In My Studio Vielka Ebadan

My backyard is my studio, and the lush, green grass is my stool.

C.

With one powerful strum, my surroundings come to life: a gust of wind emerges; birds sing in harmony; dandelions dance in unison to my tune, frolicking through the sky. As I sway my head to the music that I create with my fingers, my mind begins to wonder, as if it too is dancing to my beat.

C with an f# in the bass.

The moment I play this chord my world, my concerto, pauses. My mind shifts from a state of wonder to a state of inquiry: why does the “C” chord that I’ve just played sound nothing like the beautiful, crisp “C” I played moments before? With my guitar in hand and my witch-like nails subconsciously strumming the strings as I contemplate the mistake I’ve just made, I come to the realization that I am no longer making sound—I am making noise.

If it weren’t for my failure to imitate jazzmasters like Pat Metheny by improvising, I would have never been made aware of the relationship between two polar opposite worlds: numerology and music. Numbers establish the relationship between space and music. It was through this concept that Pythagoras configured a musical system based on ratios, stating that musical intervals are determined by the pitch and distance...