Musicians listen to music differently than other people

They don't waste energy listening to something that says nothing. This according to a recent scientific study: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=7050081&page=1

 

I play music and I agree that I listen much differently than non-playing people do. Some people though pick out things I don't hear though so it can work both ways.

Usually it's lyrics that I miss. I will hear keys, drums, guitars or what's going on in the mix where most don't pay attention to. It's the beat to some. And that's not a bad thing either cause I need to have their take on things too.

 

As a musician I feel like I have an appreciation for the technique, fundamentals and overall complexity of a composition. I do feel sometimes this colours my judegment of those performers/songwriters who are not technically adept. On the other side I do tend to not listen much to lyrics, I miss that and others tend to get more from this than I.

 

I almost never listen to lyrics. I can't even understand what Bono is saying on the new U2 (and don't care.),

 

I was going to go for the "that's a no-brainer" comment...but I thought it was too droll...

It seems obvious that musicians would be able to put themselves into the mindset of a person who is making music when they hear it. This is called empathy. The more interesting part of the article for me, was the notion that we musicians also reject distracting sounds better if we know they're not relevant to the listening experience.

 

I don't pay attention to lyrics until last. Lyrics are the first thing most people listen for, especially women, IME.

 

Having worked a bit in Country radio, I find that, since the songs are all lyric-intensive above all else, this actually causes the audience to pay more attention to everything the air personalities say, and (here comes the awful secret) also the commercials, moreso than other radio audiences!

 

That's what I do. I imagine myself playing on it, then feel what is being played. Then, my engineer head goes on and I hear it as a gear-head.

I also tend to focus on the minute details, that small triangle, the way the stick hit the high hat during a fourth measure after letter A, stuff like that.

For me, the vocal is just like another instrument. That's why I generally hate for vocals to be front and center. It's like mixing something way too loud. No wonder I am not a fan of country music.

 

I'm also a musician and like those above, I too hear the lyrics last. My wife thinks i'm crazy as she tends to listen first to the lyrics. We love a lot of the same music, but she also likes a lot of pop music which I don't. I don't believe there is any "feeling" in much of the pop music she likes, but each to their own.

The voice is an instrument to me and I listen to how it works with the other instruments. If you get me to like that balance, then i'll probably start to hear the lyrics.

EDIT: Sorry Grant, I've basically repeated what you said, but was typing much slower than you!

 

I think most of us are like-minded here.

Take a song like "Lucky Man" by ELP. I don't really know what the hell he is singing about, and don't like the bare-bones instrumentation. But, I can groove to the depressed mood. The music doesn't sound like he's very lucky, except for the final lyric where he says the guy died. The lyrics have no emotion whatsoever. But, then, neither do the vocals in the band Chic. It is intentional there, and the music makes up for it.

 

I tend to hear to both the music and often the lyrics at the same time, but this might be due to the fact that I used to write songs (not that much time for it nowadays).

I also pay a lot of attention to the playing and the arrangements, for the same reason as above.

What I find interesting about this article is the, "they don't waste energy in something that says nothing" quote. I construe this to mean that regular three-chord music will not mean much to many musicians. Also - to me - this seems to imply that the inability to hear any emotion conveyed by the playing, be this due to the way the music was recorded, mastered, or played, could be something that musicians could more readily detect. This could explain the 'loneliness of the long-distance runner' in audio terms that we often mention in this forum; the 'regular folks just don't care for good-sounding music that conveys the subtleties of the emotions present in the performance' bit, if you get my drift.

 

Contemporary Christian and Gospel are also lyric intensive genres, and that includes much of the music of the lady in my avatar. Also folk music, 60s-70s singer-songwriter pop music, MOR pop vocal music, etc. are lyric intensive genres. In other words, a lot of what I listen to is lyric intensive music.

 

This reminds me of how insulted the guitarists at Sigma Sound were when they were told to play only two chords on "I'll Be Around" by Spinners in 1972. I guess they didn't understand that the song was carried by the rhythm section and the lyrical melody.

 

songs have lyrics?

 

Lyrics are the words you hear the artist singing.

 

I get bored when I hear a song and know what will be played before the guitarist etc. plays
it.

 

He was being facetious.

 

I take you you never listen to anything twice?

 

Yeah, absolutely. I love to soak up all the production tricks and get immersed in the sound of the band and the album.

 

Plus 1. My wife will also have a good laugh at me as I'm singing lyrics that don't even make sense! She'll ask how I could remember the music to hundreds of songs and not be able to remember lyrics.

 

I'm a musician as well, and try not to be surprised anymore at what others don't hear in music. I was always really shocked when I would point out (for example) what the bass player was playing on a particular part, and they would tell me they never noticed there was any bass on the song at all.
I also go for lyrics in a big way as well, and can't stand to listen to a lyric that is obviously not from the heart or creative in some way.

 

I'm the same as many here; I'm a musician who hears the lyrics last!

 

I'm a musician who probably does listen to music a bit differently than my other non-musician friends. I do concentrate on lyrics less.

What bothers me is the assumption that a musician has better ears for music or even a more valid opinion regarding music.

 

If you are a musician and an audiophile, it is a dual mania. You are listening to the chord changes, the arrangement and production all at the same time. Then with audiophilia, does it sound compressed or was it made with solid state equipment? The problem is when one becomes an accomplished musician you can hear/see who the crappy muiscians are out there. That lessens the sort of enjoyment of bands that are less technically gifted sometimes. It's funny because I remember hearing a song by Italian artist Eros Ramazotti that Tony Levin played on. Through the compression and all the digital gimmicks, TL's playing was still a signature of the song. It's funny how you can hear someone's technique and sound when you do play, because my non musician brother was like: you can tell that that's Tony Levin? And Tony happens to be one of the best out there BTW..........