Listening

I grew up listening to classical music. That isn't entirely true. I also spent a lot of time listening to my dad's Beatles, Moody Blues, jazz...to list would be boring. The point being is that I grew up listening to relatively "old" music, i.e. classical and jazz. In fact, I was often bothered by anything with a loud bass and/or drum. I really don't know why; maybe it was my supersonic hearing that was offended by the extremes of the audiowaves. I also spent a great deal of my life playing the trumpet, classical, jazz, the same as I listened to. By the time I was in senior highschool I was listening to some alternative and more contemporary music, but I was also beginning to really understand sound. I remember playing my trumpet alone, just listening to a note. Playing with another person, listening to where the two notes met. Playing with a group, hearing the interplay between the different sounds. It wasn't always good music; it wasn't always interesting; I just liked listening to the sounds; I found harmony in the music. I also began to listen intently to progressive jazz and found a music that I could float in as if it were a river of sound, dragged down stream (or up) by flying fingers on ivory. It wasn't until after highschool that I got more serious about listening to and chosing more contemporary music. I have not moved away from my live for classical (mainly romantic era) and jazz music though. I have found that the great musicians of the 20th century have all understood the past of music. They see and understand the music that has come before them and have added on their own sound which does not contradict, but rather harmonizes with the past. The progress of music in the world mirrors the progress of notes in a song.