Help me better appreciate and understand music

March 1, 2009 6:59 AM

Musicians/musically inclined mefites: help a non-musician better recognize the intricacies of music.

My objective is to gain a better appreciation and understanding of music. At the moment, I'm unable to understand the value/brilliance of a particular piece of music. Peripherally, I want to be able to communicate these thoughts. If relevant, I listen to indie and rock music.

Musical areas relevant to me:

1) The larger song

While listening to a song, what aspects do you reflect on (tone, tempo, effect on you)? How do you mentally involve yourself while listening to a song?

2) The effect of individual components of a song

Currently, I'm dating a musician. By my own initiative and enthusiasm, he plays his songs frequently for me as they progress; however, I'm unable to understand the affect of minute, individual and isolated decisions on his music.

Hence, how do you process minute differences in a piece of music? If you're a musician, what specifically motivates you to favour a note over another? What is your internal dialogue during this process?

Thank you all for your help.

posted by kiki_s to media & arts (21 comments total)

Great Courses from The Teaching Company has some audio classes on music - the link goes to the fundamentals of music class. These are courses taught by top professors and are actually pretty entertaining. You can often check the cds out from your public library.
posted by belau at 7:05 AM on March 1

I'm a musician.

I think you are overthinking it.

But I'd start, if I were you, by learning to read music, thereby learning about tempo, timing, chord structure, etc. Then I'd go on by listening to many types of music, not just rock. Each type brings something different to the table.

I think a lot of this is more caught than taught, frankly, but there you go.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:09 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

In my opinion, music is the most interesting when it sounds both surprising and inevitable to the listener. That's to say music sounds good when it has novelty, i.e. it is sufficiently different from what you've heard before, but it also is familiar, i.e hits the same pleasure buttons in you that other pieces of music have hit before.

If something is too familiar, it grows boring; if something is too unusual, you can't appreciate it. I think this dynamic explains a lot about people's tastes.
posted by dydecker at 7:17 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

Which is a roundabout way of saying: if you can't "understand why something is good", you're not liking it in the first place. Why waste time listening to music you do not like? It's much more fun to listen to stuff that you do like, and move on gradually from there.

Also it pays to remember that art is subjective, and music especially is so.
posted by dydecker at 7:27 AM on March 1

I think I understand where you're your coming from, and I know what it's like to try to understand in more depth a loved one's interest or passion... to at least be able to give more valuable feedback - instead of "hmm ... it sounds fine... like always... "

I'm not a big music listener, but I did play clarinet for about 10 years when I was a kid. I remember music theory, and I have a good ear... but I definitely enjoy silence. (I like music and all kinds of genres, it's just not a huge part of my identity, and I think it's because I'm very visual oriented )

In the past years, a few things have helped me enjoy music more.

Listening to music on an mp3 player, with headphones, when I'm on the bus or something. This is the only way I can really focus on a song, and give it all my attention. The song becomes the center of my world, and I can really get into it.

Breaking it down - I started listening and separating mentally the bass line, the guitar, the drums, etc. For many years I just heard songs as one big wall of sound, for whatever reasons, I've learned to enjoy focusing in on the parts.

This could actually be a fun activity for you and the person you're dating - explain to him that you need help understanding what is good vs what is better.

Ask him to play a melody, with two or three variations. Emotionally, check with yourself ... which one did you like most? You don't have to like it a lot, but it should be easy to perceive a preference. Then ask him, which one is better or which one does he like most and why?

Upon rereading your post , I have another idea. Make some music.

It's like painting, you don't have to be good or have natural talent to be able to choose colors and apply them to a surface in a way that is pleasing to you. Experiment with creating music, alone or with your partner, and I suspect there you will start to understand the intuitive and inexplicable decision making process that you are observing from the outside.

I believe the process you're talking about is the creative process, that all creative types engage in. I never understand where ideas and creative possibilities come from, they just occur to me out of the blue and I go with it.

