Ted Talk: Beauty in Sounds

I spend a lot of time alone for the specific reason of hearing the natural sounds around me. I find it annoying when people try to fill silent moments with meaningless conversation. I’m not only a people watcher (not in a creepy way), but I also study the sounds that surround me in public or in the privacy of my own home or space. This is why the Ted Talk “The Unexpected Beauty of Everyday Sounds” by Meklit Hadero is one of my favorites. She expounds on 3 subjects –

1. Nature
2. Language
3. Silence

She’s a musician and she discusses how the sounds she hear everyday influence the music we make. At one point, she plays a snippet of what she initially tells the audience is an opera singer warming up before a performance. She then tells them it’s a slowed down recording of a bird singing. I consider myself a collector of sounds, experiences, and simple everyday events that happen in life so I find this talk very insightful. Meklit talks about other ways natural sounds have inspired her music and thoughts. She discusses a few more things such as

• The natural world can be our musical teacher
• Countless works of music were inspired by bird and forest song
• Even in the most silent environments, we still hear and feel the sound of our own heartbeats.
• The world is alive with musical expression
• The human auditory system actually evolved to hear music

As I stated, this is one of the most naturally inspiring Ted Talks I’ve heard and I am glad to share it.     Check it out.