<p>My son is a rising sax player about to enter his sophomore year in HS. He made 3 district honors bands as a freshman. He's placed in the top 2 bands in the summer jazz camps, and makes all the advanced theory and improv classes. He says he wants to pursue music. He absolutely loves playing with others. But his older brother thinks he's not 'into music' at all as he never listens to it. He has no interest in the things that are ubiquitous on his peers' I-Pods. He doesn't choose to listen to any type of music in his own time. Is this normal for someone with hopes of being a music major? I know my wife's flute teacher and his pianist wife were like that too. S2 is still young, and maybe he will yet develop an interest in listening. Have you all heard of musicians like this?</p>
<p>Well, yes, I have. My S (14, piano, rising junior) has been obsessed with music since he was 7--but NOT with listening to other people playing music! He played, composed, set himself long complex musical tasks, but had zero interest in listening to CDs or attending performances. </p>
<p>About 18 months ago he discovered Youtube. He went off the deep end and began exploring vast realms of piano music and then branched out into watching vocal and opera. He also started enjoying live performances especially if he could attend with peers instead of Mom & Dad. Now he is a voracious listener and attender of concerts. So maybe something will trigger your S with no warning.</p>
<p>In my experience, it is unusual, actually, for a serious performing musician not to listen to music, but maybe it is because my son has a music library of 11,000 songs! He listens CONSTANTLY, and could be a great contestant on "Name that Tune"(anyone remember that show, besides me?)...he could name by title thousands of songs, tunes, or pieces, based on nothing more than the first few bars. All of this listening has influenced him profoundly, in terms of thinking about phrasing, intonation, interpretation. He has subsequently read and learned a lot about a good many of these influential musicians.</p>
<p>I don't think one HAS to listen to music to play music, but it seems that only play, without listening to others who play your instrument, your genre, etc., is a fairly isolating experience. And musicians learn so much from each other's play, even when listening to different instruments or different genres (my son listens to primarily jazz, although he plays jazz, classical, funk, rock).</p>
<p>This could change though for your son. I will be interested to read what other musicians do, because I assumed all of them listened to music 24/7 like mine!</p>
<p>DS is an avid music "listener" both recorded and live performances. He seeks out concerts to attends and sometimes is annoyed when work or school commitments prevent him from attending. He too has a HUGE music library. I personally think you do gain a lot by listening to other musicians play...and listening to different ensembles. I think the perspective of a serious musician should be beyond their high school (and all state) ensembles. It really should include other music. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I couldn't agree more. I don't defend S's past habits--H and I were frustrated and confused that someone with his love of music refused to listen. Fortunately he came around.</p>
<p>In my opinion, there are some kinds of music that are much more fun to play than to listen to. This was my experience with jazz.</p>
<p>If your son is interested in pursuing jazz at the college level, his improvisational skills have to be topnotch. It's a hard thing to teach, so listening to music is one of the better ways to learn. Most jazz colleges would encourage your son to be listening to past and current jazz musicians -- not that he wants to copy them, but just to know how the envelope can be pushed, in terms of improv.</p>
<p>If he becomes a music major, he will have at least one and most likely more music history classes that involve a lot of listening assignments, followed by tests that will ask him to name the composer and the piece after hearing an excerpt. Those classes are a lot easier if you go into them with some knowledge of the basic musical literature so that you can at least identify the easy ones without having to think.</p>
<p>I have two d's who are musicians. One a MT major, the other an instrumentalist. They joke that they do not worry about anyone taking their ipod for the music. One has every musical, show tune, opera ever written on her ipod while the other has orchestras, bands, flute solos ect...on hers! D who is a flautist listens to hear the different interpretations of a piece and to study the works of different performers. D who is a musical theater majors listens because she LOVES it!</p>
<p>My son is a jazz saxophone student and he listens to music pretty much non-stop. He sleeps with jazz recordings playing. He was taught that listening and transcribing are essential to learning improvisation.</p>
