How to Listen to Music
An Instruction Manual for Being a Good Listener
Surely you must be wondering how I can tell you how to listen to music. This guy’s about to mansplain like a chaplain. And the truth is I can’t possibly tell you how to listen to music.
But it occurred to me recently that you can set yourself up for success or failure when doing an act as simple as listening to music. So I thought I’d share more info about this.
The first is your state of mind. We are used to putting music on all the time without even questioning if it’s the right time to truly listen carefully. Music on your walk, music with your old school medicine ball fitness regimen, music when making dinner, music in the car. All of these are great affordances of the modern age, which began with the home stereo, expanded by the Walkman and blown open into new frontiers by wireless technology. But in some ways, music all-the-time can lessen our appreciation of it.
State of Mind
But just because music is playing does not mean you will appreciate it at all times. So you have to consciously make an effort to sit down and listen to music with an open mind somehow.
To say that “this moment ahead is devoted to really dropping into and experience the music I am selecting”, or the live concert I will put on or the radio show that I have planned to listen to.
Technology Choices
The next thing that I think is important is to listen to music on the best option you have available. I am not suggesting that you need fancy speakers to really enjoy listening to music, but if you have a great pair of headphones and they’re in another room, make the effort to listen there. In a previous era people were nuts about their home stereos, but that trend sort of faded away and people are fine with settling with Sonos or Bose products.
I have a pair of studio monitors that I don’t use all the time out of laziness because I have to flip switches at the back, but if I turn them on and sit in the chair with the intention of listening to music, everything feels better.
And since I won’t belabour the point here I will say if you have one of those sessions where all the music you put on is frustrating you and you can’t seem to find something good, then you’ve reached the red light at an intersection. Turn the music off and reconnect at a better time.
Since I’ve moved platforms for sharing this newsletter to make it easier for you to read, you can now comment on this newsletter, so make your way all the way to the bottom for my question to you about listening to music.
This piece of music below is a challenge for you to see if you listen to it carefully. It is technically a drone which is a term that’s vague to me and reminds me of Amazon shipments in the sky (although it does have origins in styles like Indian music), but the point is you’re not going to be given a funky beat or catchy melody. It’s just up to you to find something in there, or find nothing at all and move on.
This week’s Snack Pack includes music by Noam Pinkelny, Alan Hawkshaw, Chassol and Fripp & Eno. Again, drop in and see what you can do. I understand that my choices aren’t for everyone but I try to pick out music that I hope has universal interest.
Discussion Time
How do you set yourself up to listen to music? When is the best time for you and what do you listen on? Leave a comment on this substack post and let me know.
Sending you my best, and asking everyone to continue to look to the bagel for calm in a world of constant change…
Elliott “Pumpernickel” Fienberg
🤯🎧🎼🎶🥯👌
A couple of weeks ago, at the end of 2020 (after many months of working from home), I had been mostly listening to music during the day to wash out the many noises annoying city residents make these days. One day, I realized that this is not helping because even the best focus music will be quite well penetrated by a garbage truck or the neighbor's car alarm when he uses its trunk regularly as storage throughout the day. So I've realized the only way to completely ignore these and essentially stop the interruptions was to focus even more. Thus I've just stopped listening to anything altogether, leading to a much more focused and deeper flow during the workday.
Nowadays, I'm starting my old Akai amplifier, mostly on Sunday evenings like this one, to actually _listen_ to music and doing nothing else. I still enjoy a duo of Jamo monitor-like 2-way speakers (Cornet 145) and a custom active subwoofer - a personal toy project from my student days (...and a relic from the eye-blurring bass-rich parties back in the days), much more powerful than necessary for the monitors but profoundly contributing to slower and deeper pieces and lower volumes.
I also occasionally enjoy KRK KNS-8400, probably the best passive noise-canceling headphones I've ever had. They are really nice, but listening with a bit of a vibe in your core is still priceless.