December Days: Music
Dec. 25th, 2014 11:41 pmThis is a good prompt in a possibly surprising way. It's funny, I never really got into the habit of listening to music. My parents rarely listened to music, and somehow I never formed the habit. I like listening to music occasionally, when it happens to come up, I really love it when people show me some of their favourite music and it clicks, I hear things in the background and have the appropriate emotional responses, but I never developed the habit of listening to music as a specific choice myself.
I'm not tone deaf -- I can clear hear the difference between notes, and sing badly but comprehensibly. But I have a very poor sense of rhythm, I find it really hard to dance in time to music which doesn't have a very blatant beat. I don't think those things caused my not getting into music, I think it was that I just never practised them.
And I find it very hard to hear lyrics. For most music, I find it hard to understand the words at all, even when I try; and even when I can, I fall back to just absorbing the sound and not the meaning if I don't concentrate. So I sometimes have lyrics I find powerful, but more often from plays or poetry than music (and even poetry I find hard to listen to, even though some of it I like); with music, I usually like or dislike the sound and am completely oblivious to the words (or theology).
So it happens that, I like music occasionally, but I rarely listen to it specifically. If I'm doing something else, I end up tuning it out or getting distracted by it. I'd like to listen to something strong and carry-me-away when I'm running, and listen to things when I'm just sitting, but have never been organised enough to choose things. I sometimes listen to Classic FM or Radio 3 in the car driving. I would like to get into the habit more, I like it when people share music with me (whether I like it or not), but never enough to devote time to it.
What have a liked? A lot of classic orchestral music, but not with enough attention to be more specific than that. Some classics from bands like Queen. Swing, and Jazz, which have been out of fashion for a while, but always set my blood fizzing and my feet dancing when they come up. Christmas carols, which I was pleasantly surprised to realise how many, even though I didn't know well, I could recognise all the way through.
I like joining in with singing, but don't have many songs where I'd expect to do that. I used to do ballroom dancing, and country dancing, and liked doing those, although the music was more of a means to an end.
And, a note on media. I'm very glad never to have accumulated tapes or CDs, they just seem inconvenient. But I do love vinyl records as things -- I don't agree with the bizarre claim they have more fidelity, but I like visiting people with record players, and like the pop and hiss of putting them on, it makes music feel special.
I'm not tone deaf -- I can clear hear the difference between notes, and sing badly but comprehensibly. But I have a very poor sense of rhythm, I find it really hard to dance in time to music which doesn't have a very blatant beat. I don't think those things caused my not getting into music, I think it was that I just never practised them.
And I find it very hard to hear lyrics. For most music, I find it hard to understand the words at all, even when I try; and even when I can, I fall back to just absorbing the sound and not the meaning if I don't concentrate. So I sometimes have lyrics I find powerful, but more often from plays or poetry than music (and even poetry I find hard to listen to, even though some of it I like); with music, I usually like or dislike the sound and am completely oblivious to the words (or theology).
So it happens that, I like music occasionally, but I rarely listen to it specifically. If I'm doing something else, I end up tuning it out or getting distracted by it. I'd like to listen to something strong and carry-me-away when I'm running, and listen to things when I'm just sitting, but have never been organised enough to choose things. I sometimes listen to Classic FM or Radio 3 in the car driving. I would like to get into the habit more, I like it when people share music with me (whether I like it or not), but never enough to devote time to it.
What have a liked? A lot of classic orchestral music, but not with enough attention to be more specific than that. Some classics from bands like Queen. Swing, and Jazz, which have been out of fashion for a while, but always set my blood fizzing and my feet dancing when they come up. Christmas carols, which I was pleasantly surprised to realise how many, even though I didn't know well, I could recognise all the way through.
I like joining in with singing, but don't have many songs where I'd expect to do that. I used to do ballroom dancing, and country dancing, and liked doing those, although the music was more of a means to an end.
And, a note on media. I'm very glad never to have accumulated tapes or CDs, they just seem inconvenient. But I do love vinyl records as things -- I don't agree with the bizarre claim they have more fidelity, but I like visiting people with record players, and like the pop and hiss of putting them on, it makes music feel special.