Music Makes Our Lives Magical and Meaningful

How is it that some music can lift our spirits? And how is it that other music can make us nervous and irritable, even physically ill? What is the power in music that can alter listeners on all level – body, mind and spirit?  When listening to our favorite music, most of us don’t break it down into its basic elements; we usually just hear and feel the total effect of the sounds. But music is subtly touching us in many ways precisely because of its different elements, and if we have some understanding of what music is made up of and how it touches us, we can more intelligently choose (or create) music with healing potential.

The first and most important element of any healing method-be it music, acupuncture, herbal remedies, massages, or any other modality-is the intent behind it. If the healing practice is offered with pure curative intent, it will have far greater effect than if it comes with ego or commercial attachments. In music, this would mean that the music is specifically created not to sell a million copies and be nominated for a Grammy, but to relax or heal its listeners.  There are eight musical elements that contribute to music’s healing power. Each one is healing on itself or in combination with others:

Drone

A long, uninterrupted sound or set of sounds underneath the music. It could be environmental sound or, in East Indian music, the tamboura. It could be the Australian aboriginal drone instrument, the didjeridu, or a choir of singers chanting “Om” on a single tone. It could be any sound or musical tone that forms the “bed” on which the rest of the music lies.  The function of the drone is to touch us in our physical bodies. If you were to chant a series of musical tones, you would notice that each one resonates in a different part of your body. Drone tones that zero in and touch specific physical areas can, if listened to and felt long enough, be used to help break down blockages and tensions. Very low drone sounds will vibrate in the denser, more massive parts of our bodies-our intestines, our stomachs. Very high drone sounds will resonate higher- in our throats, or our sinus cavities, etc. Visualizing drones going to the tense and blocked areas of our bodies can free physical pain and stress.

Repetition

During the last decade the Pachelbel Canon in D was a New Age “hit.” Why? Because it was so comforting. And why was it so comforting? Because its theme was repeated over and over again.  When a musical phrase is repeated, the listener becomes comfortable with it. The listener knows what to expect and so lets the repetition enter into consciousness with no judgments. After awhile the music has a hypnotic/relaxant effect, and the listener is moved into a receptive state, a state in which healing can take place. In today’s New Age recording market there are many, many extended-play tapes and CD’s made up entirely of repeated musical phrases and/or mantric vocal chants. These are very good for body workers or yoga teachers other healing practitioners to have playing during sessions because they settle down clients almost immediately. Also, because they don’t change or go in any particular musical direction, they help the clients center and focus on the healing to take place.  When the repetitions are varied somewhat they are more successful and less boring that when the exact same thing is infinitely repeated. In other words, when, from time to time, harmonies or gentle improvisations are added to the basic repeated phrase, the music is richer and more beautiful.

Harmonies

Also called overtones, harmonies are a phenomenon that naturally occurs whenever any basic musical sound is made, like a ladder above the fundamental sound, overtones climb in a series, but each “rung,” or tone, is softer as it gets higher, so most of us can’t really hear them at first listening. In the East, harmonics are called “unstruck” sound., the way most people experience harmonics is by hearing “a ringing of the rafters” immediately after live music has stopped. Harmonics are the most mystical of all musical elements and as such are the most spiritual. The function of harmonics is to balance the physical body with the layers of unseen bodies known as the aura. When the basic “struck” musical tone touches the physical body, it naturally-occurring harmonics (un-struck sounds) extend out, each rung touching and bringing to balance each layer of the aura. Today we have revived the ancient sacred practice of chanting harmonics with our voices. This involves the sound of vowels and can be learned easily by anyone. There are several recordings of Asian monks who chant harmonics as spirituals practice or choirs of musicians who do harmonic singing. This music, because of its ethereal character, is very balancing and healing to the spirit.

Rhythm

We human animals are rhythmic creatures. Whenever there is music with a beat, we unconsciously start moving to it either by tapping our toes or by swaying or dancing. Most musical rhythms are directly related to the pulses in our bodies. Through the phenomenon of entrainment, we beat in sync with whatever outside rhythmic stimulus we’re exposed to.  The function of rhythm in healing music is to duplicate the healthy pulse. The most obvious pulses in the human body-and the easiest to duplicate musically-are the heartbeat, the breath cycle, and the brain waves. By experiencing music with healthy pulses, people’s irregular pulses can often be brought to regularity.  Drum music, especially that of native peoples, is excellent for duplicating the heartbeat. Many Latin rhythms, such as Samba and Bosa Nova, are heart rhythms (though too fast for people with serious heart conditions.) The breath cycle, being asymmetrical, is often duplicated in the music of Eastern Europe and other cultures of the East. As for brain waves, in particular those moving us into meditation (alpha and theta,) these are easily programmed by synthesizers and found throughout New Age recordings.

