Sound

Disjunction of Senses in Modern City life In his chapter “City Life and the Senses,” John Urry discusses how the senses system operates in “open societies” of streams of crowds in open space. The five senses are comprised by the visual, auditory, touch, taste, and olfactory. Urry views visuality as an ambivalent force that is prioritized above the other sense through the developments of centuries and somewhat abused by as visual sense becomes increasingly accelerated in the city life dominated by technology.

The imbalance in the sensed environment is magnified by the physical natures of the senses themselves, but the inexpedience in this discrepancy is a product of civilization, implying that visuality and other senses are capable of interacting collaboratively under a hierarchy for a city life that “plays to all the senses. ” The innate features of eyes provide the power for the visual sense. Light travels almost instantaneously while other mediums, like voice, are air-borne. Signals emitted by the sender are instantaneously received by the viewer.

While sound and scent can collect their input from all directions and frequencies, sight is focused and specified. Urry mentions Simmel’s argument that “the eye is a unique ‘sociological achievement’” which “produces extraordinary moments of intimacy. ” Uninterrupted interactions between the eyes carry “the history of their life and …the times dowry of nature. ” These characteristics allows “the eye to [objectify] and [master]” more than the other senses. One could choose to close his eyes when the objects do not reach the expectation.

Thus, vision possesses a seemingly superior ability to judge objects from specified angels. Another nature of the eye is that it can act as a delicate measuring tool that collects a vast amount of information. As Urry shows, the eye “sets a distance, and maintains a distance. ” Consequently, this capacity to carry and discharge information “enables the world to be controlled at a distance, combining detachment and mastery” and communication between individuals “produces the ‘most complete reciprocity’ of person to person, face to face. In addition, Technology adds a new dimension to the existing complexity of visual dominance in the spatiality of sense. The implementation of modern technologies further enlarges the prioritizing of vision. Urry writes that “vision was given an especially powerful role in the modern era. ” Cell phones, emails, and video chatting messengers, like Skype connect people wirelessly. Touch and smell no longer factor into the interactions such that it is no longer necessary for the physical presence of a person for communication.

People seek increasingly greater standards for technologies that appeal to the visual sense. Modern innovations, for example, have advanced television from black-and-white to color to LED display to plasmid and recently to HDTV for ever improved visual experience. In contrast, there have been few advances in the auditory capabilities of modern inventions. The radio remains mostly unchanged through the past half century. The contrast between technological advances caters again to an assumed superiority of vision over the other sense. However, visuality has its limitations.

We have abused the bestowed privilege while the human activities in modern society favor the development of visual sense. “According to Urry, “the city both is fascinated with, and hugely denigrates, the visual. ” The moment the look dominates, the boy loses its materiality. ” The mind becomes biased and receives false information about the truth as our eyes are more involved in working and recreational activities. For example, when shopping for luxury commodity, without “touching,” people sometimes believe in their visual judgment of the authenticity of the product.

Besides, the eye turns vulnerable due to excessive usage. More and more people are optically corrected with glasses and contacts. Hand-free products grow multiplicatively popular thanks to its ability to dilution the burden of visual sense. Meanwhile, other senses are essential in that their importance is exemplified by the vast number of common expressions in daily speech. “Each sense gives rise to metaphors which attest to the relative importance of each within everyday life. People use expressions like “sounds good to me” and “it rings a bell,” attesting to the importance of the auditory realm. The auditory sense plays an important role in our learning process. From infancy, we are exposed mostly to sound while we are still “blind” about what is happening in the world. Then, we start to learn to talk by listening to our parents and are able to identify objects by connecting things we see with their auditory equivalents. In school, lecturing is an indispensible portion of learning.

Most students prefer learning from their instructors over reading the books and trying to understand the material. Furthermore, there are activities involving other senses that are insubstitutional by visuality. Music is a discipline in which visual sense is ineffective. Determining a keynote of melody, for some people, is an even more proficient mastery than visuality. Indeed, each division of the sensed system attempts to adapt to the evolving spatiality as the open societies become gradually civilized.

Urry suggests that no matter which coordinates we use, “a threshold of effect of a particular sense which has to be met before another sense is operative. ” This is not quite true. Multiple senses are certainly capable of coexisting in a parallel manner, and they should cooperate under a hierarchy between different senses. The concept “sensuous geography,” which connects together analyses of body, sense, and space,” should be introduced when examining the issue. The significance of the open societies is to encourage communication and mixture between senses and to achieve spatial complementarities.

