The most beautiful sound in the world

[Larry F]

Anyone living as long as I have, know that the simple pleasures are the best. There are times in all our lives when nothing will soothe and center us like a certain sound. That sound for me starts in silence, as our black cat watches every move of either my wife or me, depending on who is eating a bowl of cereal. Like the true hunter that she is, she stalk, sites, and waits for the inevitable 1/2 teaspoon of milk left in the bottom of the bowl. As she laps it up, at about 18 licks per 5 seconds.

Other sounds that have meaning?

[ScatMan]

The surprising and unexpected silence; in nature or scripted like in music..a few beats of rest like after an augmented chord..even animals know something is coming..it's how that silence is resolved that can be either jarring or satisfying.

[Bill]

My wife and I were walking along a marsh bay yesterday. For a time we were the only ones there, walking through marsh grasses that came to our shoulders. We were talking when my wife said, "hush!"

I stopped, and we just listed to the sound of the grass waving in the wind.

[PeteMac]

I was holidaying in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, years ago with my family. I went for a walk by myself one morning up along a ridge to get a view of the surrounding landscape.
I stopped and just sat for a while and suddenly realised that there was no sound at all.
Not a breath of wind, no sign or sound of civilisation, not even birdsong. Real, absolute silence.
Then, from a distance, the screech of an eagle.
It was perfect.

[Nash]

Strangely the click of my mouse is very pleasant. Though my favorite sound is when I'm out in the middle of nowhere, the almost white noise like sound that occurs. I live in an area with dogs barking all day and night and train horns going off in the distance, plus my house likes to creak and pop throughout the day so silence is something I cherish quite a bit.

[rangercaster]

a Fender guitar played through a clean Fender amp ...

[absurdplanet]

I have a horrible case of tinnitus, the sound of silence would be welcome.
Years of playing on the road--very loud Rock through--you guessed it--old Marshalls, left me with constant ringing in my ears.
Sometimes I'm treated to a few moments of peace and quiet.
Wear those ear plugs folks!

[JayFreddy]

I could never pick just one... Here are some beautiful sounds that never get old to me:

Hammered Dulcimer
Pedal Steel Guitar
Celtic Harp
Piano in general
My Martin D35

[ole AZ]

In my short time near Portland I cam across a sound that I came to love. The sound of mist against the power lines and bullfrogs chirping over it with the Willamette River in the background.

[Tim Bowen]

The sound of crashing waves from the ocean as falling asleep on or near a beach. Failing proximity of the coast, the combination of an oscillating fan and a Turner Classic Movies film from yesteryear at low volume is a lovely and soothing sound to fall asleep with. The sound of rain and moderate thunder.

Post 2:00 A.M. in my carport, which is where I spend much of my free time. At this point, the bulk of the really irritating noises - the neighbor's incessantly obnoxious German Shepherd, the 5,000 watt car stereo systems, the sirens, the phone, the power tools - have cashed in their chips for the day. I can listen to the sound of crickets, bullfrogs, Brahms, Mahler, and Stravinsky with little or no obtrusion. One of the biggest reasons that I'm nocturnal by nature is that so much of the sound that I hear during the normal hours that society at large keeps is distracting beyond description to me.

[TG]

My faves are waves on a beach, heavy rain on the roof and distant thunder.

A sound that I really miss is crickets and cicadas in summer. Grew up with them in Canada but we don't have them over here. No insect noises here generally.
Funny thing was when my wife, who is English, first visited my family in Canada. She asked me what was making all the noise and I didn't know what she was talking about. Even though I'd been away for several years I didn't take any notice of it.

I also miss the gulls on Lake Erie, I grew up hearing them too....but we do have real no-kidding Cuckoos here in the spring.

Birds here seem to be less visual, ie, less colorful, than North American ones but more vocal. Woodland here has more undergrowth I think, so perhaps it's an evolutionary thing. The dawn chorus around here is really something to hear.

[raf]

I also love the sound of the ocean...

[P Thought]

The moment when the tide turns: the waves stop whatever they're doing, there's a moment of silence, then they start in again. Lots of times you realize it happened while you weren't paying attention, or you realize it just in time to catch the last couple seconds of it.

It's a cool thing. Happens four times a day.

[RodeoTex]

There's only been a couple of times in my life when there was absolute silence. No sound at all. The silence can actually be 'heard'. Very beautiful.

[maestrovert]

Ah, i can hear it now.....