Good luck!!!
posted by Locochona at 8:02 AM on March 1

How committed are you? Learn 3 or 4 chords on guitar. Being more actively engaged brings musical features into sharper focus. Listening widely and broadly gives context and perspective. Music is part of a long discourse.
Music, like all art, is about what happens inside the listener/viewer/participant. Part of understanding music is in differentiating your own responses. Some music just makes me smile and I couldn't tell you why. The only really relevant measure is how it makes you feel, what it does to you.
posted by Jode at 8:04 AM on March 1

If it's of any help: I pretend to dislike my husband's band, so he has something to rebel against.

And this book helped me to understand why I loved certain singers, and why some songs are just so amazing: Singers and the Song

Whether or not he's singing to you too, it goes into why certain things are just more pleasing to the ear.

And in talking about values and differences and appreciating them, it's like with food, I think. I like and appreciate the complexities of some really amazing dishes -- but sometimes a bowl of chocolate ice cream is just more likeable.
posted by peagood at 8:04 AM on March 1

I'll second Locochona for breaking down the song into parts. Try to listen to the layers of sound, and you'll start to see how things play off of each other without getting too technical. This becomes very apparent when you're listening to pop music, the difference between an overly simple song with one "hook" to it, and a well-constructed piece of pop music.
posted by shinynewnick at 8:11 AM on March 1

I'm not really a musician (although I played the guitar years ago) but I have always loved music.

First of all, I agree with the above comments, especially the surprising + inevitable comment. Good music gets better the more you listen to it. You begin to see more about its structure, its melody, and the interplay of the various elements as you become more familiar with it. I often have the experience, even after hearing a song dozens of times, of thinking, Oh, now I get it!

For me, the best way to experience music is without distractions. Just listening by myself at home, while doing nothing else. One "trick" to gaining appreciation for a song is to try and pick out the individual instruments within the piece. Focus only on the piano, or the rhythm guitar, or percussion. You will begin to see how the music is made up of many layers of individual instruments. Sometimes, I get a literal chill when really actively listening to a good piece of music.

Once you are familiar with a song, focus on the lyrics. Get out the lyric sheet, or print them from the web. Some lyrics are poetry in their own right. I never read lyrics the first few times I hear a song. For me, if I'm reading lyrics along with the song before I am familiar with it, it makes the music seem "forced" to fit the words. I don't know why, and I don't know if anyone else feels that way, but I do. But, once you are familiar with the song, you can see how the lyrics might be symbolic, or be ambiguous, or playful, or may be so personal to the writer that you are not meant to really understand them. They might be abstract, allowing you to bring your own meaning. My favorite lyrics tend to be poetic and painterly; coupled with the right music, they bring me right into the mind of the singer, and make me feel as if I am seeing with my own eyes what is being sung, or feeling the same emotion the singer is conveying.

But in the end, it's all about time and attention. Although I think some music can grow on you, given enough time and attention, there isn't any sense in trying to force yourself to "get" music you don't care for.

As far as understanding why some notes are chosen over others... well, because the writer thinks those notes sound better. They may, or may not, be able to tell you why. In my photography, I can't really explain why some subjects are more interesting to me than others, or why I shoot them a certain way. When pressed, I can dissect it, but then I sound like an pompous ass. Better to enjoy what you enjoy, and let time and attention help you learn to appreciate it more.

(Also: for an interesting look at how musical compositions are built, search for some videos of Zoe Keating. She plays solo cello, but uses looping to create multiple parts during live performance.)
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:11 AM on March 1

Im not sure about the first bit of you question, you might want to look at the classic "8 elements of music" - dynamics, harmony, meter, melody, instruments, rhythm, tempo and timbre. I have my own issues with that list, lyrics arent mentioned, instruments and timbre seem to be the same thing to me since I like electronic sort of music. Song structeres and layouts can be interesting.. But thats the classic list.

