Hi Dr. Boyle,

It was nice to get to know you in the Session 1 podcast.

Calling me either Theo or Theodore works for me!

I’m a first-year music student and I play the piano.

When I listen to music, I usually focus solely on the listening. I only listen to music while doing something else occasionally. Sometimes, I’ll try to identify what chord I’m hearing at any given moment in the music, as long as it’s tonal (MUS 105 makes me listen to lots of atonal music)!

I’ve never really thought about the definition of music before. If I had to say, it would be defined as anything that is worthwhile listening to.

My definition of sound is anything a living being can hear.

Noise I might say would be any undesirable sound. There can be many reasons for a sound being undesirable. Maybe you’re in a situation that calls for silence, and anything, even music, is being played somewhere. In that situation, I’d consider that music noise. I might also consider too many songs being played simultaneously noise.

I don’t know what useful things I may learn from this course. I suspect that it will have something to do with music, but you never know!

I hope to meet you one day, if not this year then during a future year, Dr. Boyle!

Thanks,

Theo