The Sound of Music Without Headphones

The Sound of Music Without Headphones

This assignment was somewhat easy, yet annoying because who doesn’t love to feel like they’re in their own world listening to music? This week I lost my headphones, so it was a perfect time to enjoy different type of music without them. Listening to a variety of natural music made me realize that there is a beat to every sound from the coffee maker, to the garbage truck passing by, to even the filter in the fish tank blowing bubbles. Believe it or not music surrounds us every day of our lives and that’s what I have learned from this assignment.

              I consider myself to be an active listener. Why? Because from the first minute I wake up to the last minute I go back to sleep, I hear the sound of birds chirping in the morning, the city bus passing by to even children walking to school. So, we start the first step to listening to the soundscapes that surround us. Some of the sounds we hear in our daily life are important because most of them provide us with useful information starting with my alarm, to train announcements, to rain drizzles in the mornings. Other sounds are for entertainment, there are many sounds we hear every day that can either be pleasant or unpleasant to us, my personal music would be considered a pleasant sound while in the other hand my neighbors slamming doors, the honk of a car, to even the sound of traffic may be really unpleasant. For example, this morning on the train, I heard a young lady singing beautifully along with her violin. It was a like a mini live concert where you experience something rare, yet joyful and it was because I didn’t have my headphones, that made me listen attentively to the lyrics and how she played the violin.

Listening to the train break, or how roughly the train goes from stop to stop is the worst sound you can possibly hear, because it feels likes metal is just scrapping against each other. So, my day started a little gloomy, because it feels lonely without music and quite boring. For me music helps me start my day and the different type of music I have on my play list are all determined on how my mood is at the moment, which wakes me up and keeps me motivated. Not having my headphones with me was such a heartache. So, I tried keeping myself entertained, as I observed and listened to everything more precisely. Listening to the ice cream truck song pass by, made my day so much better, as I enjoyed my vanilla cone ice cream topped with crushed peanuts. Who would’ve known there is an ice truck standing in the same corner every day without hearing that annoying song?                                                         My day continued as I would constantly hear ambulances and cops passing by, which was alerting yet very disturbing. Turns out there was a huge car accident, right at the corner of my job. Which I was thankful for knowing, as I told my mom not to drive into that direction, otherwise she would’ve been jammed in a long traffic wait, because she was coming to pick me up in about half an hour. Hearing people go up and down the stairs was a scratched record at work. While telling them to have a nice day kept getting tiring as each minute passed by. Heading out of work, I walk a few blocks down to meet with my mom, as I hear a gentle kitty noise from beneath a car. I was beyond shocked. It was such a low and gentle cry, I was lucky to even hear it. I love animals so it made my day and night. Helping the kittens, and taking them home was my pleasure. Why again? Because I wasn’t listening to music. A kittens little cry was music to my hears as my heat melted of seeing them.