What do you listen for in music?

I visited Titian last week and we discovered we listen to music in very different ways.

Whatever the music I tended to go for the rhythm of it, whilst Titian went for the melody. So if a piece didn't have a good rhythm I tended to get bored.

We noticed this with quite a lot of Classical music where I would completely miss the violins doing their thing in preference to me trying to make sense of what the Basses and cello's where doing.

I also guess this is why Jazz makes sense to me, as I am not 'offended' by the soloist doing whatever they are doing and just really take notice of them when they flow into and out of the rhythm section.

I guess this is also why I find most Rock and Pop music quite boring as it all sounds the same after a very short while.

So how about you?

 

I try to listen to the point of it

 

It's not something I can explain, and if I could I'd most likely stop listening.

 

interesting thoughts chief...i tend to listen to what the electric basses and piano (s) are doing, given that I play both instruments. Thats fairly instinctive actually, if you play an instrument then you tend to listen out for it.

Pop music nearly always has the same structure- ABABCA- at least theres more variation with especially late 19th/early 20th C romantic music. Classical music of the Haydn/Mozartian vein, especially the orchestral symphonies tends to be Sonata form

The one thing I DON'T listen for are the lyrics and the people who just listen to pop music for the lyrics and almost entirely dismiss, or who don't listen fairly attentively to the other instrumental parts, do sadden me a little. I'm not saying that the lyrics don't play an important part, but they are effectively just poetry...

 

that's sad

 

I think I listen to music as a whole, like standing back and looking at a piece of art. I like music for the emotional content most of the time so the entire aura and sound of it is important. I don't much listen to lyrics but I do listen to the melody and the tone / emotion in the voice.

I also find I listen to bass and piano as I play both and work out how it was all recorded as I am a recording engineer. I generally only do one of those three things at a time though.

My friend who writes a lot of music I notice listens to the structure of a song and when he says it has clever writing, I have noticed it is rarely the melody or the rhythm it nearly always just the way the song structure is put to effect.

 

explain... if you look at some of the best song lyrics from say...a ballad like Elton John's 'Your song' you'll see that its effectively just a poem

 

it depends on my mood really - sometimes i'll listen to the rhythmn - usually when i'm working and need something to drive me along. sometimes the lyrics and other times the melody. overall i'd say rhythmn was most important to me - i used to be a naimie is there a connection?
cheers


julian.

 

I find I listen to the whole piece although I might concentrate on different parts on different days. I guess I concentrate most on what the drummer is doing (if there is one) but otherwise I'm just as interested in the twiddly bits as I am in the rhythm. Then again, quite a lot of my music doesn't have much in the way of rhythm but either has a beat or a melody instead. So I like my system to be rhythmic when there is one but to be hifi enough to let me here all the twiddly bits distinctly and follow them if I wish. Oh, and I like cymbols to go 'ting', not 'tishhhh' (yes, I know that sometimes they are supposed to sound that way but you know what I mean)

Lyrics are quite important to me too. No matter how good the music, if the lyrics are rubbish (IMO) then I won't listen to it.

 

Lyrics tend to leave me dead. Most of my music lacks lyrics, and those that do I tend to think of the vocals as just another instrument and never listen to the words.

I suppose since I was a bad bass player that explains why I listen for that.

What I don't understand is how you can listen to a piece 'as a whole'. It's like those stereo pictures where you are supposed to unfocus the eyes, I just can't do it and have to focus on something particular.

 

I don't think you have to listen as a whole all the time but you have to step back and look at what the point is. If your not going to listen to the words then your not gonna dig Dylan (e.g.) if your only going to listen for rhythm then you'll miss out on other things, experimental electronic stuff which just uses 'pretty' sounds to make the music for example, if your just listening for certain instruments you'll miss out on other types of music that don't use them. I hope I explained that right.
I think My Bloody Valentine are quite a good example of what I mean, their first ep (which I forget the title of) is music for the bass and sounds more like the Doors than their later feedback stuff, then they progress through the midband in their later eps, and to a certain extent Isn't Anything (LP 1) then for Loveless, its far more high end based (theres still monster bass in there but its not the point of the record) with lots of sparkly samples and guitar squeal. I think part of the point they're making is what I was saying, if your only looking at one thing your going to miss out on the rest of their records. Kevin Shields' lyrics are awesome btw

 

It was the 'just' that I found sad. Poetry is important (imho) and was sad to read what seemed a put down. No offense meant.

I enjoy words, so I do listen to the lyrcs. One of my favourite recorded pieces is 'Under Milk Wood'. To me there is music in that.

If it were not for the lyrics in Bob Dylan, I would be hard pressed to delight in his singing voice. The same must be said about Billy Bragg!

But it does seem that folk who value hifi also value different things in music, which may of course explain a lot of disagreement about what makes good hifi.

 

What an interesting topic. I think I like to listen to the whole piece with particular attention to the percussion. The sort of music I like tends to include drums (all sorts, as you know) but other things such as lyrics are also important. However, it's the whole combination that I either like or get bored with. I.e. if the lyrics are good but the tunes, voices or backing music is not so good, it's unlikely to grab my attention. Conversely, if the everything else is good but lyrics are cheesy, I might like it but would probably be too embarrassed to admit it, even to myself.

Strange that you listen to rhythm when classical music doesn't have it, at least in the repetitive way that pop does. In classical music I like the "energy" and the "emotion" the music conveys. Here the lyrics are just like instruments since I can't understand a single word.

 

Course it does, thats what the gaps between the notes are for

 

Priceless. Absolutely brilliant.

Sell your hi-fi: maybe get some golf clubs, or possibly a boat?

 

I realise I'm going to regret making that statement but in my defence can I just point out that that's not quite what I meant.

Anyway, I'm in a hole, so let me dig deeper. A repetitive rhythm (or perhaps beat is a better word) in pop music makes it appropriate to dance to (assuming one can dance, I can't to save my life). One can hardly dance to Beethoven's 9th symphony for example due to it's lack of rhythm.

 

I think that you meant " you listen [for] rhythm when classical music doesn't have it [...] in the repetive way that pop does"

So, I agree with The Devil, in that this is absolutely brilliant, although perhaps not priceless.

There is rarely a simple rhythm in anything but the most mindless of pop. Its the complexity of the cross-rhythms that delights.

[edited in light of intervening post from Dev]

 

I seem to remember Graham N having a damned good stab at it.

For me it's riddim first, I guess it's the easiest thing to follow for musically challenged people like me who listen to pop.

 

Tings.

 

Now I think about it I also listen 'to the whole' in two different ways.

One way I listen is to 'feel' the music, as I said before.

The other way I listen to the whole piece, is I try to track what each instrument is doing and follow the passages they are playing. By this I mean following them all together, not concentrating on one or two at a time. I think thats why I like complex music which is layered. Once I start to follow what each instrument is playing (which in music I like, is usually very difficult), rather than listening to the effect of it all, I find it quite wonderful to realise how it slots together and its like being inside the mind of the writer.

I think by doing this I have started to train myself to process more at the same time. The music I like seems to get more complex as time goes on, and a lot of people think it 'has too much in it'.