Sensual Intelligence 2: Your Ears

I lay in bed yesterday morning and listened, for the first time this year, to a song thrush singing in someone's garden across the street. If it wasn't for the fact that I had a very busy day ahead of me, I could have lain there listening to this wonderful songster all morning!


We're continuing with thoughts from the chapter on sensual intelligence in Tony Buzan's Head First.

Here's another fascinating array of facts:

• You have 16,000 hair cells in your inner ear - they respond faster than any other cell in your body.
• Any of the 16,000 hair cells will trigger if you move the tip by as little as the width of an atom! That's the equivalent of being able to detect the movement at the top of the world's tallest skyscraper if it moved less than half-an-inch.
• Your hair cells, when you listen to the high notes in classical music, fire at the rate of 20,000 times a second.
• Your ear receives information in one dimension, and yet you hear 3-D sound and can instantaneously locate its origin. How? Because your amazing ear-brain system can distinguish the different time by which the 'same' sound arrived in each ear. The difference that you can distinguish is 200-millionths of a second!
  

Buzan suggests several exercises to give our ears regular aural treats. The first is to learn to discriminate the different sounds in nature, especially bird song. I led a dawn chorus walk a few years ago and I was so encouraged by the excitement of those present as they realised that it was possible to learn the difference between our common birds with a bit of practice and the use of helpful mnemonics. Spring is not far away...get yourself a CD or DVD of bird song (there's a number that you can choose from) and start to learn the common species. It really isn't hard and makes all the difference when you're in the countryside, giving you a totally new perspective.

Buzan also suggests other treats, including:

• Listen to more ethnic and classical music - widen your aural horizons.
• Listen to excellent recordings on the best equipment, and attend live concerts.
• Occasionally give your ears the treat of no sound - like the rest of your body they need rest, and will reward you well for providing them with it!
  

Finally, something that I've never forgotten regarding the benefits of music...when I worked for the dairy unit at the Nottingham University School of Agriculture, the chief herdsman, Dave, used to play a tape of his favourite group, The Seekers, in the milking parlour. He insisted that there was a noticeable rise in the milk yields when the cows were listening to the amazing voice of Judith Durham and the other group members. So I've included the video of one of my favourite Seekers songs, I'll never find another you, below. Who knows what it might do for you as you listen to it!!