Harmony

The emotional content of music is contained in its harmonies. When the harmonies are simple, the music is more restful that when harmonies are complex or dissonant. For example, in recordings of Gregorian Chant or the music of the 11th century mystic, Hildegard of Bingen, voices usually sing either in unison (that is, all on the same notes,) or one set of voices sings a melody and another set of voices sings the same melody in parallel motion five tones above or four tones below. This kind of chant harmony is present in native people’s chanting as well. Music with simple and basic harmony doesn’t challenge listeners emotionally and can be used for mediation, centering, and visualization.  Sometimes, when emotional healing from such things as childhood abuse is needed, more complex harmonies are called for, late 19th century and early 20th century classical music can be useful for therapists who want to help clients work through trauma and emotional disease because the shifting and changing harmonies help move the listener’s feelings.

Melody

Have you ever noticed how a gorgeous melody can lift you right up out of your body? You might be so far out during such music that you aren’t even aware that music is being played! This is the power of melody, the ability to take the listener away from physical awareness. The function of melody, then, is as pain killer. In some enlightened hospitals, patients are given a choice between pain-killing drugs and melodic music.  Melodies are built on sequences of musical tones called scales, modes, or ragas. There are literally thousands of these musical scales in the world, and each scale has an effect on the listener. The best Western scale for releasing pain and suffering is the wailing blues scale. In India there are thousands of ragas, each one designed for a particular season or time of day and a specific mood, such as devotion or celebration or contemplation. As we learn more about these scales, we’ll be able to intelligently apply them to healing.  In the process of visualization-often used in the treatment of chronic or life-threatening disease-melodic music allows visual fantasies to take shape easily. This enhances whatever scenario the patient has designed for self-healing.

Instrumental Color

Because each musical instrument has a quality of sound that is unique to it, each will touch us in a different way. A tuba’s sound will be more likely to resonate in a listener’s belly than in the head area. A flute will vibrate the head but not the belly. Each instrument-whether wood, brass, gourd, or skin-has the power to touch the listener in a specific area of the physical body. And, because the timbre of an instrument is determined by a characteristic array of harmonics in its tone, each instrument touches our auric layers in its own special way.  Drums resonate most in our bellies and diaphragms, the emotional and psychic centers of our bodies. Other instruments that touch us here are the cello, the trombone, the tuba, that bassoon, and other low-range sounds. The heart-center of compassion-is vibrated most by string orchestra. Alton instruments, such as English horn, viola, French horn, and high-range cello also pull at our hear “strings.” The throat-center of communication and creative expression-responds to clarinet, oboe, and violin. The brow-center of insight and perception-resonates with flute, oboe, and trumpet. The crown-bliss center-vibrates to high-pitched instruments, tinkling bells and crystal bowls.  Knowing which instruments touch us where helps us choose music that can accompany healing work on specific parts of the physical body. For the entire body, the most effective instruments are those with the fullest range of sounds: keyboards, guitar, carefully-voiced synthesizers, symphony orchestras, and most healing of all the concert harp. Fortunately, in New Age music, there are many recordings by artists on a full assortment of instruments.

Form

This last element of healing music may be difficult to hear without practice, but I mention it briefly because it is an important ingredient in the mixture of elements that make a musical brew healing.  Form is the structure underneath all of the other elements. It determines the direction in which the listener goes when hearing the music. For example, a folksong has a verse and a chorus, another verse and the chorus, and so on. This form is linear. Other forms are cyclical. For example, a theme is stated, a contrasting theme is heard, and the original theme is restated. I believe that cyclical forms are the most healing, because the listener finds a climax (or point of most tension of excitement) in the middle of the music and then is brought back to the beginning feeling. Much of New Age music, because it is made with healing intent, is created in cyclical form, even when the musician is improvising or channeling. This is probably because the musician is intuitively in touch with the healing ebb and flow of the spiral and circular designs of Nature.