Theory

Good morning,

I updated my method about learning how to listen to music and why some people seem to respond differently to different musical genres or to different valuable bands in the same genre or sub-genre.

According to some testing that myself and a bunch of friends did during this unfortunate quarantine, the different ways of listening to music that someone can turn on or turn off in some days are related to three distinctive predominant characteristics of the music texture:

1) syncopation (in circular patterns)

2) counterpoint or at least a linear melody

3) chordal harmony

where with chordal harmony and counterpoint we are not assuming anything about the context.

It could be pentatonics or 12 tone series for the linear melody, or it could be a simple I-IV-V or systematically tritones or clusters for the chordal harmony. Tonal, atonal, modal, it does not make any difference.

In particular way I experimented that if someone exercize to recognize and respond to the threes at the same time it is virtually a universal listener: from punk hardcore to Berio, from delta blues to Cecil Taylor every kind of music is easily enjoyable.

Not easy to replicate, but achievable after some days of effort but when you are well accustomed for example to listen to

1) James Brown

2) Bach

3) Scriabin

you are in this flow-like state.

It does not last forever, every morning I have to recover it through 1 hour of selective random listening to music that operates in the three directions.

Rock music is a controversial genre, the main variable you are sensitive to is the reason for well known rivalry between bands or subgenres.
If you learn to listen to rival subgenres or bands through exposure you are a better listener.

Very interesting are for example the cases of

1) Beatles
2) Rolling Stones
3) Who

or

1) Metallica
2) Iron Maiden
3) Megadeth

or

1) Joe Satriani
2) John Petrucci (Dream theater)
3) Steve Vai

or really subtle and almost unexplainable, because it seems to me I am splitting hairs in four

1) Jimi Hendrix
2) Jeff Beck
3) Carlos Santana

In a certain sense Hendrix has the mindset of a blues guitarist, Beck of a classical composer, Santana of a mainstream jazz musician.

These are three groups of artists that  apparently manage the same material and belong to the same subgenre, but in average are better listened the 1 by people who subconsciously respond to syncopation and better hooked by riffs, the 2 by people who respond to linear development of music and better hooked by melodies, the 3 by people who  respond to vertical harmony and better hooked by chord progressions.

A trained listener has no strong preference between the artists 1,2 and 3 in each peer group.

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