I find people are usually concentrating on one of these elements when listening to music although the way they focus on certain elements more than others dictates what style they tend to like. Hip hop is very rhythm and lyrically focused, classical tends to focus on harmony and dynamics, pop might melodic and lyrical mainly? Its all fairly hard to define.

If you're a musician, what specifically motivates you to favour a note over another? What is your internal dialogue during this process?
Ok heres my theory - Its cultural. We have been surrounded by music since we were tiny and have learnt to associate emotions with certain note intervals. This is is very dependant on all the music you have been surrounded by - for example a lot of eastern cultures have a completely different set of scales and note patterns that they have learned to like.

So choosing notes - its a sort of subconcious thing like others are saying. I try them out and see if they trigger the right emotional respose. My though pattern tends to be - "that note sounds to corny","this one too ominous sounding", "too sad". But culture has defined why note intervals give me these emotions. When you look at it analytically - corny tends to be major note intervals, I tend to think very small intervals are ominous, minor scales are sad. But I dont conciously think that technically.
posted by phyle at 8:28 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

kiki_s, I'm right there with you - and that's why I'm taking music lessons. However, I've specifically told my teachers that I'm doing so to learn about music theory, not so I can play guitar & get the chicks (NTTAWWT), or play with the band ("The band, Elroy!").

Working for me!
posted by IAmBroom at 9:57 AM on March 1

Breaking it down - I started listening and separating mentally the bass line, the guitar, the drums, etc. For many years I just heard songs as one big wall of sound, for whatever reasons, I've learned to enjoy focusing in on the parts.

Good point. If you are play video games, playing Rock Band or Guitar Hero: World Tour will really enhance this skill, without the difficulty of learning an actual instrument.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:09 AM on March 1

Definitely check out the The Musicology Show from Pandora. It seems to be exactly what you're asking for. Especially check out the episodes focusing on basic concepts like "major and minor" and "drum feels."

If you want to go deeper, I always tend to think that a good place to focus is on harmony, using a TTC course or a book or whatever. The principles of harmony and chord-building have a lot more rules and a lot less magic to them than some other parts of composition (compare the process of coming up with tunes, which is mostly inspiration). Just to get an initial flavor of it, you could try playing any note on a piano along with the note right after it, then the second one, etc. until you reach the octave after 12 steps. Those are the 12 intervals, kind of the "primary colors" of harmony, and they each have a different quality--sad, airy, tense, etc. Chords and melody lines are built around more complex combinations and sequences of these.
posted by abcde at 11:04 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

First: Learn an instrument. At the very least, you'll understand that it's not as easy as it looks. Guitar is probably best, because you tend to start with chords and intervals, which are arguably most important. And if you go electric, you'll get some experience with effects processing, which is also pretty nice to have under your belt.

Anyway.

When you're trying to "appreciate" something (anything), it's always worth considering the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. With music, it goes something like this:

Who's playing? (i.e. which instruments? how many?)
What's being played? (melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.)
Where...uh...hmm... This is specific to recorded music. Put on some headphones. Right? Left? Centre? Does it sound spacious (reverb!) or intimate?
When does x happen, and y, and z? When doesn't it happen?
Apply the How (dynamics, effects, pluck/bow, etc.) to those, then add the Why on top of all that.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:03 PM on March 1

(oh, and lyrics are important)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:05 PM on March 1

I agree with most of the above as far as understanding particular pieces of music. In particular, listening for different instruments within a song is really helpful, and the Pandora podcasts are fantastic.

