Instructor: Afroditi Karantonaki

Hear & Listen

Hearing: Our sense of hearing; hearing is a physical process, something

natural, but passive, while listening is both a physical and mental process

and is active. Our physical ability to receive and decode sound stimuli. It
refers to our sense of hearing. In the example with our friend, we hear
many sounds from the environment, but we choose to listen to some of
them.

Listen: Focus my auditory attention / Concentrate on a sound stimulus,

trying to put some meaning on the transmitted message. According to the

International Listening Association website, 45% of our time is spent

listening, and thats may be why listening, is considered as the biggest
contributing factor to miscommunication and in a more personal level,
misunderstanding.

Music

Music is all around the natural environment (birds singing, whispering

wind, etc); small melodic motives, which often follow a repetitive rhythmical
model. What we usually hear in the urban environment is noise rather than

music (traffic noise, people speaking, etc).

Music serves two main purposes: a) music as a background (music in

shops, airports, in TV commercials, in films, etc) and b) music for our own

listening. People may not react at all, when they listen music that they dont
like e.g. In the airport (because they cant do anything to change it), but when
it comes to self-selected music, they tend to demonstrate a variety of tastes.

Music: A piece of sound information based upon specific patterns in terms

of rhythm, mode, harmony and melody and at the same time, it conveys a
message; Psychophysical response; Music for enjoyment and self-definition.
We use music as much as music uses us.

Uses of Music

We use music, for enjoyment, as an inspiration for physical movement and

as a means of self-definition.

Teenagers and adults have a kind of different approach to music. For

teenagers, music is the main tool of self-definition and of the development of
their social identity. For adults, the same as above may be true, but they
usually use music for distraction from their problems and negative feelings.

This is the therapeutic side of music, because yes, music can also serve as
therapy for various diseases.

Music is related to physiological arousal (chills, fast heart beating),

but we dont know the size of contribution that this physiological arousal has

in music preferences; especially if we take into account the fact that music
listening is very often associated with activities which elicit other kinds of
arousal, we cannot be sure which kind of arousal is more important in music
appreciation and thats why more studies should be conducted on that.

Music Listening Process (MLP)

Without music life would be a mistake.

(Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche)

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