Most people listen to music and think they are doing it the right way. However, are you able to differentiate between varying instruments, notes, chords and other progressions? Indeed, there are a number of ways to listen music – from having music as background noise to making music a major part of your life; almost like a soundtrack. If you are in the former category, it may be worthwhile to find some ways to get yourself into the latter category. Learning and understanding music is an essential part of growing and appreciating art and life. Here is how to improve your music listening skills.
- Open your mind to new music – you may find something that you really like. When it comes down to it, you may not be appreciating music because you haven’t found the type of music you like. When it comes down to it, you should love the music you listen to – or else what’s the point? It may take some time to find the best music, but it will be a worthwhile exploration.
- Try appreciating one song – just a few bars will do. If you just can’t appreciate the music, you want to try appreciating at least one song. You can start with a few bars. All you want to do is get acquainted to a certain type of music. It may be smart to find headphones – from a company like DownBeats. Sometimes, listening to music on headphones can help you hear the music a lot better. This is especially the case when you are listening to a song with a lot of different dimensions and elements.
- Keep your ears open for specific instruments. When you do have headphones on and you are listening to a certain song, you want to listen for different instruments. Part of the fun of listening to music is detecting different instruments. This is why you want to choose a song that has a lot of them. For instance, jazz and big band music typically has a lot of different instruments and it is a good place to start appreciating music. It isn’t like classical music where the instruments are a little harder to understand.
- Learn more about the artists. On top of everything, you also want to be sure that you learn about the artists that are making the music you are listening to. Sometimes, appreciation can come from learning about why a certain artist makes music a certain way. You can do a lot of research online about different artists – this will help you immensely when it comes to picking out different instruments. A certain artist from one part of the world may use a unique instrument that can be fun to learn about.
- Try playing along and mimicking the sounds. On top of everything, you may want to play along with different artists. If you have a song on, you may want to learn the chord progressions on the song. Moreover, you may want to sing along. In the end, getting into the music is all about engaging in the music.