I could open this article by asking you to remember the last time you heard music.
Almost everyone would probably answer that music is playing right now.
And that is a good thing, at some level. We live in a world which values music in several ways.
However, here is the real question for today’s reflection: when was the last time you heard silence?
When was the last time you walked into a place and found no music playing in the background?
Think about your day-to-day life: cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, bank branches, post offices, corner shops, hotel bars, waiting rooms and gyms.
The list goes on. They all seem to require some type of background playlist.
A couple of my own experiences
A few weeks ago I was having a short break in Tramore, which is a pretty seaside town in County Waterford.
The hotel was virtually empty and I walked into the bar for a drink. There was no one there.
The only bar person appeared after a few minutes. After serving me, the first thing he did, automatically, was to turn on the music.
As if, I am only guessing, there was a protocol in place instructing him to do so.
I politely asked that, unless it was strict house rules, I would actually like the music to be off.
And that was one of the best pints I had in a while.
Other times I go have lunch in Glanmire, in a place called Soba. It happened a couple of times that I was the first customer to walk in.
Again, the first thing the person does as a customer walks in is to turn the music on.
These are my observations of how retail and hospitality premises use music.
How attention works
The reality around us, the world which surrounds us, provides us with an untold number of stimuli at any given time.
The brain constantly needs to filter those stimuli. It directs its attention to what is relevant.
For example, there are a number of objects on my desk right now.
Outside the window, I can see some movement with the corner of my eye.
There may be noises in the room: the computer cooling fan, the small movements of the house, the light changing slightly.
Those things are always present, but we do not necessarily notice them.
Right now, I focus on a computer keyboard and a screen. That is what is relevant to me.
If the brain paid equal attention to the million details reality offers us, it would go mad.
How many corners are there in a room, including furniture? How many objects are on the table? Which colour are they?
Can you hear the computer cooling fan? What is happening in the street? How does the chair feel against your back?
Attention is selective in relation to what is relevant.
If I am in my studio writing an article, my attention selects what is relevant to writing.
If I am in a jungle trying to survive and not to get eaten by wildlife, the objects of my attention shift accordingly.
How music enters the scenario
Now, how does music enter the scenario?
With music being everywhere, we run the risk of pushing it into the background.
Our selective attention starts to ignore it.
We might think that having more music around means we are a more musical society.
I am becoming increasingly unsure whether it works that way.
It may be that, precisely because music is everywhere, we are subconsciously training ourselves not to listen to it.
We hear it while ordering coffee, buying milk, waiting to pay, having a conversation, answering emails, scrolling on the phone and eating.
We also hear it while trying to think, or while trying not to think.
Because the brain cannot attend to everything at once, it does what it must do.
It filters.
Music becomes part of the wallpaper.
So if music is constantly present while we are doing something else, our brain learns to ignore it.
One final consideration
Music is a non-discursive art form.
By this I mean that music addresses a part of the human psyche which speech alone cannot address.
This is why the song, as a musical form, is such a powerful medium.
It addresses both sides: the one words can reach, and the one words cannot reach.
There are things we can say. We can explain some things. We can analyze some things.
But we can only approach other things through sound, rhythm, harmony, silence, repetition, tension and release.
Music speaks to that part of our psyche.
Or perhaps “speaks” is not even the right word. The whole point is that music does something language cannot quite do.
For that to happen, we need to truly listen.
And listening truly requires attention.
The mind needs quiet in order to listen to itself, to think properly, to ask itself questions.
If music is constantly playing, we deprive ourselves of the space we need for proper thinking.
Or we push music into the same background we are already ignoring, because our attention is selective by nature.
For this reason, in a wholesome musical curriculum, we need to dedicate a substantial portion to active listening.
Not only playing notes. Not only learning songs. Not only preparing for exams.
But listening.
Listening to sound, silence, form, repetition, novelty, tension, release, colour, tone and breath.
Because the ability to listen is something we practice along with everything else.
