# How did you begin to listen to/like classical music? Share your story!! :)



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

As the question says, how did you first come to like classical music, when (especially the newer generations) we are mostly exposed to pop music and such by society? I'll get a head start: I wanted something deeper and more passionate than pop songs, and I wanted more variation in my music. Somehow or another, I got into classical music through Rachmaninov's second concerto... and found this forum by chance! 

How about you?


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I think we've done this one at least three, if not four times since I joined this forum about one month ago ;-)

"I wanted something deeper and more passionate than pop songs, and I wanted more variation in my music" would also apply to me. Oddly, pop music (rock, mainly Tangerine Dream and similar bands) steered me toward contemporary classical music, which, in turn, steered me toward earlier classical music.

By about the age of 20, I already had a collection of over 1000 mostly rock albums. I noticed that they held my (and my friends') interest for only a very short length of time. I had to buy more. The old ones just didn't give the same kick they had given the first few times. It was almost like satisfying an addiction. I also began to notice that the classical albums had staying power. I found that my enjoyment grew with time. The pop/rock albums, with only a few exceptions, were constantly getting pawned for other ones, while the classical albums were being savoured. This has proven to hold true to the present day, such that rock has dwindled to become a modest part of my collection while classical has grown to become a very large part.

I found this forum by Google.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

brotagonist said:


> I think we've done this one at least three, if not four times since I joined this forum about one month ago ;-)


Definitely!

Classical music has always been around for me in *bits & bobs* - from 1950s/60s BBC radio, from school violin lessons, from films - but I decided to go in deeper after Taggart & I returned to our musical instruments when we retired. For most of my life, including now, folk music has been important to me.

We are both *Baroque Nuts*. I had found a forum for me for Irish Traditional Music & I thought it would be nice for Taggart to have a Baroque Forum to post in. I googled 'forum for baroque music' & up popped a discussion thread for TC. For several days we thought Baroque was all that this site did. Then I became miffed after I noticed that I couldn't get friends, join groups, or post 'about me'.

I know, *I should have read the FAQ*, but instead I wrote in & got a reply from Krummhorn that you need to do ten posts. I thought I'd persevere just to get that done, then bow out - but by that time, I was *stuck*...!

And now - how could I *live* without my TalkClassical? :kiss:


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I grew up with the old war horses like Beethoven's symphonies, so I never really discovered classical music. It was always just there, and I never got into popular music. During my teens and early twenties I actually made a big attempt to learn to appreciate pop music, without much success. I came to enjoy some bits and pieces of it. But my major discoveries remained in the genre of classical: in my teens I first began listening to 20th century classical music, thus alienating myself even further from all my peers.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Short version:
1. Never liked pop music, wasn't exposed to much, so I didn't listen to music
2. Mom made me take piano lessons, I liked it
3. Those, Fantasia, and Looney Tunes showed me classical music
4. Now I'm in love


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

I don't know how I've exactly come to start listening to classical music. I mostly like sad music. Before I was into classical music, I was into Ennio Morricone's music, which I still am. Someday I checked about classical music. One of the very first classical musics I discovered was Beethoven Moonlight Sonata and Adagio in G minor. I kept searching and I discovered Bach air on the G string and I was quite impressed how a music like that could be made in 1700s and I began to search about Bach and second music I discovered from Bach was toccatta and fugue in d minor and I again was impressed with the skill of the music for 18th century. It was again Johann Sebastian Bach and I became a great fan of Bach by searching about his music. And I became a fan of classical music.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

My dad was a big classical fan and violinist, so classical music was playing through my home all the time. As a teenager, I did abandon it for rock music. Then I got sick of rock in my 30's, and found my way back home.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I was fortunate in that I grew up in an environment in which my dad was a classical music lover. He had LP's all over the place.
Since I idolized him, I wanted to be like him so I played every LP he had (around 6 years old), wound up loving the music and took my interest in this music much further than he ever did. But my dad gets the credit as the role model that got me started.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

At listening to the very first beginning of this symphony








I, 17 year old, was that struck by its non compulsory impulse that I immediately sold all my pop records (Pink Floyd stuff) to my brother (who was converted two years later) and ventured into the realm of the new. In fact I do not agree with the common opinion of classical=old; for me it is: classical=new and every time I return to Haitink and the Concertgebouw orchestra I hear all of it anew.


