As you learn about recording techniques for music, it’s wise to remember
that music is a wonderful reason for recording.
Music can be exalting, exciting, soothing, sensuous, and fulfilling.
It’s marvelous that recordings can preserve it. As a recording engineer or
recording musician, it’s to your advantage to better understand what
music is all about.
Music starts as musical ideas or feelings in the mind and heart of its
composer. Musical instruments are used to translate these ideas and feelings
into sound waves. Somehow, the emotion contained in the music—
the message—is coded in the vibrations of air molecules. Those sounds
are converted to electricity and stored magnetically or optically. The composer’s
message manages to survive the trip through the mixing console
and recorders; the signal is transferred to disc or computer files. Finally,
the original sound waves are reproduced in the listening room, and
miraculously the original emotion is reproduced in the listener as well.
Of course, not everyone reacts to a piece of music the same way, so
the listener may not perceive the composer’s intent. Still, it’s amazing that
anything as intangible as a thought or feeling can be conveyed by tiny
magnetic patterns on a hard disk or by pits on a compact disc.
The point of music lies in what it’s doing now, in the present. In
other words, the meaning of “Doo wop she bop” is “Doo wop she bop.”
The meaning of an Am7 chord followed by a Fmaj7 chord is the experience
of Am7 followed by Fmaj7.
Different Ways of Listening
There are so many levels on which to listen to music—so many ways to
focus attention. Try this. Play one of your favorite records several times
while listening for these different aspects:
• Overall mood and rhythm
• Lyrics
• Vocal technique
• Bass line
• Drum fills
• Sound quality
• Technical proficiency of musicians
• Musical arrangement or structure
• Reaction of one musician to another musician’s playing
• Surprises versus predictable patterns
By listening to a piece of music from several perspectives, you’ll get
much more out of it than if you just hear it as background. There’s a lot
going on in any song that usually goes unnoticed. Sometimes when you
play an old familiar record and listen to the lyrics for the first time, the
whole meaning of the song changes for you. Most people react to music on the basic level of mood and rhythmic
motivation. But as a recording enthusiast, you hear much more detail
because your focus demands sustained critical listening. The same
is true of trained musicians focusing on the musical aspects of a
performance.
It’s all there for anyone to hear, but you must train yourself to hear
selectively and to focus attention on a particular level of the multidimensional
musical event. For example, instead of just feeling excited
while listening to an impressive lead-guitar solo, listen to what the guitarist
is actually playing. You may hear some amazing things.
Here’s one secret of really involving yourself in recorded music:
Imagine yourself playing it! For example, if you’re a bass player, listen to
the bass line in a particular record, and imagine that you’re playing the
bass line. You’ll hear the part as never before. Or respond to the music
visually—see it as you do in the movie Fantasia.
Follow the melody line and see its shape. Hear where it reaches up,
strains, and then relaxes. Hear how one note leads into the next. How
does the musical expression change from moment to moment?
There are times when you can almost touch music: some music
has a prickly texture (many transients, emphasized high frequencies);
some music is soft and sinuous (sine-wave synthesizer notes,
soaring vocal harmonies); and some music is airy and spacious (lots of
reverberation).
that music is a wonderful reason for recording.
Music can be exalting, exciting, soothing, sensuous, and fulfilling.
It’s marvelous that recordings can preserve it. As a recording engineer or
recording musician, it’s to your advantage to better understand what
music is all about.
Music starts as musical ideas or feelings in the mind and heart of its
composer. Musical instruments are used to translate these ideas and feelings
into sound waves. Somehow, the emotion contained in the music—
the message—is coded in the vibrations of air molecules. Those sounds
are converted to electricity and stored magnetically or optically. The composer’s
message manages to survive the trip through the mixing console
and recorders; the signal is transferred to disc or computer files. Finally,
the original sound waves are reproduced in the listening room, and
miraculously the original emotion is reproduced in the listener as well.
Of course, not everyone reacts to a piece of music the same way, so
the listener may not perceive the composer’s intent. Still, it’s amazing that
anything as intangible as a thought or feeling can be conveyed by tiny
magnetic patterns on a hard disk or by pits on a compact disc.
The point of music lies in what it’s doing now, in the present. In
other words, the meaning of “Doo wop she bop” is “Doo wop she bop.”
The meaning of an Am7 chord followed by a Fmaj7 chord is the experience
of Am7 followed by Fmaj7.
Different Ways of Listening
There are so many levels on which to listen to music—so many ways to
focus attention. Try this. Play one of your favorite records several times
while listening for these different aspects:
• Overall mood and rhythm
• Lyrics
• Vocal technique
• Bass line
• Drum fills
• Sound quality
• Technical proficiency of musicians
• Musical arrangement or structure
• Reaction of one musician to another musician’s playing
• Surprises versus predictable patterns
By listening to a piece of music from several perspectives, you’ll get
much more out of it than if you just hear it as background. There’s a lot
going on in any song that usually goes unnoticed. Sometimes when you
play an old familiar record and listen to the lyrics for the first time, the
whole meaning of the song changes for you. Most people react to music on the basic level of mood and rhythmic
motivation. But as a recording enthusiast, you hear much more detail
because your focus demands sustained critical listening. The same
is true of trained musicians focusing on the musical aspects of a
performance.
It’s all there for anyone to hear, but you must train yourself to hear
selectively and to focus attention on a particular level of the multidimensional
musical event. For example, instead of just feeling excited
while listening to an impressive lead-guitar solo, listen to what the guitarist
is actually playing. You may hear some amazing things.
Here’s one secret of really involving yourself in recorded music:
Imagine yourself playing it! For example, if you’re a bass player, listen to
the bass line in a particular record, and imagine that you’re playing the
bass line. You’ll hear the part as never before. Or respond to the music
visually—see it as you do in the movie Fantasia.
Follow the melody line and see its shape. Hear where it reaches up,
strains, and then relaxes. Hear how one note leads into the next. How
does the musical expression change from moment to moment?
There are times when you can almost touch music: some music
has a prickly texture (many transients, emphasized high frequencies);
some music is soft and sinuous (sine-wave synthesizer notes,
soaring vocal harmonies); and some music is airy and spacious (lots of
reverberation).
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