<p>My son is a cellist. He loves listening to heavy metal and hard rock. He rarely listens to classical.</p>
<p>hey shennie --that's funny because mine is the same. he is a violinist. he listens to classical to "study" performances, pieces, etc. but for pleasure (on his ipod) he is obsessed with heavy metal. i sometimes think he may end up a metal guitarist instead of violinist!</p>
<p>he goes to as many concerts as his limited time permits for metal. Still, it is a rare violin performance that i offer him tickets for that he misses either. he just loves music. i expect him to eventually discover other genres too. surely in music school he will discover jazz, ethnic music, etc because his friends will be playing it.</p>
<p>My son is a cellist too. He listens to rock and classical, particularly cello works, chamber music and whatever his orchestra is playing, as well as classical radio. When he's learning a piece, he listens to several interpretations over and over. His teacher loves talking to him because they share a passion for cello repertoire and discovering new pieces. He loves getting a chance to go through his teacher's piles of sheet music and perusing our public library's sheet music collection (we're lucky, it's very good and eclectic).</p>
<p>Oh, I am so thankful that my son is out of the metal stage (he was in a death metal band in early high school)!! It was the only stage of his musical development I really loathed, because there was only so much of that screaming I could take...it made me want to scream too, but for different reasons!</p>
<p>Shennie, I think a rock-out cellist is the coolest thing. You have mentioned your S getting involved in rock before. What kinds of things is he doing, and what kinds of bands is he working with?</p>
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He has no interest in the things that are ubiquitous on his peers' I-Pods. He doesn't choose to listen to any type of music in his own time.
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<p>He's just entering l0th grade? Maybe he doesn't like what his peers listen to, and when he once attempted to listen and share other musical forms, the peers told him "that's weird" or called him a dork. That leaves him no place to go, until he outgrows the need for peer approval, which I've found happens around 11th grade in new ways. </p>
<p>Just an hypothesis; I don't actually know anyone like that in terms of music, exactly. I've seen it in how kids lose the grip on each others' fashion decisions, though, and make a more personal style.</p>
<p>Good answers, as always. I guess I should mention that he does listen to lots of jazz (and some classical) as part of his studying. He enjoys hearing new artists as he discovers them. He enjoys the concerts we attend. He gets transcriptions of solos and listens and plays along. He's also an excellent listener when he plays with others. It's just that he doesn't listen recreationally on his own, which is why I started the thread. Thanks for responding.</p>
<p>Mine is the complete opposite of shennie's and stringfollies. Will not put anything on but classical or opera, with sprinkling of jazz, and broadway/show tunes for reference if he's got a pit gig. I will say that most of his listening to recorded music is for study, comparative interpretations. He does enjoy live performances, particularly chamber/string quartet. </p>
<p>No appreciation of any of the "classics" (Led Zeppelin, The Who, Cream; will leave the room if I have Dylan on. The wife has gotten him to admit that he does appreciate Van Morrison, but he will never put it on. He'll tolerate my listening to Gordon Lightfoot and Al Stewart.</p>
<p>A couple of years back, we had Moody Blues tickets, and the couple accompanying us cancellled last minute. He came with us, thoroughly enjoyed the show, and complimented the musicianship. His words: "I finally saw a rock concert. Yes, they WERE good. But I don't need to see another one."</p>
<p>And I would call my jazz musician a voracious consumer of music. Thousands of songs on multiple ipods; music historian, very interested in all genres of music. Now if i could get him to be as eager about, say, cleaning his room.....</p>
<p>Violadad, you and your son sound like the musical variation of Michael J. Fox and his TV dad in "Family Ties"</p>
<p>p3t, I won't disagree, but have no frame of reference, as I (we all) watch very little "mainstream" tv. </p>
<p>I will say that with son as a classical musician, he has changed MY listening habits. I was familiar with the "old war horses" of the genre, but little else. But after hearing him (and others) play for the last 15 years, I rarely listen to much else these days.</p>
<p>Car radio, internet and house radios are all preset to various classical stations. With few exceptions, our live musical entertainment is noramlly orchestral or chamber. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.</p>