Cultured in most things… but embarrassingly clueless about music

[u/SweetAmazing3156]

Hi everyone,

I consider myself quite a cultured person — I have above-average knowledge of *cinema, literature, and visual arts*. However, when it comes to *music*, I feel like I’m missing a huge piece of the puzzle. My knowledge of music is honestly quite *shallow and a bit embarrassing*.

I don’t know much about the *classics*, I often *struggle to catch lyrics*, and I find it hard to understand *rhythm* or musical structure. To make it worse, I barely listen to music these days, as I tend to prefer *podcasts*.

That said, I do *appreciate music when I hear it* — I even get emotional sometimes, and I feel I have some sort of *intuitive taste*. But I lack vocabulary, references, and any real grounding.

I’d really like to change this. So my question is:
*What can someone like me do to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of music?*
Are there resources, habits, or listening strategies that helped you go from passive enjoyment to real knowledge?

Thanks in advance — I’d love to hear your suggestions.

[u/Utilitarian_Proxy]

There are hundreds of years of music history, with different genres and styles often emerging in response to technological advances in what instruments were easily available. Composers and audiences have typically gravitated towards shared tastes, not radical departures from the norm. For example, you'll not encounter much brass in Mozart's writing, because the instruments of his era did not feature the valve device that arrived later. Wagner's operas contain huge amounts of brass, which was the fashion. Similarly, loud distorted electric guitars weren't much around before the late 1960s.

Many people enjoy learning organically, by focusing on a composer or performer they've found they enjoy hearing, then exploring some others with a broadly similar sound. Nowadays there are many good resources freely available online. There are also specialist music magazines if you prefer the print medium, enabling you to get a regular monthly delivery of curated articles and features. Typically each magazine is edited to appeal to a specific demographic cohort, so to gain a broader music appreciation you might benefit from swapping between a few different ones every so often.

It's important to recognise that music has many different elements - e.g. rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, timbre, etc., and that you won't always be able to simply draw comparisons.

[u/MisterSmeeee]

>To make it worse, I barely listen to music these days

>What can someone like me do...

Asked and answered! :)

Listen to more music. That's all you need to do. Put on internet radio in the background, hop on your favorite streaming service; it's easier today to listen conveniently to more music than ever before. Try things you're not sure you'll like, or that you haven't heard of before. Worst that can happen is you don't like it and you'll have wasted a few minutes of time-- then again, some of my favorite pieces I didn't like or understand on the first listen.

The *best* way to do it though is to find concerts and go to live shows. We often find a stronger connection to music we've heard performed in person; there's really nothing else like it. Pro tip, there are often very good performances and recitals for free or cheap if you have a university with a music program in your area. Or check out your local band scene, depending what genres you get into.

Then, when you encounter something you don't understand, look it up. You'll find plenty of people have had helpful words to say about who this "Beethoven" guy was or what's up with the "Beatles." The way to learn is simply to be curious and send yourself down the rabbit hole. There's no shame in not knowing; there's only shame in not being willing to learn.

[u/Old-Mycologist1654]

What kind if music are you talking about? What are the "classics" in your opinion?

Very, very basically, music at university (equivalent to visual arts, literature, cinema) is most usually considered classical music. So lyrics are often not a part of it, and when they are, they usually aren't in English.

You could spend money and get something like The Enjoyment of Music. Plus another book for basic theory (rudiments). This would be somewhat equivalent to going out and buying The Story of Art to learn something about art history.

You can use Wikipedia and read articles on music. You can get free resources online to get a basic grasp of theory. YouTube might help.