Beams of light strike my eye as the cacophony of sound that is my alarm wakes me up for the day. I hop out of bed and head over to the bathroom where I take my morning shower, a daily routine which helps me wake up and prepare for what is in store for me. Once I am all clean, my headphones make their way up to my ears until they are in and the music has taken over. This time, its Madvillain’s Accordion that takes me away to a place where all that concerns me is my music. I crack my knuckles, something I have been doing everyday since I was a kid, and put pencil to paper taking notes and erasing mistakes while listening to lectures. Classes end and I swipe my card to open the door to the stairwell where I make my journey up the stairs to room 509, my humble abode. The needle drops and lets loose the beats of J Dilla, whose music always manages to find its way into my life at just the right time. He has inspired me to go grab my guitar and start my daily jam, something I have been doing since middle school. I get up and go to the bathroom again, but this time to brush my teeth; the sound is only recorded once, but I promise I brush twice a day. I crawl into bed and watch as the Always Sunny in Philadelphia theme brings laughs and entertainment after a long day.

Let the sounds of your daily life take you away, let them show you what they have to offer. While recording my sounds I found that it really made me appreciate all of the seemingly miniscule sounds that I hear every day. Listening to these all made me think of what Schafer described as the “deafness of others” (Schafer p.25) in the sense that these sounds which mean so much to me could literally mean nothing to someone else, or worse, they could just not even hear it.  It is all dependent on perspective, and I just find it so interesting how people perceive different sounds so uniquely. At the same I time I feel confused about whether the fact that nobody will ever perceive and enjoy a piece of music the same way that I do is a good thing or a bad thing. It makes me feel lonely to imagine that I am the only person, but at the same time it is a good thing for everybody to have their own experiences with music.

Music is something very near and dear to me and I think that is easy to tell based on the amount of music in my sounds. It is so easy to get lost in music and to find yourself listening for hours on hours, but with regular everyday sounds it isn’t such an easy thing. Why is it that people can’t find the attention span to sit and listen to ordinary sounds? What is it about music that regular sounds don’t have? I think that music gives the listener the chance to release emotions into the music and to really form a connection with it, whereas sounds don’t offer that same deal. It is easy to let the music take over your soul, body, and mind, but the challenge is trying to have that same feeling, that same emotion, with everyday sounds.

Bibliography:

J Dilla. Airworks. J Dilla, 2006. Vinyl recording.

Heinz Kiessling. Temptation Sensation. N.d. MP3.

Madvillain. Accordian. Madlib, 2004. MP3.

Schafer, Murray. “Open Ears.” (n.d.): 25. Web.