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How I listen to music

marginalrevolution.com

41–49 of 49 posts

Re: How I listen to music

#41

I came to Bach only recently, I bought a classical guitar a couple of years ago and just over the last eight months or so I've been really getting into baroque music. I don't know why I didn't appreciate it before, I guess I just never gave Bach a chance, but it's some of the most amazing stuff I've ever heard. The counterpoint that makes it feel like the music is spiralling around you is just otherworldly.

The problem with Bach is the 1100 pieces he has. It took me so long to hear things I really loved.

For me, it is his lute music that really shows his genius.

Part of the problem with the classical masters is we speak as if we love all their work the same.

I love Pink Floyd too but that doesn't mean I think all Pink Floyd albums are equal.

Re: How I listen to music

#42
post #21

I came to Bach only recently, I bought a classical guitar a couple of years ago and just over the last eight months or so I've been really getting into baroque music. I don't know why I didn't appreciate it before, I guess I just never gave Bach a chance, but it's some of the most amazing stuff I've ever heard. The counterpoint that makes it feel like the music is spiralling around you is just otherworldly.

I'd be interested in resources you could share for baroque guitar playing. I play guitar and I love baroque music, but I didn't mix these two hobbys so far. I can read music, but I am a bit slow.

You could look into the actual baroque guitar too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_guitar

For modern guitar, there are many transcriptions of Bach and Silvius Leopold Weiss lute music.

Re: How I listen to music

#43

I'm a trained classical music composer and it's shameful how little of music I ever listen. I usually have couple of songs that are in a power play but I very seldom listen any other music. On a contrary I have melodies and song ideas playing in my head all the time. But I'd sure like to find more time to listen through the classics from time to time.

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Re: How I listen to music

#44

It mostly depends on how you feel in the moment, and how you would like to feel some moments later, e.g., if you are feeling blue, listening melancholic music will amplify your blueness, happy music on the other hand (whatever it is for you) will possibly get you out of it. Another factor is your age (your music listening experience). Many times you'll find yourself listening to the same albums/songs and feeling diff…

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Re: How I listen to music

#45
post #41

I came to Bach only recently, I bought a classical guitar a couple of years ago and just over the last eight months or so I've been really getting into baroque music. I don't know why I didn't appreciate it before, I guess I just never gave Bach a chance, but it's some of the most amazing stuff I've ever heard. The counterpoint that makes it feel like the music is spiralling around you is just otherworldly.

The problem with Bach is the 1100 pieces he has. It took me so long to hear things I really loved. For me, it is his lute music that really shows his genius. Part of the problem with the classical masters is we speak as if we love all their work the same. I love Pink Floyd too but that doesn't mean I think all Pink Floyd albums are equal.

I think it's like like saying the problem with rock music is all those thousands of rock bands out there. After a while, you know what you like or dislike and what pieces to listen to that you might subjectively enjoy.

Re: How I listen to music

#46

I like listening to albums the way they were produced: starting from the first song until the last one. This modern endless stream of curated playlists and singles is tiring, and loses the storytelling aspect of albums that makes them greater than the sum of its songs. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Modern music albums aren't really written with that in mind in my experience. They're optimised for people skipping through playlists in a streaming service, not going on a journey through an album.

I think a lot of music (especially pop) has always been this way to an extent -- a bunch of songs are written with no sequencing in mind, and then the "structure" of an album is built up after the fact by sequencing those songs in a way that sounds good. Like, I don't think "Please Please Me" by The Beatles was written with an intent to tell a story though the arc of the album (it almost feels random, if anything, although maybe the most popular song was put at the end on purpose?)

In all honesty, I don't think the ratio of "a bunch of tracks thrown together" albums to "narrative arc" albums is overall all that different than it used to be.

Re: How I listen to music

#47

I was reading, distracted by the thought "is there anything more pretentious than naming your dog after a philosopher?", and the author immediately surpassed himself, throwing away his CDs because gifting them would be too cruel.

For real. At least donate them to Goodwill or something.

Re: How I listen to music

#48

I like listening to albums the way they were produced: starting from the first song until the last one. This modern endless stream of curated playlists and singles is tiring, and loses the storytelling aspect of albums that makes them greater than the sum of its songs. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Modern music albums aren't really written with that in mind in my experience. They're optimised for people skipping through playlists in a streaming service, not going on a journey through an album.

That's been true basically since the invention of sound recordings and radio. If you look back, producers really focused on building the best single, optimizing for radio play.

While I personally mainly listen to full albums, unless it's explicitly a concept album or a classical suite I'm not sure it's possible to make a broad generalization that "it's how the music was intended to be heard".

Re: How I listen to music

#49
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really depends on the genre you're listening to. Plenty of (prog) rock artists that still work in full album concepts.

Fortunately that's my preferred genre (prog). You'll have to pry Devin Townsend and Haken albums out of my cold dead hands (or just log me out of my Spotify account).

My man! Can't wait for Devin's new projects.
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