Sound Walk: "What I Hear"

  When I had thought about the location of where I would do my sound walk,I thought a park in my neighborhood or a public garden. However, as I was leaving work on a Sunday afternoon a coworker had suggested to bike ride to Brooklyn Bridge Park from where we were in Chelsea. As we mounted the bikes and started the journey, I observed the crunch of the graveling pavement against the tires of the bicycle. I quickly realized that the sounds you hear biking in the street are slightly different from walking on the sidewalk. I noticed the blended texture of street sounds while riding: the sound of a car honk ringing loudly in my ear as I followed the path alongside traffic, the different music or radio station playing in each vehicle as I passed, the snippets of conversation I heard from people waiting to cross the street on the sidewalks, the "On your left" "Behind!" or subtle light high pitched sounds of bells ringing by other bike riders passing. Though the ride was peaceful, there wasn't a moment of silence or quiet riding from Chelsea to downtown lower east side. Perhaps it was the usual excited buzz of a late Sunday afternoon. 
  Throughout the ride, my friend wanted to stop in chinatown for bubble tea. While we walked I took in the soundmarks of Chinese and English conversation, children and others of all ages in the park playing and socializing. I picked up on sound signals such as shop owners yelling out prices for various fruits and vegetables, while two men and a crowd of people were arguing to stop a fight that was happening on a corner. We rode onto the Manhattan Bridge, where I heard the same keynote sounds of a few bike riders pass, the sound of the outdoor n/q/r train as it went by on the bridge and stopped every few mins. blended with sounds of passing cars on the same bridge. All the while listening to my coworker tell me about their life as we ride, I start to hear faint soulful guitar playing as we near the end of the bridge to the Brooklyn side. This made me smile at the privilege I felt to listen to beautiful music being played while bike riding on a bridge.I remember looking through the holes of the gated fence to see if I could see where the music was coming from but was unable to find it. Once we rode off the bridge onto the Brooklyn streets, we search for a spot to park our bikes. We get to a street corner where I look across and see a man on a chair playing the same soulful melody I heard on the bridge.This made me very excited, because I'm usually in my own world listening to whatever music is being played on my headphones. However, when you take a moment to step back and observe the medley of sounds in your city or area, it's simply refreshing and beautiful.