TOO LOUD!
Daniel and Helena are both very sensitive to loud noises — Daniel used to break into hysterics every time a fire engine went past and a motorcycle would make him run screaming down the block and straight up my legs and wrap himself (like the Grinch’s dog) around my head. Even the refrigerator used to terrify him. (I invented the refrigerator turning off dance as a sort of distraction.) Helena, a cooler cookie, doesn’t cry, but still spends a lot of time outside with her fingers in her ears. It makes it hard to ride a trike.
I don’t really like loud noises either. Or loud music. Or music at all when I’m trying to think. If I need to concentrate when I’m driving (like following directions or looking for a parking place) I have to turn the radio off. Ed, on the other hand, works best with loud music to accompany him. So loud that I have to come into the room for any reason, I get sick to my stomach. It’s like an overload. Ed will play music when he’s downstairs with the children (or over breakfast) but if any conversation or negotiation becomes necessary, the music has to go. Ah, the eternal variety of human personalities. Makes living together such an adventure in compromise and understanding.
I don’t like music when I work at scenic painting – it’s a bit of a joke at the theatre. All the hip cats (techies and carpenters) listen to loud music and jockey over who gets to plug their i-pods into the theatre sound system and show off their playlists. Meanwhile, I have my custom earplugs in place.
Hmmm . . . interesting. As a musician, I always find it interesting to find how different people use and respond to music and sound. I find that my situation differs depending on my mood.
Apparently we can only assimilate so much information at once. I have to turn off the radio when we are looking for a carpark or an address. The trouble with learning with loud music is that you will then recall best with the same loud music – not always readily available in exam rooms!
I hope my last exam is behind me now (at least so far as taking them – setting them is another matter). As for music in the exam room – I find it plays loudly enough inside my head. For whatever reason, in preparing for my doctoral exams I found certain 20th century orchestral music the most effective study aid – Glass, Berg, Britten – and if I remember correctly the soundtrack in my head for the exams was Britten’s cello symphony: listen to a piece often enough and it’s all there to play back when you need it – who needs an I-Pod?
I often find Keith in the same pose as Helena – fingers in ears, or hands just clapped over them. He is annoyed by noise inside, and also anything going on outside – if he can hear it inside – it’s too loud. He does play a variety of music – anything from classical stuff to They Might be Giants (softly) to go to sleep. Otherwise he’d hear every car drive by, every scrape of a tree branch against a window – on the other side of the house, lol.
Stuntfather speaks!
I, too, am of a musical inclination–that is, if one is writing a sad, sad poem, one must listen to Barber’s Adagio no less than three times at a moderate level of volume. However, witty posts and letters shall be composed with UTTER SILENCE accompanying. And then, there is always Copeland, which makes for basic dialogue.
But ask me how I feel about an airplane flying to the naval base not ten miles from my house? Or the landscaping crew, with their blowers and whackers and lawn instruments?
I answer thusly:
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGG.
I’m just getting back into the habit of putting music on while I work – it does help to stop me obsessively over-working! But silence is quite important for me. Unfortunately M finds silences difficult…. as you say, adventures in compromise and understanding.
And Yes! – yes to YES that is!!
ahhhhhh…
luckily for us
(but not so much our neighbors)
our whole family of four
is very much
loud-music-oriented…
on any given day
speakers are vibrating themselves
off the shelves…
heh heh.