“Listen to the Music”

The Importance of Intentional Listening

What the people need
Is a way to make ’em smile
It ain’t so hard to do if you know how
Gotta get a message
Get it on through
Oh now mama, don’t you ask me why

Whoa, listen to the music
Whoa, listen to the music
Whoa, listen to the music
All the time¹

From the Supremes to the Beach Boys to the Rolling Stones, Elton John, and Madonna, throughout the years, hundreds of artists have written and performed songs about listening to music. That’s because listening to music offers so many benefits:

• Elevates mood
• Relieves stress
• Boosts creativity
• Improves sleep quality
• Helps with pain management and healing
• Inspires movement (dance, exercise, etc.)
• Reduces depression and anxiety

For musicians, listening to music helps them with their own musical expression. A flautist who listens to Lizzo may feel inspired to reach her level of performance with their own instrument. Similarly, a cellist may be encouraged by Yo-Yo Ma or a piano student may feel the presence of the muse after listening to a recording of Chopin.

At A Kopp Music, we encourage our students to spend time listening to music every day as an important part of their musical journey. It’s critical to listen to musicians who play their same instrument in order for them to realize the full potential of the music they are striving to make. What’s more, listening to a variety of music can help a student recognize what inspires them, whether that’s pop, rock, rap, R&B, jazz, country, techno, or classical. It can also guide them in learning about music composition, rhythm, tempo, and much, much more.

“Just Take Those Old Records Off the Shelf, I’ll Sit and Listen to ’Em by Myself”²

We all listen to music. It’s inescapable. The noise in our daily lives almost always has music in the background whether we’re watching a TikTok video, walking through a store, or just driving in our vehicles. But how many of us truly choose to listen to music on purpose and make that listening an activity?  

Over the years when we ask students what kind of music they listen to, more and more frequently they respond with, “I dunno,” or worse, “I don’t really listen to music.” Unless they are a Swiftie, it’s rare for students to list off a band name or even a song title of something that they have heard or that they like.  

This feels like a dagger to the heart for any Gen X-er reading this. As children we listened to our parents’ music. From an early age we learned how to use the stereo. Some of us may have even had a small suitcase record player and a stack of children’s 45s. 

In the car on long road trips, if we ran out of 8-tracks or cassette tapes, we would scan the radio dial looking for local radio stations with a clear signal. Local radio DJ personalities were well known in the area. Mini fights would break out between siblings over whose music would rule the car on the trip to the grocery store and parents would settle it by either putting on their music or declaring that no one would get to listen to any music if everyone didn’t just get along. That threat would end any fighting as a car ride without music was the worst. 

As teenagers, the record store was the heartbeat of the mall and acquiring new music was a ritual in itself! The clacking sound the CD or cassette tape cases made or the soft thumping of record albums as we flipped through the stacks was its own serenade. Unwrapping the CD as soon as we got to the car, we’d perform a fast preview, skipping through each track and listening to the first 15-30 seconds of each song while looking over the liner notes and admiring the album artwork. Upon arriving home, we’d sit or lie in our bedrooms for hours while we took in the entire disc/tape/album from beginning to end. And then we repeated the entire process. We engaged in music by listening to music.  Listening was the activity!  

Now, I don’t really blame young people for not listening to music more actively these days. We live in a noisy world that is filled with competing sounds. And our world today is a lot faster than it was 20 or 30 years ago with entertainment pushed at us in short bursts. Sadly, we see this as problematic for students who engage in music learning, especially when it comes time to choose band or orchestra instruments at school. Where do these instruments fit into modern sounds? What kind of music do they make? What are they supposed to sound like?

“My Heart Will Be Blessed with the Sound of Music”³

We really want to encourage our students to be more engaged listeners. During private music lessons we may either play a song a student is working on or something related to it that helps them understand rhythm, phrasing, timbre, tempo, and other musical concepts. 

While working within a style of music like jazz, we will recommend songs or artists for a student to listen to, especially when they start to learn how to solo or improvise. Additionally, we may just want to show the students how artists play. That’s when we’ll show them videos of amazing artists like Lindsey Sterling, Leo P,  Sonya Belousova, or the novelty stylings of Chico Marx. Finally, sometimes we just want to showcase how music isn’t all just seriousness all the time. That’s when we take the opportunity to introduce our students to  PDQ Bach (Peter Schickeley), Victor Borge, Anna Russell, and Lord Vinheteiro.

(Like our links? We got a million of ’em! Follow us on Instagram because starting in September 2024, we’re going to be dropping a new playlist on our page every Saturday morning! #AKoppPlaylist.)

And while recorded music is great, we cannot recommend seeing music performed live highly enough. When we asked our roster this past month if they ever go see live music or musicians perform live, they 

overwhelmingly responded “no, because concerts are too expensive.” A few students responded “yes” and would mention their older siblings’ band/orchestra/choir concerts. Within that group there was a tiny subset who had been exposed to the local concerts around town in the parks or at local civic celebrations. We know this is not the case for many places in the country, but we are so fortunate in Minnesota to have access to live music that is FREE. All around the state there are many community bands, orchestras, and jazz bands. From the city and county festivals to the Minnesota State Fair there are big names that come through for free or affordable tickets at the fair’s grandstand. And if you check with local venues like parks and city community centers, you can find other local or touring groups performing as well.

So whether you are lucky enough to get a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert, go see a jam band like Dave Matthews, or a seat at a community festival, listen to the radio or your own personal stereo, we cannot encourage this enough…listen to the music. All the time! To learn more about our teaching methods or to schedule music lessons contact us at A Kopp Music today. 

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1. Doobie Brothers, “Listen to the Music,” 1972 ↩︎
2. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, “Old Time Rock & Roll,” 1978 ↩︎
3.  Julie Andrews, “The Sound of Music,” 1965 ↩︎