Sounds and Silences

In the wee hours of last Saturday night, while Max Creek’s road manager Mike gathered keys at the front desk of the Parkview Hotel in Syracuse, I wandered. The Parkview seemed nice; we had come out ahead in the Priceline lotto. The heat of a fire radiated from the common area and I made my way toward it. The gas fireplace was the centerpiece of an open room with several nice couches, tables and chairs. The space was empty—it was 2am—but a TV, mounted just above the fireplace, blared CNN and advertisements into the empty space.

There’s nothing unusual about that, and frankly, that sucks.

When did we decide to cede a majority of public spaces to the media? Why do we wage—to borrow from political-speak—The War on Silence?

My favorite definition of “rhythm” comes from Michael Bakan’s World Music text in which he describes it as “how the sounds and silences of music are organized in time.” While we funky people think of rhythm as what we do, it is just as much about what we don’t do. Without silences, or at least dynamic contrasts, we’d be making nothing but drones.

So what does this have to do with TVs and fireplaces? Everything! We, in as much as I can look at the U.S. and utter the phrase “as a culture,” have messed up our rhythm by overlooking the importance of silence. Instead of allowing that hearth to be a place of possibilities—quiet reading, conversation among friends or strangers, introspective thought or (gasp!) nothing at all—we’ve given it away to the media. And the media is anything but passive; it is the true occupy movement. The media hijacks our minds and feeds us suggestions via sound waves and light waves. There are definitely agendas at play and few if any of them lead us toward the loving, compassionate existence every human truly wishes for somewhere inside. If you think I’m overly dramatic try an experiment: turn a TV on in a room with two people and try not to watch it. Resist as you might, eventually one or both of you will be staring at the screen even while trying to communicate with the other. Soon you’ll mention something you just saw be it a product, a joke, a politician, etc.

While the myriad screens we carry and come in contact with are different, the media owns them all. Those screens have many capabilities, but a primary use is as an access point for the “national conversation.” In recent weeks the demeanor of that conversation has degraded rapidly. Hate is out in the open; hate is being responded to with hate. I feel despair. We are out of rhythm.

There is never “an answer,” but embracing silence and dynamic contrasts in life writ large would certainly help. A direct consequence of turning off the media is once again experiencing the humanness and individuality of the non-amplified voices around you. If we turn down the shouting we might begin to hear softer voices that speak quiet truths. A direct consequence of silence is hearing yourself.

Some Ideas to Practice (the-not-entirely-music-way)

• Turn off TVs in public places. They all have power buttons. Just reach out and do it, it feels great. I do it all the time! 
• Avoid political memes. This one is hard for me. Sometimes they just feel good at first glance and I want to repost but when I’m honest I know they’re made to make someone else feel put down. It’s negativity. Negativity is a dead end.
• If you’re a musician, or are just going to see a band, ask that TVs be shut off while the band is playing. Do the networks need free product placement at my show? Did you come to be with friends, dance and listen to music, or mostly because you knew reruns of the Wonder Years would be flashing behind the bar?
• Add your own suggestions below!

Some Ideas to Practice (The music way)

• This is an exercise I do with all my beginning students and still practice myself. The idea is to first create a steady flow of notes—we drummers call it a single-stroke roll—and then experience the rhythmic excitement that can be created by permutating one 16th note rest through the phrases. 
  
• Choose an equal phrase length (2 or 4 bars) and alternate between the left and right columns. 
• We practice it in a “straight sticking” format meaning that if you start with your right hand, it will play any note that lands on a number or an “&.” Your left will play all the “e”s and “a”s. 
• This exercise is a gateway. Take it and run with it. Ideas:
• Move notes to different drums
• combine measures
• use two rests instead of one
• double-stroke some notes
• phrase them around the kit
• Play it along to a song
• Do it with another instrument - it would work well for scales for instance
• Sometimes I refer to it as the “classic fill generator” because by combining the rhythms in each line you can create almost any of typical drum fills you might hear sampled on your favorite Beastie Boys album.