For instance, “sight is not seen as the noblest of the senses but as the most superficial, as getting in the way of real experiences that should involve other sense and necessitate much longer periods of time in order to be immerses in the site. ” People have come up with approaches such that we can integrate the senses together to be truly reciprocal not within itself, but rather among the divisions to illustrate a decent understanding of city life that is composed. When someone visits a landscape, he or she can carry an electronic mobile auditory guide with them which plays an audio introduction of the spot.

The device not only facilitates and enhances visual experience, but also alters the perception of the surrounding space for the tourist because “each sense contributes to people’s orientation in space. ” Failure to do so may lead them to be insensitive and incapacitated. It is inevitable that the senses system has developed unequally as the open societies refine. Although visuality plays an essential role in city life, we ought not to overlook the rest of senses, such as previously discussed auditory sense. On the other hand, it is imperative to have a hierarchy for the five senses to operate cooperatively.

Nevertheless, senses system may still remain stagnant in suburban cities, or closed societies, where people are not congested by technologies and crowds. Despite of their disparate spatiality and sensed environment, we shall consider the alternative account of sensing nature to assist our understanding of city life in open societies.

Bibliography “City Life and the Senses. ” Urry, John. A compaion to the city. Blackwell Publishing, 200. 388-397. Wikipeadia. 27 9 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Auditory_learning>.

Matt Crane 8-19-06 Music Back in the late 1960s, disco originated as a combination of many instruments played together. It was in 1969 when Jerry Butler released his latest song ‘Only the Strong Survive’ that we got our very first disco song. This was the birth of disco but then it was a form of music which hadn’t been named. Four years and many songs later on the 13th of September 1973, Vince Aletti wrote an article in the Rolling Stone Magazine which gave this music form its name “DISCO”.

This soulful music is based on a number of instruments blended together to get what is known as the disco sound. The vocals are played on a steady four on the floor beat or what is known as a quaver (eighth note) or a semi- quaver (sixteenth note). Many electronic musical gadgets are used to create the background score. This form of music has more of electric bass line and the guitar is seldom used as a lead instrument. Films like Saturday Night Fever and Thank God Its Friday made disco theque more popular than ever before.

It was the Bee Gees who came to represent real Disco theque. The group till then was famous for their ballads and pop songs challenging the supremacy of The Beatles. Their success numbers were released again on the Saturday Night Fever movie soundtrack. Disco was born much earlier in the late 60’s when Jerry Butleras haunting melody was the first case of a combination of music with dance. This particular song brought about the marriage between Philly and New York soul both being evolutions of Motown Sound. The Philly sound is lavish percussion. 972 Soul Makasso is said to be one of the first disco songs. Disco spread to Europe through the jivings of Abba from the mid 70’s. Boney-M was another group of four West Indian singers and dancers who guided by West German record producer Frank Farian, soon became a great hit in Canada and Japan. The latter half of the 70’s saw clubs reverberating with Disco music. The culture centered on discotheques, nightclubs, and private parties where DJ’s played disco hits through power sound systems. Long single records kept people dancing throughout the night.

Even some of the most prestigious clubs matched their lighting arrangements to swish to the beat of Disco theque. Dancing schools sprung up in some cities and candidates were taught how to touch dance hustle and cha-cha. Disco fashions then hit the market with Halston dresses for women, shiny Qiana shirts for men pointed collars and open at the chest worn with double knit jacket suits. Disco culture soon became a shelter for those on the fringes of society they found a way to express themselves. Disco managed to fulfill one of the objectives of the Civil Rights movement.

It brought the races closer together for the first time where Blacks & Whites “co-mingled” freely. Although “disco’s” did in fact lead to the downfall of the “inner city Funk House” and while a few of them practiced “racist door policies”. For the most part you could get in, dance and socialize across racial barriers. Disco was in fact one of the first forms of “voluntary integration” that American’s have seen. The music was the same & every ones attitude was the same. Different instruments and disco sounds made their way into the hearts of people in a big way.

Discos became a place where there would be loud disco music, a dance floor with disco lights and of course you disco lovers dressed in the latest disco outfits having a blast of a life time. Discos have a culture of their own. The music is loud enough to make you and your heart beat a little faster. The lights keep changing colors and also help in changing you moods and shedding any inhibition you have. The clothes too are tight fitting to show off your more of the body. Shirts with slightly long and pointy collars, the Qiana shirts for the gents and the Halston dresses for women were in fashion.

Discos brought in many other cultures too. One of the main addictions that disco brought in was drugs. Cocaine and Quaalude became the main drugs for all disco lovers. While cocaine gave them a high spirit, it helped many to enjoy the loud music better. Quaalude made them feel light like jelly and helped them to move to the groove. The dance lovers enjoyed the discotheques, as there was music, dance, alcohol and fun. Discos became very popular and some of them became as popular as tourist sites too. Manhattans Studio 54 is one such place.

