V.com weekend vote: What's the best way to listen to recorded music?
We listen to recorded music for many reasons - for pleasure, for inspiration, for learning.
When listening to recorded music, this can mean listening purely to the audio. But if you are listening, say, to learn your latest piece or an orchestra part, you might listen while reading along with the sheet music. Or, you might get more from watching performers while listening - seeing the way they move, play, emote.
Personally, my favorite way to take in recorded music is purely audio. It all hearkens back to childhood - as a toddler, I loved to sit on the couch and "bounce" as I listened to music on the turntable - rocking and bouncing my head against the back of the couch (what a strange child!). My grandmother, the DJ in this situation, fed me a lot of over-orchestrated Andy Williams albums and musicals - so let's just say that I was not listening to high-level classical music!
But looking back, I certainly was feeling the music with my entire being, without any visual cues. These days, on rare chances when I have the time or solitude, I still prefer to listen, over speakers, in the dark (strange adult!). And in the absence of that, there is listening in the car, which has a decent audio system. The computer and phone are not my favorite way to take in recorded music, though it can be interesting to watch the way people play and perform. On occasion, I will listen to orchestra music while looking at the sheet music, mostly to speed up my learning process.
What about you? When it comes to listening to recorded music, how do you prefer to take it in? Do you simply listen, without associating anything visual with the music? Do you prefer to watch a performance, where you can see the musician or musicians as they create the music? Or do you prefer to listen with the score in hand, so that you have a notational reference for the music? Do you listen differently when you are trying to learn a music that you are playing? Please participate in the vote, and then share with us your thoughts and experiences with listening.
Thank you to Paul Deck for this week's vote suggestion. If you have an idea for the weekend vote, please e-mail Laurie Niles!
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Replies
It completely depends on the reason I am listening. If I am working on a piece I have never played before, I listen with the part in front of me. Otherwise, I just listen to the audio.
I prefer to just listen, usually with my eyes shut - even at concerts, so that barring exceptional acoustics in the hall, the cost of gasoline, parking and bridge toll alone exceed the cost of a brand new CD and then there is the price of 2 concert tickets.
However, if it is something I am or will be playing myself, I track it on the score and if I want to see some technique I want to watch it.
I voted “Just the audio” because this is how I got started as a preadolescent, listening to classical music on radio and recordings. By 7 y/o, I had made my own Saturday routine during the cold, gray winter months. I would sit in the living room and listen to one album after another from my parents’ collection, typically for 3+ hours at a stretch. I was my own DJ.
In my mid-teens, printed scores began to interest me, and I started following them while listening. I would often do this after first hearing a piece and liking it. At times, I found that the score had some notes my mind hadn’t registered from listening only. This was especially helpful with pieces that I hadn’t yet played but had the ambition to play.
About watching a performance: I do this also, typically via YouTube on a desktop PC with high-quality external speakers. I hear much more of these performances than I actually see. Most of the time, while the music plays, I’m doing chores like housecleaning or menu prep in other rooms. Being a YouTube Premium subscriber, I get unlimited downloads and playbacks - no interruptions for ads.
I voted audio with score, though if I'm interested in how the performers do it, I want a video. But in practice, most of my istening to recorded music is BBC Radio 3/Clsassic FM while driving!
It depends on why I'm listening. If I'm trying to study the piece, or considering playing the piece, I usually prefer audio with the score. (There are exceptions: I may occasionally watch video of the performers to help decide on bowings.) If I'm listening for entertainment, I greatly prefer video of the performers. But in practice, much of my listening is audio only, because it's on my car radio while driving.
Currently, my best sound system is in the car.
When designing bowings for community orchestra, if I am not sure about what I want to do, I can watch a youtube clip of a major league orchestra, to see what the real experts do. For synchronizing the bowings between the sections, it can be faster and better to mark them into a score first.
I agree that it really depends why one is listening. I listen with the score (or my part) if I'm learning a new piece. If I'm listening for enjoyment, I prefer to watch the players so long as the video is high quality. If I am not really listening -- that is, if I'm doing something else like working (or driving!) at the same time, that's when I opt for audio only.
I see it's almost a tie between "Just the audio" and "Audio with video of the performance". I wonder if that is an age issue. When I was a kid we didn't have many video opportunities when it came to music. We had three channels on television with the Ed Sullivan Show, Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, and American Bandstand. That was pretty much it. Everything else was on records or the radio. Today we have YouTube, MTV (is that still around?) and a zillion television channels. From the 1980's onward music and video have been blended. So, I'd like to know if there is an age factor in all of this. I love sitting in a room with my stereo speakers playing my records and CD's. I love just listening to the music. Of course, my tastes are rather eclectic. Hilary Hahn or Chuck Berry? Ah, choices!
For one, I need to have the correct sheet music in front of me...
(The video on the IPad is of Heifetz playing the Kreisler version of Rondo K250, whereas the sheet music in front of the IPad is Rondo K373.)
I ended up voting for video of the performers, because it's what I enjoy most -- I didn't mention my vote in my earlier comment.
I'm an elder millennial, but my mode of music listening is probably closer to that of younger millennials because I rarely listened to recorded music before 8th grade. (Grew up in the Middle East, parents don't listen to any music at all.)
I hesitatingly voted for audio and video, because I really enjoy watching the performance.
However, necessarily, videos are recorded live, and sound engineers just don't have the control I suspect as when they're recording audio only. So, I think that the highest quality recordings are audio alone. And of course, that's the way that I listen to 98% of my music.
In terms of appreciating music, when did "visualizing" and "reading" (the score) become part of having your full attention on the music itself? If music is a fully "auditory" art form, then shouldn't one's full attention be on what one hears?
Even more specifically, don't we actually pay attention to and experience each sound in the precise moment that we actually hear it?
Perhaps Tchaikovsky said it best: "Music is not illusion. It is rather revelation. Its triumphant power is that it reveals beauties we find nowhere else. And the apprehension of them is not transitory, but a perpetual reconcilement of life."
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February 25, 2024 at 08:17 PM · I almost always listen to audio only. When I commute, whether it be to work or lessons etc., I always have my headphones and Spotify with me. The onlt time I listwn visually is if I am watching a masterclass on YouTube or something.