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Are We Different?

All my life I have been more attuned to sensory experiences than my friends, family, or colleagues. I started to notice this in high school when I would go on and on about how great a particular passage sounded while playing in bands, I would rave about a meal that I ate, the smells of pleasant or unpleasant things, or a particularly good looking passage in a movie or piece of art.  

This question arose for me last week when talking to a friend and relating that I frequently get chills and goosebumps listening to music (live or in my living room). He looked at me as if he had no idea what I was talking about, and thought I was nuts. I thought that happened to everyone!! Since then I have been conducting an informal survey of folks I know about exactly that question. Again, most folks have no experience of this and think I'm bit off. So I wonder: Are we different? Is it something in our biology that lands us in the realm of audio-obsession, constantly looking for the perfect sound stage in our living rooms, and criticizing badly engineered recordings, or scoffing at the sound designers for poorly mixed live shows?

What is it that separates the music enthusiast/lover from the obsessed, ever-searching-never-satisfied, gear-heads which many of us are? 

Share your thoughts (and also do you get chills and goosebumps listening to Beethoven/Charlie Parker/The Stones?)
128x128birdfan
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,796 posts
 
@bensturgeon, it can be anything in the music that I can relate to while I listen. Kind of hard to pin down, actually. 
I think the two terms, "openness to experience" and "sensory seeking" are tied in the way that one can lead to the other, in some way.

All the best,
Nonoise
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

I'm glad to see more of these types of topics being started on not just this forum but many others. There's a change happening and there's really no way to stop it, nor should we want to.

Even the very opinionated HEA hobbyist is rethinking their systems and looking at them deeper than a brand name or faceplate. There was a time where the engineer type ruled the pages of forums and if you expressed yourself as an artist it was the kiss of death. It's ironic because we are listening to artist.

I live in a part of Las Vegas that is called "The Arts District". As folks come visit me, it's almost always the case where they will comment on the energy here. I call it "getting tuned".

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

falconquest's avatar
falconquest
1,108 posts
 
I don’t know if the "openness" to music, art and other stimuli is the same for listeners/viewers as it is for musicians that actually create music, but I have always wondered where music creativity comes from. Some of the most creative music artists come from families where there is no music background eliminating the idea that it is somehow gene based. I can’t help but believe that music listeners and musicians share at least an ear for music. Some of us may not be talented enough to play yet we still appreciate what others create, just as we appreciate art without being painters. Good musicians can create music that somehow touches something within us and that feeling is at least somewhat universal. How do they do that and why do we enjoy it so much? Sometimes I hear certain music and wonder, how in the world did anyone come up with that musical idea? Some musicians say it’s just what’s in their head. Not sure we understand it fully but it is pretty cool.
birdfan's avatar
birdfan OP
171 posts
 
@falconquest .. For myself playing music started as a mathematical puzzle to be conquered.. Only with muscle memory and thousands of of hours of listening did it start to become "creative"... but, when a moment of creativity does show its head, its as if I become only a vehicle for an idea already extant.. For me I guess it started in the left brain and became a whole brain experience only with practice.. no talent here...  
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,315 posts
 
Interesting.  I know that a certain passage in the last movement of Sibelius's 5th can give me a distinct frisson, but it's not automatic.  Likewise the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th.  Got to be in the right mood, got to be listening to the music and not the system, system has to be performing well, can also depend on the particular performance, etc. etc.
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