Second Cup: Upgrade your background music

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to upgrade your background music. If you're listening

(00:20):
to your favorite podcast or album while you're driving or
making dinner, by all means continue, But if you're just
listening to something to listen to something, consider starting a
listening project to make this time feel a little more satisfying.
So longtime listeners know that each year I undertake a major,

(00:42):
year long project. Normally it's been a reading project, like
all the works of Jane Austen, but this year I
decided to do something a little different. I am listening
to all the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. I love
box music, and he was prolific. So this winds up
working out to about thirty to forty minutes of listening

(01:05):
each day. I started on January first, and a few
weeks in, I can tell you it has been amazing.
I'll be making a kid toast in the morning and
listening to an intricate organ fugue. I am stretching out
tight muscles after running, and I'm listening to a soprano
trill her way through an almost operatic aria in a cantata.

(01:29):
Let's just say that this elevates the experience of daily
life tremendously, and it's been pretty easy. There are recordings
of basically all of Bach available on YouTube, so I
just find one hit, play and go about my day.
If you are a Bach fan too, maybe you'd like
to start listening in the car while waiting for your

(01:50):
plane to board. When I began this project, I quickly
realized that I had a lot of potential listening time
in my day. Most days, I've been able to listen
to all of my assigned Boch before it's even nine am.
But whether you are into Bach or not, you might
choose something else that would let you listen with purpose.

(02:14):
There are lots of other composers. Beethoven comes to mind.
You could listen to all of Wagner's operas. You could
listen to all of Gershwin's works, or Stephen Sondheim's musicals.
A performer like Duke Ellington would be fantastic, or the Beatles,
you know, their greatest hits. But maybe it's worth listening

(02:34):
to everything, the good and the more run of the
mill stuff that shows you how they whound their way
to the great stuff. Or Hey, maybe you're going to
a Tailor Swift concert and you want to listen to
everything before you go. You might explore a genre you've
heard of but know little about. I'd certainly like to

(02:56):
learn more about jazz now that a couple of my
kids are in a jazz band. Or maybe it's the
music of Brazil or indigenous music from a certain part
of the world. There are a ton of possibilities. Maybe
think about a place you are visiting or would like
to visit, or think about a historical character who fascinated you,
and listen to music from that time. The beautiful thing

(03:19):
about the Internet, plus the various streaming services, is that
you can find pretty much anything. I remember as a
kid going to the library and checking out various CDs
of say, traditional Brazilian music in my hunt to find
interesting material. But I had to get someone to drive
me there, and I had to rely on what my

(03:40):
local librarian elected to add to the collection. These days,
you just need to look on your phone. I think
all time is valuable. We have a lot of time
in life that we spend in transition or not really
doing all that much Upgrading your background is one way

(04:01):
to make this time feel more rich and full. I
am so excited to be listening to Bach instead of
what is randomly on the radio. I bet you would
enjoy this life upgrade too. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

(04:23):
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

(04:46):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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