When initially delving into musical studies, music is explained in mathematical terms. There It is one of the few things that sprouting musicians can wrap their little minds around. For me the hardest of music was never playing the instrument, but rather deciphering key signature and how the notes fit into the texture of the piece. But music isn’t all in the notes on the page. It is the sounds that come as a result. Thus all sounds in a sense bear a musical quality. However, as Murray Schafer argues in “Open Ears”, although we lack ear lids, it doesn’t mean we hear every sound. The first step to give these sound musical qualities is to hear them.

Since I do not have any classes before 11, there is rarely ever a need to set an alarm, as I will wake up naturally. Or would be the case, if my roommates would allow it. Somehow they both mange to slam the door every time the leave the room. Although I find this incredibly annoying, it does bear certain rhythmic quality, as the door can only slam as fast as the hinges allow it. The second sound is the sound of my morning shower, wake up number two.  I find water to be one the most soothing musical essences on the plant. Although I have never been able to fall asleep to it, I can certainly see why. After that it is off to the Grundle for breakfast, though there is nothing discerning it from another time of day. The clattering of silverware, shuffling of feet, and overlapping conversations make it impossible to discern one sound from another so that it all just meshes together into to one wave of noise. Incomprehensible sounds such as this do have certain musical qualities to them, as utilized in songs such as “Kids” by MGMT. The fourth sound in the recording is my bike, the cranking of my chain through the gears, around and around in the one direction that will propel me forward. Sometimes I ride just for the sake of it, with no destination or purpose in mind. This is music in itself.

The next two sounds, I will admit, are actually associated with music. The first a series of breathing exercises designed to fill up the diaphragm, then fill up the excess lung space in the chest, to finally release it all in one moment. The next is a clip of me playing a piece from a seating placement several years ago. Although I did terrible in the audition, I still enjoy the piece, as it portrays both the technical ability and range of the player’s ability. As a tuba player, particularly in pep and marching bands, we are there to grove. Just as Shelley Trower in “Hearing Vibrations” uses the example of reacting to the vibrations felt throughout the body, tuba players naturally react based upon the vibrations of the ensemble. In the end it does not matter whether we play exactly the right note as long as we play at the right moment.

This next sound in the podcast is the only one I would associate with being school related. It is the sound of my pencil scratching in my notebook and the occasional shuffle of pages. Clicking my pencil,  I scratch as a way for stimulation, sometimes even intentionally doing so in some sort of rhythmic form. The next sound is again directly musical related, as it is me playing the fiddle (terribly, I might add). This was a project that I picked up near the end of high school, as I realized that I my musical career could be coming to a close. I wanted to continue, and as much as I love the tuba, it is not the most versatile of instruments. So after some meddling, I eventually came to the fiddle. I say fiddle because that is the kind of music that I have chosen for myself (If one can call it that). After that is the overpowering sound my roommates’ six fans, that although noisy, do eventually lull me into a deep sleep. The final noise on my list is not one periodically heard at the end of the day for me, but rather at week’s end, as I venture forth to explore and challenge myself on a new river. In sense I kayak whitewater so that I may be humbled by the rivers immense power. Thus completes my musical composition.

Works Cited:

Schafer, Murray. “Open Ears.” Journal of Acoustic Ecology (2003): 38. Print.

Trower, Shelley. “Introduction Hearing Vibrations.” In Senses of Vibration. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012.

When I first read the instructions for the audiography, my first instinct was to think “eh… I’ll do that later” because I had absolutely no idea where to start.  There are so many sounds I hear throughout my day that I do not even think twice about, so how can 10 of these sounds hold any importance or value to me? A few days passed by and the assignment was still looming over my head.  I realized that any time I would try and think about this project, I would distract myself by walking away from my desk to a more comfortable space.  That is when it dawned on me that my audiography had to be centered on the theme of comfort.

No matter how upset or angry I may be, I will always dance and rap along to some of my favorite songs; it is the only stimuli that can instantly change my mood.  For this reason, the first sound in my audiography is a recording of Meek Mill and Drake’s song “RICO”, which I use as the alarm on my phone to wake myself up every morning. Provided that I grew up just outside of Philadelphia, hip-hop has always been a big part of my life.  Listening to rap music definitely reminds me of home and helps wake me up in the morning.

After I get up from bed, I make my way down the hall towards the showers.  The white noise of the water quickly rushing out of the shower head and eventually hitting my body provides the perfect environment for me to clear my mind and forget about anything that is stressing me out.

