College has forever ruined music for me. It has never been the same. Sophomore year, I took two classes called Music Theory 1 and Aural Skills 1. Little did I know, they would forever change my views on melodic expression.

Music Theory and Aural Skills are two classes that are offered by the Music Department here at my school. They are required for every music major, minor, and music ministry majors. However, despite the name, these classes have ruined music for me. It's never been the same.

Now, it's not what you think. I still love music and it's still my passion use it as a tool to help lead other in worship. It's just that music has never been the same. Music doesn't sound the same as it did when I started college.

Most people when they hear a piece of music, they hear the melody and maybe the bass line. They hear the drums in the songs on the radio and the guitar solos. Me, I hear so much more. Music Theory and Aural Skills have both trained my ear to hear most, if not all, of the different parts of a song.

Just as an example, lets look at choir music, A single choral arrangement usually has four to eight parts being sung at once, right? What do you usually listen to? Well, as a choir member, I can tell you that most of the time, you listen to your part and one other part, usually the melody. If you have the melody, you tend to find a part that is the most complimentary to your part. So in other words, most people are listening to two parts. I hear at least three all at once, not counting my part.

Now let's look at a contemporary worship song. Part of the process for sound check every week is setting the speakers to have the right mix for each individual person. Most singers that aren't playing an instrument need their own vocals, the melody, and the piano or main guitar line. This is normal. I however, need everything. The song sounds empty if I can't hear every instrument. Luckily, I tend to stand near the house speaker, so I just have the vocals in my floor speaker. That way, I can hear everything, but the vocals are just a little louder.

Music Theory has ruined music for me because now I hear every part of the song. I now find pop songs boring. They have vocals, maybe harmonies, maybe a piano or guitar, either drums or some kind of technologically made beat, and bass. There typically isn't much there. While the songs still have potential, I get bored with them quickly.

I find that in a piece of music, I need complexity. I need layers upon layers. I need a rift in the song where there are only two instruments to create musical tension. I find that I want to listen to songs with more depth behind them. The harder to hear emotionally usually have more literal depth that their cheerful counterparts. Minor keys create a certain type of dissonance that you can't find anywhere else.

Major keys are great and all, but nine times out of ten, if a song was originally in a major key and it's put into a minor key, I'll like the minor key more. The more difficult it is for a piece to be performed, the more likely I am to love it. All this is just the musical aspect. There's also the literal aspect.

Because I've taken Aural Skills, I hear more in a song. Because I've taken Music Theory, I have an idea of how much work goes into writing that piece of music. There are so many different rules one as to follow when writing or arranging a piece of music that you could literally end up wanting to hit your head on the table. (I have done this a few times...)

The more complicated a song is, the more hours were poured into it's making. These extra hours are poured into making just the right chords or harmonies, not to mention practice, practice, and more practice. The more complicated a piece is, the more practice one needs before it can be performed.

Because I know these things, music has never been the same. The more complicated the song, the more time and effort were poured into the song and the more interesting the melodic line will be. Had I never taken those two classes, I would have lived in blissful ignorance of just how true these facts are. I wouldn't hear just how more complicated one song is in comparison to another. I would never know just how many hours are poured into perfecting a single song. I would never have known to what degree I greatly appreciate an artist's hard work.