Chapter 1: journal towards understanding

Journal #1

Music, music has the power to move men to tears and make children smile with joy but for me its always been something more. I hear it, constantly, though normally its not very interesting sort of like a droning undertone quiet but present and extremely boring

In places of high activity however, it picks up and has a melody and harmony and swirls around the people walking, chatting and living. It's made it so its always exciting to go shopping. I made this journal in hopes to understand this music I'm hearing I've tried many things: talking about it; picking up the cello and listening to classical music and composers, after all I may not be the first/only one.

I've heard that writing your thoughts down can help solve your problem so lets see shall we...I? who am I meant to write this to, my future self?

So lets break this down into what I do and don't know so we can break that down further and hopefully understand what's going on.

What I do know: 1) I never don't hear any music; 2) the melody seems to get added in places of high human density; 3) volume also increases slightly in high human density? I'm not sure actually maybe I'm just paying greater attention to it

What I don't know: 4) why can only I hear this music? 5) what is it about multiple people that causes the music to swell?

Lets expand upon what we do know first. point 1) "I never don't hear any music" if at any point in time I stop and listen, music is there. is it possible that the music does stop and I just don't realise? I suppose I had never really thought of that... I guess this really does work.

Point 2. "melody seems to get added in places in high human density" though i don't know why. Well... what's so special about a human? compared to other animals we have a higher thought is that what I'm hearing perhaps, thoughts? am I like telepathic or something? no that's stupid mum just said that Santa and magic wasn't real so it cant be that... can it? well the only time I ever know this to be true is when I'm shopping maybe if I go else where the music will be different, my mum goes to university maybe I could ask to join her?

Point 4. "why can only I hear this music?" maybe I'm not the only one? truthfully I don't want to tell everyone my power. is there anyway I can find out about others? If they're like me then probably not, maybe they'll just have to find me.

Its almost bedtime I'll think about the rest later

Journal #2

Mum let me go to university with her as she had to pick something up but I wasn't allowed to go into any of the classrooms, thankfully I can hear the music from a distance and Wow what I heard was masterful... it was like two melodies were playing but one was behind the other and slightly different. my feeling of time blurred slightly and i was in a daze though it didn't feel bad no instead if I had to describe the feeling it would either be awesome or magical. more investigation needed.

I think it would be best if I could study a Instrument and music theory so I could better put into words what I'm hearing and feeling, maybe dad will help me out, he's always a big fan of learning and knowledge.

Journal #3

I don't really know why I'm numbering these its just what I see scientists do in movies, but its been a while since I've written here, I've turned 9 that's how long it was. I forgot I even made this journal but I'm happy I did as I entirely forgot about point 5. but ill talk about the other question first.

"Is it possible the music stops and I don't realise?" Shortly after writing this I decided to, at random points, listen for the music and no matter when or where I am its there. It seems to have gotten louder as time passes which, I imagine, would help detect if the music stopped but it never has, not once, ever. It does occasionally come to a point where its difficult to argue that it is music, I'm sure that some peoples definitions of "music" would say that I'm just hearing sounds but my opinion is that music has emotion and the emotion that carries across is boredom or still-ness.

Expanding upon point 2) "music appears to swell in high human density" I have found out that its not just humans! my school took us on a school trip to a farm, the music there was very repetitive but not in a bad way, repetitive in almost a fugue way. So what I figured is that animals, humans included, are the cause of the music the only way to disprove that is to go to a desert or space but I don't think that'll happen any time soon. I'm tempted to become a farmer when I grow up just to live with that music.

After learning grade 5 music theory I asked to start learning how to transcribe music so that I could write the music I hear down, its a shame I don't have perfect pitch, I'll have to ask mum and dad for a tuning fork for my birthday.

and as said earlier point 5) "what is it about multiple people that causes the music to swell?" well first of all animals causes music so that is why there is music, why does it swell? I reckon its something to do with emotion, it seems in moment of high stress and emotion the music gets more vibrant and clear. I noticed this at the theme park one time, while queuing, I got tired and paid great attention to the music and noticed a very slight difference and while getting on the ride I tried again and there was a huge difference. the music full of staccato's, jumpy, clear and vibrant I decided to do an experiment when I got home.

Though when I tried the experiment something weird happened, I tried to incite this high emotional music by myself by purposely thinking of things that make me stressed, angry or excited the music started to get a bit jumpy. it was very exciting that I finally managed to have some form of control over the music, and in my passion I pushed further, in retrospect I should have stopped when the light started flickering until suddenly the light bulb blew up! and glass was sent everywhere. Mum was very scared and when I told her what happened she said "That's not what's supposed to happen when they blow." I just sighed at the misunderstanding and let it go. I think I'll do it again sometime later on my own outside after all I'm finally getting some control.

What links music and emotion? music influences emotion, I said so in my first journal, but in my case its more like emotion influences music, an interesting thought, but the link is unknown. So I asked Mr. Wheely and he just said

"I don't think anyone on earth knows the link, people don't even know why humans like music. It certainly doesn't help that many peoples opinion differs on what genres they like to listen too and how much the music differs between the different genres and cultures. music is an art and art is subjective, people interpret art in different ways and so people like art in different ways meaning the answer is likely much more complicated than it may seem."

I think this'll need more investigation particularly about what Mr Wheely said about different genres and cultures, I had never really thought about it before.