This post started out as an e-mail to a friend, in regards to a conversation we had a week ago. Then I realized she probably didn't want to waste time reading this, or feel obligated anyway. So here I am.
When you experience something, you can enjoy to the fullest. (arguable?) When you learn more about it and start learning the art and technique of it, you're more exposed to the little nuances involved and you become more sensitive to the quality of it. Take, for example, cooking. A dish can simultaneously delight the untrained tongue and repulse (or at least dissatisfy) the trained tongue. Likewise, for a cappella, the trained ear (and eye) will start picking apart different aspects of a performance while many (most, actually) others will sit and be none the wiser.
My beef is this: cow. That wasn't funny and yet I'm leaving it. If I really enjoy some form of art, be it photography, music, or cooking, I'm afraid that if I actually learn the technique of it, it may become less enjoyable than if I had remained a spectator. Obviously this isn't the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but the experience is definitely altered somewhere along the way from passive to active participation.