Hearing Parts of Music

[bentHnau]

I've been listening to a new album this past week. I went online to read reviews about it, and found the reviewers mentioning parts of songs that I hadn't noticed (like synthesized voices and guitar effects). I don't know if it's more accurate to say that I hadn't heard them or I hadn't consciously heard them. I mean, if you aren't conscious of hearing something, are you actually hearing it?

Anyways, it came to me that this is something that has happened been the case for as long as I can remember. Since I mostly listened to classical music (which tends to be relatively complex and subtle in the layering of sounds) for a long time, I assumed that it was normal to not hear all of the various voices (individual instruments or voice parts) at first, and, even after I'd listened many times, to not be able to hear them all at once (I have to consciously switch my attention from the melody to note the bass line, for example).

But then, this metal album and a bunch of people who were hearing things that I hadn't heard made me rethink that, especially since I've been a musician for twenty years now (and, theoretically, should have above average listening skills). Maybe it's an aural processing + multitasking issue? I think I have difficulties with both of those. Or a weak central coherence thing, lol.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[wyverary]

I do, and it's why, if an album tends to make a good first impression, I listen to it several more times. So what if I don't notice everything the first time? It makes the subsequent listens that much more enjoyable, noticing more and more what is going on in the tracks. And yes, sometimes it takes some prompting from an outsider (say, a particularly discerning critic) for me to notice something, and I wind up being like, "Hey, wow, that's really cool and clever!"

Like you, I was a classical music person for the longest time. In fact, I would say my expansion into other areas of music has even improved my skill and appreciation of classical music. Now, given good audio equipment, I can listen to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," for example, and get something new out of it each time. Like many great films (Dr. Strangelove would be my own example), what makes a song/album rewarding is to be able to find something new in it with each subsequent listen. Probably why I like really complicated music, like much of the classical music I listen to (I love Mahler!) and, to give a non-classical example, Joanna Newsom...it's really rewarding in that way. I like certain Beatles albums for the same reason...especially their later ones, where there is a lot going on that you don't notice at first listen (and, since getting their mono recordings, I've had a lot of fun giving careful listens to them and trying to suss out the differences between the mixes).

 

[bentHnau]

what makes a song/album rewarding is to be able to find something new in it with each subsequent listen.

That's a positive way to see it. I, on the other hand, get slightly frustrated with myself because I think that it reflects poorly on my musical abilities if I can't figure out everything that is happening in a popular song by the fourth or so time I've heard it. I don't expect so much of myself when it comes to long classical works.

But what bothers me the most is not being able to simultaneously hear, at the least, the melody and bassline in songs with which I've been familiar for years. I want to know why I can't do that. Is this the case for everyone, I wonder?

 

[buckyboy14]

I can never make out the lyrics in songs. I tried and tried and tried, but I simply could not understand what they were saying. I finally learned it was probably because of my non-functioning hippocampus, but other Aspies here reported being unable to make out lyrics as well. I'm not into music, so if I did know more about instruments, maybe I would realize that I'm not able to hear those either.

 

[Meistersinger]

I use my listening skills in order to figure out when I'm supposed to come in when performing with a group (either instrumental or vocal). It gets tricky when singing in a choir, especially if the person next to you can't carry a tune in a bucket. The choir director where I now go to church is quickly finding that out. Just wait until I start doing a solo for the hymn of praise, the congregation isn't going to know what hit them (although a few members already know what I can do by reputation...)

 

[AsheSkyler]

I'm another that struggles with lyrics. Some songs are clear and I know what they're saying. Some... Thank goodness for sites like lyrics.com!

It never really bothered me that I wasn't aware of every musical component of a song. Sometimes on quiet nights when it's just me and a song I do enjoy trying to pick out every piece I can hear and try to identify where it comes from. If not, I just enjoy the violin or guitar or whatever I'm predominantly hearing and go with it. I do know one of my favorite "instruments" is about three or four people singing long notes together just right. And not barbershop quartet kinds of singers where one guy sounds like he has vocal chords two centimeters thick and the other guy sounds like he's had a crippling kick to the nads, I like all four to sound about the same.

 

[bentHnau]

I have a lot of trouble with lyrics as well. No matter how many times I listen, no matter how much I turn up the volume, some song lyrics I can never figure out. But I've also had trouble figuring out what is being said in regular, everyday speech, albeit not nearly as much as with lyrics. It's such a weird thing.

 

[DogwoodTree]

But what bothers me the most is not being able to simultaneously hear, at the least, the melody and bassline in songs with which I've been familiar for years. I want to know why I can't do that. Is this the case for everyone, I wonder?

Do you do much improv at all? Wondering if that might help, since you have to listen to one part and essentially create the other (hear it in your head and then sing what you hear).

