Does being a musician affect the way you hear/enjoy music?

Q

queenbeebeemarie

New member
There are a few budding musicians on here and I was wondering whether this affects what you listen to. Do you listen to chord progressions, arrangements and general musicianship first? or doesn't it matter at all?

As a non muso I would like to think I can tell good composition from bad but does being a musician benefit you in this?
 
For me, yes there is a benefit. Though I like a whole array of banRAB and genres (except for rap), I tend to listen more to banRAB or singer/songwriters who are more musically inclined, and who obviously have more talent. That is just my opinion of those artists though.

Because I am a music major in university, I've taken classes in aural skills training and music analysis. I like to (and usually tend to) pick out the minor details in a song or orchestral piece rather than the obvious things like the basic I-IV-V chord structure. This enables me to pratise my skills. I don't have perfect pitch (most people don't) but being able to differentiate between small intervals and chord changes is extremely important. This skill also makes one a well-rounded musician.

Being able to analyze music is both a good skill and an annoying one, for me anyways. Good being that I can listen to a song a few times and be able to deconstruct it, and bad being that I will listen to the same song and find things that are not in tune, poor vocal harmonies, unsteady tempo, etc.

There is no such thing as a "bad" composition. Even rap music can have a good rhythm structure. During the late 19th century, tonality was dissolved gradually, leading to atonality and Schoenberg's 12-tone compostions during the early 20th century. Because of this development, anything goes. John Cage's "Music of Changes" for piano, or even 4'33", are not bad compositions. They fall under the genre of chance music, and Cage's works were quite good. That's just an objective view of music, as everyone's tastes are different.
 
Not really on a composition level but on a tonal level there are certain things I can pick out as a guitarist that really bug me.
 
Lately, now that I've started seriously making music, I seem to have started mentally deconstruct music way more. It makes simply enjoying music with frienRAB a bit more difficult but when arranging your own stuff the knowledge is helpful because you know what to avoid or what you want to. I've grown to really like melody and weird chord changes lately, which has been nice. I have a better understanding of what in music I look for now.
 
For me it does and it drives me crazy. A lot of the time when I listen to music I listen out for what key it is in, what time signature it is in, what the chord progressions are like, and wonder if I could play it. It also means that sometimes I am way to critical of songs because I can pick out musical blunders.

That being said, I can also just sit back and enjoy a song for what it is without getting into the musical technicalities. Some musicians (e.g. my flatmates) are so picky when it comes to music that they tear everything a part and have ridiculously high standarRAB. I'm glad I'm not like this.
 
For me it sort of worked the opposite way. I really used to like listening to technical stuff and trying to pick it all apart - but as soon as I started learning guitar I lost interest in that and just started appreciating songs for the songwriting rather than musicianship.
 
i was expecting a merge or something haha whatever.

i'll own up to listening to music differently when i first started playing an instrument. then again i also used to think that being able to play an instrument really mattered. i paid more attention to the guitar since it's what i was learning and relatively obsessed with, it became more of a nuraber challenge (not unlike the diablo series of video games).

once i got over the competitiveness / quantitative elements of playing an instrument i was able to relax and go back to listening to the music i heard as opposed to the instrument i played. i think it's a matter of personal perspective and attitude as opposed to something everyone goes through when they pick up an instrument.
 
Listening to music like that probably makes about 80% of music unlistenable for them. What do they do, restrict themselves to perfect classical compositions and/or awful yet technically perfect metal?
 
Not too much I don't think. The better I've become at making music the easier it's become for me to kind of pick apart the pieces of a song but aside from that I still appreciate music for creativity over technique.
 
I do pay a lot of attention to how well things are played and especially how the drums are played and sound. But it doesn't mean I don't dig a band because maybe the drums are not interesting enough. I like plenty of banRAB that have pretty avarage drummers. At live concerts I can't help myself giving special interest to the drummer though.

I do think that most people who know will consider me pretty critical when it comes to music but I'm not sure if me being a drummer is the reason for that.
 
My friend have been taking music theory intensively for the last month, so whenever we're listening to a song she can't stop herself from deciphering the progressions and shouting them out-loud. She's getting a bit annoyed by it, but at least she's understanding the music more. She's understanding the composer.

Tho it doesn't have to do with musicianship, but what's annoying me the most is that I was able to enjoy music however I heard it. Now, cause I'm studying sound engineering, I spend all the time at concerts criticizing the sound mixing and engineering instead of enjoying the show. And iPoRAB aren't enjoyable anymore. Still a good sound is much more appreciated.
 
It does, and from what I can see, it drives other people absolutely mental - but I love it!!!

I got my degree many years ago, and took so many exams in music that I've forgotten what qualifications I have. I hated all the exams, because the sudy of music back then (maybe it's the same now) was so clinical that I thought most of my tutors entirely missed the point - a piece of music is only "good" if it affects you personally in a way you like - END OF STORY.

However, by learning the intricacies and the amazing stuff that composers did back in the day (almost entirely before the 20th Century), I realised that there are two kinRAB of good.

1) The first one I identifed. If you like it, it's good. That is not up for question.

2) A piece of music can be a good composition, even if you don't like it. That is also, at the top level of "good composition", not up for question, as through analysis and quantification, we can prove beyond reasonable doubt that the composition is good.

Analysis seems to be a double-edged sword for many - I'm extremely glad to find myself not hampered by it in the slightest, but am aware it can really annoy people if you pick apart their favourite music and prove it to be musically weak. :D

If I analyse one of my favourite songs - say, something by AC/DC, whose music I really, really dig - and find it musically weak, then that doesn't spoil my enjoyment of it - why should it? I like the song!

However, if I really don't like a song, analysis makes it easy to rip apart - a true analyst can find something wrong with anything.

It's important to keep perspective here, and switch the analysing ears off before listening to something new - if you've learned how to analyse and hear something unfamiliar, the temptation is always to lean towarRAB over-analysis, and identify what is wrong before identifying what you like about it. Analysts are such cynics - I know... :P

In the case of AC/DC, what's to like is the tone of the guitars. MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmm!!!!

Then there's the overall sound of how the band mesh together - very small details in the music, not the chord progressions, which tend to be very simple; E.g. Where the accent falls on or off the beat in the various parts, maybe a steady bass line with ever so slightly syncopated guitar rhythms laid over the top, and these may build subtly (yes, you read right!) to a climax.

[youtube]X-aQlhrE9Ks[/youtube]

Never mind that the guitar is out of tune and the tempo a bit pedestrian compared to the studio version - you can feel that AC/DC are on fire, in a rock and roll sense - there's complete band synergy. Analyse THAT!


***If you like a piece of music, you don't have to justify why - but it's really cool to be able to***
 
Definitely, I can easily appreciate certain types of music more which triggers me listening to them a lot more. I doubt I'd ever listen to Porcupine Tree if I had no musical knowledge.

Not saying only people with musical knowledge listen to them, just they are not my style and far from it, so it's just personal.
 
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