Audioholic Media

TED is an annual conference where a bunch of geniuses and people with great minds gather to discuss their ideas through a series of lectures, or “TEDTalks”.

If you’re scouring the Internet for free lectures, a) why?, and b) you’re probably very smart. TEDTalks are different, though. If a lecture is a root canal (and let’s be honest, sometimes root canals are the better option), then a TEDTalk is the anesthesia you get so you can simply get through the pain while still benefiting from the process.

Though this particular TEDTalk is an older one, it’s no less relevant now than it was then.

Dame Evelyn Glennie is a deaf percussionist who has spent her entire career defending the idea that what we hear does not begin and end with what our ears interpret. She contends that we “hear” with our whole bodies. Because she can’t hear what she plays sonically, she is known to play barefoot during live shows in order to feel the beats and vibrations of the instruments.

In addition to being an inspiration because of what she’s accomplished in her career, she also puts genuine thought into the way she interprets music:

For me, as a musician who deals with 99% of new music, it’s very easy for me to say, “Oh yes, I like that piece. Oh no, I don’t like that piece,” and so on. And, you know, I just find that I have to give those pieces of music real time. It may be that the chemistry isn’t quite right between myself and that particular piece of music, but that doesn’t mean to say I have the right to say it’s a bad piece of music.

I realize that the video is long(ish) but it is truly worth watching if you appreciate music as more than just a collection of a few well-placed notes and chords.

Maybe sometimes it takes someone who can’t hear to tell us just exactly what it is that we’re listening to.