Have you ever placed your head on your mother’s stomach while she was sleeping, just to hear those deep rumbling sounds that come from in there? And have you felt like doing it again, and again to hear those sounds? Is there any familiarity at all, since these are the same sounds you were made to hear for 9 whole months when you were tightly cuddled up in the womb?
From vehicles passing by, to the sound of running water while the maid is washing dishes, from the call of a white breasted Kingfisher in the urban jungle, to the soft sound of the wind whistling through a small gap in your window... almost EVERYTHING around you is Music. You don’t exactly have to be on a pill, or a bottle of wine, for your auditory pathway to recognize these sounds as music, and neither do you have to go foot stomping in the middle of the road to sync yourself to its rhythms.
9 noises that sound like music to my ears, even without being under the influence.
1. Trains – the sound of a fast train is basically a slow 110 beats per minute house track, you can even move your head to and fro while chewing bubble gum, if you pay a little more attention to the breaks in between. And we all remember that great song in which Shahrukh khan danced with Mallaika Arora on a train top, yes that one. You felt like dancing like that the day you saw the video, dint you!
2. Birds – Bird calls are probably the most common sounds that one can associate with music. Imagine a quite summer afternoon, and you can hear the loud repetitive tuk, tuk, tuk which is reminiscent of a smith beating on metal and is one of the most enduring sounds of nature – the Coppersmith Barbet. There are ofcourse innumerable such calls of birds that can catch the attention of your auditory senses on a busy day
3. The Air-conditioner – Ever noticed how in the middle of the night when the whole world is sleeping, your AC goes bur bur bur bur bur... THAT.
4. Printer calibrating – The noise of a Printer calibrating, along with the paper trays lifting usually produces a trippy little sample after a long day at work when you have had lots of coffee but very little to eat.
5. A leaking tap in your apartment – Imagine a leaking tap, one drop every second or so. It is amazing how well tuned these drops can sound if you put your mind to it.
6. The creaking of crickets outside your window late at night – this sound is so powerful, its presence usually makes everything else around us go dead silent suddenly.
7. The ceiling fan – This is the sound that quietly runs in the background, and you hardly ever notice it because it’s just a damn ceiling fan after all. If you want to experiment, turn on the regulator at level 1 and you would start hearing the incessant metal pulses.
8. Horny toads in the rainy season – Again, one of the most fascinating, intriguing, and wobbling melodies *ever* Someone should record those sounds and make a track out of it.
9. The Washing Machine dryer – Psychedelic Trance anyone? If you record the last 30 seconds just before the dryer finally stops and play it over and again and add some keyboards, you’d probably become a musician.
There are just so many more noises that we selectively ignore knowing that its nothing but noise. Some of these noises however are beautiful and can be used in creation of musical samples that can be further used in songs, to bring it closer to real life.
