I do this sometimes too ;)

I understand these are words of wisdom. I don't understand quite what they mean though. Care to elaborate?

Merged with a previous thread. :)

Thank you! And sorry. Anyone else have any opinions?

I agree about driving alone. It's definitely one of the best ways to listen to music.

I like to have music playing constantly while reading and multi-tasking as well, but you do miss alot of the details and sometimes entire songs, like you say. What I do most often is just put my headphones on, put my feet up, and watch a basketball game on mute when I wanna check out a new album. For me this is the perfect balance as I'm able to pay close attention to the music, but not get bored. I also have the NBA League Pass with games replaying over and over all night, which is great for this approach...always something on. :)

On rare occasions, when I find an album that I just LOVE, I will do the whole turn off the lights, close my eyes, put on the headphones and chill routine. I can never do this for much longer than a single album lasts though, as yeah, it does tend to get sorta boring after a while.

Ahh yes. Passive/Active listening! I almost always practice passive listening. Luckily I can read and such since I'd say around 80-85% of my collection doesn't have lyrics.

I know the exact feeling. Actually, not to long ago I tried a little experiment with myself. I sat down and turned on some Donald Harrison (jazz) and began studying for an exam the following week. I found myself able to concentrate a little bit, but the music was a definite distraction from my work. Then I tried listening to some Cunninlynguists (rap). I was so focused on the lyrics that I could even get past one paragraph. It took me around 20 minutes to read one 5 sentence paragraph.

I also don't remember where I read this, but I did read that classical music does help people concentrate better when reading or studying a piece. I haven't tried this on myself just yet, but when I do try it, I'll be sure to tell everyone here about it.

Any sort of dense reading I like to do in silence, but music is perfect for anything light like a magazine or forums. If it isn't so complex I'll lose my train of thought when I periodically stop to nod my head then it's fine. And I find that it's actually a great way to get into an album, because I'm someone who like a degree of familiarity in their music (why I expand my collection so slowly compared to most of you), so if I'm reading with it in the background then it can sink into my consciousness and I'll enjoy it more when I actively engage with it.

Just lying down with my ipod is probably the purest, most immersive form of enjoying music. When I get in the mood to just let it wash over me it's bliss, and I'll notice things new things about the song. Sometimes when I'm in a weird mood though I'll start to fixate on some obscure part of the music to the point where I have to change songs because I can't appreciate it.

i've noticed this effect for a while as well and i am most definitely a passive listener. something else i've noticed is that there are some albums that automatically trigger memories of whatever the secondary activity they provided soundtracks to. like when i hear anything from 'Mother's Milk' by RHCP i automatically remember Pilotwings for the SNES.

active listening is actually challenging for me.