On the question of how to understand the "value/brilliance" of a song, I think you just need to have heard a lot of music and be able to pick out where songs sound like each other and how artists have been influenced by those that have gone before. For instance, at this moment I'm listening to the song "Red Sea" by Asobi Seksu. It is a brilliant song, but I don't think I would find it as brilliant if I wasn't familiar with My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, among others. As you find bands you like, read reviews or forums and look for the bands they get compared to, and read interviews with the band to find out who they consider their inspirations. Then listen to all that stuff. Not only will you find a lot more music to like, you'll be better able to appreciate what each band is doing.
posted by sinfony at 12:10 PM on March 1

In my opinion, music is the most interesting when it sounds both surprising and inevitable to the listener. That's to say music sounds good when it has novelty, i.e. it is sufficiently different from what you've heard before, but it also is familiar, i.e hits the same pleasure buttons in you that other pieces of music have hit before. If something is too familiar, it grows boring; if something is too unusual, you can't appreciate it. I think this dynamic explains a lot about people's tastes.

Brilliant analysis. I concur. Same goes for lyrics.

Start with the basic parts of the song, the macro structure if you will. Usually, there's a verse-chorus set up. The verse is the main driver of the song, both lyrically and musically. Often, however, the high point and most memorable point of the song is the chorus, where a repeated lyric line is usually used to hook people in. There's also usually a riffing part musically during the chorus.

There is also a part known as the break, where the tempo changes significantly and the chords are different from the rest of the song. Sometimes its called a breakdown and the instruments are quieter.

There can also be a pre-chorus, which gets played right before the chorus. When there is a hidden chorus, (the Boxer, for example) you'll hear the pre-chorus and expect the chorus to pop in but it doesn't.

I'd start with pop music, even if you don't listen to it, because it contains these elements used in a very obvious manner so that the largest number of people can listen to and follow along. Take ABBA's S.O.S., a great pop song (even if you don't like it they accomplish what they set out to do) Note how the listener is signaled that a new part is coming up, either by the melody line going up or the drummer doing an obvious fill (a little flourish). Its designed to handle the "familiar" part of the equation familiar/novel equation dydecker laid out above.

The poppier and more obvious the structure and melody, the more "familiar" it will be. People who are more into music will often not like pop music because it is more familiar and they want different. That's where bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor! come in, playing droning riffs and having essentially no structural elements such as the ones described above.

Now, the subtle changes--take a song like S.O.S. and take out those little flourishes, or the rising melody line signalling the changes and you see how a poppy song can be made less pop-like.


Sorry for droning on, but I think about this stuff constantly.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:11 PM on March 1

You're dating a musician. He plays his songs for you. You want to know why someone with a better ear for music than yours would prefer one detail to another. Why don't you just ask him to show you instances where he's chosen among different variations on the same piece of music, and ask him to explain his preference?

As it stands, this question is a bit abstract since we don't know what your goals are or how far outside your comfort zone ("indie and rock," which sounds pretty limited) you're willing to go. I agree with the above recommendations that learning guitar or getting some Teaching Company CDs would be good things to do. But the fact that these are such disparate suggestions shows that this question might be too vague to do you much good.
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:15 PM on March 1

Thirding the Pandora Podcast, but I sure wish they wouldn't drag their feet so much with the new episodes.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:37 PM on March 1

I'm a musician (18 year and counting) and the things I look for in music are this:

1. How different in this music from everything else I've heard?
Is there anything about it that makes me go "ooh, that's interesting" - which happens at a sort of gut level, but my ears are more attuned to it than yours. It can be rhythm, harmonic "texture", melody, or even the recording technique.

2. How long does the music manage to avoid "returning home."
Music is tension & release, and a big part of music is how many inventive ways a musician can keep up the tension. Spend too long at "home" and the music is boring. Spend too much time in tension & you get free-form jazz that's difficult to comprehend and appreciate.

All the rest is gravy & varying techniques on how to achieve the two above items.

Of course, remembering the tune hours or days later helps and is part of what really makes a pop tune.

Benjamin Zander had a great TED talk about music a little while ago. It's very accessible & taught me a thing or two about music.
posted by MesoFilter at 10:32 AM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Classical Music for Dummies is a really great resource for anyone who isn't a complete classical music expert. i don't know what type of music you're interested in learning about, but a good working knowledge of classical music can translate into greater enjoyment of all other types!
posted by SuperErin at 1:31 PM on March 2