How To Listen To Music: 9 Detailed Steps & Tips

By Philip Yiga | February 4, 2015

All people like listening to music because it puts us in certain mood. When someone is listening to music being played in the background while doing other tasks, that is not listening to music . However, music can be a great relaxer that can help us escape from different stresses of life today. On the other hand, if you really want to enjoy listening to good music of any genre then the relaxation effect must be present and below are some of the steps that you may follow when listening to music and if followed correctly, results will be great.

1. Listen to familiar / new  genres that you might understand: genres can exist in several forms and these may include: a light opera or a show tune played just on a piano or by an orchestra. Try not to think of anything else but just listen, enjoy and relax. This will infact help you to develop a mental map of the music you are listening to.

2. Try to recognize and consciously listen for any variations or repetition: you will notice that there is often something new towards the end on the music you are listening to. You can even locate passages that you find rewarding or nice for you to listen to.

3. Know that in music composition, there are 3 main technical-ideas: these compositions include:

• Repetition: this refers to process when a passage of music is repeated and this is a characteristic of almost every song.
• Variation: this is actually when a passage of music is repeated but with some alterations made to it.
• New-melodies: this is when a new passage of music is introduced. This can be at the introduction or beginning of a new passage.

4. Try to listen once more to the same passage: when listening this time, try to pay attention to what brings the music these passages and also try to listen to as many details as you can inorder to findout the colors, balances and textures of several sounds of which music is composed.

5. Try isolating specific details: these can be; rhythms in the foreground or background that seem to interact, short melodic figures in a principle melody or accompaniments.

6. Listen again while narrowing your focus: you can do this by only listening to the bass if there is one. Then try to notice things in the bass that seem to be alive with meaning. You can also notice all the details you previously noticed by switching the attention from one thing to another. Even try to notice the kinds of changes that happen at your favorite moment while listening to music like; does the melody develop into an unfamiliar accent, does a new rhythm add pungency and does a buzz abruptly splinter into a fractured collision.

7. Develop a mental map of the actors, characters and energies that combine to form music: this can be achieved by carefully listening to the music you prefer over and over again.

8. Sit and have a drink of your choice while listening to music: you can actually take a cup a cup of coffee or a soft-drink while listening to your favorite music because this will make you feel relaxed while enjoying the tunes.

9. Have some variety in the selection of you music: we all know that listening to the tune or song over and over again can eventually become boring. This means that you have to expand your musical tastes with not only different instruments but also with different composers and genres inorder to enjoy.

 

TIPS TO CONSIDER WHILE LISTENING TO MUSIC:

• Avoid confusing music with a music video: this because the best music does not usually need any visual or verbal associations to be made better. Just try to use your emotional-interpretation to intuit what the composer was trying to express or to connect with the composer’s reality.
• Listen to music emotionally: this means that you should let your mood and feelings change as the sounds of music you hear change.
• Try to use headphones in case you are with people that you don’t want to disturb or during the night. Also make sure that the headphones you are using are of good quality because poor quality headphones tend to make music seem less than what it actually is. However, don’t use headphones while driving because you may end-up causing an accident.
• Listen to some microtonal music: micro-tonality refers to the use of tones that are spaced less apart than how the 12-tone tuning system spaces them. This is mainly because having music that is tuned differently can allow for very unique emotional effects to be portrayed which are usually different from those experienced with normally tuned music. A good source of music composed in other tuning-systems is YOUTUBE.
• All music is based on variation, repetition and new-melodies. This means that even if you do not enjoy the music, you may always try to see how these principles are applied because you may end-up enjoying the music. But you may also try to listen to music of your choice if you really like to enjoy instead of forcing yourself to listen to what you don’t like.

WARNINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE LISTENING TO MUSIC:

• Don’t listen to music too loud. It is always tempting to do so but this may eventually lead to damaging your ears or hearing.

• Music may make people feel obsessed with life with all its emotions but it can also be an unforgiving passion attimes. So this implies that you should be cautious of balancing and controlling this obsession when listening to music.

• Never listen to music using headphones while driving because this may lead to an accident. So it is always recommended to listen to music using your cars radio while driving so that you can be able to know what is surrounding you driving environment.