Getting Started in Music
Human beings are a “musical species,” said neuroscientist Oliver Sacks. You probably already know that music can affect your thinking and behaviour, your very idea of “self.”
Here’s how to get started listening to, learning, and performing music.
Whether you’re a Deadhead, a Belieber, a jazz hepcat, or a classical music junkie, you may think you know everything there is to know about listening to music.
While it’s true that you don’t need musical training to listen to music, there are degrees of listening that can deepen your appreciation.
First, the difference between hearing and listening. Yup, they’re not the same process.
Hearing is the actual physical process of perceiving a sound, like music. It’s passive. Sound reaches your ears, and voila, you hear (unless you are hearing impaired).
Are you even listening?
Listening is that function demanded by parents and teachers. It requires your attention. You probably know the difference between active and passive listening, but just in case:
Occurs when you actively try to attend to, understand, or interpret what you’re hearing. This means avoiding distractions, staying focused, and being present and curious.
Occurs when you are (duh) passive and unreceptive (e.g. listening to music in the subway and tuning out background noise)
It takes some practice to be a good listener, but if you master some basic skills, you’ll appreciate music even more (and just think about what better listening skills might do for your relationships!).
How to really tune in
Discover the music in everything from birdsong to sirens to the ice cream truck to trickling water to children playing to a hot trumpet solo to your fave indie singer-songwriter. All sounds have a music.
Listen for duration, motion, the placement of events within a time frame. Music is about time, after all.
As you listen to a piece, try to identify familiar patterns, relating new to old, and placing those patterns within time. There are so many “distant cousins” in music – classical informs modern; the blues inform rock and rap, etc.
New verbiage is cool, especially words as powerful as fortissimo. Other cool musical words: lick, gigue (related to jig), sforzando, power chords, castrato, and on and on. You’ll be able to talk music with the best of them.
Especially as you listen to lengthy pieces. Composers and jazz improvisers, for example, plant musical signposts like repeated sections, melodies, and rhythms along the way to keep you on your listening toes.
An open mind can open the musical world, quite literally inviting you into new modes of music and new cultures and centuries. Focus on what’s there rather than what you wish or hope was there in the music.
Experience and knowledge are powerful. Research the history and social context of the music you’re exploring, plus the life of the performer or composer. Heady stuff!
With all the interruptions in our lives from pinging phones and endless notifications, we sometimes just open Spotify and click play. Let the algorithms satisfy your tune tastes and go with the flow.
But –
You don’t always need an algorithm to dictate what you listen to. You can also switch it up. Especially when you have your own incredible brain. And when listening to music intentionally and curating your own lists can be so satisfying and enriching.
& Listen to and across different genres – Listen more than once – Listen in motion – Listen to the rhythm – Listen to the tone
