How do you listen to music?

don't get me started.

With my ears.

How do you do it?

:wink:

Pentacle Queen, I become the music to which I listen, and the genre is not necessarily a factor.

Oh no, I think Iv'e said something misleading.
I don't mean 'My favourite music is a lot more powerfull than music on Classic FM'
To the contrary- I love classic FM. I love classical music.
However I only used Classic FM as an example because it's radio- so It's not going to be all my choice- it will be diluted, some things I will like more than others.

I have absolutely no musical ability at all -- well, I suppose rhythm counts and I can rock and roll dance pretty good -- but I've always considered music a companion. I listen to all kinds of music and usually have something playing. We recently got digital cable TV and I quickly discovered the wonderful, commercial free music stations they have on there so I listen more than watch TV.

Busy noise helps me keep focused on whatever task is at hand.

My habits have changed a bit over the last year or two. My six year old son becomes absolutely obsessed with certain songs. Right now it's "Sweet Home Alabama", especially the opening guitar bit, a lot, and the drums at the first of "Oye Como Va".

It's fascinating to watch his concentration when he listens, his way of listening is so opposite to mine. He listens actively.

There are a handful of classical pieces that I will actually refrain from listening to because I love them so much that I don't want them to get old.

I used to listen to music a lot, all types and genres,
collecting about 1000 CDs and then filling a computer with 34,000 mp3's.

But once I downloaded music from other countries and cultures,
Mongolian punk music, Afghanistan modern, Norwegian folk music,
tribal African rhythms, and so on... rhythms, tones, and melodies that
speak from each variety of human being... I began to really see how closed
and artificial the American music market is. How flat, calculated, and locked-in.

Music sold in a store seems so cardboard to me now. Even sheet music that I
might study, finger on a piano and memorize like a mechanical monkey,
doesn't seem like actual music anymore. When I go for walks I hear music
in the pavement and the rolling noises around me, the rhythm
that each person has, the way books fall off a shelf, and the way my thoughts go.
Music in the way someone struggles through their own feelings as they wake up inside.

There are certain patterns even in the news, the way some stories trickle out,
engage the public imagination, explode, fascinate, and then wander off into oblivion.
There's music in the way 250 million people get distracted into something
else without ever realizing it! And then wander back two years later.

I can't listen to radio music anymore. It's like trying to listen to a photo of the
President. So contrived and unreal. I can play with music but it's not anything written
down, so it's constantly changing and shifting in amazing ways, and when a friend
asks what it was, it's already gone.

I like the way different objects vibrate when you play different notes. I like the way
repetitious work becomes social. When somebody walks into the room, the song
changes completely. I like how a dancer plays a song and then the person at
an instrument converts it into the air, back in through the dancers ears, and
out again, into the floor.

I'm not a musician, certainly not for money, but the interrelationships and rhythmic
connections all around us are so much richer and more satisfying, I can't
imagine learning the "proper" way to play exactly the "correct" thing.
Do they have music courses on "How to invest in the stock market", or
"The aesthetics of a car" or "The searing pain of honesty"? They should.
How else can you find a rhythm or a melody, or share what's going on?

Growing up I met a lot of people that appeared really unintelligent,
and to this day I still consider them idiots. Listening to techno and
claiming that they lived and breathed for that music.

I hate myself for being so arrogant that I look down upon these
people, just because they listen to a type of music that is really
repetitive and boring, full of loud and up-beat noises. I am really
not that arrogant, but sometimes I can't help myself.

Well, the point is that I think there are different ways to listen to music.
Some listen just to keep them from getting bored and some for the joy
of music and the feeling they get from it. I am not saying there aren't
more ways of listening to music.

I listen to as much music as I can squeeze in. I like Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan and I like My Chemical Romance. I like Abba and Nine Inch Nails. I like Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Kelly Clarkson. I like Siouxsie and the Banshees and Saint-Saens. I like the Scotts Dragoon Guards and Jeff Buckley. (I don't like "country" but that ain't music anyhow)

You can eat a-la-carte in expensive restaurants and still enjoy M&Ms.

