Knowing how to listen: musical professionals listening to music

The idea that musical professionals with extended musical knowledge, training and exposure to musical pieces, can perceive music differently than other listeners - I call this the Difference Thesis - seems both appealing and problematic. After showing the flaws of previous accounts that attempted to explain it, in this paper, I show how the Difference Thesis can be explained by introducing the idea that listening is a mental action. I argue that the variety of phenomenologies of music emerges from distinct ways of interacting with musical sounds in the action of listening. I support my claim analysing three scenarios in which perceiving a piece of music is part of day-to-day musical practices, highlighting what musical professionals do and perceive in those contexts.