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Got Ears?

I'm wondering how quickly you develope your listening. I'm sure my ears are more in tune to pick up the little nuances in a high fidelity system than when I started this madness 9 months ago. Thanks to alot of you on this site I learned what to listen for, but I know that I still have alot to learn when it comes to picking up on certain things. Do you guys (and Elizabeth ;-) think that having an ear for audio is something that just continues to develope and develope? I feel that it's an important part to fully enjoying this hobby as it allows you to enjoy a well thought out rig and your music collection to the fullest. I'm fully enjoying cd's that just this time last year I would have only used as coasters or made fun of you for listening to that "crap". I can't help but think half is my rig, the other half are my somewhat trained ears. If I tell my girlfriend, who by the way grew up in a musical family (dad was a music director for years at a major university) and plays violin, guitar, sings and has perfect pitch, about how an improvement to my rig deepend the soundstage, brought out shimmering highs with faster attack and longer decay she cocks her head a bit and says "huh?". Anyways, have y'all noticed your ears getting more in tune with picking up all the things that make an audiophile an audiophile and if so how and when has that happened?
128x128b_limo
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Many colleges and universities that have good music programs offer classes in music listening skills. Well worth attendance, especially since you will get to interact with other classes members that can help you understand different approaches. Julliard in New York City has an excellent course.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Tpreaves got it right.
Cheers
b_limo's avatar
b_limo OP
2,276 posts
 
Thanks Lears, I'll look into that book!
Buconero, I didn't know that there are such classes; thanks, I'll look into that also!!
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I would second Buconero's excellent suggestion, I usually remember to mention it myself!
vsollozzo
58 posts
 
My experience is: rely on your girlfriend. She can teach you more than your gear can. And watch out that your ear isn't "tuned" and that you are fixated. Her ears aren't broken, yours might be.

My wife enjoys music.

I enjoy music AND sounds.

I can love the sounds something makes even if it isn't musical. I do this with everything - voices, engines, tools, nature, guns, you name it. If it makes a noise, I listen to it. If NASCAR's in-car camera sequences come on I'm listening to the engine. Awesome. The whine of tires changing pitch in corners. The clack of gear changes. Anything. I like and fixate on sounds. If I fixate on it I can tune a chainsaw within 50 rpm by ear. That hasn't taught me anything about music, but my chainsaws rip and I don't have to take the meter out.

I can probably tune a piano before I can learn how to play it.

My wife can probably learn to play a piano before she can tune it.

I forget that my wife hasn't heard a reference recording 1,000 times.

My wife finds how a string is bent to have more musical meaning than the fact that a tiny little bell noise has entered the soundstage at 2 o'clock.

When I turn music down to the volume my wife would have it and I cannot hear what she hears with perfect clarity, I know she hears better than I do.

When my wife hears how the string was bent AND hears the tiny little bell noise enter the soundstage at 2 o'clock on an NAD 326BEE, that means I've wasted $5,000 on my amp.

When she tells me to give it a rest, that means she'd like me to obsess over her for a little while.

Oh, and one more thing I've learned: if she is still with you, that means either she is crazy and you need to dump her before she burns you in your bed or that she loves you.
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