Are We Different?


All my life I have been more attuned to sensory experiences than my friends, family, or colleagues. I started to notice this in high school when I would go on and on about how great a particular passage sounded while playing in bands, I would rave about a meal that I ate, the smells of pleasant or unpleasant things, or a particularly good looking passage in a movie or piece of art.  

This question arose for me last week when talking to a friend and relating that I frequently get chills and goosebumps listening to music (live or in my living room). He looked at me as if he had no idea what I was talking about, and thought I was nuts. I thought that happened to everyone!! Since then I have been conducting an informal survey of folks I know about exactly that question. Again, most folks have no experience of this and think I'm bit off. So I wonder: Are we different? Is it something in our biology that lands us in the realm of audio-obsession, constantly looking for the perfect sound stage in our living rooms, and criticizing badly engineered recordings, or scoffing at the sound designers for poorly mixed live shows?

What is it that separates the music enthusiast/lover from the obsessed, ever-searching-never-satisfied, gear-heads which many of us are? 

Share your thoughts (and also do you get chills and goosebumps listening to Beethoven/Charlie Parker/The Stones?)
128x128birdfan

Showing 1 response by falconquest

I don’t know if the "openness" to music, art and other stimuli is the same for listeners/viewers as it is for musicians that actually create music, but I have always wondered where music creativity comes from. Some of the most creative music artists come from families where there is no music background eliminating the idea that it is somehow gene based. I can’t help but believe that music listeners and musicians share at least an ear for music. Some of us may not be talented enough to play yet we still appreciate what others create, just as we appreciate art without being painters. Good musicians can create music that somehow touches something within us and that feeling is at least somewhat universal. How do they do that and why do we enjoy it so much? Sometimes I hear certain music and wonder, how in the world did anyone come up with that musical idea? Some musicians say it’s just what’s in their head. Not sure we understand it fully but it is pretty cool.