You use appreciative listening to take pleasure in sounds. Listening to music, poetry, narrations, comedy routines, plays, movies, and television shows all qualify as appreciative listening goals (Christenson, 1994). Some people find this type of listening so important that they schedule time to do it—that’s why we buy tickets to concerts and other performances or tell our family members to not bother us when The Voice is on. Appreciative listening can also help relieve stress, unclutter the mind, and refresh our senses. We can’t help but wonder if this is why credit card and health insurance companies play classical music while they keep callers on hold for twenty minutes—not that it keeps most of us from being irritated.

Table 6.1 (p.160) offers ideas for accomplishing each of the four listening goals discussed in this section. Yet we all know that competent listening doesn’t happen easily, as the following listening challenges illustrate.