People have recognized the many benefits of music since the dawn of recorded history.  I have scoured the Internet to find the most meaningful and inspiring quotes about music.  These come from a wide variety of ancient and modern sources; sayings from both musicians and non-musicians.  I hope that you will find these inspiring whether you play music or just enjoy grooving to it.  Leave comments if there are other quotes or tell us your favorites.

• A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence. – Leopold Stokowski
• Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. – Berthold Auerbach
• All deep things are song.  It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! – Thomas Carlyle
• If the King loves music, it is well with the land. – Mencius
• Without music life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
• Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.  You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
• If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. – Gustav Mahler
• Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them! – Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom.  If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. – Charlie Parker

• Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? – Michael Torke
• He who sings scares away his woes. – Cervantes
• Music was my refuge.  I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. – Maya Angelou
• Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. – Benjamin Disraeli
• Music is what feelings sound like. – Author Unknown
• Music is the poetry of the air. – Richter
• If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music.  It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth.  Sydney Smith
• There is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is. – William P. Merrill
• Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it. – Henry David Thoreau

• Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. – Ludwig van Beethoven
• I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours.  But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places.  Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. – H.A. Overstreet
• My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require. – Edward Elgar
• Life can’t be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. – William F. Buckley, Jr.
• Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself. – Henry Ward Beecher
• Play the music, not the instrument. – Author Unknown
• Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. – Robert Fripp
• Music’s the medicine of the mind. – John A. Logan
• You are the music while the music lasts. – T.S. Eliot

• Music is the universal language of mankind. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Music rots when it gets too far from the dance.  Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. – Ezra Pound
• He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once. – Robert Browning
• Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. – Victor Hugo
• Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel. – Buffy Sainte-Marie
• Music is an outburst of the soul. – Frederick Delius
• Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. – Oscar Wilde
• In music the passions enjoy themselves. – Nietzsche
• Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words. – Robert G. Ingersoll

• Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends. – Alphonse de Lamartine
• When words leave off, music begins. -  Heinrich Heine
• Truly to sing, that is a different breath. – Rainer Maria Rilke
• Music is the shorthand of emotion. – Leo Tolstoy
• There is no truer truth obtainable by Man than comes of music. – Robert Browning
• A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. – Benny Green
• The pause is as important as the note. – Truman Fisher
• Silence is the fabric upon which the notes are woven. – Lawrence Duncan
• Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. – Confucius

• Rock music in its lyrics often talks ahead of the time about what’s going on in the country. – Edmund G. Brown
• The discovery of song and the creation of musical instruments both owed their origin to a human impulse which lies much deeper than conscious intention:  the need for rhythm in life… the need is a deep one, transcending thought, and disregarded at our peril. – Richard Baker
• Music is the medicine of the breaking heart. – Leigh Hunt
• Country music is three chords and the truth. – Harlan Howard
• I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms, could I live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a medicine. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
• The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously.  Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. – Aldous Huxley
• Music is love in search of a word. – Sidney Lanier

• I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else. – Lily Tomlin
• Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.  – Ludwig van Beethoven
• Music is a higher revelation than philosophy.  – Ludwig van Beethoven
• Music  is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.  – Ludwig van Beethoven
• Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.  – Warren G. Bennis
• Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable. – Leonard Bernstein
• Music is well said to be the speech of angels.  – Thomas Carlyle
• The truest expression of a people is in its dance and music.  – Agnes de Mile
• Number is the Word but is not utterance; it is wave and light, though no one sees it; it is rhythm and music, though no one hears it. Its variations are limitless and yet it is immutable. Each form of life is a particular reverberation of Number. – Maurice Druon

• I think there are only three things America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, music, and baseball. – Gerald Early
• There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music. – George Eliot
• Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. – Kahlil Gibran
• As any jazz musician knows, it takes flexibility and adaptability for improvisation to create beauty. – Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer
• Music isn’t just learning notes and playing them, You learn notes to play to the music of your soul. – Katie Greenwood
• Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite. – Thomas Carlyle
• Without music, life is a journey through a desert.  – Pat Conroy
• Extraordinary how potent cheap music is. – Noel Coward
• The history of a people is found in its songs.  – George Jellinek

• I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music. -  Billy Joel
• It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives it most distinctive characteristics.  – James Weldon Johnson
• Music is the vernacular of the human soul. – Geoffrey Latham
• Just as certain selections of music will nourish your physical body and your emotional layer, so other musical works will bring greater health to your mind. – Hal A. Lingerman
• Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously. – Henry Miller
• If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing. – Zimbabwe Proverb
• The new sound-sphere is global. It ripples at great speed across languages, ideologies, frontiers and races. The economics of this musical Esperanto is staggering. Rock and pop breed concentric worlds of fashion, setting and life-style. Popular music has brought with it sociologies of private and public manner, of group solidarity. The politics of Eden come loud. – George Steiner
• A good composer does not imitate; he steals. – Igor Stravinsky
• Remember, information is not knowledge; knowledge is not wisdom; wisdom is not truth; truth is not beauty; beauty is not love; love is not music; music is the best. – Frank Zappa

• Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains. – Paul Whiteman
• There’s a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don’t know what it is. But I’ve got it. – Ron Wood
• There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another. – Frank Zappa
• You are the music while the music lasts. – T. S. Eliot
• True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today. – George Gershwin
• Sounds like the blues are composed of feeling, finesse, and fear. – Billy Gibbons
• The effects of good music are not just because it’s new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
• Music and dancing (the more the pity) have become so closely associated with ideas of riot and debauchery among the less cultivated classes, that a taste for them, for their own sakes, can hardly be said to exist, and before they can be recommended as innocent or safe amusements, a very great change of ideas must take place. – Sir John Herschel
• Music, the greatest good that mortals know, and all of heaven we have below. -  Joseph Addison

I remember very clearly the first time I ‘became’ the music-no longer a ‘me’ playing the music, only ‘music being played.’ Skiers and dancers know the feeling-when you’re so in tune with the energy of the moment that you lose yourself totally in the experience.  My breakthrough came early in my career, during the first day on campus at the University of Buffalo. I always carried my trumpet with me in those days, since I was passionate about jazz. A jam session was going on in the Student Union building, with the hottest faculty and professional musicians cooking up a storm in the John Coltrane high-energy dimensions. I was invited to sit in.

Ten years of studying fancy scales and fast fingering gave me a way to get started. Then, suddenly it seemed as if the trumpet began playing itself, the silver horn was an extension of my nervous system and a wind blew through me that carried notes higher and faster and clearer that I had ever played before.  When it was over, I felt as if I was levitating. People were congratulating me on my great ’solo’-but I had little recall of what I had played or how I did it. All I knew was that if felt great and I wanted to learn how to get into that state again.

Thus began my period of study with the master teacher who appeared on piano and as an English professor teaching about William Blake, which included studying spiritual traditions of the East, the work of Gurdjiaff, nutrition, yoga and meditation. It ultimately led to my being ready to be opened as a channel for the meditative healing music that would flow through me when I played piano which has formed the foundation for my recording career and my sound contributions to the holistic growth movement.

Although no one fully understands yet the mechanisms through which the healing powers of music operate, there is no question that certain kinds of music can assist the body in amplifying its own self-healing energies.  Traditional music therapy focuses on physiological or emotional response to music. Obviously, if you have favorite pieces of music that make you happy, this will tend to enhance the production of endorphins, which contribute to feelings of wellness.

The body produces its own natural mood enhancers, called neurotransmitters. Those that help us relax are called endorphins. Beta-endorphins are those specific secretions that Dr. Irving Oyle calls ‘joy juice:’ they help us feel good and are associated with ‘runner’s high’ one gets in listening to pleasurable music. Although there hasn’t been a great deal of research as yet, studies have already demonstrated the music/ endorphin connection. In the near future, music will be recognized for its ability to provide a drug-free ‘natural high’ and used accordingly.

Beyond one’s personal taste in music, the body seems to have a wisdom of it’s own. This is allowed to manifest most effectively in a state of deep relaxation. In the past several years relaxation has really come into its own in terms of public awareness. In fact, a recent study by Dr. David Eisenber, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports that over 60 million people are involved in some sort of alternative health care that delivers relaxation.  When it comes to relaxation, there are few therapies more enjoyable that listening to music. But only certain kinds of music are effective in evoking your relaxation response.