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## SarahNorthman (Nov 19, 2014)

I was but a wee lass. My grandparents always listened to Classical music and Opera so that got it all started. Then in about the second grade I started learning the flute and was in band all through elementary and High school. My love has only grown over the years.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Both parents played in the Long Beach Phil (CA) for many years and we kids got dragged along to all the rehearsals.

Also, every morning when waking up, we were treated to a FM radio program called _Coffee Cup Concert_. Dad played the double b flat concert tuba, mom the violin. The tuba required two cases - a separate one just for the bell. I was the one who got to carry that one.


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

I honestly don't remember why or how exactly this occurred, but I was at my grandparents house a decade ago for what was a yearly summer week at the time, and my grandma gave me this tapeset of various classical genre pieces performed by London Symphony Orchestra to listen to, and from there it just grew. It also had to do largely with my love for brass and woodwind instruments, which were featured more in classical music than pop/rock... At least pop/rock of my era, anyway. That has also fueled my love for pop/rock of the 60s/70s, as well... It's all about the instruments for me, that's why I love music.


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

My father is a classical lover and he exposed me to the popular pieces when I was a kid. The names "Bach, Mozart and Beethoven" never failed to pop up from time to time as the venerated masters - indeed, I even learned to play a few pieces on the piano!

But then again, I never had the patience to sit through a symphony - guess I was the impatient, energetic metal guy. Well one day (I've started to play the guitar around this time) when I was really sick and had a horrible headache I was too out of it to study so I decided to challenge my brain with something a tad easier: Bach. 

I was surprised at the complexity of his music - and it was marvelous. Anyway, I was patient enough this time around and I was determined to learn more about this music, and let it seep in. It was stimulating in whole other way, and opened up a new world of music. Soon enough I started making my way through Medieval, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and finally modern muisc - surprised and delighted anew at every turn. 


Now I listen to all sorts of genres from pop to folk to jazz - but I always come back to classical. It pushes me to the highest apogees of musicality and inspiration in my own playing, and indeed my world would be vastly lessened without it. 


Thanks TC, it's been an epic ride, I've enjoyed learning from all the people and resources here and hopefully keep doing so for the years to come


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Six years ago an international company came to my country to represent the opera Turandot. Though I have never listened classical music (except in very rare occasions when my grandpa listened music in his house) or an opera before, I felt the desire to go and see it. I remember going everywhere with my mom trying to find tickets, because I decide to go in the last moment. I enjoyed the opera a lot. Though the production wasn't great, I saw it with the eyes of a novice who discovers something wonderful for the first time. Since that moment the concept I had about classical music and opera change. I started to listen classical music, not only opera, but also other musical forms.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

As a teen into hard rock in the 1970s my Dad recommended some rousting classical (Beethoven's Fifth, Wagner overtures) and I caught the bug. Then tiring of the horrid mess of garbage the rock radio station was puking out, I started listing to a program on the local Classical station called, Adventures in Great Music, narrated by Carl Hass. I was exposed to a wide variety of classical in that program but never really caught the bug until about 30 years later when I grabbed a cheesy compilation CD from the dollar store that had one of my favorite pieces, Bach Toccata and Fuge, and never looked back. Since about August 2011 I transitioned from piano music, to symphonic, to religious vocal works, to opera and today am heavily focused into opera. One of the most wonderful things ever is opera DVDs. They really make the opera come alive with the subtitles to know exactly what is going on. My non-classical sits gathering dust though on occasion I will pull some of it out and spin a few disks.


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## Chopiniana93 (Sep 6, 2015)

I discovered classical music, because many years ago I fell in love with a guy who was one classmate of mine at the music school and he became then classmates at the high school. He played piano really good and I decided to explore this fascinated, not yet known world. His favourite composer was Chopin, so I began to approach to this composer. I am not in love with this guy anymore since a long time, but I still love Chopin and classical music. I am very thankful to him for letting me discover and love this beautiful world of sounds, opinions and ideas!


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