We can't understand music, not because of our low level of appreciation, but because music can't directly convey the visual and semantic content.

We don't need to interpret music in a literary and artistic way.

There is a story in ancient China about a man named Yu Boya who played the piano very well during the Warring States period. One day when he was playing the piano in the mountains and forests, there came a woodman named Zhong Ziqi. As soon as Yu Boya played the piano, Zhong Ziqi said, "e'e is like Mount Tai". Yu Boya was very surprised, because he wanted to show the mountain in his heart, so he was recognized. Yu Boya thought to himself: I'll change my theme, and I'll show the flowing water. As soon as Zhong Ziqi heard it, he said, "soup is like a river." No matter what Yu Boya plays, Zhong Ziqi can hear the content of music. So they became good friends and confidants. But it didn't last long. It wasn't long before Zhong Ziqi passed away. Yu Boya lost his bosom friend. When he was sad to the extreme, he broke his piano and vowed never to play again. This story later became an idiom of "high mountains and flowing water", and became a word commonly used in daily life such as "bosom friend". This is a story known to women and children in ancient China.

Why is music so hard to understand?

My first topic is: how to understand music?

A lot of friends were surprised at this topic and thought that we wanted to understand music after listening to teacher Zhou here. How can we print this title on the screen? In fact, I want to talk about the basic attributes of music art and why we don't understand music.

We have done a survey in six 211 Engineering Universities in Beijing and the Central Conservatory of music. This survey has a topic called: if you don't like serious music, why? We found that among many reasons, "I can't understand" and "I don't know what the music is about" accounted for the main proportion.

The story of "high mountains and flowing water" subjectively brings us a kind of pressure. What pressure? It is to hear the visual and conceptual things from music.

Music can not directly convey this kind of visual and conceptual content.

That's why we can't understand music - those who engage in music can't understand it, ancient people can't understand it, modern people can't understand it, and they can't say what music represents. It's not because of our audience's low level of appreciation, but because music can't directly convey the visual and semantic content. Now I have to say to Yu Boya: you don't know music. If you really know music, you shouldn't ask your audience to hear such specific content in the music. It's a pity that you dropped the piano.

We all can't understand - what's the difference between us? There is a fact that everyone in our circle knows. What is it without telling you? It is the people who engage in music and those who really like music. When they enjoy music, they don't care what they don't understand. What do you mean by that? It is not necessary to hear clearly from music, such as image, thought, philosophy, emotion and so on. Generally speaking, we don't need to interpret music in a literary and artistic way. That's the difference between us.

The reason why such a situation has been formed is not only the story of "looking for a bosom friend in high mountains and flowing water" that we have known in ancient times, but also a very important reason. In my words, it is the way of music popularization with music interpretation as the core. If you don't believe it, the way of music appreciation in the past is basically this: different from light music, serious music has profound ideological connotation; if you want to enjoy it, you need to understand it; if you want to understand it, you need to go deep into the era background, creation background, composer's life, and so on. After years of propaganda, we have come up with the concept that we must appreciate such a serious music in a way of deep understanding, otherwise we will not understand it. I have done such popularization myself.

It's easy to understand music

Sensitive hearing and rich association are the prerequisite for us to understand music. In order to understand music, you need to adjust your synaesthesia habits. Of course, composers also need to connect with the audience in terms of works and voice customization.

Under this title, let's understand the performance mechanism of music. This problem is not complicated at all, as long as we understand a little theoretical knowledge of synaesthesia.

What is synesthesia?

We say that vision, taste, smell and touch all have a connection with hearing, which is synesthesia - the phenomenon that one psychological feeling causes other psychological feelings. Synaesthesia is a kind of basic feeling reflection of human beings, but we usually don't pay attention to it. It is precisely because there is such a reflection mechanism in people's psychological activities that music, as a pure sound art, can express the content beyond hearing.

There is a saying in China that "only happiness can't be fake". what do you mean? That is to say, only music can't be fake. What you think, your music will show. Composers use sound to describe nature and their inner feelings, and our listeners also use the same psychological reflection mechanism to understand the composer's performance intention through the composer's sound. Why is there a saying called "music is the language of the world"? It's because synaesthesia's reflection mechanism is shared by all human beings - no matter at all times and in all countries, adults and children, music makes people produce all kinds of feelings through synaesthesia.

Now we are going to put the two musical aesthetic views on the top 50 boards. First of all, I want to say that we don't need to understand music in a literary and artistic way. Why should we understand music? Secondly, we want to say that you think that music appreciation is only a pure sense of hearing, which is also wrong, because music can produce all kinds of content other than hearing through synaesthesia.

Then we have a question: when can I understand it? When can I not understand it? We further analyze.

From the perspective of works, whether a work can make us produce clear content depends on the continuous and stable synesthesia correspondence. What do you mean by that? It's the composer who chooses the way in which the sound and the sound are put together. It's very good to correspond with what you want to show in synaesthesia. If you are especially good at it, we all have associations. If you're not right, we can't blame you for not understanding. It's not like you write, it's about the work.

Our audience is not without any responsibility. Sensitive hearing and rich association are the prerequisite for us to understand music. We don't worry about our synesthesia. Why? Because synaesthesia is a part of instinct. The key is the experience habit of synaesthesia, which needs our efforts.

To sum up: understanding music depends on synaesthesia. Synaesthesia depends on whether you pay attention to it. It's easy to understand music.

Why is it right to understand music?

In the aesthetic activities of music, experience is more important than understanding. It is not important to understand right or wrong. It is important to get rich feelings in music.

Under this title, let's talk about the basic characteristics of music appreciation. As for the art of music, I got two most feedback, one was that I didn't understand it, and the other was that I didn't know whether I understood it correctly or not. It can be said that if you have a certain feeling about the music, you should check the music explanation. In all likelihood, you are wrong. Why is that? Let's go back to synaesthesia to explain this. Because music expresses all kinds of content by synaesthesia, this mechanism determines that we have the following inference.

First, there are many things music can not directly express, such as visual, ideological things;

Second, with synaesthesia as the intermediary, what music shows must be uncertain. There are many explanations for the same work. It's not the audience's fault to understand. The understanding of music content must have fuzziness, subjectivity, multi solution and uncertainty.

To correctly understand the concept of music, the audience has a heavy ideological burden, but also limits the imagination of the audience. Without this kind of pressure, our imagination would be very rich.

In the aesthetic activities of music, experience is more important than understanding. It is not important to understand right or wrong. It is important to get rich feelings in music.

Music is "the beauty of the ear"

Music is the art of hearing. The most important function of music is to meet the needs of people's hearing for beauty. So, we have a metaphor - music is the beauty of the ear. Listening to music with your ears is the most basic way.

When a friend says "I can't understand", it also means that he can't accept such music.

I sum up the reasons why ordinary people can't enjoy serious music in the following two aspects: one is that the music has no melody, the other is that it doesn't sound good. Why don't people like serious music? It's simply a matter of appreciation habits. For music without melody, just let your mood rise and fall with the melody. It's a matter of habit.