Listening Skills

Music matters to me.  I don't listen to music as a distraction like many people do, I listen to music to enjoy it and to consume it. I consume music like most people consume a bowl of ice cream. I leave nothing in the bowl. Like most people, I hear a lot of music that I don't want to hear, like in a store or a restaurant.  I am forced to listen to the annoying  music of commercials while in a waiting room. The latest assault is advertisements  pouring from a screen on the gas pump. Just what I needed. More noise. Because I have to listen to so much music I don't want to hear, I listen to hours of music that I do want to hear. I enjoy it and it's also rather cathartic. It eradicates much of the soul-damning affects of all that other noise.

Music has been important to me for a long time. As a child and young adult I learned to play the piano and I sang for church and school events. From 1971 to 1979, I earned three degrees in music from three different colleges. Academically and as a performer I did very well.

When you study "music history" in a school in the United States, you  are more than likely studying the history of "Western Music." "Western music" is European music handed down from the Greeks through the centuries to us.  You will begin your study with Medieval music (including Gregorian chant) in the third century and then  move through the Renaissance, the Baroque period, the Classical period, the Romantic period, the Modern period and the Contemporary period until today. You will be tested on the dates when each of these periods started and ended. Although for your study you need to know these dates, for your actual music education it's important to understand that these demarcations don't exist. The evolution of Western Music was gradual, continual and fluid. Beethoven, for example, is known as one of the greatest "Classical' composers. But if you understand "classical form", you'll hear that his Ninth Symphony blows "Classical form" to bits. . This symphony belongs firmly in the "Romantic" era. You could bridge any of the major periods of music history in the same way.

Something has recently happened in my music listening which, except for Spotify, could cause me a great deal of distress.  It still causes me some stress, just not a great deal of distress. Some of my favorite CDs from the music of the 60s and 70s are beginning to skip and to fail.  About twenty five  years ago when my turntable broke, instead of getting it repaired, I threw it away and gave away all my albums.  I didn't need them anymore because I had compact discs!  I was led to believe that my digitally mastered CDs would be a much higher sound quality than vinyl, wouldn't scratch and would last forever.

Over the years my son has kept me current with the latest music listening services. Several years ago he told me about Pandora. I told him that  I had a car stereo, XM radio, CDs and an iPod so I didn't need Pandora.  He insisted that I give it a try. So I did.  Pandora revolutionized the way I listened to music.  The Pandora  "radio stations" of my favorite artists provided hours of enjoyment and introduced me to a multitude of new bands and singers.  I created those stations and the hits just kept on coming.

Then a few years ago he said, "Dad, you've got to download Spotify."  I said, "I don't know anything about Spotify, but I don't need it.  I've got Pandora, remember?"  "Dad, you will love Spotify. It does things Pandora doesn't do. Just download it and use it."  If Pandora took me to the moon, Spotify has taken me to the stars. I can not only listen to all my favorite bands from the 60s and 70s, but I can listen to music from all those periods of music history I mentioned. Besides The Association, I can listen to Couperin, Scarlatti and Vivaldi.  Besides America, I can listen to Bach, or Mozart, or Schoenberg, or Bartok or Respigui.  I can listen to Bread and the Beatles and also listen to Bernstein.  All this happens because of the search box. I just type in the artist or the song and there it appears ready to play.  I can also create radio stations just like with Pandora.  But perhaps the best feature of all is the ability to create playlists. It's not a music crisis that  my CDs won't play in my car, Spotify plays those albums flawlessly. One downside is that I paid for those CDs once.  I pay for Spotify every month.  I gladly pay for Spotify every month, I might add.

Good music matters to me. Music provides my solitude, my alternate state of consciousness.  I don't smoke dope. I don't "drink"(very much). The only drugs I ingest are those prescribed by my doctors, in the amount they prescribe. I don't "get  high" on anything. When I'm alone in my car, I'm listening to music, not just any music, but the music I choose. The source is  XM, a CD or a Spotify playlist. When I'm home I don't watch much TV; I read or listen to music.  So when Dan Fogelberg's Home Free failed to play a few days ago, it was an event. But not a crisis. I'm listening to it on Spotify even as we speak with my Bose noise-cancellation headphones. There's a correlation here. All this music I listen to at home and in the car serves as a mental and emotional "noise-cancellation" for me.


It's only a matter of time that my son will call and say "Dad, there's a new music service you've got to try called Andante.  You'll love it!. Andante does things that Spotify can't do." And I'll say,  "I don't need another service. I'm very happy with Spotify. I really can't imagine being any happier."  He'll insist  and I'll download it and be very glad I did.