You couldn’t miss this hangout, as you would see many celebrities and people who are both rich and famous there. In the 1970s and 80s disco and dance came together and were the craze of the time. Groups like The Jackson Five, ABBA and The BEE GEES are still bands which are famous for their great disco music. Disco, which was performed only by a few bands in the beginning spread like a forest fire. Soon disco became mainstream and all kinds of bands were performing disco numbers. Disco was the in thing and a lot of movies were made on the disco theme too.

Saturday night fever starring John Travolta and Thank God It’s Friday were two big hits with disco as its mainstream idea. ABBA was a group, which took Disco beyond the borders of America and right into Europe and Asia. The songs were such big chart busters that all over the world they created many new records. Boney M a group of four West Indian singers were another group, which broke the barriers of caste, color and creed to give pure and outstanding disco music. Dalida released their hit number “J’attendrai” which topped the charts in Japan, middle and south Asia and Canada These groups made disco very popular in the 70’s.

The growing craze for disco angered the fans of rock music. While some just threw out all disco records, a few took drastic steps. DJs of rock music held events like the Disco Demolition night. Many groups came together to stage anti-disco demonstrations. Slowly but steadily in the 1980s disco began to die down. Though disco kind of became obsolete but it was still very much a part of the night life in Europe. With newer forms of music and even newer groups emerging Disco was given a back seat. In 1990s and 2000 once again disco began gaining popularity again.

With major singers like Madonna, Kate Ryan and Suzanne Palmer performing Disco. Disco sound is mainly based on strings and horns accompanied by reverberating vocals mixing with electric pianos and chicken-scratch guitars. Dramatic minor and major seventh chords dominate disco music. The other instruments in used are bass guitar, piano, string synth with electrocoustic keyboards. There are drum kits and electronic drums together with harp, violin, viola, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, clarinet, flugelhorn, French horn, tuba, English horn, oboe, flute and piccolo.

The songs usually have a steady four-on-the floor beat. It has affinity with Dominican meringue, rumba, samba and cha-cha-cha rhythms. A synthesizer is sometimes used to replace the bass guitar. Disco branched off into regional styles during the mid70’s by many formal musicians. Keeping the same broad traits of disco the new types came to get an individual stamp of the singer and the orchestra. Notable among them were The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Disco thus came to be arranged and composed by experienced arrangers and orchestrators. It required large number of instruments and a eam, which included the conductor, copyists, record producers and mixing engineer. Disco songs used as many as 64 tracks of vocals and instrumentals. Mixing engineers thus had a very important role. They created a distinctive sounding known as disco-mix. DJ’s were important for popularizing disco and consequently its sales. I would say that disco music expresses itself by its fast beats that you dance to. Its music gets people to be all about partying, loosing yourself to the songs, and feeling good. It lets people “groove” or “Boogie down”, just dance the night away.

It’s the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. To me disco music means, music that consists of several different instruments that make all sorts of rhythms and melodies. It’s a type of music that has a fast beat and just makes you want to dance. With disco music all you want to do is get down on a dance floor with a lot of people and just feeling good. Disco music is a good style of music that puts different sounds in one through the melody and rhythm of the song.

What is learning style:

The various preferences and methods employed by learners in the process of learning. Every individual have different style and techniques of learning. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you already use well.

So the best way to learn always depends on the person by finding his own style of learning style. We have different kinds of learning styles. Differentiation between different learning styles:- There are three main types of learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Most people learn best through a combination of the three types of learning styles, but everybody is different. Auditory Learners: Hear Auditory learners would rather listen to things being explained than read about them.

Reciting information out loud and having music in the background may be a common study method. Other noises may become a distraction resulting in a need for a relatively quiet place. Visual Learners: See Visual learners learn best by looking at graphics, watching a demonstration, or reading. For them, it’s easy to look at charts and graphs, but they may have difficulty focusing while listening to an explanation. Kinesthetic Learners: Touch

Kinesthetic learners process information best through a “hands-on” experience. Actually doing an activity can be the easiest way for them to learn. Sitting still while studying may be difficult, but writing things down makes it easier to understand.

• First is called visual in which we use and prefer mostly pictures and spatial understanding, while second is Aural in which we prefer to listen sounds and music on order to learn something effectively.
• Third is verbal, in this type of learning we use wordings and speeches.
• Fourth, Physical, in this type of learning we use a sense of touch and body language.
• Fifth is Logic, in which we prefer using reason and logic arguments.
• The sixth kind of learning style is social; this is one of the common types of learning style in which we prefer to learn in groups.

Lastly, Solitary is the last kind of learning style in which individuals work and study alone to learn in their own style. www. scibd. com