Classical music and good jazz—if it’s music that grabs me: hundreds and hundreds of times. In my case, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Charles Lloyd and Charlie Mingus. If I listened to these in vinyl I would have worn them out by now. In fact I did wear out Three or Four Shades of Blue back in my turntable days.
How Many Times Do You Have To Listen To Understand A Piece Of Music?
Speaking solely about popular music, broadly speaking, it takes 2 to 3 listens to figure out if I like something. Roughly meaning do I want to hear it again. To get to the point where I think I understand the piece can take dozens of listens. A big factor in how digestible a piece is whether it's a genre, artist or song I'm already familiar with. At least for me truly new music is harder to get into.
Just curious as to how others experience new music.