Listening skills

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Is listening to music a skill that develops or is it there naturally and what we hear develops as the quality of what we listen to develops. Are there musical traps and cul-de-sacs we can get stuck up which close our minds and ears.

[terrybooth]

A guitarist friends of mine, who had been involved in recording tells me he still hears recordings in layers based on how they used to build a mix.

I guess it is similar to the 'perfect' pitch ability some people claim. It's a skill that can be learned.

So I agree that listening to music is a learned skill. Some I've seen argue that this 'learning' explains the phenomenon of 'burns in': I.e. It isn't a change in the cable (or whatever) that's being perceived, it is the ears 'getting used to the sound' - perception - that changes.

What your are talking about is much more complicated of course But I would agree that it learned/based on experience rather than an innate ability.

[Lindsayt]

I think it's a mixture of both.

We are all born with a natural ability to listen to and appreciate music. How good this natural ability is, will vary to some extent from person to person - with it being dependent on our hearing working properly.

Experience, training, attitude, emotional state will hone this skill / ability.

[Fretless]

There is a very good book by Oliver Sachs called 'Musicophilia' in which he tells stories from his career in neurology about the weird and wonderful ways people perceive and experience music. Some even 'see' it because the brain's visual cortex gets stimulated.
I have had long periods when I have felt quite literally addicted to music, both listening to and making it.
Music can do strange things inside your head.

[terrybooth]

There is a very good book by Oliver Sachs called 'Musicophilia' in which he tells stories from his career in neurology about the weird and wonderful ways people perceive and experience music. Some even 'see' it because the brain's visual cortex gets stimulated.
I have had long periods when I have felt quite literally addicted to music, both listening to and making it.
Music can do strange things inside your head.

That looks like my next read, thanks. (I've read 'the Man who mistook his wife for a Hat')
Edit. 'Musicophilia' is on its way to me now.

[zebbo]

I think listening to music to report back your thoughts, or to dissect it's attributes, is a learned skill and one that I'm not particularly good at or overly concerned about. When my system sounds right, the listening becomes more of a feeling, if that makes sense, where the music just washes over me and I'm immersed in it just enjoying it but not even thinking about whether or not I can hear the bass line, or whether the cymbals sound real. That sort of listening comes natural, I think, but only happens, for me, when everything is working well.

[Fretless]

The current trend for bass-heavy reproduction reflects a generation programmed by 'dance' to only enjoy music that can be more felt than heard. And their exposure to 'listening' is mainly via low-quality MP3.

[Daniel Quinn]

Musicophila is available as a free ebook download as a pdf.

[terrybooth]

Musicophila is available as a free ebook download as a pdf.

I think I've managed about 3 eBooks but I've managed hundreds of physical books. I'll argue that it's down to the contrast of ink on paper being better than the eReaders I've tried. Or, to put it another way, so far as books are concerned, I likes 'em tactile.

[Fretless]

Musical taste is certainly somethings that grows with experience and exposure to different types of music. What you like and don't like, and that changes. I have a cyclical listening pattern where I fall into a genre, like Jazz, and immerse myself in it for months at a time. Then I move on to, say, Electronic and do the same. Eventually coming back to Jazz, but in the meantime, my comprehension of that form appears to have deepened and I feel more comfortable with that style and understand it better.
I think something along the same lines happens with the appreciation of sound quality. What you have been exposed to defines how you think things can sound at their best - until you hear reproduction at a higher quality, and can recognise it as such.
Audiophiles seem to train their aural comprehension to pick up on the quality of the reproduction. Musicians, on the other hand, will tend to just listen to what is being played and how. Producers will listen to the mix, etc.
How you focus your attention would seem to be the key issue, and that depends on your own personal experience and what you actually want to hear.