Too many excellent posts to read them all. But, my simple answer is yes. My education in music for me started early with lessons on the violin from a master, but the lessons stopped all to early. Nonetheless, interest and education in music continued through high school and college , even though it was not my chosen field, and has continued ever since. Today, I am almost 70. About 15 years ago, I discovered my local public library had over 6,000 music CD's, and I spent several years exploring them. This introduced me to and musicians and genres I never knew about, and expanded my appreciation for forms that previously held little appeal. I respond emotionally to music, always looking for that which speaks to the soul. A great audio system helps. As my system has evolved, revisiting music in my library brings new pleasure and appreciation. The discovery of a new artist often leads to more education! It never needs to end. My tastes in music continues to expand. Classical will always be a core value, but almost everything else has value too.
Has education expanded your listening tastes?
This point recently came up in another thread: a member was of the opinion (if I am paraphrasing them correctly) that critical thinking plays little role in what our tastes in music might be. We like what we like and that's it. So that begs the question for me, how many of us feel that our reaction to music is primarily rooted in the emotional centers of the brain and that rational analysis of musical structure and language doesn't potentially expand our range of musical enjoyment? I ask because I am not a professional musician, but I did take a few college level music history classes, learn to play guitar in my forties (now sixty,) learn to read music on a rudimentary level of competence, study a little music theory, and enjoy reading historical biographies about composers and musicians. I can honestly say that the in the last fifteen years or so, I have greatly expanded what types of music I enjoy and that I can appreciate music I might not "love" in the emotional sense that used to dictate what I listen to. Take Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern for example. Their music doesn't sweep you away with the emotional majesty of earlier composers, but I find their intellectual rigor and organization to be fascinating and very enjoyable. Same with studying the history of American roots music, I learned a lot about our cultural history and enjoy listening to old blues and country music now. How do other's feel about this emotion vs. learning to appreciate thing?