Daily Discussion Post: Ah, That's Music to My Ears

[liseuse]

Happy Friday! I thought it might be interesting to talk about music today.

I am, what one might call, an appreciator of music but not someone who should be encouraged to try and make music. As a child I had piano lessons but was never encouraged to take any of the exams because there is a dreaded singing element and I am entirely unable to replicate a note. I can hear the difference between notes but I cannot make my voice replicate them or anywhere near them. Ditto the years of playing the oboe. I was not bad, per se, at either the piano or the oboe. I was mostly competent if one defines competency as "able to replicate the notes, mostly in the correct order, but does not expect any interpretation to occur".

However, I do enjoy listening to music. I have music on in the background for a good portion of my day, and even more of my day now I'm working from home. I cannot listen to music through headphones at work. Not because it's forbidden, we're allowed to do so, but I can guarantee that the phone will not have rung all morning and the minute I put my headphones in it will leap off the cradle and ring incessantly and then three people will turn up needing to ask me a question and it's just not worth the interruptions. Mostly these days I set spotify off on an album and then let it just keep playing at me. It's interesting to see where you get when you start with Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

I am also a big fan of Night Tracks from the BBC. I never listen as it's broadcast, but it is, to me, the perfect soundtrack for Sunday afternoons and reading on the sofa. As is Early Music Now, again from the BBC.

So, are you a music person? Are you a musical person? Or does the sound of music playing in the background with no one paying attention to it infuriate you beyond all measure? Have you discovered any exciting new (to you) music during The Great Entroublement?

Comments

[shadowhive]

Ohh I love music though I’ve never learned an instrument. I have a guitar but I’ve never learned how to play it (I’ve meant to but I’ve just never found the time) I’ve also got an ocarina which is mostly decorative. I’ve never even seen an oboe up close so kudos to you!

I mostly have music on in the mornings, while I’m doing my uni stuff. Currently that’s a mix of The Used, Set It Off or 5 Seconds Of Summer all thanks to Spotify. I also have an MP3 player which I use when going to places like when I used to go to town because being around people can be overwhelming (though lately it’s mostly gotten use when I go shopping to keep my anxiety in check)

Ohh I’ve not heard of that before, but I love the pic they have for it on the site with the lanterns

I really love that term you’ve used, The Great Entroublement.

New music to me has been As It Is, Set It Off, 5 Seconds Of Summer and the new The Used album.

[liseuse]

Every now and then I daydream about picking the oboe up again, but I'd have to find one to buy or rent and I'd have to find a teacher and my neighbours would hate me!

I confess to completely stealing the term The Great Entroublement from this tweet: https://twitter.com/vmochama/status/1245772611306622978

[beer_good_foamy]

A few months ago, a couple of friends and I gave each other a challenge: Put together a top 10 list of every song released every year you've been alive - ie start with your birth year, list your favourite 10 songs from that year, then next year, etc. With literally millions of songs on Spotify, we figured we'd be kept busy for a loooong time with that, and hopefully turn each other on to some stuff the others haven't listened to.

Thanks to the Current Situation™ (I like "the Great Entroublement"!) we've now not only finished that project, but moved on to making lists of our favourite songs for each year before we were born too.

I now have almost 50 top 10 lists of my own, plus ~150 lists from my friends, and should be able to go at least back to 1950. And they all seem much, much too short; every year has so many good songs. (Except 2008, for some reason.)

So yeah, you could say I like music. :)

[goodbyebird]

That's such a great idea for a challenge!

[jesse_the_k]

A brilliant challenge theme — I’d love to listen to some of the results, if you’re willing to share.

[used_songs]

That's a cool idea for a challenge, a personal history in music.

[liseuse]

That is a great challenge! Now I'm trying to remember what I listened to in 2008 and it's just a big old blank!

I completely stole The Great Entroublement from this tweet - https://twitter.com/vmochama/status/1245772611306622978

A topic close to my heart!

[used_songs]

I love music. I learned to play the clarinet as a child and I have picked up a little accordion, banjo, and violin on my own.

I listen to music a lot when I'm able. I'm not a fan of background music unless it's when I'm writing. Apart from that, if I'm able, I like to give my full attention to listening.

