I can't even read a book while listening to tunes anymore because my mind gets drawn away to dissecting the composition or production values. I still very much enjoy listening to tunes but unless I'm doing something mindless like folding socks or doing dishes it's impossible for me to focus. Any of you guys suffer from this?

What are these "other things" you speak of and how can I avoid them entirely?

Step one: Get really really rich. Step two: Lock yourself in a room that has a toilet and a door with a food slot so your servants can just shove bowls of gruel in with a stick.

Absolutely. Though there are exceptions to the rule. 

Like listening to Mozart while reading German philosophers. Don't ask me why but that works for me. 

Yeah... classical isn't as bad at distracting me as other music but I think that will change if I follow my plan to study it at a conservatory level.

No, not if you want to listen to music seriously. It depends on what you are trying to do of course. If you want music on in the back ground while you are doing something else then that is great and it works but there is a serious lost art in the method of listening to music.

You see being older I have come from an analog turntable background. I used to be in a Hi Fi club as well where we got into serious listening sessions. As we did not even want to drop the stylus midway in any part of the record (causes damage or a click) we used to listen to whole sides of albums from start to finish, the way they were meant to be.

What I found is that after a while you sort of go into a semi dream state of consciousness and your ears really open up and you start to hear details in the music that you thought were never there. This is totally lost art and people just do not do it today. For various reasons. People don't have time to sit down and really listen to any music any more. Pity, shame. Also modern technology has allowed the music to go anywhere now whereas before the turntable was it and you could not move that baby around too much. Hence we were forced to sit in front of it and listen to it and the whole thing too, not just a track here and there. 

What is interesting about this is that many a complex mix will impress you and you may wonder how they get it all to work together so well. But because you will never really sit down long enough to really listen to something properly, you will never fully understand what is really going on inside a mix unless you put some serious listening time into it. People expect to hear the first 30 seconds of a complex mix and expect to suss it all out. Sorry no go. You may have to listen to a track many times in full to even come close to working out what is really going on.

It is a lost art and forgotten skill and there is no reason why one cannot do it today even with CD's etc. In fact with CD's it is better because you can hear the whole thing now without turning records over.

When you go to a concert you have to sit through at least an hour before the break and straight through usually as well. You have to do it there so why not do it at home as well. 

It is hard because have you ever tried to do something like meditate for an hour in a completely uninterrupted state. You wont go 5 minutes before a family member interrupts you or a mobile or phone will go off. I have to go to great lengths to remove all form of communication into my house. Phones off, mobiles off, bells turned way down or off so I don't hear any phone rings. And then there are the people who come to the door trying to sell you energy or something!

Apparently Daryl1968 can text, email and lay down vocals all at the same time. I'm witnessing it in real time.

I use to listen to music as Jeff describes above. I don't anymore except on a more clinical level in the studio. It's more studying than listening though. Actually, listening or hearing music anywhere but my studio is pretty annoying to me. Well, I mean accept for the songs forum.....

Beepster


Yeah... classical isn't as bad at distracting me as other music but I think that will change if I follow my plan to study it at a conservatory level.

Indeed. That's one of the reasons it works for me - even though I did study classical music, it still eludes me. If I had a tighter grasp on it, no doubt it'd distract me.


Reminds me of when I used to live w/ that amazingly talented guitar player. There was the obvious friendly competition. He'd played guitar for only 3 years - self taught - but blew me and my 15 years of experience/classical lessons/jazz education out of the water w/ 2 or 3 notes. Man that kid could play... Never understood what it was that he liked about my playing.


Anyway, the only time I used to get a break was when he played slide guitar - that was outside anything I could hope to replicate or understand. When I felt blue for whatever reason, I'd just ask him to grab the slide play some of that stuff for me. 

@Rain... As someone who used to be a weirdo whizkid I know why he would be into what you were doing. It's the whole "I can DO but I don't know WHY". I'd get drawn to more educated musicians who would give me quizzical looks as to why I was harassing them. I just wanted to learn... and learn I did.