Silence.. PLEASE!!

SILENCE PLEASE!!! PUSH PLAY and continue reading..

@mipiano was inspired by a previous post by @edje to write this very nice post under the title "Silence" around this theme of sound and silence. I started to write a comment on such post but it opened into too much stuff so I decided to copy paste and do this post instead. I like the idea of writing inspired in other posts, that were inspired by other posts, and to do it in what I think is my first post in @qsounds community.

Its out of my range to define what is sound -or music- and what is silence. So I won't even try. Instead i'll start telling you that I am a BIG BIG BIIIIIIIIG fan of Silence (when its not an awkward silence!) That's why your post @mipiano really inspired me to dig a little into this.

What first came to my mind was Atahualpa Yupanqui telling a story about when somebody asked him, ".. if silence was to be played on the guitar, how would it be played?"

I didn't find Atahualpa's Silence playing. But @mipiano showed a couple of examples of Silence being played. Some are funny, some can be disturbing. I want to add a couple more, that for me represent Silence.

The first one is our prefered album (with @esperanzac) to go to sleep, and to wake up:
Michael Nyman - Decay Music

Though there are a lot of sounds, it generates silence in ourselves, is like we forget you are listening, we love this.

Second I'll share Pink Floyd's Shine on you Crazy Diamond.
There is a part where Gilmore plays an arpeggio that Mozart or Beethoven could of used as Silence in their compositions.

This guy here analizes the chord:

An interesting fact about this chord is that David Gilmore played it by mistake on a rehearsal! It was not the original arrangement. Obviously after that rehearsal, the error stayed in for good!!!!!

And last but not least, if you pushed play at the beggining you listened my own interpretation of Silence in my Ukulele. If you didn't yet, you can do it now.

Further on, on @mipiano's question,

Noise and silence seem opposite, but in fact, can silence exist without noise, or vice versa?

Sound and Silence are sure part of the same thing, like light and darkness -one is defined by the other-, or more like movement and stillness, that depend on a reference point. Because silence can be noisy when is placed in an awkward place, noisy in the sence its uncomfortable. Like in a conversation in which you need to say, but words won't flow. Also silence doesn't have to be in a vacuum to exist, as shown above silence can be listened to, so there is sound but reflects silence. Its not quiet silence, but still is.

Ok, I got tangeled up, thats why I didn't want to define these terms before!

The important thing is to be aware that silence is beautiful, and no matter how many notes a virtuose musician can play in a compas, we need silence in certain moments for a song not to turn to noise!!! At least that is my ear's opinion!!

You know, with all respect for people that love "Banda" or Reggaeton and play it loud in their powerfull speakers ALL around ALL the time, let me shout out loud: