Concentration

While it is true we listen to music and sound at the same time, it’s the priority that we give to each that’s the issue. 

@rvpiano  Thanks for the reply to my comment. Your word "priority" is one I associate with making a judgment after doing an analysis. I think of "making a judgment" as a different activity than "listening to music & sound" for enjoyment purposes.

I’m sorry my analogy of "flavor" and "texture" doesn’t work for you. For me, musical content and sonic texture are entangled in that way. (Consider why people love YoYo Ma; it's not just his way of playing music, but his touch and tone; those seem like sonic elements to me.) Only if I am analyzing for some other purpose (adjusting the system) are they pulled apart to determine "priority."

If one of them does become more salient, it is in the kind of experience sns describes, with one becoming more prominent than the other but neither disappearing or becoming irrelevant.

In many of your posts, I notice you return to a struggle you have to keep your analytical side in check. That’s a valuable initiative, but I don’t think it reveals a reality about listening for everyone.

Sure if you’re riding a unicycle juggling hatchets you’re not going to be concentrating on the music but under the different strokes for different folks (maybe not the best analogy or maybe the very best) analogy it’s possible absorption for many can happen at vastly different thresholds. 

It’s the music itself that given individual predilections that will/will not entwine. For example Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 is complex and not my cup of tea so my concentration doesn’t engage. “Dirty Water “by The Standells has me singing along but something like the Keith Jarrett Trio has me drawn in in a blissful way. When the music is felt that’s the ticket. 

This quality discussion is trying to put into the vernacular what’s magical in the brain about transformational music. 
 
Some how this comes to mind  from Wordy Rappinghood by Tom Tom Club

“Words that write the book I like
Words won't find a right solution
To the planet Earth's pollution
Say the right word, make a million
Words are like a certain person
Who can't say what they mean
Don't mean what they say

Hi kye yay, yippie yi kye yay
Awoo awoo ayee kie chi'
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words“

@hilde45 

what do you think of my observation of the difference between classical music listening and other types of music regarding this dichotomy?

@immatthewj 

Good!!!

It's been a good day if I made you laugh! 😃

@wsrrsw nice pull on Tom Tom Club. 

Also, I really had to train myself to stop listening to my system. To stop see if there's any deficiencies or something's off or if the balance is off or if maybe this tube is hissing or whatever. For a while that just wrecked listening for me. I was concentrating so much on the system that I forgot about the music much of the time