Back-pack hunting for Elk with a friend in the Bob Marshall wilderness....
in the twilight comes the hauntingly beautiful sound of the bugling Bulls, it echoes off of a rock formation known to us locals as "The Chinese Wall"....unless the wind picks up, it's usually very quiet in the forest, so the Elk's challenges really ring out....
the Elk are literally all around us, their high pitched whistles and shrieks, sub-deep bellows and grunts attesting to their power...

[sacizob]

How about that Les Paul in "Spinal Tap" with nobody touching it. Meathead couldn't hear it, but I sure did.

[Dave_O]

#1 and #2 son's first sounds... They didn't cry or scream, it was like a kitten meowing. Still makes me teary remembering it.

I've spent quite a few nights sleeping under the stars way out in the bush, and the sounds of the wild, once your ears attune to it are absolutely AWESOME.

And my Tele thru my Vox, with the volume maxed...

[Brett Faust]

My wifes heatbeat.
Snow flakes landing on fresh snow.
Rain on the tin roof over my porch.
Cats softly purring.
Lightning strike/thunderclap at a distance.
A dying fire softly crackling.
Thrust reversal once the plane touches the runway.

[Tim Armstrong]

The sound of the waves meeting the beach.
The sound of a trout stream rushing over rocks.
Lately the sound of my bass and amp (seriously, my gear is in the zone right now!).

And yesterday, the sound of the woman I love saying "I love you" first!

Tim

[OutlawSteph1975]

If you've ever heard wild lions roaring as you try to go to sleep.. you know where mother nature began.

[podboy3]

Larry F, I was just finishing a bowl of cereal and getting ready to put it on the coffee table for one of our cats when I read you post.

I love the sounds of all our pets..... We have 7 cats, 1 dog, and 2 Gerbils (one just passed away) and at night I love to just sit with nothing on and listen to they are all doing.... The sounds of the nightly baths, the Gerbils thumping back and forth to each other or building their nest, our puppy (even though she is 2 years old) making her muffles barking and growling sounds as she dreams.

My wife has a hard time falling asleep when they get to running, playing, and wrestling at bed time but I love the sound and just knowing that they are happy and tearing through the house attacking imaginary prey relaxes me and helps me fall asleep.

We use to live on the beach and I miss the sounds of the Gulf of Mexico, I also used to windsurf (when I lived in Florida) and sometimes I would drop that mast and lay down on my board while out in the water and listen to the water, loving the sounds as the water would lap at the sides of my board... I get the same way on a boat, Huge boats like the mini yachts are just not the same but anywhere from 12 or 14 footers to a 33 footer and being far enough out in a body of water where all you can hear are the sounds nature provides and again that lapping and kissing of the water on the sides of the boat along with the occasional fish jump is just like heaven.

I almost bought a 70 footer to restore and make a house boat out of but with the amount of pets we have I decided it just was not the way to go.

[Wardpike]

The sound of my kids laughing whilst they're playing together... it's like Heaven on Earth.

And although they're not great yet, close second is William (8) on drums, and Jesse (13) on his 1972 Fender Musicmaster bass, downstairs in the "guitar room" jamming. That just rocks!

[Chris Clemens]

Originally Posted by rangercaster

a Fender guitar played through a clean Fender amp ...

+1! Especialy when the compresion starts kicking in, sweet...

Oh, and bird singing in springtime. When you get that: the winter has ended feeling...

[CVTele Dan]

The sound of my daughter laughing. Nothing better than hearing your children having joy in their hearts.

[MandyMarie]

I don't have any children but I sincerely think the sound of kids laughing has to be my favorite. It may be my favorite sight as well - little kids with no inhibition...dancing around like a bunch of maniacs and smiling and laughing....there's nothing better. We played a private party last night and there were about fifteen kids under 5 in front of us the entire time. Spinning in circles and grinning. Pure happiness. I love that.
:0)

...and I love acting like I'm 5.

[tap4154]

Water lapping at the hull of a boat, in the middle of the night.

The sound of a distant outboard motor echoing off canyon walls, early in a still desert morning.

The Pacific depositing waves on a deserted beach, on a warm September afternoon.

The silence of a water ski, carving a turn on glass, especially in the eddies of a curve in a river (you skiers know what I mean -- heaven)

Just a few.

[GhostofJohnToad]

Originally Posted by MandyMarie

I don't have any children but I sincerely think the sound of kids laughing has to be my favorite. It may be my favorite sight as well - little kids with no inhibition...dancing around like a bunch of maniacs and smiling and laughing....there's nothing better. We played a private party last night and there were about fifteen kids under 5 in front of us the entire time. Spinning in circles and grinning. Pure happiness. I love that.
:0)

...and I love acting like I'm 5.

