Only Listen?

I try to "connect" to the music while listening. Sometimes I hear music while reading, cooking, etc, but nowadays I listen more seldom because of my little daughter and a true lack of serious headphones + amp. I´d love to get hold of a Stax 4040 set (with the 006 energizer), or AKGs new K 701 + a decent headphone!!!)
Regards
Rickard

Listening to music rather than just using as a background for other activities requires 100% concentration, so doing anything else is not possible.

I learned this one day many years ago listening to a very fine radio relay of a Beethoven symphony, whilst driving. I had failed to notice that it was raining, and eventuallly I span the car on a bend.

I never listen to music in the car, for obvious reasons!

All the best from Fredrik

Well said Fredrik

Regards
Rickard

Music acts as a background to nearly everything I do. To listen to the system is like reading a book or watching a film - totally adsorbing. But 95% of the time it's for background stimulation/atmosphere. My brain dials it down in the car when necessary - I don't seem to have lost the nack of focusing my attention on what's important, although outside sounds (like police sirens) sometimes don't get heard above the radio/CD as early as they would be if I was driving in silence. But I have two eyes and three mirrors.

Cheers

Harry

I have my Mac and my Naim in the same room, so usually I am listening while I post. Other times I'll sit and read with music playing but I find that hard with my Naim system: it demands my attention!

I have a sofa, laptop and system in the same room.
While at the pc i do listen , but usually i tend to listen without doing other things expecially when i get new CDs.
Now that i'm posting i have some old CDs to listen back.
I do read while in bed. I couldn't do the two things together.
I have a car stereo but i don't use it because of the noise of traffic and car mixed up with music.
Anyway i think that spending on car stereo is a waste of money.
In the sitting room i share a japanese stereo rack with my mother, but music is always "under" and she likes to play old tunes while cooking.

I think it depends a little on what you're listening to, and there's plenty of music I have on as 'background'. However, Fredrik's point is well made: I find it impossible to do anything else if I'm listening to a good Beethoven symphony (indeed, one of the reasons I got rid of the Rattle/VPO symphonies was that I could work while listening to them!).

regards, Tam

Dear Friends, and Tam in particular,

Of the music I love the best, there is too much for me to know in a lifetime. So I choose to fairly keep going learning more of it without too much regard for other genres, which is no comment at all on their value!

But it remains a fact that I have no time for music which does not need 100% of of my concentration, so that maybe explains why I would not risk music in the car and so on.

Dear Tam did you get my email? Fredrik

Fredrik,

Fair point.

Yes, I did get the e-mail - thanks very much, and I shall get round to replying either today or tomorrow.

regards, Tam

Grand! Fredrik

I listen to loads of music in the car, on the cassette mainly, but also CD, MP3/OGG and the radio.

During long journeys the car hi-fi is invaluable. I have had a decent seperates system installed, so the sound quality is reasonable enough.

I get to hear more new music this way than any other.

DS

ITC - Monolake - polygon_cities

I to this day still try to put music on in the background only to end up in front of it and what I was trying to do gets set aside. Why do I bother. I as well have to give music 100% of my attention or else it demands it anyway.

Charles

Ideally music listening involves a glass or 5 of whisky, major volume and relaxing/concentrating on the music itself.

However "background" music while around the house is fine if nothing serious or requiring great concentration is involved.

Car music is basically loud, but is really only background noise.

I simply can't listen to music while cycling or at work due to the amount of inattention I pay to the outside environment(yes Fredrik, I can sympathise).

Pete

I have a fairly long commute to work (78 Km each leg), most of it on highway with the cruise control on. I listen to great music there (this past Friday, Inger Sodergren playing Beethoven piano sonatas.)

At home, I listen when I am on this Forum with the laptop and whern I read, but 80% of my listening is just that - listening.

Fredrik, I aspire to the concentration levels you talk of but rarely achieve it. Today I listened to Schuberts 14th string quartet, Beethovens 13th, and Bartoks 1 sonata for violin and piano, all 'only listening'. However, I thing even like this I only get to hear 50 to 60% of the music at any one sitting as my mind has other thoughts, some stimulated by the music. This meand that I can listen to a peice of music many times and still find it fresh. Whilst cooking I 'listened to Van Morrison and the Beatles, which I also enjoyed. It seems to me this latter is more simple [in a good sense] and can be appreciated whilst doing something else. I also listen whilst driving and have sometimes pulled over for a passage that required my attention, usually something very beautiful, because not to do so would be to much of a compromise. Not listening whilst driving would make driving unbearable.
Stephen John

quote:

Originally posted by stephenjohn:
[...]. Today I listened to [...] all 'only listening'. However, I think even like this I only get to hear 50 to 60% of the music at any one sitting as my mind has other thoughts, some stimulated by the music. This meant that I can listen to a peice of music many times and still find it fresh.
[...].

Stephen John

Dear Stephen,

That is absolutely right, I would think. However hard a listener tries, he will never get all the music in one sitting! There is a parallel with performances. None I know is so comprehensive that all the aspects of the music are in perfect expressive balance, which is why I reckon that for the true great music it is important to have several performances, contrasted in their way...

I am not sure how that works where the only performances are by the originators of it, and certainly these are very important, but I would not prefer Elgar conducting Elgar to the same music condusted by for example Sir Adrian Boult.

The whole thing becomes both a huge pleasure and a fascinating effort, learning more, or at least that is my experience.

All the best from Fredrik

Yep!
That's right.

Hi,
I give both cd and vinyl the 100% attention they deserve.
Chris N

Dear Chris,

Even with 100% concentration, I still maintain that in some music it is actually not possible to get the whole picture just by listening, however many times you try! Hence my comment that in much listening it is quite possble to conceive that you only really get perhaps two thirds of what is going on! To really learn the counterpioint of Bach for example (or Bruckner for that matter), it is in fact impossible to completely grasp it without extensive use of the score. After that the listening may indeed get the whole picture!

All the best from Fredrik

Daytime: work
Evening: Drink whisky

I can't seem to "multi-task" very well. If I'm reading a book, I prefer silence. If I'm concentrating on music, I prefer no books, telly etc,but tea, red wine &/or the lovely missus are welcome additions.
Kind of along the same lines, I still can't get into watching A/V,music dvd's etc. Maybe its because with my eyes closed,in my mind I can concentrate on a particular aspect of the music, without my attention being overly influenced by the visual aspect.Am I alone in this preference?
matt.