Can music without lyrics actually teach you anything?
Sometimes music with lyrics can bring forth a concept and actually teach something to the listener. Perhaps it is a known concept but presented from a different angle.
But what about music without lyrics? Yes, it has the capacity to transport the listener to a very subjective visual space, a past experience, or invoke hope or terror and the like. But does it have the capacity to teach anything? Is anything learned from music without lyrics?
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30 Answers
“But does it have the capacity to teach anything?”
Like the sound of a chirping bird? A dog barking or wind blowing through the trees?
Oh yes. Classical music especially is an expression of the underlying mathematics of the universe, and speaks directly to the wiring of the brain.
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
I listen to instrumentals all the time.
I find more meaning in them than I do with music with lyrics. Not all, but a lot of lyrical music sheds absolutely no substance or depth.
The intensity and beauty of an instrumental piece does. I listen to instrumentals for inspiration which in turn brings forth plenty of concepts, especially in my writing.
I agree with @CaptainHarley. They speak to the wiring in your brain and allow you to feel plenty of emotions, plenty of inspiration, allow relaxation and patience and can even help with your focus and motivation. All of these combined is a form of learning, especially when you can apply it to your line of work, like me. It’s very beneficial.
I learned that a guitar in the right hands can be like being made love to, very well.
It been working for Sesame Street for decades.
Go to youtube and click on Theme From A Summer Place by Percy Faith.
If this song does not stir your emotions for the beach and ocean, nothing will.
Turn it up loud and feel the cold chills run down your spine.
A lot. Emotional intelligence for example. But you really need to listen very carefully.
“I’m looking for a dime. Thats top of the line. Cute face, slim waist, with a big buhhind.”
Yes.
yes, I think you can learn to feel more conceptually
Lucy, Bassology? i never would have guessed. i did like it. john
Oh heck yeah it can! Fundamental music theory, along with expanding your cerebral cortex… not only teaches you something but makes you more capable of learning.
Almost any music, provided it meets some minimal qualifications to make it organized sound, speaks to “wiring in our brains.” “Classical” music (which is a very bad nomeclature) shouldn’t be privileged in that regard, although different periods have their own ways of speaking to us. Like pop music.
And music that doesn’t fit into the definition of organized sound, as a reaction to that which does, almost certainly has its own intrinsic learning properties.
Instrumental music is extremely expressive and certainly can teach you a lot. Not everything has to be explicitly explained through lyrics, you know? An instrumental music can say the same message as a song with lyrics with just melodies and chord progressions, and that is really cool. Considering how many songs there are with lyrics, most of them are simply garbage in the teaching department. I mean… what do you learn from Baby Got Back or Who Let the Dogs Out?
Yes, there are beautifully written songs with fantastic lyrics that really do convey a message, but they’re in the minority by far. In general, instrumental music teaches conceptual thinking: recognizing moods by sound, thinking about how humans respond to music… It simply makes you think more for yourself instead of having the message spoon-fed to you.
@mattbrowne
I like that, “emotional intelligence”.
So in a way, are you suggesting that music sans lyrics is actually a mechanism which teaches us about ourselves, internally, rather than an external knowledge transmitted from another to teach us about them and their experiences through lyrics?
Yes when people shut the fuck up for a while we can enjoy the music for a change.
It teaches you to listen!
Yes, to appreciate sounds other than your own voice. Also musical theory.
It teaches me about the diffrent patterns of the notes and scales. :)
i can teach you about nothing.
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