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
WHAT IS MUSIC ANYWAY If you listen to music composed by Beethoven in the 1800s and compare it with what you usually listen to assuming that isn't classical music you'll probably notice some differences You'll hear some instruments such as piccolos and bassoons that you might not hear on the radio today People may even be singing in a different style than you're used to All those sounds are still music But what exactly is music Put simply it's a combination of different sounds that express emotion using melody harmony and rhythm These elements work together to create a song a symphony or even a jingle Music means something different to everyone You likely have a favorite song or even a preferred style of music called a genre Pop Rap Rock Country All different genres Someone who prefers rap might think rock is awful or vice versa But they're both music whether you like it or not Melody is a combination of musical notes arranged in a pattern Harmony is the sound two or more different notes make when played at the same time Rhythm is a repeating pattern of long and short notes
Playlist The Hurrian Hymn Ugarit now Syria 1300 BCE THE VERY FIRST INSTRUMENTS Can you guess what the earliest musical instrument was The human body Before humans made instruments from outside sources we made music from within The earliest humans may have used grunts and other basic sounds to communicate Then roughly 50,000 years ago scientists think our vocal cords developed enough to allow speaking and singing Anthropologists who study the science of human beings aren't really sure why we started singing Some scientists think early humans sang to communicate better with one another or that mothers sang to comfort their babies Eventually we began making musical instruments out of wood ivory and leftover animal bones Heyr himna smiður Iceland Kolbeinn Tumason adapted by Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson 1208 CE Sumer is icumen in England around 1260 CE In 2008 German researchers discovered a flute made from a bird bone in a cave in Germany It's about 40 000 years old making it the oldest recognizable musical instrument yet discovered
