Listening Journal
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Listening Journal
Indeed, music is around us. An odd and complex form of sounds such as this possesses the utmost power to influence all our actions and behaviors as human beings. Literally, music has the power to change even our own personalities. After all, according to Schafer (66), we are sensitive beings and as such, music has the elements that appeal to the sentimental core in every individual’s psyche. For the past three days, I have been engaging in an awareness exercise of the environment I occupy, particularly in respect to the sounds or music that I hear as I lead a routine life. From this short yet interesting experiment, I discovered that music is everywhere, whether in the form of physically manipulated sounds or different sounds that the environment creates in harmony.
On the first day, my awareness exercise started with a considerable focus on the sound of music. Indeed, it was interesting to listen to other forms or genres of music that were playing in my own setting. From the minute I woke up and dressed up for school, I decided to listen to all the sounds without blocking them with my usual noise-blocking headphones. This action yielded various results. For instance, I could hear the sounds of my younger siblings crying in unison. However annoying it was, the sounds emanating from them blended in perfect harmony. Down the stairs, I could hear the radio placed in the kitchen churning out tunes of blues and jazz which was quite unconventional for me since I was not used to such sounds in the early hours of the morning.
On the second day, I focused on the sounds that were released within the social context. For the better part of the first day, the domestic setting that my family and I occupied was the main focal point for my assessment. Hence, during the second day, I tried listening to the sounds created by other people as they interacted with one another or passed each other hurriedly to their unknown destinations. I could hear ambient noises emanating from other people’s headphones. Music such as rap and hip-hop were blaring out from some street dancers. Walking further, I heard the sound of a collected batch of nickels and dimes being shaked in a plastic cup by a ‘panhandler’ who was asking people for money as well as the sound of honking cars and motorcycles as I proceeded down the street.
The third day was the most memorable experience for me in respect to the exercise. This was because of the different ambient sounds that I heard as I visited the local arboretum. Indeed, the natural environment is capable of creating a sound or a rhythm of its own. From the rustle of the leaves to the gushing flow of water in the vicinity, I could hear a different set of ambient sounds that blended into one complex yet peaceful rhythm. Other sounds I heard comprised croaks from frogs as well as whistling from sparrows. Amidst all these sounds, the shuffle of feet and chatter among other visitors contributed significantly to the blended noises. To this end, being aware of the ambient sounds that exist around me has altered my views on the aspect of music in general. In fact, I realized that the world around us creates many sounds that consistently influence the creation of rhythm in the first place.
Work Cited
Schafer, R Murray. The Music of the Environment. New York: Elsevier, 2013. Print.
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