How long a period studying music theory did it take you to appreciate classical?
 

I only know very basic music theory and spend most of my time listening to popular music, because when I listen to classical, I may like some of it, but I will only be listening to it as though it is popular music, (e.g. "That was a catchy tune.") and I am not capable of truly appreciating it. I cannot identify keys or particular chord progressions; things of that nature just by listening to a piece of music. I would like to be able to appreciate classical, but my guess is that I would have to spend about the amount of time learning music theory that I would a new language or a sport before I would begin to be able to appreciate it. For those of you on this forum who are capable of appreciating and evaluating classical, I'd like to know how long you've had to study music theory to appreciate classical or when you first started studying music theory.

You definitely don't have to understand music theory to enjoy classical - I don't imagine it would harm things though. :D

I was easily able to appreciate Bach a couple of years back because his music in some ways resembled metal that I was listening to at the time. And from there, I explored the work of other composers.

My favourites today are Bach, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich.

yeah I haven't really "studied" music theory at all, but i got the feeling recently to get songs of the oldest compositions I could find and I dug some of what i did find. It seemed like it had more to say, more variation. and it also really inspired me to jam out more than alot of music

I keep trying to get into classical music but it has yet to really click with me. Anyone know of a good composer for layman like myself?

^ cant go wrong with mozart

Any suggestions on where to start with him?

i love requiem

I got into Classical because of my love of film soundtracks. I started listening to John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, and many other composers, started listening to Philip Glass, and then moved on to older composers (Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss.) I have yet to really listen to Bach, Debussy, Chopin, or other composers, but I'm working on it.

I really also only have my head wrapped around some of the more basic concepts of theory myself, and I love classical music. I just started really trying to focus on it and its so broad that I would recommend trying anything and everything you can find. Some of the big name players are Wolfgang Mozard, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Johaan Sebastian Bach, Frederich Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikoli Rimsky, and lots lots more. I recommend listening to as much as you can, iTunes has like a million radio stations and would be a good place if you dont know where to start.

I found classical more appealing when I started paying more attention to harmonies and the way they effected the melody, putting it in different lights than was on the surface.

I started noticing that while listening to Queens of the Stone Age.

You don't need theory.