I actually started a music community here on DW called beautifulmechanical for the purpose of giving people a place to share the music that they love because I'm always hungry to find new-to-me artists and pieces.

Re: A topic close to my heart!

[liseuse]

A friend picked up the clarinet at the same time as I picked up the oboe. She was much better at the clarinet than I was at the oboe! But, she did then go on to get a music degree, works part-time as a classical singer, and is now a music teacher so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

[pensnest]

I am very fond of music. I've been singing since school choir, most of the time, and currently am a member of two barbershop choruses (women and mixed), which of course is not really a happening thing just at present. But we do our best.

I learned piano at school, just well enough that I can remember which note is which - in the time I spent having piano lessons I did not do much actual playing, because my teachers seemed to think it their job to teach me to get through the exams. I passed my Grade V, but had no repertoire beyond the exam pieces. I was not of Grade V standard. I only had a real teacher for one term, she would give me a piece, hear me play it the following week, give me notes, and the week after she'd give me another piece. Sigh.

I learned the clarinet as an adult, for the love of the sound of the beautiful thing. I did do an exam, which Grade level it was I cannot remember, but it didn't matter. I learnt a lot about note values and how to work out timing, and I enjoyed it so much! Sadly, Life got in the way and I found I wasn't spending the time practising so stopped the lessons - this was about 25 years ago. I've got the clarinet out again lately and am fumbling my way through Over The Rainbow during the 8 o'clock Clap on Thursday evenings.

I listen to quite a range of music, but I'm not a person who would willingly sit down to listen to a classical piece and do nothing else. It is a pleasing background for me, mostly.

[jesse_the_k]

Ah, a clarinet can convey such longing and joy! I especially like clarinet jazz, classic and klezmer.

[used_songs]

I love the clarinet. It's such a versatile instrument, truly.

[liseuse]

I would love to be able to sing and it sound nice. I still sing, not going to let a little thing like 'pleasure for others' stop me.

I love classical music but I treat it like background noise when I'm in my home. There is a local Bach choir who in Normal Times have a summer concert series and I am so sad that I'm going to be missing that.

[goodbyebird]

Absolutely love music, completely incapable of making any of my own :p

Since I went on a bit of a new-to-me music binge in January, I haven't been looking for something new during the epidemic. Still tons of music to listen to, not likely to run out any time soon hehe. Was actually just listening to an Agnes Obel live session. Heavenly voice.

||: Thank you :||

[jesse_the_k]

For introducing me to Agnes Obel!

[althea_valara]

I took about a year of piano lessons when I was a kid, just long enough to learn the bass clef. I still don't know it well, but I can play a few songs, which is fun!

I also played flute from, hmm, 4th grade I think, through high school. I was decent at it. I unfortunately thought I was a whiz at sight-reading so I didn't practice nearly as much as I should have...

As an adult, I sang in a church choir for a while. I'm no longer religious so dropped that years ago, but it was mostly fun. Except the director thought we all knew the Hallelujah very well and never gave us enough practice on it, go figure.

Also as an adult, I bought a very cheap violin off eBay. It was fun to play with and I did produce some notes, but you know what they say: you get what you paid for. The violin was so cheap the keys that tune the strings wouldn't stay in their holes firmly, so the strings never had enough tension. I gave the violin away last year, hadn't been using it.

I enjoy listening to music while I knit and crochet. For over ten years now, I've been listening to music from video games, primarily the Final Fantasy series. My favorite CD is Distant Worlds IV, which has selections from various Final Fantasy games. Sometimes I feel like a bore because I'm not branching out into other music, but I just enjoy these so much I don't really feel a need to.

[liseuse]

I think the only thing I remember from years and years of piano lessons is scales. I actually really loved learning scales.

[brumeier]

Music has always been yes for me, ever since I was a kid. My mom was always playing records and singing and playing her guitar. I had a collection of 45s, and then a larger collection of cassettes. I was always listening to music in my room, and on car trips we had a couple Fun Rock tapes we'd sing along to.

I took clarinet lessons in 4th grade but quit before the first concert. I'm not a musician. I will belt out song with no care for skill or precision. ::grins:: If a song is playing and I know the lyrics, I'm compelled to sing along. I will dance at both my jobs. At First Job I have several stations on Pandora that I put on shuffle, and at Second Job I have to deal with the piped-in music over the PA.

