A minute of music can feel spacious or crowded. You can explore that impression without turning it into a claim about how everybody experiences time.
Choose a short piece you can hear at a comfortable volume without interruption. Hide the player’s progress display, listen once, and write down an estimate of its duration. Add one reason for the estimate: a long opening, a rapid sequence of changes or an ending that seemed to arrive suddenly.
Then check the actual duration. The difference is a description of this listening attempt, not a score for musical ability. Familiarity, attention and the conditions of the exercise may all matter, and this informal activity does not isolate their effects.
Compare the landmarks, not just the number
Draw a line with three events you remember. Was the longest remembered event actually the longest section? Replay briefly to locate the events, noting approximate times if your player permits it.
Try the activity with a second piece rather than immediately repeating the same one many times. Knowing the duration changes the task, so the later attempt is no longer the same kind of guess.
For a listening group, collect estimates privately before anyone announces a number. Discuss which musical landmarks each person used. Avoid ranking listeners by closeness to the timer.
The useful discovery may be that you remember music through changes and expectations rather than equal units of time. A personal listening map can show where a short passage became unusually large in your memory.
The accompanying visual is an editorial illustration.