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Music has been relegated to the background. It's like furniture or flowers -- music is mere decoration for a room. Few today sit and listen to music without talking, reading, walking (iPods), eating, watching TV, or ironing laundry. How much of the music do we miss when we're not paying attention? I would venture to say nearly all of it.
The effect that music has on us when we are paying attention is entirely different. It is so much stronger. When we pay attention, we develop a relationship to the music. We come to understand it. We feel it more.
Try this experiment: Dim the lights. Play your favourite album (jazz, if you will). Lie down on your back on your couch or floor or wherever you are comfortable. Close your eyes. Listen. Do this for about 20 minutes (or roughly one side of a vinyl record). How do you feel? Did you enjoy the music more than you normally do? I bet you did.
That's just 20 minutes of your life you spent not moving. Do you feel that you wasted your time? I doubt it. I would bet you now appreciate that music even more now than you did before this experiment.
Keep it to about 20 or 30 minutes, otherwise you may be taxing your ability to sit still. Vinyl records are great for this becuase they're divided into two sides. I bet in the old days people did this more often because the album itself was divided into more comfortable durations, unlike today's CDs which are crammed with extra material, a lot of which isn't even worth listening to.
Is listening to music too slow for our lifestyles today?
Most popular music today is written, performed and recorded in such a way as to suit our busy lifestyles. Most popular songs today have busy and dense arrangements, and the sound is over-compressed giving that "in-your-face" sensation. I think it's because popular music is now produced for people who aren't paying attention. The music has to compete with everything else going on around the listener and everything the listener is distracted by. It has to be loud (over-compressed), or we REALLY wouldn't notice it.
Slow down and pay attention, and you'll likely begin to appreciate music you never enjoyed before.
I'm not suggesting that we should do this always. I too love to play "Clifford Brown with Strings" while reading the newspaper and eating my eggs with coffee on Sunday mornings. But that album means more to me because I have also spent time really listening to it. When you develop a personal relationship with music, you will love it so much more.
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