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Learning to Listen: Neurological Evidence

Neurological evidence indicates we not only learn to listen, but actually tune our inner ear response based on neural feedback from the brain. We literally are able to actively tune our own hearing.  

When we listen for a flute for example, this is more than a conscious decision to focus on the flute. This creates neural impulses that actively tune ear cells to better hear the flute.  

This whole video is fascinating, but I want to get you hooked right away so check this out:  
https://youtu.be/SuSGN8yVrcU?t=1340

“Selectively changing what we’re listening to in response to the content. Literally reaching out to listen for things.”


Here’s another good one. Everyone can hear subtle details about five times as good as predicted by modeling. Some of us however can hear 50 times as good. The difference? Years spent learning to listen closely! https://youtu.be/SuSGN8yVrcU?t=1956

Learning to play music really does help improve your listening.  

This video is chock full of neurphysiological evidence that by studying, learning and practice you can develop the listening skills to hear things you literally could not hear before. Our hearing evolved millennia before we invented music. We are only just now beginning to scratch at the potential evolution has bestowed on us.


128x128millercarbon
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danager's avatar
danager
882 posts
 
What???
Don't dis the squeeze box
Flaco Jiménez ... need I say more
sixfour3
21 posts
 
This video is an incredible wealth of information. Thanks to @millercarbon for sharing it. I now have a newfound appreciation for dithering in the digital recording process! Apart from that, the revelations of how we listen have been fascinating. But quite honestly, I will have to watch this a few more times before I feel I've properly digested the vast amount of information presented. 

I can only offer a perspective, but my observations suggests that the greatest portion of professional musicians I know do not tend to research and purchase the best audio components they can afford. Only a select few seem to possess an appreciation for the value of high quality systems. By contrast, the selectivity with which they procure their instruments and then have them customized for their individual tastes tends to far outweigh the attention given to their playback systems. I'm not sure what to infer from this since, as a rule, serious musicians tend to be highly analytical of sound. Perhaps the way in which that analysis is taking place is the difference. Or maybe their sensibilities are just different from the average audiophile. I know I'm flirting with broad generalizations here, so I'll emphasize that this is just an observation that does not presume to offer an explanation of cause. 
tvad's avatar
tvad
11,566 posts
 
The message is that for musicians the most important considerations when judging excellence (or lack of) in a performance are rhythmic accuracy (timing) and pitch (intonation). Without those, good ensemble cohesion is impossible. When that cohesion is absent the musical message is lost.

A nice reinforcement that studying, learning and practice by a musician can improve listening.

The question becomes, how does an audiophile who is not a musician, or who has no musical training, study, learn and practice his/her listening skills other than the ideas offered in this thread?
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