A Sound Calling

As a child, I wasn’t a big fan of words. Every social interaction came with its share of anxiety, and words were a cacophony. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with selective mutism at the age of three. Not only was it hard to process what people said to me, I found it even harder to communicate with them. At the age of four, I was introduced to my first instruments, the acoustic guitar and the piano. While still trying to figure out the technicalities of the instruments, I was immediately intrigued by the idea of music. I was excited to learn and play even when people were around, helping me overcome my social anxiety.

My favorite language quickly became music. Though its origin is unclear, music is as old as civilization. Evidence indicates it existed in prehistoric societies (by evidence of recovered bone flutes). It is a cultural universal that transcends time and language. In a divided world, music can be the ultimate unifier. At its core, music is a combination of sounds, which are continuous and regular vibrations that travel through the air. Since my first lessons in piano, I have continued to thoroughly explore the facets of music production, composition and theory. All of my spare time is spent practicing and delving deep into the discovery of harmony, melody and rhythm and challenging the normalcy of contemporary language. I find that these vibrations fuel my fascination for the intricacies that constitute the textures and timbres of human emotion.

Every noise, every sound paints a granular world in which a story presents itself in the body of an infinitesimally detailed connotative image. Rooted in the vibrancy of nature’s density, I imagine sound as the perfect equilibrium between the shapes and colors from which feelings billow. Perfectly isolated and relentlessly still, the fragmented oscillations breathe a universe of life through the stems and fenestrations. The unexplored feelings and situations encompass the potential states of mind that are held within each moment. To me, sound lives within the depths of possibility, and has the capacity to reach out into a new epoch, which is why I hold the discovery and exploration of its essence to such a high esteem. Sound holds within it the beauty of a million moments and can express even the most delicate refractions. It is a reflection of the unexplored and unexperienced territories it aims to have us feel for the very first time. Experiencing a new timbre coalesced with harmony goes beyond just the discovery of a new color. It has the ability to connect, move and thus create change on an unimagined level, which is why I believe sound can be a source of innovation in our culture and society.

Until only recently since the advent of computing we have been able to use technology to analyze the anatomy of sound. As a still emerging science, we’ve only scratched the surface of how sound and vibration can impact humanity. And therein lies my calling. After all these years immersed within the power of music, I want to do for the world what it did for me. As music has helped me overcome selective mutism, I’ve made it my mission to carve through as much ground to uncover its hidden source of healing for the world.