The reason is simple: Most music is designed as entertainment, and is too fast for the body to get into a relaxed state. It literally makes the nervous system more nervous. This is true of most pop and rock music and even most classical music.  Lyrics and structure also tend to direct your attention toward the music, rather that inside towards your healing process.

In a state of deep relaxation, two significant processes occur that I believer are highly relevant to anyone involved in a healing process. Firstly, the brain waves shift from everyday beta patterning to the alpha and theta frequencies, in which healing is known to occur.  Secondly, electromagnetic energy fields and subtle energy centers (chakras) come into alignment as a tuned oscillation system. This allows for the most efficient distribution of energy, thus making more energy available fore the healing process.

Sound is a two-edged sword. While certain sounds can help us heal, many other sounds tend to create disharmony, and stress. It is now well established that stress is a contributing factor in many diseases. Thus decreasing one’s stress in general is an important part of a healing program.  Identifying factors related to sound and noise is a simple, yet important step. For instance, noise pollution from one’s refrigerator often extends through the house or apartment. Pay attention and you can feel the relief from tension in you chest when the machine shuts off for awhile.

You might also write down an inventory of sounds you can hear in your living spaces. Notice whether you find them pleasant or unpleasant. Note also whether you had ever even noticed them before.  You can place sound-absorbent material under refrigerators, so the sound and vibration doesn’t go directly into the floor. You can chose quieter-running models of this and other appliances.  To further quite-down the intrusion of outside noise into your own space, consider adding double pane windows. Building insulation into walls helps a lot too.

You can ’sound condition’ you space with either environmental sounds. Like running water, river or lake sounds (though this activates a bladder response for many people.) Or you can choose certain music which ‘ takes the edge off’ the discordant sounds of the outside world. There is a fine line, I find, between using music as background and having it fill up the spaces so you can concentrate on what you want to focus on, and between music that grabs your attention itself. Experiment. My own search helped me compose the recordings in my Inner Peace series.

Recent research demonstrates the positive effect of this music on brain-wave activity, as well as on the actual mobility of white blood cells, an indication of a healthy immune system functioning.  What type of music reduces stress the best? I believe the answer is music that works with the body’s own desire to be in balance. Music that has no sharp edges or jagged rhythms. Music without words or familiar themes, allowing you to come into a relaxed alpha brain-wave state.

In addition to the benefits that occur in the state of deep relaxation, we can further amplify the healing process by harnessing the power of your subconscious mind. In deep relaxation, you are most receptive and responsive to positive, life-enhancing affirmations. By encoding these spoken affirmations subliminally (below the threshold of conscious awareness) the healing benefits of the music alone can be enhanced. Many people keep the music going 24 hours a day in times of crisis. You may wish to create your own tape with your own specific affirmations. I would encourage you to record these affirmations in an audible manner, so you could hear your own voice.

The more you surround yourself with vibrations of harmony, the more you will be supporting your own body’s recuperative process and enhancing your own healing.  Take a few moments for yourself  Your body is a self-balancing and self-harmonizing organism, if we give it a chance. Focusing on your internal state, rather that outside distraction, is a good first step. Simply chose to take a few moments for yourself. Close you eyes, take a deep breath. . . and listen deeply. . .to the spaces between the notes. When I listen to music that allows my breath to deepen and slow down, a shift occurs that I can literally feel in my body, mind and spirit. It happens quickly, which is great for Type A people like myself.

I recommend that you collect your own personal set of musical selections that always evoke your ‘relaxation response.’ Most music does not. . . and was not designed to do so. Monitor your heart beat and you will see what I mean: fast or sped-up heartbeat might be exciting, but it is definitely not relaxing.  The more you pay attention, the clearer this distinction will be. As a great teacher said: “Be still and know.” In the stillness, great blessings and healings can occur. They are just waiting for us to resonate to the brain wave frequencies of transcendence.  When practiced regularly, relaxation can help prevent many of today’s stress related diseases and help support a strong immune system and the body’ s self-healing mechanisms.

Music is inherent in the very nature of humas.  The tiny infant will often respond to a rhythmic sound, beginning to hum even before speaking.  Rhythm and music abound in nature all around us – the rhythmic drumming of the surf, the measured meter of rain, the winds, the melodic tunes of song birds.   Music is in us, as well.   It’s an ability inherent in every child, simply awaiting development.    Unfortunately some children may never know the joys of creating  their own music, exploring their innate abilities, or discovering the joys of this self expression.  For most children, that opportunity comes but once.  To be denied that opportunity is to forfeit this natural means of self expression.

Why Music is Important for Human Development? by Groth Music Company

Music is a Science… It is exact, specific, and it demands exact acoustics.  A conductor’s full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.   Music is Mathematical…  It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.  Music is a Foreign Language… Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English – but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols  to represent ideas.  The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.

Music is History… Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation, often even the country and or cultural feeling.  Music is Physical Education…  It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.  Music Develops Insight and Demands Research… Music is all these things, but most of all, Music Is Art…  It allows a human being to take all these, dry, technically boring, (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion.  That is one thing science cannot duplicate; humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.

And, Music Is Fun! Unlike some disciplines, music is fun to learn.  We all enjoy listening to music.  It is even more fun to create it.  There is a simple joy in experimenting with an instrument, playing real notes and discovering how those notes fit together to become a melody.  And there’s a unique and special satisfaction in performing as part of  a band or orchestra that will be cherished for a lifetime, a unique pleasure in meeting new challenges and handling them – beautifully.

The Time May Be Now… For your children and yourself, the opportunity to participate in music may be now.  As a caring parent, you too are presented with a unique opportunity: the chance to introduce your child to a new and wonderful world where undiscovered abilities may blossom forth, where awakening dreams become fulfilled, where a richer and fuller life begins.  Your decision to enroll your child in a music program may be one of the most important contributions you’ll ever make to his or her education and perhaps to his or her life.

Did You Know… That when children study music in school, they also improve their reading, spelling, and math skills?  Educators agree that abstract concepts such as counting, fractions, and ratios become more concrete when applied in a musical context, making the relationship between mathematical theory and practice noticeably clearer.  Music increases a student’s learning capabilities in many other areas, as various studies show:   Students who participate in their school band or orchestra are 52 percent more likely to go on to college and graduate.  A recent Rockefeller Foundation study discovered that music students have the highest rate of admittance to medical schools.  Studies in other countries have demonstrated that along with these benefits, there is a significant relationship between music instruction  and education performance in reading, spelling, mathematics, listening and verbal abilities, and motor skills.

Music – It’s Creative And Advances Learning Ability… Children have a natural curiosity, and curiosity is the seed of creativity.  Music offers the child  an  exciting opportunity to channel that natural curiosity into creative endeavor.  It nurtures independent thinking that will carry over into other aspects of the child’s curriculum and be applied to many subjects other than music.  It is more than coincidental that nationwide studies have shown that students in school music programs have achieved higher averages in all subjects and develop academically more rapidly than others.    Direct correlations between music instruction and reading, spelling and math skills underscore music study as a decisive factor in  a student’s educational success.

What Is It We Want For Our Children… Obviously many things, but most parents include some of these traits: good self-esteem and self-expression; good self-discipline; individual creativity; good academic and social skills.  When a child participates in music program, all of these traits may be developed.  When a child succeeds at the diverse tasks required in playing and instrument, self-esteem is enhanced.  When a child learns by experience that creating music links one’s self to the world, self expression becomes more fluent.  Creating music helps the child interpret “who I am.”  The child who is taught how to make music learns much about his or her innate creativity.  As a child begins to understand the connection between hours of practice and the quality of a performance, self-discipline becomes self-reinforcing.  It may then be a short jump to making the connection between self-discipline and performance in life.  Music programs alone may not be the answer to all the educational and social problems among youth, but many agree it would be foolish to discount music education’s contributions to finding solutions in these areas.  Music is one of the few areas of study available to children that can bring such a diversity of positive factors together in the same classroom at the same time.

Music Builds Self Confidence… Every child needs a success, a means of gaining recognition.   It’s a part of the growing-up process, with each accomplishment contributing positively to the development of a stronger personality.  Music provides almost daily opportunity for individual accomplishment and, with each success, you child gains confidence.   Children who participate in school music programs begin to know themselves, to believe in their abilities and to gain strength as individuals.

