told to imagine images, scenes, colors and whatnot and not to fight it. In short order we were able to dive deep into that practice on a moments notice as a way of warming up for the writing.
I can sit back and "see" all manner of mental images that correspond to the music. Sometimes it can be like a graph. Other times a fluid mechanical representation that’s never the same any time I try it. Sometimes it’s a Tetris like soundstage where the notes (represented by different colored squares) come out into the room based on their intensity and location. That one is a fun one to do and I can call it up at will. The first time it happened it came out of nowhere. It’s not an ability to focus but to just let go and see where it takes you.
When I’ve described it to others, I’d get that look but now I’m the one who feels sorry for those that can’t do what is really a simple trick.
I’m also able to feel the frisson of the music in most parts of my body as well as the emotional connection that frisson produces.
For those unaware of frisson:
Frisson, also known as aesthetic chills or musical chills is a psychophysiological response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli that often induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state and transient paresthesia, sometimes along with piloerection and mydriasis. Wikipedia
All the best,
Nonoise
