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Does Listening To Classical Music Enhance One's Listening Ability In Other Genres?

11K views 47 replies 28 participants last post by  adeboram 
#1 · (Edited)
I have noticed that since I began 2 or 3 months ago to really start listening to and appreciating classical music, that I also seem to be developing a more "discerning ear"--for want of a better term--when it comes to listening again to my first and other love, namely jazz. What I mean by this is that I am better able to follow themes and their development now than when I wasn't listening to classical on a regular basis.
Has anyone else experienced this, or am I really deluding myself? Could it be merely coincidental or just a function of my getting older? In my heart of hearts, however, I don't think these latter two reasons suffice as reasonable explanations {at least I hope they don't!}
Therefore, I am wondering if any of my fellow members who have in fact undergone this type of transition {?} believe that there is something intrinsic and attributable to classical music as a genre which might explain this phenomenon? I really would like to think that I am not alone in having experienced this. Or am I? :eek:
 
#2 ·
Does Listening To Classical Music Enhance One's Listening Ability In Other Genres?
It definitely has for me. One thing I can think of is electronic music. Listening to the pioneers of electronic music (in the "classical" realm) like Xenakis, Boulez, Stockhausen, Varese has made me enjoy things like techno and mixes that I like listening to on radio (I don't own anything like this, I just like listening to new mixes made like yesterday by dj's especially for radio broadcasts). & of course, this engagement with techno has fed into me going to live performances of electro-acoustic stuff by current composers like Trevor Wishart, Brian Smetanin, Saariaho, and others whose names I forget. It's best to experience this kind of thing live, imo, so if you get a chance, just take it!

On the other hand, although I got some limited exposure to "classical" chamber music in my early years of listening as a child & teenager, I only got into this repertoire in a big way more recently after some years of listening to jazz - a lot of which is very chamber-like. Guys like Django Reinhardt, Dizzy Gillespie, Donald Byrd, Don Byas, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey, to name a few, were really chamber musicians par excellence. Pianist Art Tatum even composed some improvisations (under a false name, to avoid criticism by jazz snobs/highbrows) which have recently been recorded by the likes of Marc-Andre Hamelin (one of today's finest "classical" musicians - who himself has composed his own improvisations, feeding off what Tatum had done!). The more I think about it, there are little or few boundaries between the different styles, genres, eras, etc. There are only barriers in "the fans" minds, musicians have been transcending these things for years (just look at how Sir Yehudi Menuhin put down recordings with Ravi Shankar and Stephane Grapelli)...
 
#3 ·
Yes, it did the same for me especially when it came to listening to jazz, blues, even country music. My listening and enjoyment of jazz (usually on the radio) is so "easy", I feel I "get" the mood of the different jazz pieces that come, fundamentally thanks to my "grounding" if I can say so, from classical genres. Other genres that I dislike, such as country music, I think I also "get" it but I just dislike its feel. Popular songs, too.
 
#4 ·
It definitely can.

It can probably do the opposite, too. In many classical forums/discussions I've noticed some really nasty dismissal of any genre of music that's not about grand scale, subtle development and austere piety, ignoring the environment that influenced that style, as well as the fact that different music has different goals and modes of reaching those goals. (And this is coming from someone who hates pop, so I'm not some bastion of open-mindedness or anything.)
 
#6 ·
I'm on the side of those who say definitely so. Picking up a little theory along the way does wonders.

Especially something like jazz, which usually has roughly the same principles as classical music usually has (variations on melodies and harmonies). There's been a lot of influence between the two.

I don't believe it would usually cause someone to appreciate other genres less - but that could be caused by something that often goes with listening to classical music: hanging out with people who love classical and scorn other genres. I'm fortunate that none of the people I knew who loved classical in my formative years rejected other kinds of music.
 
#7 ·
...I'm fortunate that none of the people I knew who loved classical in my formative years rejected other kinds of music.
Same here. My parents loved classical music, as well as things like Louis Armstrong, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Edith Piaf - it was all "up for grabs." Loving classical music doesn't cancel out equally loving other things. Recently I have gotten into the lighter realm in a big way - operetta & film music in particular. There's a huge amount of sophistication in these genres which some highbrows dismiss off the cuff. I think the problem is not with the music, there's nothing "bottom feeder" about it, it's just the attitudes of some highbrows, who seem to be inhabiting their own planet or universe. Good luck to them, but the way I was bought up, that kind of thinking is alien to me (like being on the "planet of the apes"!!! - although btw, I love the score of that film)...
 
#8 ·
I think the turn off for me in film music is that it is not composed to bring utterance to the composer's own emotions/thoughts. Nor is it composed to say something new in music, add new sounds etc. The music is basically just very pretty music composed to augment a film. And while there's good film music, like this that negates all that I've just said, the majority of it is sentimental and obsolete.
 
