Musical instruments to deaf ears

For most of my life, I've been wondering about what musical instruments really sounded like. I grew up feeling out the speakers analyzing the chords of drumbeats, piano, guitar and the like. I played with drums, then eventually turned into guitar, played guitar few times at Church and I love it. The problem starts when musical vibrations went into higher frequency, the sub-woofer or woofer speaker became silent. That is when I began to explore into higher frequency, i.e. harps, panpipe, harmonica and such using the mid-range and tweeter speakers.

I learned mainly when I was into electronics, the by-pass filter, which contains couple of capacitors and inductors positioned in a certain way that it filters out either high or low frequency. Those outputs then are applied to the appropriate speaker i.e. lower frequency to subwoofer or woofer and higher to mid-range and tweeter speakers. That was back when I was working on 100-in-1 project from Radio Shack when I was around 12 years old.

I also love to watch TV with speakers on my feet, call me silly, crazy or freak, whatever you want, and I don't care. I want to enjoy whatever movies have to offer. The musical instruments in the background tend to reinforce the scene that comes into play. For instance: romantic music to romance (soothing and slow music, piano, violin and such), aggressive music to dangerous encounters (upbeat with drums in lively and war-like rhythm), somber song (very slow, Orchestra style) to a funeral and the like.

Now in certain scenes i.e. looking at the field, rivers, traffic or landscapes music can be difficult for me to interpret. Could it be romantic? Can it be funeral? Can it be somber? What is it? What is it? I sometimes had to ask the hearing audience on what that music is all about, that is where I began to explore. How do we determine what type of musical theme when I "listen" to a certain song without lyrics?

Enter "Fantasia 2000" movie. That movie is nothing but animations and musical instruments. There are no lyrics, almost no climax and heavily dependent on musical instrument to "interpret" the animations. There are eight animated features in that movie and I love all of them. My favorite feature is "Pines of Rome" about a whale world, their life being altered in a supernova, being able to fly in the air. A whale calf learning to master flying in air, going through the struggle stuck in an iceberg and the migration of adult whales into high level of heavens. The music is astounding, it was played by Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and it gave me the feeling of "higher level", from sea, going up through stratosphere then finally to the edge of atmosphere, into space. That scene includes sounds of the waves of oceans, the whistling of clouds, the thunder of lightning and the heaven waves.

I often wrote poems using music on the side, a rhythm that provides me a pattern in writing. It also inspires me, control the way I read in timing and stirs up my creativity. Now with all that being said, that is how I interpret music, by musical instruments. I continue to explore in that aspect, trying to feel out and interpret the difference in higher frequencies i.e. harp, panpipe, harmonica and all. Now I would like to explore out into the deaf culture, I *KNOW* I am not alone and I am anxious to hear your input, your opinion and your experience with musical instruments.

After all, it doesn't stop us deafes to enjoy music!