Listening to Music Without Sound

A couple of weeks ago in class we were doing an experimental exercise where we were asked the question "how do you listen without sound?".  In the exercise we were given the challenge to communicate with our partner without talking or making any noise. We used gestures to symbolize our thoughts, but then immediately after went straight to talking about what we were attempting to convey. As humans I think we are so desperate to be understood and heard, but what about the people who physically can't communicate with their voices or are unable to listen with their ears?  This question has been stuck on my mind recently, especially as a singer where I rely on listening in order to harmonize and make sure I'm on pitch. It got me thinking about how people with hearing disabilities listen to music. This week I decided to listen to music without my ears.

For a while I was struggling with how exactly I was going to do this when I one night I was walking back from the library and could feel the vibrations coming from the music the bars were blasting on University. I then decided that instead of listening to music I was going to feel its vibrations. The next morning I pulled out my speaker and started feel the music. I turned up the volume on my speaker and cupped my hands around it. Instead of listening to the music it was playing I focused intently on how it felt in my hands. The first song played was Jigsaw by Conan Gray. This song starts out soft and mellow and then breaks into electric guitars with a very rock heavy vibe. This song is about changing yourself for another person because you love them but in the end don't even recognize the person you have become. In the beginning of the song I felt these soft and long waves of buzzing, which felt almost like a sigh. You could feel the emotional weight of the song in the vibrations and the sadness the artist was carrying with him. When the guitars and drums come in you get this strong pulse that feels angry and confused. It feels like the vibrations are almost kicking you. I get this image of someone in my having a meltdown and just screaming and crying. Without the lyrics I could very strongly feel the emotion of the artist and tell the he was in pain. I then decided to see what a more upbeat song would feel like by switching the song to It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones. This one started off with pulses but not like the last song where it felt like kicking these were lighter and faster. They fluttered and reminded me of a heart skipping a beat which perfectly reflects the giddy feelings of love the artist wrote this song about. You could feel the emotional difference in the songs through the weight and power of the vibrations. I also noticed myself closing my eyes in order to focus on what I was feeling which allowed me to create mental images of the song based of the vibrations and rhythms. 

Overall this was a really cool experience for me and has allowed me to discover a new way to listen to music. This allowed me to stop and put myself in someone else's shoes and experience something I love in a whole new way. It gave me a whole new outlook on listening to music, paying attention to how the song not only makes me feel emotionally but how it feels like physically. This brought me back to my love for music and all the ways that it can be experienced. It truly is a universal language. Not only did it give me new perspective but it allowed my brain to take a pause and focus on one specific thing. I feel like I am always running around from one thing to the next, but taking time to go through this process was a much needed mental pause from the craziness of my week. 

It's so important to have an open mind and remember that other people experience the world from a completely different point of view. By putting ourselves in others shoes we gain knowledge and empathy in order to create a more empathetic and inclusive world.