Musings about Music

Is it an autistic thing to have a hugely varied taste in music, or do our tastes just diversify more as we get older? My own taste in music is very varied from heavy metal through 80's and 90's music to Trance music. For me it's not so much about the genre of the music but whether or not I like a particular song or the music to that song. Personally I like quite upbeat songs as opposed to the slower tracks, regardless of what type of music it is. What is other people's experience? What do you listen to? Do you tend to only listen to one category of music or do you prefer variety?

Parents
  • Novelty seeking is positively related to Impulsive sensation seeking from Zuckerman's Alternative five model of personality and with psychoticism in Eysenck's model.[4] When novelty seeking is defined as a decision process (i.e. in terms of the tradeoff between foregoing a familiar choice option in favor of deciding to explore a novel choice option), dopamine is directly shown to increase novelty seeking behavior.[5] Specifically, blockade of the dopamine transporter, causing a rise in extracelluar dopamine levels, increases the propensity of monkeys to select novel over familiar choice options.

    Autism would be a corrolated factor, due to increased novelty seeking -- that is seeking out sounds sensations that are pleasurable, and avoiding those that are seen as harmful, which would activate the 'disgust' mechanism.

    Intelligence in combination with temporement (high in opennes and exploration) could be a factor in why some people listen to a variety of music. It requires you to overcome your own internal biases and be open to something foreign - the same behaviour required when taking on opposing viewpoints.

    When we speak of music, we must differentiate between the music itself, from the packaged and marketed product. As I get older I have started to move away from listening to "commercialised" music, to music that is more honest (spontanous) in its approach.

    Such as,

    • Gospel and Blues
    • Chanting or Throat singing (Western: Gregorian, Eastern/Asian: Tuvan and Altai)
    • Ancient Oud manuscript compositions
    • Tuareg music with Islamic/Blues influence - Niger and Mali
    • Classical music - I am very specific in what I prefer - warm rich tones with expansive and yet subtle sounds, typical of Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel or from a warm violin, such as Tartini Violin Sonata in G minor ''Devil's Trill Sonata''.

    I am wanting to learn more about the intricasies of how music is structured and arranged. More specifically, I want to better understand the characteristics of each instrument. Would someone know of where I can learn this information? Resources like this, https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Academy/Instrumentology

Reply
  • Novelty seeking is positively related to Impulsive sensation seeking from Zuckerman's Alternative five model of personality and with psychoticism in Eysenck's model.[4] When novelty seeking is defined as a decision process (i.e. in terms of the tradeoff between foregoing a familiar choice option in favor of deciding to explore a novel choice option), dopamine is directly shown to increase novelty seeking behavior.[5] Specifically, blockade of the dopamine transporter, causing a rise in extracelluar dopamine levels, increases the propensity of monkeys to select novel over familiar choice options.

    Autism would be a corrolated factor, due to increased novelty seeking -- that is seeking out sounds sensations that are pleasurable, and avoiding those that are seen as harmful, which would activate the 'disgust' mechanism.

    Intelligence in combination with temporement (high in opennes and exploration) could be a factor in why some people listen to a variety of music. It requires you to overcome your own internal biases and be open to something foreign - the same behaviour required when taking on opposing viewpoints.

    When we speak of music, we must differentiate between the music itself, from the packaged and marketed product. As I get older I have started to move away from listening to "commercialised" music, to music that is more honest (spontanous) in its approach.

    Such as,

    • Gospel and Blues
    • Chanting or Throat singing (Western: Gregorian, Eastern/Asian: Tuvan and Altai)
    • Ancient Oud manuscript compositions
    • Tuareg music with Islamic/Blues influence - Niger and Mali
    • Classical music - I am very specific in what I prefer - warm rich tones with expansive and yet subtle sounds, typical of Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel or from a warm violin, such as Tartini Violin Sonata in G minor ''Devil's Trill Sonata''.

    I am wanting to learn more about the intricasies of how music is structured and arranged. More specifically, I want to better understand the characteristics of each instrument. Would someone know of where I can learn this information? Resources like this, https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Academy/Instrumentology

Children
  • You could have a go at working your way through some musical theory books, such as the ABRSM ones. That would give you a good understanding of how music is arranged, and teaches you to write 4 part harmonies if you get far enough. As for music to listen to, any of the early 20th century composers were good at focusing in on the specific sounds of each instrument. There's lots of experimentalist composers too that are worth a listen - can't think of the names but I'll try and get some. My personal favourites are Holst and Elgar, both to listen to and to play. For something more modern, Phillip Glass is one of my favourites. 

  • I dont know but my disgust mechanism is violently responsive to Cliff Richard