Music Is A Form Of Beauty… Music stirs the memory of our people.  It connects us to our history, our traditions, our heritage.  It is a dominant force in the world, shaping every culture’s senses as well as the values of its children as few other forces can.  It is critically important that our children understand their place in today’s world by making these connections.  In the folk songs of Appalachia, in the emotional reverberations of the blues, in the soaring spirituality of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, in the vigor of Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, our children can awaken to a knowledge of themselves – their community and their world – in ways that cannot be duplicated.  We want our children to know and understand music precisely because it has intrinsic value on these and many other levels.

Music Has Lifetime Value… “Music is the universal language of mankind,” said Longfellow.   Where will learning this “language” lead your child?  the possibilities are endless.  First, of course, there is the school band or orchestra.   Eventually, your child might play in a marching band, participate in philharmonic concerts, or a popular music performing group.  And, too, there is the practical matter of music scholarships to college.  Millions of dollars in scholarships are currently awarded to deserving students each year.  Regardless of where music leads your child, he or she is certain to benefit from the ability to play an instrument.   your child will develop a finer appreciation for history and culture as well as for all forms of music.  Music will provide a means of individual expression, of relaxation and enjoyment, and better use of leisure time as well.  Your child will benefit from the personal growth and development that musical training brings.

Band and Orchestra – A Model For Life… When children join band or orchestra they are learning more than just music.   They are also learning the critical thinking skills needed in today’s work force.   Children in band or orchestra develop higher cognitive skills and increased ability to analyze and evaluate information.  they also learn about teamwork and conflict/resolution skills required for success in the modern workplace while enjoying the healthy, positive activity of band and orchestra with friends.

Music Enhances Social Development… In the school music program, your child becomes part of a group whose success depends upon teamwork and cooperation.  Discovering the advantages of working with others and contributing to the overall success of the group is a valuable lesson that your child will carry through the rest of his or her life.  With this group association, your child will find how to more easily make new friends who share the same common backgrounds and interests.  Most importantly, because every student contributes to the success of the school band or orchestra, children learn a greater appreciation for the part others can play in their own successes, and vice versa.  And in band or orchestra, every member of the team gets to play!

Keeping the Opportunity Alive… Despite the obvious values of a musical education, some school districts are cutting school band and orchestra budgets – or worse, cutting out entire music programs, simply because some school officials don’t understand these benefits.  Fortunately there are ways parents can help improve these conditions in your community:  Strike an alliance with your school music educators and directors.  Find out how you can support, at home, what the teachers are trying to accomplish at school.  Make sure you local school board, administrators and public officials know of your commitment to music education as a matter of educational principle.  Work with your music parents’ club and area music dealers to prevent music from becoming a “bargaining chip” in school budget battles.

Groth Music was founded in 1939 by Chester E. Groth, a professional musician, who sought to bring a quality music store to Twin Cities musicians. Once established, Groth Music earned a reputation of integrity, a place where one could find a knowledgeable sales staff, and quality merchandise at fair prices.  Groth Music remained at its downtown location for nearly 50 years until the boom of skyscrapers in Minneapolis forced the last vestige of the old fashioned music store out of Minneapolis.

Music and society have always been intimately related. Music reflects and creates social conditions – including the factors that either facilitate or impede social change. The development of recording techniques in the latter half of the 20th century has revolutionized the extent to which most people have access to music. All kinds of music are available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a switch. The down side of this easy availability of music in the Western world is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted.

This article has been written as the result of a world wide literature review of authoritative articles which address the Power of Music (as defined by this study). The website for this report seems to be out-of-service; but the sponsoring organization can be found at the Performing Rights Society for New Music.

This report is also available in hard copy format from the main author:
David Francis, The Performing Right Society, 29 – 33 Berners Street, London, W1T 3AB

Music is a very powerful medium and in some societies there have been attempts to control its use. It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and national identities. It is powerful at the individual level because it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and behavioral. Few other stimuli have effects on such a wide range of human functions. The brain’s multiple processing of music can make it difficult to predict the particular effects of any piece of music on any individual.

The power of music to act therapeutically has long been recognized. Therapy can involve listening to or actively making music. Increasingly it may involve both. Music can be effective in conjunction with other interventions in promoting relaxation, alleviating anxiety and pain in medicine and dentistry, and promoting well-being through the production of particular endorphins. Its therapeutic uses have been explored extensively with particular groups of patients, the elderly, those with brain damage, and those with persistent pain. It has also been used to promote appropriate behavior in vulnerable groups and enhance the quality of life of those who cannot be helped medically.

Music can play an important part in human development in the early years stimulating foetuses and infants in such a way as to promote their wellbeing. Early interactions between mother and child have an essentially musical quality which assists in the development of communication skills. Listening to music or being involved in making it does not seem to directly affect intelligence, although active involvement in music making may enhance self-esteem and promote the development of a range of social and transferable skills. Listening to quiet, relaxing background music can improve performance on a range of academic tasks, while exciting music may interfere. Memorisation can be particularly affected. Adults are able to mediate the effects of interference through the adoption of coping strategies.

The increased availability of music seems to be encouraging people to use music to manipulate their own moods, reduce stress, alleviate boredom while undertaking tedious or repetitive tasks, and create environments appropriate for particular kinds of social occasion. In short, music is being used by individuals to enhance the quality of their lives.

In parallel with this, there is a large industry concerned with the effects of music on workers and consumers. Music can influence our purchasing behavior in subtle ways in a range of environments. It can assist our ability to remember product names and enhance the product through association with liked music. When consumers are actively involved in making a decision about buying a product, music is likely to play a more peripheral role. The evidence outlined above indicates the extent to which music pervades our everyday lives and influences our behavior. This demand for music is likely to continue to increase. To support our appetite for music, the music industries in the developed world constitute a major element of the economies of many countries. They are in danger of losing their skilled work force in the future because of the extent to which music is taken for granted.

Much of the research into the effects of music on intellectual and personal development, concentration, anxiety, pain reduction, and behavior in a range of settings has tended to ignore the possible effects of cognition at the individual level. This is an important omission. Such research as there is suggests that our thinking about music has a powerful impact on our responses to it. If we wish to understand how music affects our lives we have to take account of the experiences of the individual. The evidence suggests that many people have already discovered that music is good for them. Now we need to develop an understanding of exactly why and in what circumstances.

This will require a multi-disciplinary approach to take account of the many factors which may be important. These may include, the society or culture to which the individual belongs, sub-group membership, individual characteristics including gender, age, prior experiences of music, current mood, whether the music is self or other selected and the extent to which music is considered important in the individual’s life. To explore these issues a wide range of methodologies will need to be adopted which are capable of exploring the individual’s subjective experiences of music while also taking account of those responses of which they are unaware.

There is also a need for more systematic investigation of the ways that music can impact on groups of people in social settings. To date, research has tended to focus on commercial and work environments. The way that music may affect behavior in public places has been neglected. Such research, for instance, might explore whether particular types of music might stimulate orderly exits from large public functions, reduce the incidence of disorder in particular settings, increase tolerance when people have to queue for relatively long periods of time or engender feelings of well being and safety in public places.

The Power of Music – Susan Hallam

• All kinds of music are now available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a switch.
• Music is a very powerful medium. In some societies this is recognized and attempts are made to control music by those in power.
• Music is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, induces shared emotional reactions and supports the development of group identity
• Music is powerful at the individual level because it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and behavioral.
• The brain’s multiple processing of music makes it difficult to predict the particular effect of any piece of music on any individual.
• Music has powerful therapeutic effects which can be achieved through listening or active music making.
• Music can promote relaxation, alleviate anxiety and pain, promote appropriate behavior in vulnerable groups and enhance the quality of life of those who are beyond medical help.
• Music can play an important part in enhancing human development in the early years.
• Active involvement in music making in children may increase self-esteem and promote the development of a range of social and transferable skills.
• People can use music in their lives to manipulate their moods, alleviate the boredom of tedious tasks, and create environments appropriate for particular social events.
• The easy availability of music in everyday life is encouraging individuals to use music to optimise their sense of well-being.
• Music can influence our behavior in ways which are beyond our conscious awareness. Knowledge of these effects can be used to manipulate our work and purchasing behavior.
• The easy availability of music means that it tends to be taken for granted. This can lead to neglect in considering how the infrastructure supporting music and musicians is resourced, maintained and developed.