#10 ·
I've got to partially agree with this one, through not so stridently. But yeah, I haven't listened to rock music since before Christmas. No Bruce, no Bob, no Tom Waits, no none of the above, or anyone else.

Now and again my wife sticks on Adele or something, and I smile and bop my head and say it's great, but really, I'm like the tiger in the long grass, watching the track-counters and waiting til a polite amount of time after it's finished (usually about 5 seconds is enough) before I take it out and replace it with classical! :lol:

:tiphat:
 
#12 ·
Hey Harpsichord Concerto,

You might be able to help me here. Is this music in 4/4 time? Just curious cos we were at a festival last weekend and they played trance music and someone said it was all in 4/4 time.

6 hours of it!:eek:

:tiphat:
 
#15 ·
Is it in 4/4 time? These days it's hard to find any computer-generated pushbutton dance rubbish that isn't.
 
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#16 ·
Yes, I've noticed that as well, now that I've been listening to so much classical lately.
And I don't feel as aramis does. Although classical is dominating my present listening at the moment, I still love the blues and progressive metal as much as ever. I still dip in as well to alternative, rock from the past in present, and modern solo piano music. I love variety in music, and that includes sampling most (but not all genres). My developing love for the music of Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven and the rest does not obscure my enjoyment of Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Rory Gallagher or the rest.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Well yes. I have come to a better understanding of Jazz music by listening to classical. However, on the other side there is the fact that, except for the better jazz pieces, classical music made the other genres quite irrelevant for me. I mean: classical music (in the broad sense of the word, including some but not all contemporary music too) has so much more of a story too tell then pop or rock music. I stopped appreciating 3 chord songs, and most above average pop and rock too.

Classical music is Art with a capital a to me, it speaks in a language that other music is far from. It consists something, it has an intelligent idea.

All the above is highly personal, not intended to be presented as a fact.
 
#21 ·
I listen to music a lot, and listen to 50% classical + 50% rock/folk and I can say that classical hasn't really enhanced my ability to listen to other genres. Rock and folk are more rhythm based, while classical is more melody based. Rock originated from the complex rhythms of African music and jazz, while classical is based on the traditional development of a few melodies, while using mostly simple rhythms to set the tempo.

I had a lot of trouble breaking into rock music as a long time classical listener but I'm glad I did. It really opened up new horizons for music.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I find that music is a language, and styles of music are like dialects. The more different kinds of music you listen to and incorporate, the more you'll understand in every other kind of music. It doesn't matter if it's classical, jazz, country or rock. It's all the same language. Fluency comes with a wide ranging kind of experience.

Personally, I listen to so many different kinds of music, I can't count it all. Jazz of all eras, country from old time and bluegrass through citybilly and rockabilly, the blues through R&B to soul, easy listening, pop vocals, ethnic music of all types. It's all taught me something important that deepened my understanding of other forms. Sticking to just one sort of music would be like trying to appreciate Shakespere translated to words of two sylables or less.

Every music is just part of the bigger picture, it isn't a whole unto itself, the way many people think it is. Classical music isn't better than any other form, it just expresses certain aspects better.
 
#26 ·
Interesting. A grilled burger and a beer are not what I consider 'fast food'. It's back yard summer evening food, and it takes me considerably longer to prepare the burger than a trip through a MacD drive-through. You are mangling @Bas's point to further yours. Maybe an acceptable debating tactic, but not so great for chatting over the backyard fence.
 
#27 ·
My point is that classical music isn't necessarily "haute cuisine" and it isn't necessarily better than other forms of music. Appreciation of one kind of music should enhance the appreciation of another, not the other way around. I think there's a lot of elitism in classical music (and often jazz too) that really doesn't serve the genre well.
 
#28 ·
In my case, I'd say that understanding any kind of "classical" music that involves either theme and variations or the development of a theme in some other way has helped me understand any other genre of music (for example, hard bop jazz or some prog rock) that utilizes similar techniques.

Outside of that, I can't think of how my classical music experience has helped me appreciate other genres. To me (and I love a lot of different kinds of music), they're not just different dialects of the same language, they're completely different languages.
 
#31 ·
I have noticed that since I began 2 or 3 months ago to really start listening to and appreciating classical music, that I also seem to be developing a more "discerning ear"--for want of a better term--when it comes to listening again to my first and other love, namely jazz...

I really would like to think that I am not alone in having experienced this. Or am I? :eek:
Sure. If you really want to improve, start performing. And, if you feel you don't have the 10,000 hours needed to practise in order not to make a complete idiot of yourself on stage with a violin, say, then join a choir.
 
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