How Many Times Do You Have To Listen To Understand A Piece Of Music?

I think understanding is different than appreciating.  I can think of simple songs I understood first listen but have grown to appreciate over time.  My appreciation can wax or wane as I grow, mature and change. I often need to understand before I can appreciate…recently I was listening to a classical piece I didn’t relate to until it dawned on me it was written in 7/8.  Then it clicked.  Interestingly, I pointed the time signature out to my wife, who shrugged and smiled…she had no clue what meter the piece was in but enjoyed it immensely.

About 15 years ago I thought I should have a crack at understanding Wagner's Ring Cycle.  I've hardly scratched the surface.  Mind you, it took him 26 years to write the four 'music dramas' that make up the cycle.  About 2 years per completed hour.

In many ways, the Ring is the prototype for many of today's films, and even the 'wall of sound' used in rock concerts.  Almost everybody has heard the stirring "Ride of the Valkyries"!

To understand who the Valkyries were, you need to have some idea of the Norse and Icelandic sagas.  That's before you try to see how Wagner twisted the plot lines and merged characters to underscore the human foibles of greed, betrayal and world domination.

Throw in the Greek tragedies and a bit of Shakespeare as background.

Musically there are hundreds of 'motifs' or theme music fragments which give clues to the plot line.  Fully understand - never.  Appreciate - usually!

Rap about five seconds. It’s absolutely horrifying. I don’t understand opera. Classical from Rachmaninoff is a challenge to understand. Frank Zappa challenging I just wish he played music rather than interrupt with all this weird stuff he likes to do.. Lots of chord progressions and jazz proposition that can be complicated. don Ellis an amazing trumpet jazz player from the 70s has remarkable arrangements but sometimes he does weird stuff that I don’t understand, I do like pussy wiggle stomp Don Ellis that’s done in a very unique time. Oscar Peterson handles very complicated playing and makes me wish I had taken piano playing so I could understand what he’s doing but I can just sit back and really like it though. I don’t understand why we can’t listen to Christmas music all year long.

If I’m being screamed at, I don’t like it.

If it’s extremely violent, I don’t like it.

If it’s is disjointed, I don’t like it.

If it sounds like I’m being preached at, I don’t like it.

And I usually know within a few measures.

I don’t have to understand it to like a song, but it usually helps.

The original question is something that my musician friends and I talked about from time to time (How Many Times Do You Have to Listen to Understand a Piece of Music?).  At first exposure it's not so much about understanding the piece but rather really liking the piece. To illustrate the point, do you hear the lyrics or the music first?  My wife hears the lyrics first.  I (along with several musician friends) hear the music first.  In fact, I hear the music (the beauty of chord progressions, etc.) and the first three or more times I hear it.  The meaning of the lyrics comes later (and I do love great lyrics).

As far as understanding the piece, that comes within the first couple of listens as well.  If I'm learning to play or perform the song, the understanding becomes very deep.  And it will be listened to dozens of times to truly climb into the orbit of the song and represent it well.