Music in our everyday lives

Never before in the history of humanity have so many different kinds of music been so easily available to so many people. The development of the electronic media in the latter part of the 20th Century revolutionized access to and use of music in our everyday lives. We can turn on the radio, play a CD or tape, or listen to music on video or TV with very little effort. This has not always been the case. Prior to these developments, music was only accessible for most people if they made it themselves or attended particular religious or social events. The effects of these changes have been dramatic. It is now possible for us to use music to manipulate personal moods, arousal and feelings, and create environments which may manipulate the ways that other people feel and behave. Individuals can and do use music as an aid to relaxation, to overcome powerful emotions, to generate the right mood for going to a party, to stimulate concentration, in short, to promote their well being. It has become a tool to be used to enhance our self presentation and promote our development.

The down side to the easy availability of music is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted. At the same time as music is becoming a more integral part of every day life, the place of music in formal education world wide is consistently being questioned. Music already plays an important role in promoting human well being. As the positive benefits of music are increasingly demonstrated in health, psychology and other fields demand will increase. If this is to be met society will need appropriately educated musicians.

The extent to which people listen to music

Probably, the most significant development in music in the last century was the development of the technology which enabled the recording of sound. This has made music easily accessible to everyone. As a result of this music has become a major industry world wide.

In the USA and the UK music is amongst the top economic generators of income. There are currently 13,159 radio stations in the USA. The average American is exposed to more than 1600 commercial messages in each 24 hour period through one type of media or another. Most of these advertisements are accompanied by music. In the UK, in 1998, the British Phonographic Industry annual trade figures indicated that sales of music reached an all time high of £1,118 million. Album sales exceeded 210 million units. In 1997, total domestic spending on music in the UK was valued at £3.7 billion. Gross overseas earnings were valued at £1,332 million compared with payments of £813m. Net earnings were estimated at £519m. The domestic music industry also had a value of £3.2 billion with the equivalent of 130,00 full time jobs.In 1999, the UK was ranked 3rd with only the USA and Japan higher in relation to world music sales. Music is of major importance to the UK’s economic health.

In 1993, 98.5% of teenagers in the USA claimed to listen to music. In the region of 70% of students report listening to music while studying. This degree of exposure and the evidence indicating the importance of music in adolescents’ lives suggests that its influence may be very powerful. But it is not only adolescents who listen to and enjoy music, a recent US survey of musical tastes indicated that 75% of mature citizens listened to music for at least one hour everyday. Their preferred music was classical, show tunes and country music. In the UK, recent figures suggest that in the order of 11.3 million people listen regularly to BBC Radio 1, 10 million to BBC Radio 2, 6.2 million to Classic FM and 1.9 million to Radio 3. In addition there are over 300 commercial stations and almost 40 BBC local stations which spend a considerable amount of air time playing music.

People not only listen to music, they actively take part in making it. In 1993, in the USA, 62 million people said that they sang or played a musical instrument. In the UK millions of people sing or play instruments for the love of it. In 1999, 49% of children took instrumental music lessons. The decision to learn an instrument was generally theirs, although teachers were influential in the process, more so than parents. Approximately half of the children who played had a friend or family member who also played an instrument. Estimates of adults playing an instrument have varied between 24-30%. The instruments most likely to be played by children are the recorder, electronic keyboard or piano. Piano is the main instrument for adults. The main reason children gave for learning a particular instrument was liking the sound, although friendships were important in some cases.

These figures suggest that music has become an integral part of our everyday lives in a way which would have been unthinkable 100 years ago. Further, we not only listen to music, we make it. This is reflected in the setting up of a development agency for participatory music making in the community called Sound Sense. This acts as a source of information and provides opportunities for the exchange of ideas in relation to all aspects of community music.

Not only is it fun and rewarding to learn and teach music; it is also amazing to use music in teaching.  I have used music videos in my Sociology classes for years.  Listening to music also helps us learn other subjects.  Enjoy these easy steps and leave some comments.

These eight steps are summarized from An introduction to The Music Revolution, by Dr. Jeannette Vos, co-author of the world’s biggest-selling book in 1999,The Learning Revolution.

1. Music relaxes the mind and lowers stress levels that inhibit learning. When used effectively, it increases alpha levels in the brain, boosting memory and recall and allowing the brain to access reserve capacities.
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2. Music acts directly on the body, specifically on metabolism and heartbeat. Listening to certain types of music can trigger the release of endorphins, producing a tranquil state that leads to faster learning.
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3. Music stimulates and awakens, reviving board or sleepy learners and increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain.
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4. Music is mathematical. Certain musical structures stimulate specialized brain circuits, allowing learners to decode complex ideas more easily.
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5. Music inspires emotion, creating a clear passage to long-term memory.
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6. Music is a stage-changer and can be used effectively to get students into an effective learning state.
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7. Music is a universal language, uniquely capable of crossing cultural barriers and training in ethnic traditions and values. It can set a dramatic stage for lessons in history, foreign language, sociology, political studies and geography.
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8. Music is a powerful anchor that moors learning in memory.

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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.

For any healing modality, healing is not creating something new, but merely realigning the body to its own already-existing Divine blue-print. There are innumerable ways to do this, and using sound is one potent way.  How is it that Sound can Heal?  Primarily thorough Physical Resonance and Emotional Resonance.  Physical Resonance – results from the vibrating air “shaking up” the molecules and causing the energy systems to synchronize with itself into “standing waves” which, out of random chaos produce order, symmetry, coherency, and stability. Hans Jenny with his study of Cymatics shows innumerable photographs of beautifully symmetric shapes, formed by random powders vibrating on a surface that is vibrating with sound.

Sound can produce order out of randomness, by causing an energy system to synchronize with itself, producing standing waves. Standing waves are a characteristic of any self-organizing system, such as your body. And increased coherency is the direction of increased health and greater life force. This means that sound can cause the various “parts” of your body to synchronize with each other, such as your heart beat synchronizing with your breathing and with your brain waves.  Any system that self-synchronizes into standing waves causes these waves to reinforce each other, (sustained good health,) whereas a vibrating system without standing waves causes the waves to randomly cancel each other out, (disease & death.)

“Shaking up the molecules” for sound-healing through physical resonance can occur, for example, by toning with your voice or using gongs or Tibetan bowls that are rubbed in a circular fashion. A more esoteric example is dolphins that have been known to use their sonar to “tune up” humans swimming with them. This type of sound healing usually does not involve a complex blend of many instruments, such as an orchestra, but usually only one potent sound by itself.  Emotional Resonance – means that music influences your feelings, and your feelings directly affect your health. Then we can apply this understanding to your physical body, your emotional body, and your mental body, each of which is vibrating in a different dimension, or different “range of frequencies.”

If two strings on a guitar are tuned to the same note (same frequency,) plucking one of these strings will also cause the other string to vibrate. This is a simple example of resonance, wherein two neighboring systems tuned to the same frequency allow for the possibility of energy transferring from one to the other. Another simple example of resonance is radio. When your radio dial is tuned to the same carrier frequency that a particular radio station is transmitting on, this resonance allows your radio to pick up and decode that signal.  Now resonance also applies with the Law of Octaves. An octave higher means precisely twice the frequency and an octave lower means precisely half that frequency: If “A” on a piano is 440 cycles per second, the 880 cycles per second is the “A” that is one octave higher and 220 cycles per second is the “A” that is one octave lower.