I have to make myself focus on the other parts...it's not something I've done a lot. But when I try, I kind of "see" each part going up and down separately, and where they intersect then pull away again.

Now that I play guitar, I've gotten much better at catching the chord changes while also being able to sing the melody...all while keeping up with the rhythm and "playing" with it.

 

[DogwoodTree]

I'm another that struggles with lyrics. Some songs are clear and I know what they're saying. Some... Thank goodness for sites like lyrics.com!

Does it bother you when you don't know what the lyrics are? Do you find yourself looking up lyrics often?

I can't stand not knowing the lyrics, and I'll rarely spend much time listening to a song where the lyrics are "offensive" to me (I don't mean "offensive" as in, 'they shouldn't be allowed to write that song', but "offensive" in the sense that it feels yucky and isn't uplifting to me...I want lyrics that speak to my heart).

I also can't stand songs that say the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over. I get to where I'm yelling at the radio, "Get on with it, already!"

 

[Kirsty]

I'm another one who doesn't grasp the lyrics. The song could be in a foreign language and I'd still enjoy its rhythm, beat, etc. I can hear some words in it. Think this might be quite common for NTs and AS...

 

[AsheSkyler]

Does it bother you when you don't know what the lyrics are? Do you find yourself looking up lyrics often?

I can't stand not knowing the lyrics, and I'll rarely spend much time listening to a song where the lyrics are "offensive" to me (I don't mean "offensive" as in, 'they shouldn't be allowed to write that song', but "offensive" in the sense that it feels yucky and isn't uplifting to me...I want lyrics that speak to my heart).

I also can't stand songs that say the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over. I get to where I'm yelling at the radio, "Get on with it, already!"

If I really like the song, yup, I go look 'em up if I can't figure it out on my own. I enjoy singing along to music and I get irritated when I just half hum some garbled nonsense along with it.

And there are a few songs I won't listen to because I hate the lyrics. Like the famous Pina Colada song. The husband and wife both take out classifieds so they can cheat on each other because they're bored with their marriage? Not my kind of song, even if they patch up at the end.

 

[bentHnau]

Do you do much improv at all? Wondering if that might help, since you have to listen to one part and essentially create the other (hear it in your head and then sing what you hear).

Not at all. I once took a jazz improv course at university; it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I can't even imagine how it would be possible to hear what I'm going to play before I play it...but maybe that's because the freaking key is constantly changing in jazz. I guess it might be easier with more popular sorts of music.

I have to make myself focus on the other parts...it's not something I've done a lot. But when I try, I kind of "see" each part going up and down separately, and where they intersect then pull away again.

I think that I know what you mean, and where they "intersect" is where it's the most difficult to tell them apart. They blend in my ear. I know they are supposed to blend together to make the song sound a certain way, but I have it in my head that I should be able to disentangle them and listen separately if I so choose.

 

[DogwoodTree]

Not at all. I once took a jazz improv course at university; it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I can't even imagine how it would be possible to hear what I'm going to play before I play it...but maybe that's because the freaking key is constantly changing in jazz. I guess it might be easier with more popular sorts of music.

Oh, man, jazz is tough! Try something simpler, like...anything.

If you don't "feel" jazz, you just can't play it, and I don't listen to it enough to have a feel for it, so it continues to elude me. But that's okay because I don't really like it much.

Have you tried improvising a harmony part to some of your favorite, simple songs? That would help get your brain thinking in terms of multiple parts interplaying with each other.

...not that I'm an expert or anything.

 

[bentHnau]

If you don't "feel" jazz, you just can't play it

I've always thought the exact same thing! Which is why I'm not down on myself for being crap at it. It takes something beyond being a good musician.

Have you tried improvising a harmony part to some of your favorite, simple songs?

Informally. Like, I'll hum a part I've made up along with a song I like. Maybe I'll try to do it more often.

 

[DesertRose]

I have a lot of trouble with lyrics, and I'm sure there's some instruments I can't pick out. When I was in high school, (MANY years ago) of course there's songs that are the teen favorites, I liked them too, but could never figure out the title, or the band, couldn't understand many of the lyrics. Sometimes the chorus part was clear, and i could get that. Now that we have places to look up the lyrics, I'm shocked by some of them. Lol! I also have a serious problem singing the right words even while reading the lyrics in a songbook, trying to follow along, such as in church. It took me years to get the first stanza of one of the best known church songs of all time, still don't know it all, and I've studied it. I suppose that is part of Asperger's? The most I can hope for in songs is the main chorus, repeating it over and over. I can play a little by ear on the piano, but reading the music also gives me fits. Astigmatism doesn't help with that. Come to think about it, reading from a book, it's tough to flow line to line, IiIibd myself repeating a line here and there.