How to Broaden Your Musical Horizons

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By writetolife
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Music is one of the great joys in life, but sometimes when we get stuck in listening ruts, we forget that. There are hundreds of thousands of songs that you’d love, if only you’d take the time to listen to them, new genres and styles to be discovered. This article will give you a couple tips for broadening your musical horizons, and consequently, enjoying your time more.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

The Internet
Car and Gas
As little or as much money as you'd like to spend

Step 1

By far, the best way to experience new music is to hear it live. And that doesn’t even have to cost very much money. Go the free concerts that are going on in your community. (Summer is an especially easy time to find them) Most towns have summer concert series’ made up of many types of musical artist. Make a point of going to see both the concerts you know you’ll like, and the ones that you aren’t sure of. If the experience turns out to be torturous, then walk out; all you’ve lost is a little gas money. But if turns out to be pleasant, you’ve gained appreciation for a new style of music, (and maybe even a chance to buy some band merchandise.)

Churches, high schools, and colleges often put on free, or low cost concerts, also.
Step 2

Browse second-hand stores, flee-markets, and garage sales for inexpensive CDs. If you see something interesting, pick it up. Or try intentionally buying music that you normally wouldn’t. If you can’t handle the stuff, then give it away to a friend, or donate it to a Friends of the Library Sale. You haven’t lost much, and you’ve gained some valuable musical experience

Keep in mind though, just because you dislike a particular artist’s music, doesn’t mean you’ll dislike all the music in that genre.
Step 3

Frequent Pandora.com. Pandora.com allows you to customize radio stations based on your taste. It's based on the Music Genome project, which takes thousands of songs and breaks them into their elements in order to decide why people like various songs. Set up a free account, and start some stations off of songs or musicians that you enjoy listening to, then rate the songs to personalize your station. In addition, don't be afraid to start stations based on artists and songs that you might like, or that you come across during your exploration. There are links that allow you to purchase the music that you like.
Step 4

Use Playlist.com. Playlist.com allows you to build custom playlists of copyrighted music. While every song ever recorded certainly isn't there, the website has an interesting selection. This gives you the chance to make permanent playlists of the songs you've discovered at pandora, and also listen to other songs by artists that you've found that you enjoy.

The key to broadening your musical horizons is keeping your mind open. Don't judge music before you listen to it, and don't believe all the stereotypes that exist. An unpopular song doesn't necessary equal a bad song.

Comments

tonythom said

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on 12/7/2009 I'm a lover of all types of music and have been a musician since the age of nine. "Bravo" on How to Broaden Your Musical Horizons. 5* and a recommendation.