Resonance can and does occur between octaves, simply because their frequencies are precise whole-numbering multiples off each other: If 2 strings on a guitar are tuned to 440 and 880 cycles per second, plucking either string will cause the other string to also vibrate, thanks to Resonance with the Law of Octaves. Keeping this in mind, we can see how each of your bodies (physical, emotional, mental) can influence each other. Now to state the obvious:

• Sound & music influence your emotions. This is an energy transfer from the physical plane to the emotional plane. Furthermore:
• Your emotions influence your physical body. This is an energy transfer from the emotional plane back to the physical plane. Therefore:
• Harmonious music/ sound = harmonious feelings = good health.  Furthermore:
• Your emotional influence your thinking. This is an energy transfer from the emotional plane to the mental plane. And…Your thinking influences your physical body. This is an energy transfer from the mental plane to the physical plane. Therefore:

• Harmonious music/ sound – harmonious feeling – optimistic thoughts – good health. So to summarize, sound healing through emotional resonance triggers a chain reaction between dimensions that begins as physical dimension sound and, through the Law of Octaves, passes through your emotional body and mental body, and then both your emotional and mental bodies influence the state of health of your physical body:
• Harmonious music/ sound – harmonious feelings – good health + Harmonious feelings – optimistic thoughts – good health. And the effects of music can be very “sneaky” because, whereas incoming thoughts have to pass through your intellectual censor before you decide to accept or reject those ideas. Sound and music by-pass any censor and totally saturate their influence on your emotions and feelings. All diseases are really psychosomatic (caused by the mind and feelings.) you can temporarily remove the symptom, but for a permanent cure, you must remove the cause, and the cause is always in the feelings and thinking.

And for those of you that actively create and use sound in your work, remember that- INTENT can modulate (ride on) a sound wave, just as one water wave can ride on top of another larger wave. The same vowel sound of “ah” can make a plant shrivel up or thrive, depending on the intent of the singer in that moment. Maximize your intention when using sound. Clearly, consciously intend the effects of the sounds you are creating or using, and watch its impact blossom right before your eyes!

One area of sound healing that is seldom regarded as such is rhythmic dance music! Rhythmic dance music can perform three powerful healing functions:

• It can charge the bottom 3 chakras or energy systems in the body.
• It can help ground the physical body.
• It can actually vitalize the physical body by pumping energy into it.

Rhythm is actually an energy pump through time. And if it is an effective rhythm, (you know… the kind where you have to move,) then it is pumping a lot of energy! Effective rhythms tend to induce a resonance between the pulsing sound waves and the pulsing body waves. When the resonance is great and the sound waves and body waves are synchronized and pulsing in unison, they have a hi-tech name for this- dancing. In such a synchronized state, dancing can actually pump energy and vitality into your body. (“I could have danced all night…”)

Hence, rhythm can provide nourishment to your body. The “trick”, however is to be careful that you choose dance music that is not emotionally distorted, otherwise you can be polluting your emotional body while vitalizing your physical body. Be discerning: only choose dance music that is emotionally positive and uplifting.

Another area of sound healing is sacred music. Here’s how this works: Whatever you place your attention on, your attention is like an electronic beam that instantly connects you to the target of your attention, like dialing a particular phone number. While this electronic beam of you attention is connecting you to this attention- target, three things are occurring:

• Your energy flows out to the object of your attention
• The energy from the object of your attention is flowing back to you.
• By being electronically linked up, you and this object of you attention begin to synchronize, and entrain, and resonate together as “one system.”

So whether your attention is focused on television reporting some horrible disaster of focused on a beautiful flower, you and the object of your attention immediately begin resonating together as one synchronized system.

Now when your attention is on the One Supreme Source of all Life everywhere-that which makes all of us alive-then you begin resonating with this Universal Energy. This means you begin synchronizing with the entire universe! And since BALANCE is one of the prime qualities of the Universal Source of All Life, this means you are getting more in balance with the entire universe! And balance = healing! Attuning to the Universal Source, by any means, is the most healing thing you can do for yourself!

Music can perform the function of assisting you in attuning to the Universal First Cause and in keeping you attention focused on that for an extended period of time. So sacred music can perform this function of facilitating your attunement and focus on the Universal Source, that you may become more healed by getting more in alignment with the Infinite Eternal Balance.

And for those readers that professionally use sound as a healing tool, keep in mind that there are endless, innumerable, countless ways that sound can be used for healing and no one knows them all! Know that you mind is an automatic “magnet” for ideas for any field that your mind specializes in. If your mind specializes in sound healing, know that your mind is a mental “magnet” for picking up new ideas for unique new ways sound can be used for healing. So follow your hunches! Manifest those ideas! Enrich this planet with the sound-healing techniques and ideas you are receiving. Dare to implement those far-out ideas!

Sound can be used as a channel tuner for you consciousness: By “tuning” the antenna of your light body, you can more readily dial-in and access specifically- desired light realms. This is using sound as a vibrational gateway. Rather than the dial of you consciousness being “stuck” most of the time on only one station, (this physical dimension,) you can exercise you ability to access different realms. The music then functions as “training wheels,” for once you familiarize with particular realms, you can readily access them without the music. Imagine! You can use sound as a “wave guide” to harmonically align with the higher octaves of your own being-your Higher Self. Through attention, you can even dial in and travel through the various octaves or “floors’ of your own God/Goddess Self.

There are vast legions of beings, both in the angelic kingdom and in the elemental kingdom, whose specialty is The Musical Outpouring of Divinity. In the angelic kingdom there are fleets of music angels-ready and eager to instantly come where they are invoked and invited, to grace and join in with any ceremony, adding their uniquely exquisite energies to those of the humans. Very often the humans do not hear the angels and do not even sense them, but they are emotionally moved by them-to the very core of their souls.

As our planet continues its dimensional upshift, there will be more and more ceremonies that consciously include and combine the angelic kingdom and the elemental nature kingdom with the human kingdom. Music can be the unifying force that resonates these three kingdoms together into a unified whole- for worship, adorations, and alignment with the One Universal Source.

These next few years, there will be appearing many musician-light-workers specifically focusing on creating music for all these purposes. Avail yourself of their sounds. Use sound to accelerate you evolution, rather than passively allowing sound to have a sluggish effect on your growth.

Take charge of your Life-what music you hear. Look for music that is coherent, emotionally uplifting, and centering. Music that feels like it is coming from a loving heart. Ask your own heart: How is this music affecting me- on all levels? Trust what your heart tells you, and act on it. Choose and intend to effortlessly ride these sound waves gracefully upward towards your own expansion on waves of light.

Iasos (pronounced yah’ sos) is one of the original founders of new age music, releasing his first album in 1975. He has won a number of awards, including the Crystal Award for Artist at the International New Age Music Conference.  In a recent major study at Plymouth State College with those that have had a “near-death experience,” Iasos’ music was selected as being “most similar” to the “heavenly music” they heard while officially on the other side, from a large selection of classical, pop and new age music.  Iasos creates music and does international multi-media concerts, seminars, and tours.

Sound and music have been used since ancient times for healing and transformation. Yet there is today a growing reemergence of interest in this field of sound healing with many different thoughts and ideas about the effects of sonics and their use as a transformative energy. many of the major questions about sound healing are still unanswered. The following thoughts are just my own and may not be based upon the reality of anyone else. They may, however, prove to be useful insights and considerations for others.
Note this is a full text article that I found at

One: We are all unique vibratory beings.

To begin, we address the concept that the basic principle of sound healing is that everything is in a state of vibration, including our organs, bones, tissues, etc. If these parts of the body become imbalanced they may be healed through projecting the proper and correct frequencies back into the body. This works for imbalances and over-or-under-activity in the chakras and the energy fields.  I believe that this concept is correct. I merely question whether the various frequencies that have been tabulated by numerous scientists and sound healers as being the frequency for the liver, for example, or the root chakra, are correct. My reason for questioning this information is that first, usually none of these frequencies that have been tabulated agree with one another. The second is, do you really believe that you have the same vibratory rate as anyone else?  When I first began this work, nearly fifteen years ago, I was involved in a project researching and investigating the effects of tone upon the chakras. I found dozens of different systems that used different sounds to achieve the same result. How could this be? I wondered. Later on, I came across the works of different scientists who used different frequencies to achieve the same result (and, I might add, with apparent success.)

This lead me to create the formula Frequency + Intent = Healing, because the only commonality in many of these different systems in many of these different systems was that the practitioner had the intent of vibrating or balancing a particular area or field with sound. However, this formula also stemmed from my own work with students, healers, and healees. It seemed that the more experience I had teaching and showing how to use sound as a transformative modality, the more validation I received that no one and nothing were the same. Which lead to my believe that we are all unique vibratory beings, in a constant state of fluidity and flow.  On a cellular level, there may be generic tones for specific organs. However, we may be lacking certain information regarding the proper understanding of this. Along with a frequency for the structure of the organ, there may also be a modulated frequency which is the pulse of the organ (how the organ interacts with the various energy which passes through it is it slow or fast? etc.) The brain, for example, pulses at different frequencies (alpha, beta, delta, theta,) but these are not the frequencies of the tissues of the brain. There may be at least two very different types of sonics which influence and affect any organ.