Yes! I have three boys and when they are playing well and laughing those belly laughs make everything right in the world. ...

And then 10 seconds later all hell breaks loose and they are pounding on each other and my reverie is broken.

[Eric Karonen]

For me, it's the tail end of a campfire, and the sound of a wood thrush at sunset.

[pchilson]

The little woman saying "Honey? You awake?"

[drewsblues]

The crack of the bat
My wife, when she laughs
A full D-chord in drop-D tuning
The sound of the office, when I'm the first one in
The crackle and pop of an old LP on a turntable
Those few seconds when you hear a song from another room, and completely invert it... turn it into something exotic and new before realizing that it is something familiar, that you've heard a thousand times before.

[BB]

Originally Posted by MandyMarie

I don't have any children but I sincerely think the sound of kids laughing has to be my favorite. It may be my favorite sight as well - little kids with no inhibition...dancing around like a bunch of maniacs and smiling and laughing....there's nothing better. We played a private party last night and there were about fifteen kids under 5 in front of us the entire time. Spinning in circles and grinning. Pure happiness. I love that.
:0)

...and I love acting like I'm 5.

I have no children of my own issue either.....but have been blessed by inheriting my wifes 5 children. Of course, they were pretty much grown by the time I came along. However, I am Papa to 4 beautiful grandchildren ( 18 months, 5, 6 & 8 ) and for me, the sound of their sweet, innocent laughs, coos, "I love you's" and even their cries when needing comfort are the most beautiful sound(s) in the world to me. Truly amazing and beautiful!

[kelnet]

"Have a good summer," said the last student to leave the classroom on the last day of the school year.
I love my job, but that is a sound I will always enjoy.

[MBBerard]

My 4 year old daughter suddenly breaking into song in the middle of an aisle in a supermarket. It was the kind of spontaneous song a 4 year old would make up, about angels, snow, birds,very soft and comforting-It made the other customers stop dead in their tracks, listening. When she was done there were two people I saw crying. Besides me.

[E.D. Patton]

The sound of a China Pheasant flushing from the brush has to be pretty high on my list. Growing up in S.E. Washington it was a fixture of my early years. I hadn't heard it until hiking recently on Sauvie Island (near Portland).

Not a pretty sound, but pure magic.

[brgminicooper]

Originally Posted by kelnet

"Have a good summer," said the last student to leave the classroom on the last day of the school year.
I love my job, but that is a sound I will always enjoy.

I'm a teacher, too. Gotta go with this one.

[P Thought]

Originally Posted by kelnet

"Have a good summer," said the last student to leave the classroom on the last day of the school year.
I love my job, but that is a sound I will always enjoy.

+1

--Mr. P

[kyle1167]

The beep of the time clock at five on a friday.

[MCB3]

Falling rain and distant thunder always calms my nerves.

[mr natural]

I spent a lot of summers on Lake Erie as a kid, so I'll have to go with the sound of the waves and a crackling beach fire when you're falling asleep in a tent right on the beach. We kids would get sent to bed and dad would stay up drinking a beer, smoking his pipe or a cigar and playing with the fire. I slept like a rock on that beach. Woke up feeling great and not tired at all.

Funny, I grew up really close to the interstate and always had the swoosh of cars and trucks going by late at night. And the "BRAAAGH!!" sound that the big trucks make while switching gears. When I moved to the city, I definitely missed that sound for the first couple of years.

This weekend, I did a little recording and recorded the birds and cicadas in the woods behind our house in stereo as background for this acoustic instrumental I wrote. It came out a lot better than I thought it would. Sounds fantastic in the headphones. (Got the idea from Grantchester Meadows off of Ummagumma)
-Mr. Natural

[podboy3]

for those that mentioned their children and their laughs, I will have to support that. I do not have any children but the wife and I have many, many, many, and many more Nieces and Nephews that we have both had the honor of taking a lot of care of, also in my younger years (junior high and highschool) my sisters has already left for college or finished and when each of them had their first child they came home with their husbands and the new baby to live in my Mother and Step-Fathers house (6,500 Square feet, so plenty of space) so it would be easier to raise the baby.

to shorten this up, I have spent a lot of time with babies, children, kids, and teen..... I am not sure when the big belly laugh stops but I know my oldest Nephew is 6 and he still does it when we wrestle and goof around.

I can be in a grumpy @$$ mood and nothing could cheer me up but when I hear that big belly laugh all of a sudden everything is right with the world and I have a smile from ear to ear