[givinguflac]

I’ve been practicing this for years and it’s quite useful. It’s not like seeing of course, but I’m able to get an idea of a room size and material hard/softness. Useful for not walking into walls in the dark or finding something when I don’t want to wake my SO.

In general I’ve always been into sound and I think a lot of people have better hearing than they think, but never learned to hear well. I find it odd that we have such prominent childhood learning focused around sight (shapes, colors, etc) but barely teach children anything about hearing beyond animal sounds. I’m not advocating golden ears courses for kindergartens, but listening skills can be quite useful in lots of situations, not the least of which is situational awareness.

[bjelkeman-again]

Situational awareness goes way down when people walk around with headphones with loud music. I notice it on a lot of people and how they behave in traffic. Just listening to things around you can be quite interesting as you move around. I never wear headphones for this reason.

On interesting thing is to open the windows (and sunroof) in an electric car, whilst driving in built up areas < 20 mph/35 km/h, you hear a lot more what is going on (including insects and birds) and it is a very different experience.

[njarboe]

On a motorcycle one is much more connected to the environment and I think that is one reason people like them. Its fun to come down into a hollow and feel the temperature change. Smells are also easily detected. Sound, on the other hand, is mostly the motorcycle noise (which can be fun too). Reading this comment made me think it would be really interesting to try out an electric motorcycle.

[stunthamsterio]

I heartily recommend trying one. I ride a ZeroSR and it's just a different experience, riding sedately along country lanes allows you to appreciate things in a whole new way. It takes some getting used to though, first few times I stopped it was eerie being able to hear nothing but the traffic next to me rather then the bike itself.

[avhon1]

An electric motorcycle probably emphasizes the need for a very well-designed helmet. At 60+mph, wind noise from the helmet could still drown out environmental noise.

[lorenzhs]

Or a bicycle or e-bike. Those are also pretty quiet and fun to ride.

[PhasmaFelis]

In low traffic/back roads on my bike, I can tell if there's a car coming up behind me without having to twist around. Doesn't work if there's other cars drowning it out, and I definitely wouldn't recommend relying on that in most cases, but it's neat.

[njarboe]

Bicycles and e-bikes are great. Would love to have a high powered e-bikes/very small e-motorcycle that could go on the freeway (ie., be able to cross the bay bridge. Have yet to see such a thing is America.

[erikig]

I've always said that one of the most rewarding sensations on when riding for fun is the access to the variety of smells and sounds and as someone mentioned, a well designed helmet makes a world of difference.

[lucb1e]

I wear headphones when I'm out most of the time, but at least half the time I don't have anything playing (and a third of the time it would be an audio book, not a constant noise like most music). It's still a big difference in how connected I feel to my surroundings. I'm not sure it's related to sound, as my headphones don't dampen much. I think it's just the expectation of people when they see someone with headphones and it allows me not to interact as much.

[toast0]

I don't often listen to loud music in headphones, but if I have headphones on where I need situation awareness, I'll be quick to remove one --- usually the one I expect to be closest to whatever I might need to hear (most often car traffic).

Windows down in a quiet (electric) car is pretty amazing too, even in a traffic jam.

[agumonkey]

It's fun to train your sense/brain. Since I started learning music, I try to detect harmonics in mechanics (train, car).

Also I wonder how much of this will come to you naturally if you live in the wild. You rely on so many minute signals ..

[jfries]

What do you consider good hearing skills to practice, except echolocating?

[boon]

One of my hobbies is birding: specifically going out and trying to count all the birds I can find down to a species level. This requires a good ear to do well. Many times I find myself closing my eyes and pausing all bodily motion to really listen intently for the low chips of a sparrow, or distant drumming of a woodpecker.

[Rumudiez]

As one example, I’ve seen kids develop perfect pitch growing up in highly musical environments. I think it’s easier for them to learn it than adults, but it becomes a lifelong skill.

[acjohnson55]

I think relative pitch is much more useful (e.g. identifying harmonies and notes relative to a tonic center).

[yesenadam]

(Perfect pitch here) Hehe how is it "much more useful"? When I hear music, I simultaneously know what all the notes and chords are. That's what hearing music is for me. I can't imagine not having it, as an improvising musician. Hearing a note or chord without knowing exactly what is is?! People without it somehow manage, but it is like flying blind.

[acjohnson55]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that for folks who process in absolute pitch, it can be harder to think in terms of function, to deal with things that are out of tune, and to transpose. Like, for me, I barely care what key something is in other than to get started playing.

[ddingus]

Oh it definitely is like a a sort of blindness.

I love music, and the best I can do pitchwise is remember a few references. So, it is like one or two perfect pitches. I worked at recall on those... hard. It takes an immersive memory to do, and it is like a little movie of that time and place. When I do that, I can get a note from a song I know well.

And I know what that note is on the scale. Good as it gets. Strange, I can often tell same or different too, even whem some time has passed, but mapping notes to pitches heard is hard.

The other one, btw, is 1khz. The Apple 2 beep. Similar memory. And both are fond ones.

Otherwise, I have great discrimination. Can pluck parts out a total mess, usually no problem. And I hear technical details well. Production, essentially, or signals in the noise.

I knew a girl with perfect pitch. Her recall of things and a conversation encouraged me to try, and it worked, but so much effort! And only for a couple, and those are shaky at best!

But, I have just a taste, and that is enough to validate what you put here. No way can I just pluck chords out of something without first getting some references. It's a sort of build up. Do a listen, tag some notes, do it again, tag some more, and over some iterations note values, chords become clear. And that sticks while I have the head space. Let it slip, and a lot slips. In that space, I could play, improvise then.

She could often just listen and write down whole phrases! Of course it was pretty great having her around. I could just ask for one, and she would nail it. Thanks!

A lot of how people manage is by feel and other cues. Or, they just do not improvise to the degree possible. Or, they do not care, instead just working from where things are at. Say, a fifth up would be good... doing that only needs a sense of the scale in play.

In any case, I do not agree relative pitch is intrinsically more useful. I would not value it that way.

What is generally more useful is being able to really listen. I do that and it comes in very handy for testing, various electromechanical tasks. Over time, I have gotten really good at being able to play sound back in my head that I have heard in the past.

On odd artifact is playing that radio snippet game. If I have heard the tune, I can often get it in very short, sometimes sub second bits of audio. All comes down to what is in that snip. Vocals are easiest. Even a bit, and the map to the person lights right up.

Or, a mechanism. If it is doing anything odd, I hear that and know what normal is to good precision.

Discrimination is broadly useful, maybe most useful in the broadest sense, I would argue. At least there is a strong case for it.

YMMV

[DenisM]

Bats fly blind tho.

[arthurcolle]

This is false. Bats are not blind.

No bat species are blind. Microbats have poor visual acuity but their vision is on par with a human's.

Reference: Tuttle's work

[ves]

You cannot develop perfect pitch as an adult (really some time around six - eight years of age seems to be the cutoff). You can develop really good relative pitch at any point though, which is still tremendously valuable.

[p1esk]

Listen to Morse code.

[praptak]

Recognizing intervals. There's a lot of free apps for this.