To make the assumption that we are all at the same level of physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual development (and therefore that our chakras all behave the same and resonate to the same frequencies) is rather simplistic. In Tibet, it seems that different chakras receive different mantras as sounds to resonate them, depending upon the level of development of the student. An “Ah” sound, for example, might work for the throat chakra at one level of development, while it might work for the heart chakra at another level.  Years ago, a student of mine found a system for working with sound and the chakras which used the note “C” for the root chakra and went up the chakras diatonically (“C,” “D,” “E,” “F,” etc.) so that the seventh or crown chakra vibrated to “B.” In principle, it was a very neat system, though it did not strike me as being correct for several reasons: First, it seemed that low frequencies affected my root chakra while high frequencies affected my crown. If the diatonic scale system were true, then that would mean that a low “B” would affect my crown chakra while a very high “C: would affect my root chakra, which did not seem to be the case. also, is that note “C” resonating the root chakra before or after coffee? Early in the morning or late at night? Before or after meditation? Because it well may be that these activities and ingestions affect the frequency rate, not only of our physical body, but also of the chakras and the etheric fields.  So, to the question, “Do I believe we all resonate to the same frequency?” I answer, “No. I do not.” I believe we are all unique and different vibratory beings with different frequencies for our bodies, brain, and energy centers. and these frequencies can change.

Two: Because of the uniqueness of the human vibratory rate and the uniqueness of our response to music, it is difficult to accurately test the effects of music upon the human body and energy fields.

One of the most effective measurements for testing the effects of music upon the body is kinesiology, a method of muscle testing. While highly trained practitioners of kinesiology can sometimes determine profound insights, kinesiology is a very difficult and specific tool if the practitioner is not skilled or clear about its purpose. It is necessary that the persons doing the testing be well trained in the various subtleties of kinesiology, and that they be extremely clear, with nothing to prove when doing the testing. Sometimes, even on an unconscious level, persons doing the testing will want to prove something and usually they are able to do this using kinesiology. Thus, one sometimes questions the results of kinesiological testings, particularly involving music, if the person doing the testing has anything to prove.  Here is one final thought on using kinesiology to check for the positive or negative effects of music. Given that if a practitioner checks a patient while the music is on, both parties will be influenced by the music and the results are not balanced nor accurate. However, if one of the persons wears headphones while listening to the music, it is speculated that headphones actually add their own influence into the kinesiological testing and change the results. The ultimate answer would be to use a machine that put the same amount of pressure down each time. However, while such a machine does exist, it is not very commonly found nor used.

Three: The energy inherent on recordings may be as important as the sound reproduction of the recording.

As we move more and more into audiophile consciousness, with the advent of high-tech recording and playback equipment, a certain bias is developing which insists that for recorded music to be beneficial, it must be well recorded, without any distortion. There is an aspect of truth in this. “Clean,” clear music, without distortion, etc., is very nice to our ears. It’s great in fact, and I prefer it to poorly recorded sounds. But let’s fact it, clean music isn’t necessarily therapeutic. If one believes that there is an energy form (we’ll call it “intent” for this purpose) outside the actual frequency range of the music, then something else is also going on when we listen to music.  Have you ever heard a poorly recorded “bootleg” of a fabulous concert that absolutely sent you soaring when you heard it, then when you heard the same song released on the album that was clean and clear, it did nothing for you? I have. I have a number of recordings of chanting from various spiritual masters on which the fidelity is questionable. But the energy inherent in these recordings is marvelous and somehow the healing or transformative energies are still transmitted through the sounds.  If someone is so biased that they cannot bypass the audio fidelity of a recording, I have no doubt that these people will not allow themselves to access the energy inherent on poorly recorded cassettes and discs. This may be a problem unique unto the individual and not inherent in the actual recording.  Let us not bias others with our own biases. It certainly qualifies and quantifies what’s good and bad for us.

Four: No one recorded sound medium is better than another.

This brings us to the insight of whether analog recordings (cassettes and record albums) are more beneficial than digital recordings (or vice versa.) The sonic jury is still out on this. No one knows. No doubt, both analog and digital are very different and, no doubt, they both can have positive results.  When kinesiology was first used as a method of testing the effects of music, it really seemed that digital was not beneficial. At the time, this may have been true. The early digital recordings sounded different: they were clear, but cold. Some people would develop headaches while listening to them. Still later, as digital continued to develop, I found people who believed that digital recording created sounds that were not beneficial to the cells of the body or auric field. There may be trut It is difficult to accurately test the effects of music.  More recently, a friend of mine who is a fine musical magician suggested that I was anti-digital because I was afraid of new technology. “Once you stop being afraid, you’ll be able to work with digital and synthesized sampled sounds as a sonic form that can be worked with (and influenced) like any other sound.” His words rang true. “Besides,” he added, “digital is working with quartz based technologies and you know how you love to work with quartz crystals.”

I listened to my friend’s advice and began to incorporate some digital and synthesized sampling technologies in my work. For example, during the recording of Angel of Sound, I utilized both analog and digital studio techniques. In addition, during the recording, I consciously asked Shamael, the Angel of Sacred Sound, to come into the recording (regardless of whether it was analog or digital.) From all reports, the Angel is there.  One last thing: Some purists tend to think of analog as being a purer sound than digital. More real. Conceptually, this is true, until you add all the other elements of recording and playback to this. When you take an analog recording such as a cassette and play it back through a transistorized system (which most of us have,) that analog signal is significantly changed. the sounds that come out of the systems are no more “real” than anything else. prerecorded music is in some way altered and changed from what it originally was. therefore no one recorded sound medium is really better than another.

Five: All tunings from different instrument have healing potential.

Many people believe that only harmonically related tunings are healing. Without getting too technical, let me say that the tunings of keyboards are, for the most part, tempered tunings. This means that the natural harmonically related intervals and ratios of different notes, when played together, are changed and different. On a piano, the ratios are logarithmically related, not harmonically, They don’t possess the naturally occurring ratios that are a part of the h harmonic series. Blame it on Bach, if you like, since he pioneered equal tempered music. It did change the intervals on the keyboard, but it also allowed players to be able to change keys without hitting “bad” notes.  There are those who feel that only music which has harmonically related intervals created either by the voice or by instruments that are not equal tempered have therapeutic value. As the author of a book which focuses on harmonic I understand this belief, though it doesn’t resonate with me as being true. Too many people have received healings, experienced transformations, and generally had wonderful times listening to music that was created by instruments such as the piano which use equal temperaments. One cannot denigrate these healing experiences by proclaiming that tunings must be harmonically related to be healing.

Six: Both intent and frequency create the transformation experience.

In my book Healing Sounds and in the workshops which I teach, I focus a lot of energy and thought on the importance of intention: the energy behind the sound. I point out how important intention is in the healing process. Never, however would I say that intention is the only thing Remember, Frequency + Intent + Healing. It’s not just one or the other. As the saying goes: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” As another writer has pointed out, the path between conception and execution can be quite distant. If, for example, I want to calm someone and I shout in their ear, my intent may be one thing, but the actual sound I make may be quite another thing and create quite a different effect.

Intentionality is extremely important and something that needs to be worked on consciously and consistently by sound healing practitioners. Frequency is equally important and not to be ignored. We need to be aware of the psychophysiology of sound, how we use sound, and how sounds affects us. We are vibratory beings and different sounds will resonate and influence us, unless we get to a level of attunement practiced by certain masters.

Perhaps it is regarding this ideal level of mastery and attunement where most people get confused. Few of us have achieved this vibratory level or the clearness of intent inherent in it. Usually, we are working at a level where we still need to clear ourselves when we’re working with projecting intention. Just having a desire to be clear doesn’t mean we’re there yet. Probably when one has reached a mastership of clarity, where one can truly project divine intention – the difference between “Thy will” and “My will”) one can make any sound and have a desired effect. However, this is not often the case.  It’s important, as we go through our spiritual evolutionary process when working with sound, to become aware of the effects of the sounds that we recorded projecting, as well as our proposed intentionality. It is the only way.

