The Echo After Music Stops

Think of the last piece of music you heard. It doesn't need to be something recent — even something from earlier today, or a song that's been surfacing unbidden in your mind over the past few days. You don't need to remember all of it. Just let a fragment surface: a melody, a few notes, a rhythm, even just the feeling-tone that the music carried. Give yourself a moment to let something arrive without forcing it. Now notice that the music is still happening in some form. Not out loud — but somewhere in you, something is continuing. A phantom version, thinner than the original, is still playing. The mind doesn't stop when the music does. It keeps going for a while, like the way a struck bell continues to ring long after your hand has lifted away. Find that continuation right now. Don't try to make it clearer or hold it still — that usually makes it retreat. Just notice that it's there, that some internal version of the sound is present even without the source. Now locate it.