How to clean your ears

Composer and acoustic expert R. Murray Schafer came up with the idea of "ear cleaning." It had nothing to do with physically cleaning the ear. Instead, it was about wiping clean the acoustical palette in order to be able to better listen to and play music.

Here's an example of an ear-cleaning exercise (via Trevor Cox's book Sonic Wonderland):

Open [a] book now and gently open the pages and just listen to the sound . . . that's a very complex sound. . . first there is the sound of the thumb or finger as it brushes against the edge of the paper before you turn the page and then there is the sound of the page as it turns.

For more info, Schafer's short book, Ear Cleaning, is available as a free download.

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 05, 2023
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace | Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

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