Vision for the playlist
Imagine a lone wooden stool at the center of the room. This room has all wooden walls which house several hanging acoustic instruments. The room is kept at 74 degrees Fahrenheit, the optimal temperature for the wooden guitars that it houses. A slightly dimmed yellow light illuminates the room, creating this warm, sepia-toned atmosphere, welcoming and inviting us into the space.
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The wooden stool stands on a faded rug of dark brown and muted maroon patterns. And a musician sits on the stool, with a capo resting on the fourth fret of her 8-shaped instrument that balances on her bent knee. Around the stool was a ring of throw pillows of faded white linen. And on each of those throw pillows sat a person, listening, feeling, and connecting with one another through the music.
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While it may seem that the musician and her audience play different roles, they are all shaping this experience with the ways they respond to the music and how they interact with one another in this space. This is where the power of the musical experience lies. In this shared space.
Because this paper aims to explain the experience we have while listening to music, it was clear that I needed to incorporate some auditory element to this report. Reading about the effect music has on us could never emulate the way that effect would make us feel.
​While you are reading my words, I don't intend the paper to be a one-sided conversation. I hope that this playlist allows you to bring something to this paper. That it can spark a conversation between us, about how it made us feel and what it meant to us. That it makes this paper feel like an actual musical experience and not just an academic report.
More importantly, I created this playlist in hopes that we–you and I, reader and author– may experience this music together. As I began the paper, I envisioned the setting described above because of the intimacy in an acoustic performance and setting. Where the listener and performer can see each other eye-to-eye and equally contribute to the music soundscape. After all, part of the musical experience is in this opportunity to connect with all the people who are also listening.
The power of music lies in the experience, in the shared experience. In this shared space.
Image from Reverb.com