One day in grade school, we had a “music visualization” assignment. I don’t remember what class it was for, but the prompt was to listen to a sample of music and then draw what the music made us imagine.
Even though my hearing aids provided really sucky sound1 I gamely gave it a go. I don’t even know what the hell we listened to. It kind of sounded like air or water whooshing in parts. So I drew a toilet because it made me think of a toilet flushing and blissfully went on to draw random non-related crap all over my paper.
After a while, the teacher told us to put down our pencils and markers, then asked volunteers to share what they had drawn with the class. One student said, “I drew a whale being harpooned because it sounded like a harpoon gun so it made me think of that.” Immediately, I felt like an ass because I had mistaken such a serious and weighty subject for something as silly as a flushing toilet. Obviously, making such a fundamental mistake meant I could never interpret music correctly.
Recently, I was listening to a concept album – I love concept albums – by Ayreon named Into the Electric Castle. Ayreon does progressive metal and, basically, the album is an opera. There’s this whole cast of characters who sing the story, and there are spoken portions. I found the lyrics and read along with the story. Seriously, I think it’s beyond cool.
Anyway, I want to talk about this song called Mirror Maze. I’ve embedded the video. You can watch it and see if you think it is as awesome as I do. Click here to read the lyrics. Go on; I’ll wait for you.
Are you back yet? OK, good. The reason I bring up this song, beyond the fact that it’s just awesome, is the fact that I could visualize some of the stuff happening.2 For instance, I could imagine them going through the mirror and to the other side.
I’ve never had that experience before, and it kind of makes me think of reading a book. I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m reading a book, I can sometimes visualize what is happening as if it’s a movie. When I was a kid, I barely even saw the words because the pictures in my head telling the story were a lot more overwhelming than the words.
A few years ago, that kind of immersive experience would have been unthinkable for me. I mean, hell, I didn’t even like music. In my mind, visual, tactile, and auditory experiences were completely different and compartmentalized in very distinct categories with absolutely no overlap.
So, later on, when I began to try to understand music, it was kind of like a puzzle for me. Why do hearing people like this so much? Well, I’ll apply my mind to this question and figure it out! Last week, I wrote about the emotional aspect of discovering music – well, another part of it was that I also applied my intellect. Since I didn’t really have a directory of songs in my head yet, I made a conscious effort to think of things to associate music with things that actually had meaning to me.
I started simple – this series of tones in this chiptunes song makes me think of lights blinking. This portion of Many Moons by Janelle Monae makes me think of the corresponding portion in the music video. Things like that. Then, before I knew it, I was imagining more abstract shit to go along with the music like red waves to go along with the instrumental opening of Sly by Massive Attack. And, interestingly enough, I’ve found there are some concepts, like the opening of Only You by Portishead that I just can’t express visually or in text – I think of the song sample instead. A hearing friend once told me that music was like a way to send emotions over the air. Now I understand what she meant.
At this point, I’ve been listening to music, really listening to it, for about a year or so at this point. In that time, I’ve listened to… God, I don’t even know how many songs. So many. So I’ve built up this kind of a database in my head with song associations, and every new song I hear is another variable in this gigantic equation. Every day I listen to music, I find greater meaning in it.
-~-~-~- Later, after getting my cochlear implant, I would compare the audio from my hearing aids to hearing things underwater. Who knows if that comparison is accurate or not – delicate electronic equipment + water = bad, so I’ve never really experienced hearing things underwater. [↩]
- Before you ask, I was 150% sober listening to the album. [↩]
One Comment
For me, music is much more kinesthetic than it is visual. Perhaps it’s because I like to move or sing along with music. I also have the same experience visualizing stories in books. My eyes see words, but my brain is watching almost like a movie.