THE VERY BEGINNING OF MUSIC Have you ever wondered what makes music well music How do we make it Hear it And why is it such a big part of our lives Music has been around for more than 40 000 years Archaeologists have found evidence of music including instruments made from animal bones and ivory in every corner of the world And anthropologists believe that just as animals such as birds and whales sing to communicate early humans may have used music for the same purpose Music may have also helped them create social bonds with one another Life has changed a lot over the past 40 000 years but music is still very important to us We've gone from making musical noises to communicate to playing instruments handmade from animal bones to inventing new forms of artificial intelligence that can actually create music
Of course the way we've listened to music has changed just as much We used to have to listen to music live at a concert for example But today we can play any song we want whenever we want using apps and other streaming services In this book you'll learn how people have transformed music over the ages from the first time we captured sound to today's digital age You'll find out how we first recorded music and how we kept inventing new technology to play it and make it ever more accessible And along the way you'll learn about the science behind such things as why your recorded voice sounds so weird why you like the music you like and why annoying songs get stuck in your head So put on your favorite playlist and let's get started
HEARING THINGS To understand music you have to understand how we hear sound Sound is the energy objects make when they vibrate As those vibrations travel through the air your ears pick them up and send signals to your brain GETTING AN EARFUL 1 A sound enters the ear and travels through the auditory canal Thanks to its shape the outer ear can hear noises from every direction 2 In the middle ear a thin membrane called the eardrum moves causing the ossicles three tiny bones to vibrate These vibrations move into the inner ear 3 The vibrations hit a small fluid filled bone called the cochlea It has about 17,000 tiny hairs that bend and create electrical signals that are sent along the auditory nerve to the brain Finally the brain translates those signals into a recognizable sound 1 2 3
Have you ever heard a recording of your own voice and thought Do I really sound like that There's a reason why you don't recognize yourself When you talk the vibrations of your voice enter through your ears and hit your eardrum At the same time they travel up through your skull and spread out inside your head This makes the vibrations sound deeper But when you listen to your recorded voice you only hear the sound through your ears not your skull so your voice sounds higher Your recorded voice is the one other people hear too GOOD VIBRATIONS Deaf people and those who are hard of hearing can also enjoy music They can feel the vibrations that make sound especially if the sound is loud and low At some concerts sign language interpreters stand onstage to sign lyrics to deaf concertgoers who put the lyrics together with the vibrations to experience the music And being deaf doesn't mean you can't compose music Ever heard of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven In the early 1800s he was starting to find fame as a composer but began to lose his hearing By the time he was 45 he was almost completely deaf but was still composing groundbreaking pieces One of his most famous compositions Symphony No. 9 was composed after he had lost his hearing Today there are many deaf musicians including Sean Forbes one of the co founders of the Deaf Professional Artist Network D PAN Playlist Symphony No. 9 Ludwig van Beethoven 1824 I'm Deaf Sean Forbes 2010 Try Mandy Harvey 2014