However, now that I'm spending so much time at home, I'm listening to very little music. TV has taken over my life. If I'll be spending a lot of time in the kitchen, I'll listen to 80s tunes on iheartradio. And when I'm working on fic, sometimes I'll throw some music on because I have a hard time working in a void. I need noise.

[jesse_the_k]

More power to you tolerating piped-in PA music. When I hear a favorite tune homogenized with synth strings I want to break things.

[luckyzukky]

i'm definitely a music person, i both make it and obsess over existing music lol

i play guitar and ukulele (but i play guitar way more than ukulele), i'm not the best at either but i love to play fingerstyle guitar! my problem is finding my favorite songs in tab form though, since i mostly listen to idol music and there aren't many tabs for that (except some akb48 tabs lol)

as for existing music, i just love discovering new stuff and listening to it. i basically download new music almost every day, my library is huge but i try to listen to most of it lol. my music taste is all over the place, i really love japanese idol stuff (which is usually pop but there's a whole range of idol genres-edm, r&b, rock, even shoegaze and metal), kpop, anything acoustic, hip hop, pop punk, synthpop, and honestly anything that starts or ends with "pop". but i'm open to listening to anything my friends recommend! recently my friend's been sending me songs from math rock bands, and i've been really liking it lol

[liseuse]

My musical taste sort of solidified around the stuff I listened to in my late teens and early twenties, I think. So I have a load of Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone and Carly Simon, but I also somehow still know all the words to a load of Jimmy Eat World (I don't even particularly like Jimmy Eat World, and I didn't like them that much when I was sixteen and they were really popular!). The latest thing I discovered I really enjoy is Canadian electro-hip-hop. Which was a nice surprise!

It’s complicated

[jesse_the_k]

I grew up listening to my mother play the piano, expertly, in classical mode as well as her piano records — she was v fond of Ahmad Jamal and Aretha Franklin.

We learned the recorder and soprano staff music reading in 4th grade. I taught myself to play lap dulcimer and guitar by ear, with help from musical classmates. I sang alto, and played rhythm guitar in a series of political bands — we’d play at rallies in the late 70s-early 80s. I’ve been paid for playing more than a dozen times, so “semi-professional.”

I got sick in late 80s which meant I couldn’t hear pitches accurately anymore(!) and can only sing for a short time before my throat gets too sore. Just another opportunity for me to be reborn with memories from a former life!

During the current mess, I’ve been digging up CDs I haven’t listened to in a while, and enjoying them greatly. LPs and CDs provide a musical experience of songs in a particular order, something that streaming often doesn’t offer.

Before the Safer-at-Home order, I swam at a local pool three times a week. The big shower room is the perfect setting for belting out favorite songs — it’s nice and moist so I can get through two or three. “Bread and Roses,” “How Can I Keep From Singing,” “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” “Pacing the Cage,” “The Parting Glass” were in frequent rotation. I’m looking forward to getting back there!

I’ll listen to almost anything (opera & heavy metal are my exceptions). I had a ball falling in love with HAMILTON. Oh hey! We’ve got a fun comm at hamiltunes. When I’m choosing, I go for “chamber folk”: acoustic music played with great skill and precise harmony, preferably with women singing lead.

Some examples: Trapezoid, Freya Epstein, Wailin’ Jennies, Wallflowers, Patty Larkin, Abigail Washburn, The Story, Nickel Creek, Crooked Still, McGarrigle Sisters.

(I’m on mobile so sorry no links right now.)

Re: It’s complicated

[liseuse]

Ah, my mother was not musical. I think I got piano lessons because they were the hallmark of some sort of vaguely middle class upbringing that she wanted me to have.

I forgot about learning the recorder! I still have mine, and the music lesson bag with the beginner's books.

I need to buy a CD player. I had one for years and it broke and I didn't get around to replacing it for some reason. I do still have all of my CDs. And I do have a record player and a small collection of vinyl, some of which was my mother's.

[mythicmistress]

I've been listening to music a lot more in recent years.