With speakers

I love that quote! I love Alan Rawsthorne, Handel, AND the Darkness.

Whatannoys me are these people who love new bands and say they are brilliant, surely not all their songs can be briliant.It woudl take a hell of alot out of me to sit down, listen to and play every song on every album to the point were it really effected me.Theres not enough time in the day.

I have the radio on at work, for background noise, personnaly I think alot of bands sound the same now and it annoys the heck out of me, but there are some more modern sounding fab songs.

I have 1 song i listen to when I do the washing up.Makes it less of a chore.
I play loud music in the living room of an evening and dance around like a loon.
I have 'mood' music when I want to be mellow and calm.

Very very loud for cleaning up and getting ready to go out. (not that often on both counts)

Very very very loud whilst driving (unless daughter in the car cos her ears are quite sensitive).

Very very very very loud on headphones (must be very good quality) late at night when she is in bed.

I like volume.

well,

I am a musician. I write and produce - mainly hip hop. As a vocalist I rap and sing. Personally, I think I listen to music differently than most people (at least any non musician that I've met).

That is, when a song I enjoy is on, I listen for everything that makes that song sound the way that it does. Like, I'm constantly asking the question, "how did they do that?". Meaning, I'm listening for the melodic structure, but also the compression / eq / reverb on that instrument - where it is in the mix - what type of instrument it is - guitar - or synth lead, etc. - if its a guitar is it a clean, undistorted guitar? or is it grungy, overdriven etc? If it's a synth, do I know the type of synthesis used to create that sound (sine wave, triangle, etc)? Even better, can I tell what keyboard or module that sound might have come from?

Also, I ask questions like, "how do the different instruments play together?" to form the structure of the song.

I've learned a TON by just listening on such a critical level like this. When I first heard DJ Quik, for instance, I was really curious to know how he got his snares to sound as full and punchy as he does. I began really listening hard and also experimenting with my own sounds back in the studio. Come to find out that he uses probably 5 or more individual instruments (claps / snares / snare with effects / snare without effects / etc) all layered to get that unique sort of a sound (which is a classic west coast gangsta rap snare sound.)

So, mostly I listen to find out how to duplicate the sound I am hearing and not strictly for enjoyment - although, of course - it is that as well.

T


I know this is off topic, but check me out and let me know what you think of my stuff
Edit [Moderator]: Link removed

Queen-- Not to worry. I've been in the music business for over 20 years--as a writer. At various times, I listened to music quite a lot. Going out to clubs to hear friends, or time at home/car with a fave CD. My 'total immersion' in music lasted 7 years, I admit. When I wasn't listening to it, I was writing, and when I wasn't writing, I was THINKING about writing. It worked out great for dry spells to come.

Feed you mind, heart, and soul, and the music will reflect that.

Good Luck,
ww

Driving, riding, eating, reading, walking, working.

I get your point, Pentacle Queen. Classical music is too powerful for background music. I love Mahler. Can you imagine Mahler in the background? Impossible! He demands full attention.

In Dallas the classical station, WRR, went commercial a few years ago. Since that time they play little heavy classical music. Mahler almost never. Twentieth century music almost never except the lightest. The station wants profit now, so they want the listener to leave the radio on all day, and they play background music.

I think that many people in America think that classical musical is dead, and even old fashioned. This, of course, is far from true. Unfortunately, WRR and other classical stations subscribe to that misconception, and their extremely conservative programming gives that impression to young people.

Hurrah to you as a music student. You will keep the tradition alive, and their is no higher art than music.

^^^Here here^^^

Speaking of 20th century, do you like Hanz Zimmer - any movie soundtrack that he has done I find myself loving.

Same here

Music motivates me when I clean, drive, exercise, garden, etc... I like a variety of music which goes from one extreme to another, depending on my mood. My favorite is good old Rock N Roll, but there are days where all I want to listen to is classical music.
With the exception of the times I'm trying to unwind, I tend to like my music loud and get frustrated when stuck with bad speakers
I can't exercise without my music.