Although I love music and showers, my morning would not be complete without a cup of coffee.  The sound of my Keurig making coffee is included in the audiography because it represents the true start of my day.  Without coffee, my brain is mush. 

Coffee in hand, I make my way over to the bus stop.  The next sound is a recording from the inside of the Redstone Express.  Listening to people talk on the bus and hearing the squeaks and creeks of the busses reminds me of taking the bus to school every day back at home, which is definitely a comforting reminder of life in PA.

When I am all finished with my classes, I make my way back to Redstone via the Ankle Express (walking).  When I make it out of the tunnel by the Davis Center, I am met with a long stretch of quiet, lonely land.  This absence of sound is important to me because it is one of the only times throughout my day where I can get some time away from people and noise for a little.

I inevitably end up snacking when I get home from a long day of school, so I included the sound of a wrapper crackling in my audiography.  Of course, food is an extremely comforting substance that everyone enjoys.  As a result, it is obvious why I included it in a recording of comforting sounds.

Once I am done with my snack, there is nothing I want to do more than to just sit back and hang out with my friends.  For this reason, I decided to include the sounds of video games playing because that is typically where we all migrate to in order to forget about the day.

When I was younger, I was always taught the importance of eating dinner together as a family.  Similarly at UVM, I always make sure to bring my friends with me to dinner so we can all eat and talk together.  The loud chatter of students in Simpson certainly reminds me of my family talking around the dinner table back at home.

Once dinner is finished, the worst part of the day pulls around: homework time.  I always listen to music while doing homework because, as i mentioned earlier, hip-hop music is extremely comforting to me because of the memories that are tied to the songs and culture.  As a result, my second to last sound is the scratching of my pen against paper as I am doing homework.  Young Thug’s “Check” is also playing in the background.

The last sound that I decided to include in my audiography is the click of my bedside lamp as I turn it off for the night.  When I hear this noise, I instantly calm down knowing that the day is finally over and that I can get some rest.

Similar to Barthes’ analysis of “The Grain”, or the idea that people are heavily influenced by music, I feel like there is a grain to everyday life.  Sure, not all sounds contain words that can be interpreted/ understood, but they nevertheless change our feelings and perception of the world around us.  I believe that the comforting sounds I chose for my audiography are a fair and accurate representation of what I believe my grain in life is at UVM.

Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. “The Grain of the Voice.” (1997): 179-89.

Williams, Robert Rihmeek, and Aubrey Drake Graham. R.I.C.O. Meek Mill Ft. Drake. Vinylz, 2015. Youtube. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.

Williams, Jeffrey Lamar. Check. Young Thug. London on Da Track, 2015. Youtube. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

Sounds:

1. RICO by Meek Mill ft. Drake
2. Shower
3. Keurig Machine
4. Redstone Express
5. Quiet walk back to Redstone
6. Sound of plastic wrapper crackling
7. Playing video games
8. Dinner at Simpson
9. Check by Young Thug plays while I’m writing in Sharpie on paper (hw, start at 2:17)
10. Sound of me turning off my light next to my bed

The New Mundane – Eryka Collins

There are so many sounds that pass you by every single day, but do you hear them? Having this be my first year at the University of Vermont, I hear a lot of sounds in my new everyday life here. As I listen back on them, it’s interesting to really hear things that I don’t really pay much attention to. It’s like when Schafer mentions in, “Open Ears”, that we don’t have lids for our ears, but we don’t hear every single thing either. In my podcast, I focus on the mundane sounds of my life here at UVM. And although they are mundane noises, some of them were not apart of my life prior to coming to UVM. The sounds in this take you through a day in my life here, allowing you to almost picture it with each sound that happens.

