# How do you "listen" to your music



## Physix (Feb 14, 2014)

This is a subject that I'm very keen on and have discussed with many musicans I've come across. 

Some people I've talked to study the score before listening to a piece of work. Others don't bother with the score and listen to various recordings of it and form a general intimacy with it. 

Some are keen on the structure of the music, others focus more on the general milieu. 

Some draft a mental play of the music where each voice has a different obligation to one another. Others draw an abstract painting. One said she imagined she was singing the voices (unsurprisingly a singer).

How do you listen to your music?


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I listen to music mostly as recreation, and don't pay too much attention unless I have a goal with the music. At the same time I also like to be surprised


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## Jacred (Jan 14, 2017)

Score: A bit of both. I don't listen with the score the first few times around--I like to develop some degree of intimacy with the piece based on what I observe. Usually, the score gets pulled out afterwards to help me see something in the music that I may have missed.

Structure: Identifying structure is important to me. If I know when the composer is trying to do what, I find a piece (especially in the case of a large one) easier to work with.

Imagery: I think about the composer when I listen to music--how s/he might have felt while composing the piece, what inspired him/her, his/her circumstances at the time, etc.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I do not look at a score. I will just listen to one or more recordings of a work, hearing whatever I hear in the interpretation, and decide whether or not I like the music. I don't care too much for structure, but I will look at the track titles to see which movements are slow/fast and how long they are when listening at home.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

If I find some thing "new" on this side, ( happens often) I do try read the background score and order it.
For well know pieces, they are in my head.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

It varies depending on the music. 

For me: Mozart, Haydn, and Bach (sometimes Schubert, Beethoven, etc.) are daily bread. I have my phone stocked with a good 15 pieces of those masters at any given time, and throughout the weeks I phase different pieces in and out. I listen as often as possible, almost always while walking. I almost always listen to music while in motion, most often walking around my neighborhood. This listening often takes place in the afternoon and early evenings.

When it comes to the heavier stuff, like Mahler, Bruckner, Beethoven, Schubert (sometimes Bach and Mozart), I give that music the early morning or late evening treatment. I give it my utmost attention and emotional vulnerability while walking around my neighborhood at an hour when it is cold and quiet. It is at these times I find myself most at the whim of the music, particularly the early morning. 

With regards to the recording, I arduously find the one that fits my ridiculously high standards, and proceed to amplify it as much as possible in audacity so that I might feel the wrath of God as the Bruckner 3 Finale begins. Score study for me comes afterwards.


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## Lindenbaum (Jun 8, 2017)

I find it very hard to listen concentratedly a piece when i can't get a handle on its form (which is why it took me a while to get into rennaissance music, it's all through-composed). So I generally try to understand the form first couple of listens. Then I start to savor the details more--especially the counterpoint and textural interplay, and pay a more attention to the harmonies. When I really know a piece well I like to think about how it fits in with the composers output, what the composer must have been feeling while writing in, and then explore further in the music for those amazing little details and beautiful corners that are always waiting unexplored in a masterpiece


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Lindenbaum,

I am pretty ignorant of the Renaissance musical period. When you say it is through-composed, do you mean that there are no themes or melodies that come back or just that no section is repeated note for note in a recapitulation? I've only come across "through-composed" as a church music term, usually in reference to the Gloria not having a repeating chorus between the Father, Son, and Trinity verses.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I'm a highly analytical listener (as would be expected from a piano teacher!) Of course, I respond emotionally to music as well, but my emotional response is often accompanied by a running commentary in my head about what's occurring on a technical level: the chord progressions, thematic developments, phrase structure, and so on. That might sound like a rather exhausting way to listen to music, but it's actually a pleasurable experience for me!


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