Music education is an important factor of students’ development. The positive effect of music training is evident in all areas, from the intellectual, psychomotor to social and emotional ones, and therefore music classes in the music school should focus both on music making and on experience, understanding and evaluating music, as well as on expressing one’s own ideas, feelings and thoughts. In ear training classes it can be achieved through the area of music listening. Didactical initiatives of the 19th and 20th century contributed to the recognition of the advantages of the auditory approach, while technological innovations allowed the practical application of music listening. Although there are examples that point to fostering the emotional experience in music classes, music listening is still focused on giving assignments of cognitive type and learning about music components. Some exceptions pertain to the application of multimodality in music teaching using both musical and extra-musical areas. The paper is aimed at pointing to the value of the cognitive-emotional music listening and to the possibilities it opens in ear training classes. The cognitive-emotional music listening focuses on experiencing, understanding and appreciation of classical music aimed at shaping students’ worldview and improving their music competences. It can be achieved by the multimodal and interdisciplinary approach to a musical piece. Students learn about the musical-historical context of the emergence of a piece in a given time and circumstances, about the composing approach and the theoretical and harmony features of the work, they develop their musical and critical thinking, make music, and evaluate both music and their own achievements. Repeated listening to a musical piece or excerpts from it, observing and familiarizing with the piece from different perspectives and discussion about the piece and experience after listening make it possible to better understand the piece and its specifics, as well as to discover and improve one’s own self and accept others and the different.

In his research, the author investigates the extent/ratio of abstraction or visualization in affecting the formation of musical thought, which may lead to the question as to what extent the theoretical knowledge helps the performing practice, and vice versa: does the perception of the selected instrument, and if so - to what extent, can help to more confident knowledge of elementary theory of music? The research is based on the author’s personal experience in the years-long teaching practice.

Autor u istraživanju propituje u kojoj mjeri/omjeru apstrakcija ili vizualizacija utječu na formiranje muzičkog mišljenja što može voditi do pitanja u kojoj mjeri teorijsko znanje pomaže u izvođačkoj praksi, ali i obratno: da li i u kojoj mjeri percepcija odabranog instrumenta može pomoći u sigurnijem znanju elementarne teorije muzike? Istraživanje je bazirano na osobnom iskustvu autora iz višegodišnje nastavne prakse.