"Listening to Music" is the textbook for the music appreciation course at Yale University. Combining it with Yale's open courses, I started studying from the beginning of this year and have now completed all the courses and textbooks, as well as listened to the reference online music attached to the book. I feel I have gained quite a lot.
This book mainly introduces Western classical music, with some basic music knowledge and an overview of global music presented at the beginning and end. The open course does not follow the textbook completely; the first ten or so classes mainly introduce music theory knowledge, paired with appreciation and explanation of corresponding typical music, some of which can be a bit challenging, and those without a music background may find it difficult to understand. The latter part mainly introduces the history of music development based on the textbook, and guests are invited to perform instruments or opera live during the course, which is all very exciting and makes one envious of Yale University's teaching resources.
For ordinary people, appreciating classical music does have some barriers. Music can actually be seen as a language, developing independently in various places, and later the West began to use musical notation, which is equivalent to music having written form, making its development more standardized and theoretical, and easier to pass down. Non-Western music mainly relies on oral tradition, and much content is likely to be lost. Western music has established standards for pitch, tone, rhythm, etc., which, while imposing some limitations and not being as free and improvisational as non-Western music, allows for gradual development based on predecessors and preservation through musical notation, forming the mainstream music we have today.
Everyone's preference for music is not entirely the same. The benefit of taking this course is that after hearing music you like, you can use the knowledge you've learned to identify which region, period, and type of composer the music belongs to, allowing you to reference and search for similar music and discover more music you enjoy. Of course, AI can also recommend music you might like based on your listening habits, but its accuracy is still not high, and it certainly doesn't compare to the sense of achievement from discovering music on your own. Another benefit is being able to discern some of the intrinsic meanings expressed in music, such as major keys representing happiness and minor keys representing sadness, which is actually more conducive to understanding the role of film scores in driving the plot.
Looking solely at the textbook mainly helps understand the history of music development; to learn to appreciate music better, one still needs to watch the open courses and listen to related music more. The main purpose of this course is to help people discover the beauty of music and fall in love with listening to it.