Seven: Sound is subtle.

We still live in the old paradigm of “more is better,” and, particularly, louder and longer is better. However, when working with sound, the volume, duration of frequency, and the effect of the sound are not necessarily interrelated.  We all know about how loud volumes can cause hearing loss. Also, in terms of physiological response, loud sounds do have specific and not particularly therapeutic effects: they trigger the fight or flight response, release adrenaline, raise heart beat, respiration, and brain wave activity, and may interfere with immunological functions.  There are therapists who use music, for example, played at very high volumes to elicit certain responses. This is valid, but we must remember that this is a specific use of music for a specific purpose.

It may be that when working with sound, loud volumes actually have less ability to make those changes down at a molecular level than do soft, gentle sound. Very loud sounds may be too overpowering to achieve a desired and long lasting effect, merely passing through the body without creating change. So louder is not better and neither is longer necessarily better.  While we may still have a “more is better” consciousness, this is not necessarily true in terms of sound. A frequency, or tone, may be effective when listened to or chanted for a brief period, but the effects may nullify or even become adverse over too long a period of time.

There may be a minimum amount of sound duration that is necessary to make changes in the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual body. Some sound healing practitioners say that five minutes is needed for a tone to really make change. Others say ten and others, twenty minutes. There are some sound practioners who have people sound or listen to music for many hours. Since we are all unique vibratory beings, I believe it differs from individual to individual. I certainly have observed extraordinary changes in individuals who have received sound for only a couple of minutes or less.  With the various sonic equipment and recordings that are now available which create specific sounds, there may be people who will be sounding or listening to a particular frequency all day long. Depending upon the individual and their needs, this may be fine, or it may not necessarily be healthful. More is not necessarily better and with sound, too much can possibly be debilitating to the nervous system or other systems of the physical and etheric bodies. Balance is an extraordinarily important aspect of any transformative or healing work and principles of balance should be applied to sound.

Eight: Sound and light/color are different forms of energy.

This thought may be quite controversial for some who believe light and sound are the same. No one really knows. My belief is that sound and light are related but they are not the same. One way to look at this relationship is through the harmonic series. Harmonics are the notes created from a fundamental tone which display universal principles of whole number ratios. A note vibrating at 100 cycles per second will affect any note that is a harmonic of this. This means a note vibrating twice as fast a 200 cycles per second, a note vibrating three times as fast at 300 cycles per second, and so on. This is the sonic equivalent of the ancient Hermetic Principle: “As Above, So Below.” We can therefore conceptually take that 100 cycles per second note, and say that it is harmonically related to a note 1 million cycles per second. However, this does not mean it is the same note nor will it necessarily have the same effect.

What has happened with the sound-as-light phenomenon is that mathematical scientists have either taken the frequency of a note and then doubled it forty times, until this frequency is within the same range as a particular color of light, or taken the frequency of a color and halved it forty times until this frequency is within the same range as a sound. Then these scientists have said, “This is that.” It may be, but no one has actually turned a sound into light. Different colors have been assigned to different notes, with devices like light organs, but it’s still all theoretical. No one has been able to take one sound frequency and jump it up forty octaves, without relying on putting it into different instruments or computers which, of course, change the natural process of a sound wave.  It may be that as a frequency enters a different energy state (sound would have to turn into many different types of energy such as heat before it became light,) the frequency goes through a conversion process and the mathematics are very different. As energy is transduced, the math may become much more complicated than we know. The simple doubling process may not be relevant.  My thoughts are that sound and light are complementary energy forms, but not necessarily the same. Assigning specific colors to specific tones may be an oversimplification of a process we do not yet understand. It may be that we can encode any color upon any frequency. This is another idea that I wanted to share with you, as long as we’re on the subject. No one really knows the answers to this insight at this time.

Nine: All music has potentially therapeutic qualities.

Many people believe that only New Age Music is healing, or whatever type of music you want to substitute for “New Age.” This gets into the same conundrum I experienced many years ago when I first began this sojourn into sound. Everybody wanted me to talk about how rock’n'roll was the devil’s music and bad. I wouldn’t. It is my belief that any music, depending upon the time, the place, and the need of the individual can have therapeutic effects. It is not that any music will have therapeutic effects, but that it can, if it is correct for the individual.

Knowledge of the psycho-acoustic effects of sound is helpful here. Certain sounds will often create similar physiological responses in many people. Slow pulsed music, for example, will have a tendency to slow down our heart rate, respiration, and brain waves. Fast music will often have the opposite effect. If it’s three o’clock in the morning, I’m tired and driving home from a party, and I put on a piece of deeply relaxing music, what happens? I become even drowsier and such music would probably be extremely hazardous to my driving. However, if I were to play some loud, up tempo music, it would most likely stimulate me, keep me awake, and under those conditions be quite therapeutic. This is not the same situation if it’s three in the morning and I’m trying to find music to help me sleep. Very different responses required. Very different types of music are needed.  Knowing how you want to use music is extremely important, as is understanding the potential psychological and physiological effects that are inherent in the music. Slow pulsed New Age music is excellent, of course, for relaxation but it’s not ideal for dancing. Yet, if dancing (and the extraordinary energy release found by dancing) is desired, slow New Age music is not ideal. What is your purpose for using a specific piece of music? Is it for meditation, guided imagery, dance, deep recollection, or for emotional release?

Realizing that every type of music has the ability to resonate with us on many different levels, it is possible that any type of music can have positive results; we should be open minded about all music and the possible transformative and therapeutic results that can occur from it.  One of the best ways of working with music is to create a musical prescription for yourself. Find out what types of music you respond to best. What specific music makes you feel joyful? What music makes you feel sad? Write down the different music that elicits different responses and use this music when you want to create a feeling or a mood. No one piece of music will affect everyone the same way, especially when it comes to our emotional responses to music. You can not expect someone else to have the same experiences as you do with any music. However, frequently, with our own experiences, if we have had a specific emotional response to listening to particular music, we will have a similar response when listening to that music again.

When working with others, you must find out what music works best for them is order to help create their musical prescription. It may be possible that a person is blocked from enjoying certain types of music because the sounds resonate imbalances within them. For example, one time a student could not listen to very low sounds, particularly those produced by chanting Tibetan monks. This was a response to a blockage in the lower chakras. Once this person was able to acknowledge the situation and open to the resonances created by the deep sounds, the blockages disappeared and they were able to release the imbalances. It was quite a transformational experience. This story illustrates how it is possible to find music that we really dislike, which can actually be useful in helping us to encounter and heal imbalanced aspects of ourself.

My final suggestion is to allow the potentiality of healing to occur in every piece of music. Music can reach into aspects of our psyche that we may not have a clue even exist. There are people working solely with classical music, or “sacred” music, or New Age music. The reality is that all forms of music, from rock to country to jazz to all the world musics that are now available to us, may have the potential of reaching further into our bodies, minds, and souls to initiate healing and transformation. Be open to all possibilities. You can never know what may transpire until you have tried.

There is a wonderful African expression that says “If you can talk, you can dance… If you can walk, you can dance!!” I have played music for most of my life – mainly as a self-taught lover of great songs.  Anyhow, it is possible for anyone to learn some form of musical expression – which includes dancing, whistling, humming and almost anything else that lets out the music in your head and heart.  This short list describes the benefits of formal education – particularly as it applies to children

Twelve Benefits of Music Education

1) Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2) There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3) Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4) Recent studies show that people who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5) Study of the arts provides people with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a “me first” attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6) Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student’s own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7) In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, people learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.
Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9) Music provides people with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10) Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on “doing,” as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11) Music performance teaches people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.

12) An arts education exposes people to the incomparable inspiration of music, dance, and other forms of creative expression.

Research has shown that music can be an important therapy for a number of conditions.  However, we also believe that music can promote happiness and harmony – regardless of whatever ails a person.  This story (published in a UK newspaper) describes an innovative conference sponsored by the Wellcome Trust in London.  This particular session was titled “Exploring the Rhythms of Life”.  Sure sounds great.  Wish I could have been there.  Leave some comments about what songs or types of music make you feel happy?

