Can you listen without analyzing?!

[johnnydean1]

I found a Thread on another board extremely interesting and not one I have seen before.To sum up,can you listen to music without analyzing it?My reply,"My ability to listen to music without analyzing it has long gone and with it the simple pleasure and enjoyment of music".Any thought's?J.

[zink]

This is a problem that i think many of us go through. To remedy this, I've found a few things that I can listen to on a more as aesthetic level, and it's basically this. Music that is based more on the sounds or emotion than the notes (ie good electronica or maybe some real cerebral rock such as radiohead or floyd) or music that is so musically complex that I can't follow. The problem/benefit of the second is that after a while, you start to pick up on what is actually going, and before you realize it, your analyzing.I think also that listening to a song that you've transcribed (either on paper, infront of your instrument, or just in your brain) eventually becomes so familiar that the changes become like an old friend, and what they are sort of fades away.I think it would be interesting to compile a list of cds that people are able to listen to aesthetically. who's down?

[Casey H]

Good topic... I have written about this before. My ability to listen to commercial music has not been compromised but listening to my own or reviewing others absolutely is... I am a non-performer who uses a fantastic outside producer to do my demos. When I first hear them, I can't enjoy them- I pick apart every little thing and have no ability to step back and hear it from the perspective of someone hearing it as if it was on the radio or a CD they bought. Sometimes I don't listen for months and pick it up again as fresh and see it all so different and love it.We've all been reviewed and critiqued to death by peers, publishers, services like TAXI, NSAI, etc. It has both the positive benefit of giving us suggestions for improvement and the negative of making us think too much... I like analyzing commercial music a bit. Since I have no personal investment, it helps me understand songwriting better but I can still enjoy it... Casey

[53mph]

I can't listen to my own music anymore without being super critical at every turn but I have no problem appreciating others music.Obviously if the guitars are out of tune/time them I'm going to hear it, or if the recording is terrible, but when I put on my Sufjan Stevens CDs it's like slipping into a warm bath....I switch my critical mind off and enjoy.Perhaps it's because my day job requires my mind to be alert at all times so I relish the moments when I can relax it.

[davewalton]

Quote:My ability to listen to music without analyzing it has long gone and with it the simple pleasure and enjoyment of musicI would be taking myself WAY too seriously if that were the case for me. To get a little philosophical, life is about balance. Balancing the desire to get better against the pleasure of enjoying my music as it exists today. I like what I'm doing now, I enjoy my own music and I'm thrilled when others enjoy it too. Having said that, I think I have a pretty good idea where I stand and realize that I have a lot of room for improvement - something I actually look forward to.Realistically, I'm better than I was and probably not a good as I'm going to be. Might as well enjoy the trip! Dave

[roughly]

I'm with many of you guys with not being able to enjoy songs I've personally written, but I can still enjoy other people's songs. A lot depends on the mood I'm in too, usually I'm just so beat from working long hours that my mind likes to shut off so I don't worry about analyzing. But I do find myself more and more making mental notes when I listen to music, which I think does help my own music. Because of those mental notes I make sometimes I enjoy it even more...kind of like a game to hear what they're going to do next in an album. Theresa

[og]

Dave said," Realistically, I'm better than I was and probably not a good as I'm going to be. Might as well enjoy the trip! "Amen, brother. I find myself both feeling guilty about enjoying my own music (as in being an egomaniac) and analyzing it to pieces. I can still enjoy other music, but I do pick at it, and try to absorb parts that I'm trying to get better at--like rhythm sections.

[jeffchurchwell]

Right after I got the final master back for my CD, I listened to it once through and heard every single flaw, in gorgeous stereo and at the perfect gain and EQ levels. THAT was enough to make me feel I'd completely blown it, and I was depressed about it for more than a year.I can hear what's right and good about each song, now, and though the flaws are still all there, for me, the songs and the CD are miraculous. I really wrote and recorded music! Holy sh*t!!!! And people buy it!!! and the next CD I make, I'm sure I'll be hyper-critical of, but I hope to have learned a lesson, and to let go of the flaws and claim the pleasure a lot sooner.On the topic of analyzing others' music, only if it's REALLY great or it REALLY stinks. From the former, I hope to learn something I can use myself. From the latter, I merely hope to clear the sound from my brain as quickly as possible. I find that singing "The Brady Bunch" theme works as an all-purpose scrubber in such situations. In the majority of songs I hear, I'm content to let the sound wash over me with as few preconceptions rattling around as possible. It's nice to try to let whatever the artist meant to convey get through to me before I begin to overlay my own interpretations.Jeff