That Th!nk You Do Chapter X+5 – Want to be Heard? See a Musician

(Another chapter in my forthcoming non-fiction That Th!nk You Do (note the clever change in the title? Gotta love those creatives, don’t you?) The fascinating chapter numbers are due to unfinished editing. I hope to share the bookcover soon)


Do you ever wish someone would just listen to you? That you could find someone who could understand not just the words but the emotions behind them? Well, it turns out that’s very easy to do.

First, find a musician. If not a musician, someone who’s had a great deal of music in their life. From an early age. The earlier the better, in fact. At least that’s what researchers at Northwestern University are saying. Or singing.

Studies show that people with musical backgrounds from an early point in their lives are wired differently than those without that musical background. Especially those who played music or sang, not just passively, listened. People – both males and females and regardless of culture – with music in their blood are much better at detecting and responding to the subtleties in our voices that indicate stress, anxiety, worry, doubt, fear…hopefully we don’t need musical training to recognize and respond to positive emotions in someone’s voice.

This auditory advantage takes another form with some of us: if we had lots of sounds in our childhood we can decode the sounds of speech better and faster than those of us who came from quiet families.

This information makes lots of sense to me. I well remember sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen and having the extended family – I think there would be about thirty of us at a whack – sitting and standing around the table, conversations in Italian and English going back and forth, back and forth, some people eating, a couple of uncles and aunts singing, uncle Freddie playing guitar in the living room, uncle Louie singing while cousin Rosalind played piano, …, the sounds were rich and full in my childhood.

A natural ability fostered by such an environment is being able to quickly recognize and decode important information from all the background noise, hence the ability to recognize and decode speech from noise.

So if you happen to visit your partner’s family and walk away thinking, “my goodness…do those people ever shut up?” Be grateful. Chances are you’re with someone who’ll really pay attention when you talk.

And in any case, the next time you really want to be heard, go see a musician.

Even better, if you want to be a good listener, learn to play some music.

No Responses

Joseph Carrabis, Author Shopping Cart
I feel so empty...
Writing Mentoring


Interested in taking your writing to the next level? Want to take a class with other writers and authors perfecting their craft?
Check out Writing Mentoring.
Classes are held on Wednesdays. Each session starts the first Wednesday of the month and ends the last Wednesday of the month. Morning and evening classes available.

Are you a Member? Would you like to be?
Subscribers! Want to be Interviewed?
Sorry, this content is available to paying subscribers only


Watch previous interviews to learn what they’re like.

History
Tagalicious
About Me Americana Analytics Ecology Anthropology A Tale of the Northern Clan Atmosphere Author Interviews Author Tools Bear Bees Behavior Betrayal Birds BizMediaScience Blurbs Body-Mind-Spirit Book Blogs Character Childhood Trauma Children's Stories Chipmunk Conflict Cons-Fairs-Expos Contest Covers Coyote Cozy Murders Creative Non-Fiction Crime Comedy Crime Thrillers Critiques Crow Cymodoce Deer Description Dialogue Economy of Meaning Editing Emotions Empty Sky Espionage Expanded Awareness Experiments in Writing Exposition Fains I Fantasy Fiction Flash Fox Gable Smiled Gel Ink and Rollberball Gender Gothic Romance Great Opening Lines Hanging Tree Harvey Duckman Hawk History Horror Humor Identity iMedia Interpersonal Relationships know Language Learnings Library of Congress Life Linguistics Literature Lively Discussions Lizard Love Story Magic Realism Marketing Mayhem Midnight Garden Midnight Roost Military Mood Music Mystery Myth Narration Neuroscience Newsletters Noir Non-Fiction Old Ones Opossum Owl Pace Performance Artist Personal Finance Personal Improvement Personality Philosophy Plot Podcast Poetry POV Psychology Rabbit Rabbit Hole 5 Rabbit Hole 6 Rabbit Hole 7 Raccoons Readings Recovery Triptych Relationships Reviews Revision Ritchie and Phyl Rob and Joan Carter Romance RoundTable Scenes Science Fiction Search Self-Discovery Self-Help Setting Skunk Snake Social Sociology Spider Spies Spirituality Spoken Word Sports Stating the Obvious StoryCrafting StoryTelling Structure Style SubStack Susan Tag Tales of the Woods Tales Told 'Round Celestial Campfires Tension Terrorism That Think You Do The Alibi The Augmented Man The Change Zone The Goatmen of Aguirra The Inheritors The Shaman