Verbose professional listened to short musical phrases (6)
I believe the answer is:
prolix
'verbose' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'professional listened to short musical phrases' is the wordplay.
'professional' becomes 'pro' (synonyms).
'to short' says to take the initial letters.
'musical phrases' becomes 'ix' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The initial letter of 'listened' is 'l'.
'pro'+'l'+'ix'='PROLIX'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prolix that I've seen before include "Using many words" , "going on and on" , "Tediously wordy and lengthy" , "Wordy, long-winded" , "Tediously verbose" .)