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Learning to Listen: Neurological Evidence

Neurological evidence indicates we not only learn to listen, but actually tune our inner ear response based on neural feedback from the brain. We literally are able to actively tune our own hearing.  

When we listen for a flute for example, this is more than a conscious decision to focus on the flute. This creates neural impulses that actively tune ear cells to better hear the flute.  

This whole video is fascinating, but I want to get you hooked right away so check this out:  
https://youtu.be/SuSGN8yVrcU?t=1340

“Selectively changing what we’re listening to in response to the content. Literally reaching out to listen for things.”


Here’s another good one. Everyone can hear subtle details about five times as good as predicted by modeling. Some of us however can hear 50 times as good. The difference? Years spent learning to listen closely! https://youtu.be/SuSGN8yVrcU?t=1956

Learning to play music really does help improve your listening.  

This video is chock full of neurphysiological evidence that by studying, learning and practice you can develop the listening skills to hear things you literally could not hear before. Our hearing evolved millennia before we invented music. We are only just now beginning to scratch at the potential evolution has bestowed on us.


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tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,927 posts
 
@tvad …could be that i got lucky…. A friend with a superb system circa 1983 or so…Infinity RS ( model down from IRS ), SOTA, Souther, Dynavector, CJ Premier… also a renowned music teacher in Mid Ohio..treated me to Mahler preconcert lecture / symphony in Cleveland …

Part of the lecture ( i may have inhaled ) focused on the selection of material for the death blows…. Leather over wood with a massive wood mallet ( think sledgehammer )….

Amazing, near religious event….

Now is the SOTA at that time Infinity servo woofer cabinet capable of slam and nuance ?….. Better listener for sure…

and fun.
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tvad
11,620 posts
 
@tvad …could be that i got lucky…. A friend with a superb system circa 1983 or so…Infinity RS ( model down from IRS ), SOTA, Souther, Dynavector, CJ Premier… also a renowned music teacher in Mid Ohio..treated me to Mahler preconcert lecture / symphony in Cleveland …

Part of the lecture ( i may have inhaled ) focused on the selection of material for the death blows…. Leather over wood with a massive wood mallet ( think sledgehammer )

Yes, I've heard that piece performed by the LA Phil. If I hear it again live, I'll pay attention to the mallet. Definitely a learning to listen moment. I don't recall anything that specific in our pre-concert lectures. 

LA Phil's principal tympanist, Joseph Prereira makes his own natural skin tympani heads, and his own mallets...several dozen mallets on his rack every performance. I'm sure the natural skin heads and custom mallets sound different than standard plastic heads and off-the-shelf mallets, but I've never heard a comparison. I also suspect sitting closer than 1st row balcony might be necessary to discern any difference. 
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,597 posts
 
I used to listen to a radio program by Karl Haas called Adventures in Good Music. Each program had a classical music theme that explored many different aspects of classical music. The show was very entertaining and educational. Adventures in Good Music is no longer with us and Karl probably isn’t either.

Bill McGlaughlin has picked up the baton and hosts a program on public radio called Exploring Music. I’m sure you can find it on your internet radio app and it would probably be a painless way to improve your listening skills and your appreciation of classical music and music in general. I haven’t listened to Exploring Music but my guess is that it would be worth a try.
asctim
493 posts
 
MC,

Jennifer Warnes 'Famous Blue Raincoat" and "The Well" both sounds lucious and liquid on my rig. Know this cuzz I have both serial numbered box sets.

Maybe your system???
I hear the difference on my speakers. Harder to notice it on my headphones which is interesting because they do reveal some things better than the speakers. I think the headphones sound brighter, which masks the difference for me. Both recordings sound great and highly enjoyable on both the speakers and the headphones, so I'd say this level of refinement is beyond my typical threshold of concern. But it is interesting and a good example for comparison. I read Robert Harley's section on audio terms and learned that grain refers to sound in the treble and the midrange, which together runs from about 800 to 10,000 Hz. Robert suggests that room effects often contribute to a grainy impression. Still, he doesn't specify exactly what it is about the sound that creates the graininess, or the excessive lack of texture which would be syrupy. It seems to me that it's primarily a frequency response issue, and perhaps sometimes a distortion issue. That should be very easy to measure if it's coming from the output of a DAC. Maybe not so easy to measure and interpret at the listening position with all the room reflections confusing things. 
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