To understand music, you have to listen to it – just as to understand chemistry you need to mix some stuff together, and to understand astronomy you need to walk outside on a clear night and look up.
But you can’t just mix any ol’ chemicals or just gaze at some stars. You need a plan and a purpose. The same is true for music.
Remember: Your ultimate purpose in listening to music is to enjoy it. Your plan should be one that helps you enjoy it even more.
Basic Principles
People reading this page will have very different backgrounds. Some will know a fair amount of music. Other may know virtually none. Some will be used to listening critically and attentively. Others won’t.
So let’s look at some ways you can go from wherever you are to a higher level. We can start with some basic principles:
- Get to know a few works well, rather than skimming through many works. Stress depth of knowledge over quantity.
- Put everything else aside and focus attentively on the music. No multi-tasking.
- Get quality sound. That means lives performances in concert halls, good speakers or good headphones (not cheap ear buds and not the 1-inch speaker in your laptop).
Sounds obvious, right? After all, you wouldn’t want to look at fine art in a dark room or, worse, in a disco with strobe lights flashing.
Access to Recordings
There are several options for gaining access to good music. The most economical subscription we know of is from Naxos, which will allow you to listen to more than 5,000 CDs for $19.95 per year. Classical Archives has a comprehensive collection with an economical monthly subscription. In our Discovering Music listening plan, we link each individual piece to both of these services. We also link to numerous free listening resources. It is possible to take the course using these free resources alone. Many of the free resources are outstanding, but there is some unavoidable loss of consistent quality. Parents should also use discretion with services like YouTube that are susceptible to occasional childish and offensive outbursts in the comments section.
Developing a Plan
Discovering Music. Those of you who are taking Discovering Music already have a plan. The course asks you to listen to certain specific works and provides a context for your listening. Its purpose is to familiarize you with significant music of the Common Practice Era in the context of social and political history.
A more structured plan for completing the required listening in Discovering Music can be found here.
Other Courses by Professor Carol. If you are pursuing another course, such as Russian or American music, Professor Carol will make listening suggestions specific to those courses.
For Beginners. If you’re not taking one of our courses, you may look for other ways to develop a plan and purpose for your listening.
- Find a friend or two and take the journey with others who also want to get to know good music.
- Follow your local orchestra’s programming, or tie your listening to the Met HD Opera simulcasts.
- Read our blog where you will find a new listening suggestion every Friday designed to help you explore the repertoire.
- Take our Journey Through Great Music course.
If at any point you find you are not enjoying your listening, you probably need a new plan. Write us if you have trouble finding the right path.