I find very funny the idea of some people just starting playing Carmen like nothing, no preparation or anything, like a flash-performance.
I once, talking with a woman I deeply respect who happens to be a musician, heard from her the sentence: “Carmen is the favourite piece of many people (in the world of music)”. I frowned, and asked to be sure: Carmen? From all… from all the things there are, Carmen?
She didn’t replied, not only because she never was pedantic but because she knew I wasn’t either, I was just honestly surprised, like if I just heard some national anthem is the favourite piece of some musician (URSS or Marseillaise don’t count).
So, I heard it in my house, Deustche Gramaphone version of 1982 or so, the one I’m used to. Really good, nothing new. I try another one, from a small italian opera house I think. Really solid. So, when I was aware of it, I had listened about 12 hours of Carmen of several different musicians, and I started getting it, not because of a heavenly realization, but because it was obvious it was growing in me, a piece more powerfull and full of pride each time with a story I always liked a lot. Maybe it happens to become my favourite some day, who knows.
Don’t all those who listen to music just find it becomes background noise? Personally I find that if I want to listen to something, then unless I’m doing something where I can mostly turn my brain off, I don’t actually hear what’s going into my ears. I tried playing games whilst listening to Philip Glass and then some podcasts, but I don’t actually really hear things when I’m concentrating on gaming.
Don’t you find that something as complex and involved as classical just dissolves into the noise from your games? Or even just fades into the concentration you have whist playing?
It depends a lot on how much focus is required by the game. I used to be way into mmos and spending your daily autopilot grind with a podcast is a much more enjoyable experience.
The same can be said about games like Minecraft where you decide what to do. If you know what you want to build or accomplish you can do so while focusing on music or a podcast.
That being said I probably wouldn’t have music on while playing a story heavy game or something like that.
On top of what @Truly has pointed out, there’s also something to think about on the receiving end.
When @Eidos and I are discussing Carmen, we both know which piece we are thinking about. If we had to “hear” Carmen over a busy coffee shop on a Friday afternoon, we could. Plus, due to how iconic the piece is and how familiar both of us are with it, I’m pretty positive we’d identify it in only a few hearbeats.
That effect doesn’t happen when I’m browsing our recently released music thread and check out some of the things you guys have been sharing.
In that exact same coffee shop, I’d be unable to fill in the blanks of a new song or a piece I had only heard once.
Which is to say it’s entirely different to play Tetris with my usual Lofi YouTube channel in the background versus playing Life is Strange 2 listening to Glass Animals’ newest track I only listened to twice.
More on this here:
Spotify. Pandora. iTunes. YouTube. We are constantly bombarded with a seemingly limitless amount of new music in our daily lives. But why do we keep coming back to that one song or album we couldn’t get enough of in college? New research shows that although consumers say they prefer to listen to unfamiliar music, their choices actually belie that preference.
You can read more into this by looking for things like “How our brains react to familiar and unfamiliar music”; “brain MRI while listening to music”; etc etc in Google Scholar and similar platforms.
TL;DR: What we do when we listen to music is half the equation; the other half is how familiar we are with the track we are listening to.
I don’t hear for the first time, or pieces I’m not familiar with, so, no, I can follow them easily. There was a time when I was able to follow them in my head with no sound or input at all. I could try to reclaim that old habit, it’s very pleasant while walking.
Yes, but the same way I die/fail/whatever when I’m joking and having a good laugh with friends I just don’t care. In some tournament here and there I did adopted a serious stance but that’s it.
You also have to understand that if the videogame has a wonderful music, I’m often not using anything on top of it.
While listening debates of news it’s perfectly understable and good for several reasons, I’m afraid the sentence
It’s not computable by me. Well, maybe if you tell me wich types of art expression you really enjoy, and don’t dare you say you don’t enjoy anything specially because you’re in a forum of videogames! xP
Lately i haven’t listen to music that is not in-game music while playing games, but If I’m playing Euro Truck or American Truck i will listen to TruckersFM or one of my local radio stations. and when i do listen to music that not in-game music it’s usually chillstep playlist like this,
So, what you are saying, it’s that me, not being able to understand something fairly simple, it’s quite odd, and by extension, I AM COOL, right? RIGHT?! I knew it, I knew I was cool.