Can music make us happy? By Tom Horan
Telegraph – 25/11/2006

It’s a big question, but some people think they have the answer. reports

A class at a junior school are giving their term assembly in front of their parents. At the end of their potted version of Romeo and Juliet, the music teacher plays the piano and the 30 children begin to sing Greensleeves. There has been some parental pride in the air during the play, and the children have clearly enjoyed performing. But now a more profound sensation begins to swirl around the room.

Music has a universality that stretches beyond the mere generation of happiness and makes us feel connected to the rest of the world

The simple refrain of the song ignites in both singers and listeners a kind of elation. It is almost tangible. Something has elevated the assembly from an event informed by mild interest and a sense of duty to a moment of sublime happiness. Without a doubt, it is the music.

On Tuesday a series of talks begins at the Soho Theatre in central London, organized by the philanthropic body the Wellcome Trust. The event will tackle a subject as old as life itself but one that has become an obsession in our frenetic modern era: happiness.

The speakers are drawn from many fields but the unifying theme of the lectures is well-being and the nature of psychological good health. The program, first run this summer and now reprized, culminates next month with “Exploring the Rhythms of Life”. In this talk, experts will examine the intense and mysterious power of music, and ask this question: can we harness music to bring us happiness?

Every day we are sold the notion that consumer goods will give us pleasure. Technology in particular is marketed as the key to modern contentment. While the computer itself suffers from a rather prosaic image, its highly desirable cousin the iPod has gripped the public imagination.

Although some of its appeal can be put down to its sleek design, what really makes people want an iPod is not the equipment itself but its payload: an almost limitless store of music, and the promise of all the joy that it will bring.

“The technology is just a vehicle,” says Professor Paul Robertson, a concert violinist and academic who will speak at the final Wellcome lecture. “What it delivers is the most ancient system for satisfaction known to man – music. And we are increasingly able to understand the processes by which music makes us feel things.

We can now use science to observe what is going on in the brain while we are listening to music. And what we find is that the old idea that music is a language is now no longer a poetic fiction but a neurological fact.”

Robertson, Visiting Professor of Music and Medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Truro, has spent 30 years studying the link between what we hear and what we feel. Recent developments in PET and MRI scanning – the technology used to detect strokes and tumours – have led to compelling new evidence about the overlap between the way the brain processes speech and the way it interprets music.

“Music has syntax and semantics,” says Robertson. “It has organising principles that are deeply implicated with how we communicate meaning. And here we touch on the deep mysteries of music – why it is meaningful and what that meaning is constituted of.

“It comes down to Mendelssohn’s extraordinarily prescient comment that ‘music is too precise to express in words’. This level of precision makes music itself a map of our own internal, subjective experience. And what we are also discovering is that this internal experience is heavily connected to how we communicate with others.”

Robertson is not surprised at the great music boom of the past few years, which has seen not just a surge in the number of people listening to music via MP3 players such as the iPod, but also voracious demand for tickets to festivals and concerts, and huge viewing figures for TV shows, such as tonight’s X-Factor, which promote participation in singing and dancing. So does he think that what people are seeking though all this music is a route to happiness?

“It’s not just happiness,” he says, “it’s identity. We know that the auditory system of the brain is the first to fully function. At 16 weeks a foetus has a functioning auditory system. At 26 weeks you have a functioning brain system around it, which means that you are musically receptive long before anything else.

So as soon as we are born, as dependent infants, we use music. It’s the musicality, the prosody, the vocalizations of mother and baby that create the emotional bond. They are both necessary to our survival and central to our development as individuals.

“We are born with the ability to vocalize our emotional needs, but that also requires in the mother a set of brain systems that relate the baby’s calls to specific emotions. These prosodic interplays, these improvisations of mother and baby, actually follow musical form. They are in fact curiously classical. And we find that music tends to reflect these archetypal forms, because that is what is pleasing to the human ear.”

The links between music and happiness work on many different levels. At the most fundamental is the recognition described by Robinson of the codes and patterns of sound that are innately familiar and therefore pleasing – not just to the listener, but to the person who composed them. “We are only going to be able to recognize as beautiful and true those things that reflect our own neuro-physiology. It’s the only yardstick of ourselves we have. At the same time it’s the reinforcement of those into continuous, harmonious forms that comes back as ‘beautiful and true’. So it’s a self-fulfilling model.”

Similarly basic is the body’s reaction to noise. It is one of the intriguing quirks of nature than we cannot shut our ears. Even in sleep, our brains must process sounds, relegate some to the background, examine others minutely for significance. But when we discern a rhythm, the effect on us is immediate and physical. And it triggers the release of chemicals into the bloodstream that are directly linked to pleasure.

“Rhythms make us tap our feet and fingers,” says Robertson, “make us engage with them. And once we engage with those shared rhythmic structures, a whole interplay of hormones comes in – primarily the opioids, which are the brain’s self-reward system – that give us the ‘high’ rewards of pleasure and also decrease pain. Serotonin, for example, which also decreases aggression.”

But if the positive effects of music can be experienced internally, then what is the force that drives iPod users to break out of the sonic bubble in which they have immersed themselves and gather together at Glastonbury, the Albert Hall or a karaoke night at the Wig and Mitre?

It’s here that another speaker at the Wellcome Trust event comes into play. Besides being an accomplished guitarist, Ian Cross is director of the Centre for Science and Music at the University of Cambridge. He also believes “unambiguously” that music can make us happy.

“Music,” say Cross, “is above all a communication system for the creation and maintenance of social relationships. A body of people listening to one piece of music is able to have both the same experience – that of the group – and each one a unique experience – that of the individual. But their shared affiliation with one rhythm acts as a kind of social glue.”

Robertson agrees. “Wellbeing – a healthy sense of oneself, and pleasure in oneself – comes when your internal identity is broadly congruent with that which you find outside,” he says. “I believe this is a profound model of healthiness, and so it’s not surprising that we would seek out shared experience that matches our own internal aesthetic.”
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So can our increased consumption of music, both as individuals and groups, lead indefinitely to greater happiness? If hearing a march or a piece of uptempo dance music can stimulate opioid production, then can listening to one all the time produce a limitless amount of joy and mood elevation?

Ian Cross laughs politely at the suggestion. “There is no room in our heads for a limitless amount of happiness,” he says. “The way opioids work is no different to any other drug. The more you have them, the more you need to achieve the same effect.”

Indeed, there are already those who question the ubiquity of music in contemporary life. At a recent round-table discussion, influential figures in the pop world including singers Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave wondered whether there was now too much music, whether by being such a constant part of our lives it had become devalued.

What effect, for example, does it have to listen to music for a living? I asked author and Telegraph opera critic Rupert Christiansen. “As I get older I need less music,” he says. “I used to listen to it all day, every day. But it’s something to do with the intensity of the experience. It’s as if one’s palate gets sated: you’re no longer a mainline addict, but you savour the taste all the more when it comes.”

Christiansen, however, takes issue with the idea of a direct link between music and happiness, seeing it more as a kind of emotional sauna.

“Music is the most physically arousing of the arts – it makes your heart beat faster, opens up your pores, makes you sweat emotionally. That’s what it’s good at. I think it’s a myth that sad music makes you happy. It often makes me feel absolutely suicidal. But it exalts you – purges you of emotions. You find stiff-upper-lip people bursting into tears, or getting up and dancing. It makes it all come out.”

Looking back at the children’s assembly and Greensleeves, it is striking that although the music created a very special moment, the occasion itself had a definite rarity value. We do not congregate formally in the way that man has for so many centuries through organised religion. In a predominantly faithless world, music clearly fills some kind of spiritual gap in our lives. It seems to be the one element of religious celebration that we are not prepared to see die.

Where so much of modern life induces a sense of introspection and isolation, music has a universality that stretches beyond the mere generation of happiness and makes us feel connected to the rest of the world.

“We are receptive to music all the way through life, right through to the end,” says Paul Robertson. “As we head towards decay and dementia, the last system to go is musical receptivity. You can still reach people and recover a powerful personal identity and recollection through music, even when you can no longer communicate with words.

The nerve it touches is this: most of us feel a strong sense of identity around music. But we don’t have much of a grasp of why – what does it mean? And one thing we are all universally interested in is ourselves. So music is a way of understanding ourselves. And that’s pretty potent stuff.”