I start my podcast off with the sound of my alarm going off. It starts the majority of my mornings here, and with that, I found it fitting to start my podcast off with it. Next, I follow my morning routine with walking to the bathroom and taking a shower. After that, I started recording more of my morning. The next sound is walking downstairs in my dorm’s stairwell. This sound frequents my day, as I travel up and down these stairs multiple times in one day. Walking down the stairwell you can hear other residents of the building. Although this is now a norm for me, its quite different from my average life back home. Walking down the stairs at my apartment consists of silence except for my feet stomping down the stairs. Now, it consists of my feet stomping down the stairs and the noises of people’s conversations. After I walk downstairs, I walk over to my bike and ride it to my classes. I ride my bike everywhere and it is my main source of transportation on and off campus. Next in my morning, I usually stop and get coffee at Henderson’s, which has become my new home. Coffee is the reason I can get through my long days here at UVM. The next sound is the swirling of iced coffee, which is what I get whenever I buy coffee, no matter the temperature outside. The sound of the iced coffee is something that I hear almost everyday. After coffee, I start my classes. My favorite class this semester, so far is music theory, so I recorded a small part of the lecture. Once I’m finished with my classes for the day I walk back to my dorm to do my homework. The sounds of people walking past me as I walk back to my room after classes are something that is in constant background of my new reality here at UVM. Its something that I realized I tune out. After listening back on it, there are a lot of sounds that are around me that I never really realized that are there. Listening through the microphone from my phone made me realize how much more there is to listen to and allowed me to listen with new ears like what English says in their article called, “The Sounds Around Us”. In it, English says that microphones don’t have the capability to tune things out like human ears do, so it gives you a new aural experience. Once I’m back in my room, I start doing homework while listening to music, which explains my next sound which is me typing and my music playing on in the background. After a long day of classes and studying, my day ends with dinner in the dining halls with my friends and that is also what is the last sound on my podcast. Although things like these sounds are apart of my everyday life, some of them are still new to me and my new world here at UVM.

Work Cited:

1. English, Lawerence. “The Sounds around Us: An Introduction to Field Recording.” (2015)
2. Schafer, Murray. Open Ears. Print.
3. Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones

Our audio field is constantly being stimulated around us, what we choose to listen to is for us to decide.  This project brought me to the idea of isolating the sounds and enjoying the auditory experience without experiencing actions associated along side. For this project, I focused on sounds in my everyday audio field that are identified with a personal action. These sounds tend to go unnoticed and become obsolete when linking the action to routine physical responses. The first few sounds (alarm clock song, fan, flushing of a toilet, and closing door) all signify the start to my morning. Each sound, whether that be the hum of the first few notes to my alarm or the rush of water into the drain from the flush of a toilet, all signify aspects of my morning associated with an action. The actions include waking up all the way to leaving for class in the morning. Interestingly enough, whenever I hear my alarm clock song at any point of the day, my body almost routinely tells itself to wake up even when already awake showing the physical effect that a single sound has on my body. This physical auditory connection can relate back to Murray Schafer’s article “Open Ears” in the section “The Ear in the Imagination” whens stating that, “Most of the sounds busy people listen to are the signals of activity.” (38) I find it interesting how linking sounds with specific actions become skewed if one appears without the other. Thus the reason to focus this project on sounds associated with an action, is to isolate the audio field and make us listen to the sounds alone that are commonly paired with an action.

The next sounds in the line up (a backpack zipper unzipping, the buzzer at Simpson Dining, the silverware disposal, a friends laugh, the unlocking of my buildings door, and finally the typing of keys) all relate to actions that typically happen at night, whether that be the buzzer at dinner signifying the action to eat or the typing of keys on a keyboard representing the action of homework. The particular sounds that stand out to me that are affiliated with an action in this line up happen to be the sounds of the silverware disposal and the laugh of a friend. Both of these sounds are often overlooked. We recognize the sound of silverware, and react (both verbally and physically) to laughter. But often, I find myself not appreciating these sounds by themselves for what they truly sound like. The reason why the silverware disposal stood out to me is because every night, silverware is a part of my dinner. Each night, I, along with every other student, use the utensils provided by the dining hall. A simple, routine, task. Silverware has become so common in our life the sound of the metal becomes so overlooked. I wanted to use this project to let my audience hear the raw sounds that typically are disregarded. This reminded me of a quote in Lawrence English’s article on The Introduction to Field Recordings. The article stated that, “Ultimately what we hear is not always what we listen to.” This quote stood out for me because I feel it relates to the connection of physical actions and auditory experiences. English states that “what we hear is not always what we listen to” and that could be do to the fact that we are not listening to certain sounds because of the overpowering nature of a physical action that associates with it.

These ten sounds represent my everyday life, but none of them stand alone. Each carries a physical action associated with it, so I tried to isolate the sound to fully appreciate my unheard auditory field. This project help me isolate the sounds that I typically don’t hear and moving forward, I’m really going to try to appreciate each sound individually, giving it the attention that it deserves alone. I encourage you to do the same.

English, Lawrence. “The Sounds Around Us: An Introduction to Field Recording.” The Conversation 8. Feb. 2015. Web.

Schafer, Murray. “Open Ears.” Journal of Acoustic Ecology (2003): 38. Print.

Movement. Like Lust. Movement. (2014)