What is your favourite sound?
This was a question asked as part of a marketing campaign by a particular manufacturer 2 years ago. It made a lot of people think about sounds and what they mean to us on a day to day basis.
I have trouble narrowing it down to just one, so three of my favourite sounds are, (in no particular order): 1 – my daughter singing; she is studying vocal music and has developed an amazing set of pipes. She performs in musicals and choirs, has performed solo on a couple of occasions and practices at home for three or four hours at a time. Both my wife and I will turn off any other media when she starts to practice, simply to listen to her belt out a couple of numbers.
2: My son’s laugh. My son has a phenomenal sense of humour and it’s not hard to get him to laugh. He is a naturally talented practical joker and loves making others laugh as much as he does. When you really get him going, his laugh takes on a personality of its own; the pitch of his voice changes, gets higher, and it’s all I can do to keep from starting to chuckle myself. He often plays online adventure games on his computer with various school friends and whenever he does you would think he was at a comedy club, because there is an hour of intermittent hilarity every time. It’s so contagious that it spreads to everyone in the house. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but I can’t help it, everytime he really starts laughing, I end up in tears with laughter myself.
3: My wife’s voice. This may seem obvious, and I guess, to a certain degree, it’s mandatory for me to say this, but it’s true. Even after almost 20 years of marriage, (20 years this coming July), it’s still the one sound I look forward to hearing – well, most of the time. Of course there are always times it doesn’t sound so nice, but more and more those times have gotten further and further apart, probably because she understands that certain thing just won’t change, (lol). I love hearing it in person or over the phone, so when I’m away, it’s always comforting to speak to her.
Now, what would happen if suddenly the quality of any of these voices was no longer there. What if they didn’t sound the same or disappeared all together. Everything I had grown accustomed to would change. Would I notice it? Often the slow changes caused by presbycutic hearing loss are not noticed initially by the person who has the loss. But one day they are reintroduced to those sound and suddenly they realize what they have been missing for quite a while. This happened to a patient this week and she was amazed that she had let this happen. Her daughter was with her and when the daughter spoke, a look of puzzlement came over her face, which quickly changed to a look of recognition. She hadn’t heard her daughter’s voice properly for almost 20 years and was suddenly reminded of what it should have sounded like all along. I only know because the daughter translated her words for me as she said them, (the patient was from Korea and spoke little English). It was amazing to see unfold, as it is every time that happens. It’s not necessarily an every day occurrence, very few are that drastic, but occasional.
So what about you? What is your favourite sound? Let us know by e-mail and perhaps I can use that for an upcoming post.