The Bible and Music

Today was the first day of class, which we spent going over the syllabus and talking about the overview of the class. We watched a short video at the end, however Professor McGrath mentioned to me that I could form a post about anything I desired. We did a brief activity in class that involved everyone clapping, however we all tried to maintain the same clapping rhythm that Professor McGrath was doing with his hands. This short little exercise got me thinking about if we all did our own clapping and what the outcome would be with the variety of noises. Instead of focusing on his clapping beat, we could all focus on any pattern and still be listening to the others in the classroom.

After I caught myself thinking about this, I wondered what campus life would be like if we all just blared our music on our phones without using headphones. If I was walking to class, I wonder what my thoughts would be if I heard several different songs playing at once. It certaintly would be distracting at first, yet I could get a better feel of someone if I listened to their playlist. So why do we use headphones? To keep to ourselves and not get distracted from other outside noise? Do we use them to just simply listen and find inner peace?I know one reason I use them is to motivate myself for a workout or to simply chill in my bed with my favorite genre of music. With this class being The Bible and Music, I also thought of it in a church setting. Many churches around the world have choirs or bands that play throughout the service, which requires hours of practice and preparation. What if these choir members and musicians never had to chance to practice their own instrument alone? Instead of going to sing in their own room of quietness with their headphones, they were forced to practice their singing with other instruments playing in the background that may not have the same harmony as what they are singing. Music is a lot about how one interprets it and I believe it would be very interesting to see what life would be like for a day without headphones and privacy in the music world. It just might create new sounds that we never heard before or it may frustrate some who look forward to putting their earbuds in at the end of a long day.