# The MarkW Musical Quality Test



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

If it sounds good to you while you're reading a good book and eating M&Ms, it passes.


----------



## Guest (Oct 28, 2018)

Hey that's my quality test as well!


----------



## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

Discriminatory test! Never had M&Ms but I’m sure I wouldn’t like them.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

LezLee said:


> Discriminatory test! Never had M&Ms but I'm sure I wouldn't like them.


Would cheese & onion crisps do instead?

Seriously, though, how do you manage it? 
I can't read & listen (properly) at the same time - I'm okay doing something like drawing, sewing, or cleaning the gas stove.


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Really listening means doing nothing else but that. To really listen and hear the music, I even need to close my eyes. Watching TV (CC on), reading, even score reading, making reeds...anything that takes brain power weakens the listening experience. There are some composers who do make good background music for differing activities, though. Dvorak's Slavonic Dances and Brahms Hungarian Dances are great for doing housework. Grieg piano works, too. I have a long-standing habit of putting on all of the Glazunov symphonies when I drive to Los Angeles. Perfect timing. On the way home it's the Beethoven 9.


----------



## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

If I’m just listening to the radio I’m usually reading the newspaper or doing crosswords or other puzzles. If I’ve chosen what music to listen to, I’ll do something I don’t need to think about such as cooking, ironing or knitting. I rarely clean the gas stove


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Ironing is a tedious activity to which i always play music. I agree that any mundane job becomes a million times better when accompanied by great music.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

It passes if it makes me stop reading. Nothing could make me put down the M&Ms, though.


----------



## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I have a habit of playing all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies in numerical order while preparing a meal for guests in the evening. It's fun to find out which symphony I will finish at. It once went up to the 7th (that was tough!), although usually it would finish before the 5th. I tend to put on cycles done by conductors whom I don't often listen to. Occasionally, I would find some star stick wavers rather annoying even in the background and I had to change the music. That ruined my routines.


----------



## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

I haven't eaten crisps for about 30 years. If I'm going to consume that number of calories I'll choose something much more substantial. The only snacks I have are Carr's Cheese Melts and the wonderful Bahlsen (Dark) Choco Leibniz bikkies. I do love nibbling cheese though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bahlse-Dar...0754041&sr=1-3&keywords=bahlsen+choco+leibniz


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I've always been able to compartmentalize what my various senses are doing. I can pay attention to music while doing other things -- and always need something to do with my eyes (I hate being read to). That being said, I would rather read a cereal box than watch a mediocre or bad movie or television program.

(I remember when I first got Solti's CSO/Beethoven Ninth (which Decca criminally splurged over four LP sides), I listened closely to the first three movements and was unimpressed (too slow and Germanic), so I put on the finale and went in to make dinner. After 10 minutes my ears perked up, after 12 I put down my cooking and went in to listen closely -- not because of anything Solti was doing, but because the choral work was so fantastic. And it was obvious to my ears -- even two rooms away, working on the stove.


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I remember doing something similar with a Beethoven 9th. I put on Tilson Thomas' San Francisco 9th a while ago, whilst I was doing some school work. The first movement was OK but from then on I found myself doing less and less. By the 3rd movement I was hardly doing any of my planning. By the 4th movement I'd put everything down and was sat listening intently, beaming from ear to ear. I love it when a performance makes me do that. The last time it happened before that was Honeck's Mahler 1st but I'd put everything away by the 5 minute mark that time. The rest was pure heaven.


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> It passes if it makes me stop reading. Nothing could make me put down the M&Ms, though.


I agree. Except that if it can't make me stop reading it probably won't be playing to begin with. And I will need some red wine with the M&Ms.


----------



## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

LezLee said:


> Discriminatory test! Never had M&Ms but I'm sure I wouldn't like them.


The M&M equivalent for those who live in the UK is Smarties. My wife, who lived in England for a few years, says Smarties taste better than M&Ms.


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Haydn67 said:


> The M&M equivalent for those who live in the UK is Smarties. My wife, who lived in England for a few years, says Smarties taste better than M&Ms.


Totally agree. Smarties are lovely.


----------



## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

Always loved Smarties, specially the orange ones. Unfortunately we do have M&Ms here, they have probably the most annoying and incomprehensible TV ad.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

LezLee said:


> Always loved Smarties, specially the orange ones. Unfortunately we do have M&Ms here, they have probably the most annoying and incomprehensible TV ad.


Good reason (among others) not to watch TV.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

It's got be peanut m&m's. I used to buy the big bag when I could eat without gaining weight.


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Haydn67 said:


> The M&M equivalent for those who live in the UK is Smarties. My wife, who lived in England for a few years, says Smarties taste better than M&Ms.


Smarties are a conspiracy to fill the same volume as an M&M with less tasty and expensive chocolate and more cheap hardened sugar shell. It's like preferring spam to ham.


----------