I listen to music by keeping my MP3 player on me, to while away time on the bus, keep anxiety at bay while shopping, and drown out noise in the house while doing chores.

As for making music, I played the clarinet in junior high school and am currently attempting to teach myself how to play the ocarina. I also took voice lessons for a little while a few years ago.

[liseuse]

The ocarina always looks like so much fun!

[cynthia1960]

My wife and I pretty much listen to KEXP's (Seattle station, kexp.org) online stream all day long.

[used_songs]

I catch their recordings on youtube a lot - great stuff.

[light_of_summer]

I'm kind of a rudimentary sometime musician: I can carry a tune decently (I have an OK but unremarkable mezzo-soprano voice), have a good basic sense of rhythm, and have gotten simple music out of a whole bunch of instruments, at different times in my life, including piano, guitar, recorder, occarina, kalimba, harp, psaltery, bandura, melodica, banjo, and harmonica.

The instruments for which I've had (small amounts of) formal instruction were piano, songflute, recorder, violin (not sure that ever counted as music), guitar, and voice. Oh, and a one-evening workshop in playing didgeridoo. 😊 I also enjoy playing some untuned percussion instruments like drums and rattles.

Music was quite important to me in my early life, but I never became very skilled at any instrument.

I think I made a fairly conscious choice to concentrate more on dancing and other movement arts than on making music, for a lot of my adult life. In connection with dancing, I heard quite a selection of English folk tunes during the five years that I was a Morris Dancer (and I sometimes did a little singing along). I heard a lot of Middle Eastern music during the 20 years or so that I studied belly dancing, with some related North African and Central Asian musical side trips. My fondness for those kinds of music varied considerably with the individual pieces.

Though I haven't been making much music, I listened to a lot of (mostly instrumental and foreign-language vocal) music at 30+ years of past jobs, using cassette tapes or CDs or Pandora. I found that understandable vocals distracted me, when I worked with words—hence, the bias toward instrumentals and foreign-language vocals.

Since being disabled out of the workforce in 2014, I've listened to a lot less music than I used to. I'm not really opposed to listening to more—I just often forget it's an option, or I feel more interested in listening to spoken word audio. When I do remember, I often end up visiting YouTube for bits of Classic Rock or Jazz that I like but don't own.*

I'll be interested to see what gets recommended here, though! (Thanks in advance, all!)

* Some YouTube favorites:

• Joan Osborne singing Mr. Charlie
  
• Three Dog Night, Shambala
  
• Parachute, Something to Believe In
  
• Dr. Michael White, Give It Up (gypsy second line)

[liseuse]

I forgot about learning the recorder in primary school. Although I'm not sure any of us got proficient enough at it for it to count as music. A very musical friend of mine is in a recorder orchestra and I've been to a couple of their concerts. It's such a lovely instrument when it's not being murdered by a group of thirty seven year olds.

My dad was a Morris dancer for a while. And there was a lot of folk music in my childhood and teenage years.

[singedsun]

I'm a music nut. I post (usually) weekly new music friday posts about what I've been listening to each week, or what's new that I've found interesting for the week.

[liseuse]

* eagerly clicks to go and discover something interesting to listen to for the next week*

[ninetydegrees]

I love music and find it very powerful emotionally and Important. I learned to play the piano as a child but I'm not very well coordinated so I stopped at some point (would have probably continued if I could have had private lessons and stopped taking exams but that wasn't possible then). Recently bought a karimba and have been teaching myself how to play it. Kind want to learn how to play a ukulele too.

I listen to music periodically: I can spend months not listening to any then spend months doing the opposite. I love listening to music on car trips.

I binged-listened to Christine and the Queens yesterday and discovered some songs and collabs I'd never heard before.

[tjs_whatnot]

The Great Entroublement. What a great phrase! ♥

I actually haven't been discovering anything new because I mostly listen to new music through a satellite station that I only get in my car. *sob*

But, I have been trying to listen to new genres when I do remember to listen to music.

[liseuse]

I confess to completely stealing the phrase from this tweet - https://twitter.com/vmochama/status/1245772611306622978!

I very easily get trapped into only listening to the same five albums so it's been really nice for me to just set spotify going and hear a range of new to me things.