What does music sound like to non-musicians?

[Ben Lesser]

This is something I've been tossing around in my head the past few days. At my job now, I work in a warehouse and we have a speaker system in there. Only a couple of the guys listen to music at work, and not usually the guys I work with, so I get to pretty much put on whatever I'd like.

It got me thinking: how do these other people who are non-musicians perceive the sounds coming out of the speakers? Whereas when I hear a song, I hear all of the separate parts and how they work with each other, etc., etc. what is everyone else hearing?

Any ideas?

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Ignorantly blissful.

[Armueller2001]

Originally Posted by Ben Lesser

This is something I've been tossing around in my head the past few days. At my job now, I work in a warehouse and we have a speaker system in there. Only a couple of the guys listen to music at work, and not usually the guys I work with, so I get to pretty much put on whatever I'd like.

It got me thinking: how do these other people who are non-musicians perceive the sounds coming out of the speakers? Whereas when I hear a song, I hear all of the separate parts and how they work with each other, etc., etc. what is everyone else hearing?

Any ideas?

Well, I know people sure as hell don't know what a bass guitar sounds like haha

[Techmonkey]

you raise a very very good point.

I know so many people (non musicians) who say that music is their life and it's what keeps them going when times are hard... so it can obviously mean something - I just can't quite understand *what* it means, if you get me?

I'm trying to remember myself; I mean I knew I was a bass player before I knew what a bass was. I'd pick up my brothers 6 string and pick out all the chili pepper basslines on them without even knowing they were the basslines... they were just the part that I always wanted to play.

I don't know if I'm any different now that I can tell you if its a fender or a rickenbacker, minor or modal etc etc... or if it just feels that way because I can explain what it is that I like.

I dunno.

[Unrepresented]

I get the vibe that vocals and lyrics are what "non-musicians" listen to.

"That song sounded the best; I could understand the lyrics."

[knarleybass]

I think it's all about the vocals for non musicians.

[Marcury]

Many non-musicians have played or still play instruments so I'm not sure you can really generalize on this one, unless you are considering anyone who ever played anything a musician.

[kesslari]

I think it's all about the vocals for non musicians.

Respectfully disagree. Many non-musicians enjoy instrumental music - jazz and classical have large chunks of instrumental repertoire.

I can remember loving music before I could play an instrument (and that's going back a lot of years).
I had to become educated about different instruments' sounds (anyone remember "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" or for that matter "Peter and the Wolf") but I could still appreciate some of the different parts.

More than that, it was about the feel of different musics - how they made me feel, regardless of whether I got analytical about what the parts were.

[jonathan_matos5]

i imagine it is like hearing a language that you only know a few words of. you dont quite know whats going on.

[Jazz Ad]

I don't think there is much difference.
Most musicians don't have the slightest idea what they're playing anyway, they're just playing music by the numbers.
Also, if you guys can't be simply touched by music without analysing it, I pity you. You miss all the fun.

[Ben Lesser]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

I don't think there is much difference.
Most musicians don't have the slightest idea what they're playing anyway, they're just playing music by the numbers.
Also, if you guys can't be simply touched by music without analysing it, I pity you. You miss all the fun.

Regardless of 'awareness' of what's going on in the music or not, do you think even the most theory-ignorant, but impassioned, musician perceives music in the same way as any non-musician?

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

I don't think there is much difference.
Most musicians don't have the slightest idea what they're playing anyway, they're just playing music by the numbers.
Also, if you guys can't be simply touched by music without analysing it, I pity you. You miss all the fun.

+1

Our brains are wired to discern symbols, patterns, and relationships, which are what music is composed of. We are born musical, whether someone deliberately instructs us in music or not.

Just IMHO.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Ben Lesser

Regardless of 'awareness' of what's going on in the music or not, do you think even the most theory-ignorant, but impassioned, musician perceives music in the same way as any non-musician?

I think it is different, just because we relate things to our experiences. Also, the mere act of playing by ear involves a form of analysis, even if it is informal. Thus, we are less theory-ignorant than we might suppose.

[MyUsernameHere]

Music is a symbolic, emotional language, more or less. In that way I think musicians and non-musicians experience it in the same way. We all make it into whatever we want it to be. Give it meaning according to our own preconceptions and emotions.

We all like to think that our knowledge of musical theory, composition, etc... gives us some grander understanding of what we are listening to. Truthfully, all it does is make it easier for us to reproduce/compose something that would hopefully convey an emotional message whether or not we know why or how it coveys that message.

[illidian]

Music becomes more about the experience of listening to it, rather than actually noticing what's going on.

It's like the experience of a film buff. While the rest of go, "I really liked that movie!" But all we really know is that the story touched us, yet we know other parts of the film moved us but we're unaware of it. The film buff says, "Ah, yes, you see, the director used these seven techniques, especially for emphasis here, and..."

You don't have to comprehend something to enjoy it. In fact, you don't even have to consciously realize it.

[Brandonii]

For non musicians, i think it is more of the artist image, and maybe the words. And if everything is matched together.

[D.Don]

Don't you guys have a "listener" side as well? With some music where you just like it and not because Jaco played a nice line over it or because the drummer can do superb fills or whatever?

I have two music preference fields, one professional, and one personal, sometimes they clash, but far from always.

One big part of my personal taste is filled with Folk/Country/Americana, for instance I love Leonard Cohen as well as Johnny Cash, but listening to them I rarely listen to the "musical parts", for me it's the whole shebang, the experience, the expression, the lyrics etc. and it just makes me feel things and not even think "bass, keyboards, voices" ...

This is what I assume a lot of people experience when they listen to music they like, and i would dare to say that there's a lot of musicians who can feel this too ...

How could you play, if you can't listen ...


D.Don

[Elrend]

I listen to Tangerine Dream and Comus for the whole experience if that counts

[BluesyCat]

Originally Posted by Ben Lesser

This is something I've been tossing around in my head the past few days. At my job now, I work in a warehouse and we have a speaker system in there. Only a couple of the guys listen to music at work, and not usually the guys I work with, so I get to pretty much put on whatever I'd like.

It got me thinking: how do these other people who are non-musicians perceive the sounds coming out of the speakers? Whereas when I hear a song, I hear all of the separate parts and how they work with each other, etc., etc. what is everyone else hearing?

Any ideas?

This girl at my work cannot tell one instrument from another....very sad.
Well, she only listens to country/country pop....it's all the same so she has no taste! LOL!

[D.Don]

Originally Posted by BluesyCat

This girl at my work cannot tell one instrument from another....very sad.
Well, she only listens to country/country pop....it's all the same so she has no taste! LOL!

Dude, I have had a&r peeps from a major label who couldn't hear the difference between accordion and an acoustic guitar ...

D.Don