Certainly they can "enjoy" it: this initial enjoyment, usually in childhood, is what drives people to become musicians in the first place.
But once you take up an instrument and begin serious study, your appreciation (as opposed to mere emotional response) tends to increase along with your technical grasp of performance technique and formal structure. You begin to understand how music works from an "inside" perspective, which is vastly more rewarding than just letting it wash over you as an external stimulus. Like the difference between hearing poetry in an unknown foreign language, and actually understanding the language it's spoken in.
At least this has been my experience. I started out, around age 11, wanting to fingerpick like Joan Baez and some of the other popular "folk" artists of the era. As I got better on the guitar, I came to appreciate more how these simple songs were constructed, which gradually led to a greater appreciation of how more complex songs were constructed, and what could be done with chord extensions and substitutions to make them more interesting. This led in turn to more study of theory (scales, harmony, counterpoint, and compositional structure), which vastly increased my understanding (and hence enjoyment) of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical repertoire. A Bach fugue makes a lot more sense when you understand how a fugue is constructed; a Haydn quartet or symphony makes more sense when you understand sonata allegro form; and so on.
I'm not saying one has to be a professional player, or even a particularly skillful amateur, to truly appreciate music. But some technical grounding in how it actually works seems essential to "getting it" on more than a childish emotional level.
Agree? Disagree? Other angles?
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Topic - A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - caspian@peak.org 11:48:49 08/06/12 (35)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - Q-authority 20:35:32 08/18/12 (0)
- The more you understand anything the more you can appreciate it * - Mike K 20:38:22 08/08/12 (0)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - Inmate51 20:19:55 08/07/12 (0)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - middleground 17:44:55 08/07/12 (1)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - SgreenP@MSN.com 08:26:44 08/08/12 (0)
- Sure! - FenderLover 06:56:21 08/07/12 (0)
- Of Course........... - Todd Krieger 19:02:40 08/06/12 (6)
- RE: Of Course........... - Tony Lauck 13:47:14 08/07/12 (5)
- RE: Of Course........... - Todd Krieger 02:00:19 08/11/12 (0)
- To play any of the Orchestral Suites on piano ...? Perfect Pitch - Timbo in Oz 15:49:49 08/08/12 (3)
- RE: To play any of the Orchestral Suites on piano ...? Perfect Pitch - Tony Lauck 16:01:47 08/08/12 (2)
- her decisions about which notes not to play / or which to summarise - Timbo in Oz 16:06:16 08/08/12 (1)
- RE: her decisions about which notes not to play / or which to summarise - Tony Lauck 16:13:33 08/08/12 (0)
- To look at it a different way, - Bizango1 18:44:13 08/06/12 (0)
- RE: A "sudzy" question? IME of him, Sudz is incapable of such a question? - Timbo in Oz 17:43:19 08/06/12 (0)
- Good for you, but it's a bit older as a divison, if it is. - Timbo in Oz 16:54:25 08/06/12 (3)
- leibharber and kenner? - Inmate51 07:45:19 08/08/12 (1)
- Leibhaber mya be more correct I din't study German! IIRC this was in a book abour Mozart's life. - Timbo in Oz 15:29:35 08/08/12 (0)
- RE: Good for you, but it's a bit older as a divison, if it is. - caspian@peak.org 12:06:57 08/07/12 (0)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - Inmate51 16:32:26 08/06/12 (0)
- It's not about music, it's about the sound of recorded music, - Frihed89 13:15:50 08/06/12 (2)
- Not for me, not ever. for me it's the effect of music, which does depend - Timbo in Oz 17:50:30 08/06/12 (0)
- RE: It's not about music, it's about the sound of recorded music, - SgreenP@MSN.com 15:43:28 08/06/12 (0)
- "appreciate" and "understand" are two different things - rlindsa 12:29:36 08/06/12 (5)
- One step further - gme109 17:30:46 08/07/12 (0)
- No, and I disagree, they're two differing descriptions, just words, - Timbo in Oz 17:12:19 08/06/12 (0)
- Well put. This makes me think ... - reelsmith. 16:59:47 08/06/12 (0)
- Yup (nt) - dtyoshih 15:43:58 08/06/12 (0)
- Agree 100% great comment. - Elizabeth 14:03:46 08/06/12 (0)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - SgreenP@MSN.com 12:17:38 08/06/12 (0)
- as with other things in life - hifitommy 12:04:37 08/06/12 (2)
- Bingo. +1 - Enophile 12:17:36 08/06/12 (1)
- RE: Bingo. +1 - rocky raccoon 13:36:11 08/07/12 (0)
- RE: A "sudzy" question: Can non-musicians ever truly appreciate/understand music to the extent that musicians do? - Sondek 11:56:27 08/06/12 (1)
- Gee that's deep. - Timbo in Oz 17:20:23 08/06/12 (0)