Turn up the volume on your love for music

Today I want to share an idea that, at least for me, changed my life. It brought me an amount of happiness when listening to music that I never imagined, and a level of enjoyment I didn't know was possible.

If you enjoy listening to your favorite artists, you get excited and feel pleasure when a song that touches you comes on... well, imagine being able to multiply that feeling exponentially.

It happened to me. I found a way. It's a kind of method, if you will, that transformed me into what many call a "music lover": a lover of music, but not from an intellectual or expert perspective, but from pure enjoyment and emotion.

Can listening to music also be a learning process?

Let me tell you where this method came from.

I was a huge Queen fan. I liked other things, of course, but with Queen it was different. I was a fan, yes, but what made me an almost fetishistic collector of anything that started with "Q" wasn't empty fanaticism. It was something else: the music resonated deeply with me, it moved me… and I wanted to feel more of that emotion.

But of course, at one point I ran out of records. And I started to wonder:

Is there other music that can move me in this way, and I simply haven't discovered it yet?

I wasn't looking for a band that sounded like Queen, I was looking for more of that emotional experience .

So, instead of waiting for music to come to me, I went out and found it. And I discovered something key: musical taste is acquired . It's trained and improved the more music we "taste." Just like with some new flavors in food, wine, or yerba mate: at first they may seem strange, difficult to assimilate, but over time they become irreplaceable pleasures.

The method

What I did was quite simple. I started keeping track of what I listened to. But not by individual songs, but by entire albums .

Why? Because albums, although not always consistent in terms of the quality of their songs, show you a moment in the artist's life and their era, tell a chapter in the history of music, and give you a deeper experience.

Step by step:

• 📀 Make a list of your favorite albums , the ones you already love. Listen to them again and give them a score from 1 to 10. (Yes, many go straight to 10. Of course!)

  
  

• 📝 Let the scoring be spontaneous and natural . Don't overthink it. Don't analyze whether it's well-sung, sounds old-fashioned, or is sophisticated. The only thing you need to measure is your level of personal satisfaction . That's all. Keep the list; you'll need it.

  
  

• ♻️ Revisit albums you knew but haven't listened to in a while . Some will move you just as much as ever. Others will surprise you because you'll perceive them differently. Write them down and rate them.

  
  

• 🔍 Add other albums from those same artists that you've never heard of to your list. Spotify makes it easy.

  
  

• Explore new artists :

  • Use Spotify's recommendations.

  • Search by gender.

  • Look at lists like “the 100 best albums of all time”.

  • Ask your friends or family for recommendations. (Everyone loves to recommend what they love.)

    
    

• Now I divided the process into two parallel paths :

  • Keep adding new albums.

  • Listen again to the albums you had rated 8 or 9.

And here's where the magic comes in:

Many of those albums now seem incredible, familiar, endearing.

You want to give them a 10.

Do it!

What happened next?

Something amazing happened to me: the more I listened, the more I liked it . And the more I wanted to keep discovering. Like a positive addiction.

After a few years, I had a huge list of albums, artists, and genres that I loved. Some I never imagined I'd like. My musical universe expanded.

I don't know if I became a music expert. Honestly, that wasn't my goal. But I did become an expert on what music does for me . And that, frankly, is priceless.

I discovered who I am through what I love to listen to.

And you? Are you up for it?

🎧 Start today.

📀 Make a list.

🎶 Listen without prejudice.

👂 Accept recommendations, but be guided by your honest taste.

💡 Discover what music is part of you.

And if you want, make a playlist with your top 10 albums. Share it. Make it grow. Let others discover that music that's already part of your story.

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