Music in Everyday Life

Over the last six months of quarantine, I found a new appreciation for music, but not just music that we hear from the radio or through our headphones, but music from our surroundings. Unironically, I ended up taking a course this semester that had the same exact course name as this blog’s title, Music in Everyday Life. The class is about exactly what the name suggests. We learned about the origins and history of music, how it impacted various human civilization, how music evolved, music ownership and copyright, and etc. Currently, we’re learning about how to create music by using everyday sounds around us. One of our most recent assignments is to record a 30-second audio recording of the sounds around us that’s currently the most relevant in our lives. We were given a lot of freedom for what we wanted to record. Some of my peers record themselves walking their dogs while others recording themselves typing on their keyboards. I personally decided to record myself studying outside at the Willis tent. In my 30-second recording, you can hear the wind blowing, leaves rustling and birds chirping.

This immediately reminded me of the times during quarantine where I would sit in my backyard and just listen to the sounds around me. No electronics, no distractions, and no artificial music. While I did not decide to do this on my own will — my parents made me do this because I was staring at my computer screen for days on end, I found this experience to be rather calming and relaxing. While only those who have a lot of leisure can benefit from this activity, I think it’s still very important to slow down and listen to the world around us. As our world is slowly becoming more electronic and digitally driven (more than ever, actually), it’s important to unplug our headphones, turn off our computer screens, and listen to the world around us.