Listening With Your Eyes Closed

Have you ever noticed how beautiful music is when you listen with your eyes closed?

I wish I had discovered this sooner, whereby I would get myself to sit down for a few moments, put a song on and close my eyes while I listen.

Experiencing music this way, it’s not so much that I’m listening to it, as I am feeling it. 

As if I’m in the same room with the musicians, I feel attuned to the tiniest sonic stimulus.

I could notice and revel in all of the beautiful imperfections.

I could hear the very texture of the guitar pick hitting the strings. 

I could hear the hesitancy in the timing.

I could hear the guitarist’s finger almost placing itself on the wrong fret. 

Attuning myself to every tiny detail that are existing in harmony, it doesn’t feel like I’m merely hearing sounds that are being made by various instruments.

It feels like I’m connected to the very essence and character of music itself. 

It is almost like I could touch and feel the warmth of the music that’s pulsating between my ears and in my body. 

And in that moment, I feel free. 

Maybe this is what John Frusciante meant by music being “the fourth dimension”. 

He was so young at the time he described it. 

But he was so right.

“No words, no symbols, no images. All pure, real energy and vibrations.”