The Whole Music Experience

Photo: By Patricia Herlevi I ask myself what are the chances that I will meet a didgeridoo player, enjoy exposure to crystal singing bowls at a spiritual shop, and encounter someone playing electric guitar on the sidewalk in one afternoon? Yet, one day last week, the sound universe revealed its diversity.  Along with that, I tracked my emotional and physical responses to the diverse encounters.  While I found the frequencies of the singing bowl and the didgeridoo relaxing and uplifting, the electric guitar (performing hard rock) did not appeal to my senses, and in fact, I experienced a fight or flight response.  I chose the flight. On another day, the sun came out and as I walked through a quaint neighborhood, I heard guitar blues coming over someone speakers, the music poured onto the street and some how, this felt like the right music for the right time and environment.  I bring these scenarios up because the majority of humans walk by musical sounds everyday...

Rhythm: Gotta Have It For many years I felt self-conscious about keeping rhythm with other musicians. I thought I lacked a sense of rhythm because a male musician had spread ugly innuendos about me in regard to rhythm, which I won’t describe here. Then I met a woman at a new age shop who wondered why I mentioned that I had no sense of rhythm. Impossible, she said. Then she asked, do you breathe, does your heart beat? We all have a sense of rhythm. Every creatures on this earth from the dog wagging his tail to the rhythms of Bob Marley’s reggae to the squirrel running in staccato up and down the tree. The fish swimming slowly in the murky pond has rhythm, and as we know, George Gershwin got rhythm too, so did Fred Astaire. If you breathe, if you have a heartbeat, brainwaves, and if you walk, talk, sing, dance, run, crawl, or eat, you do so with rhythm. Back in the mid-1990s I came across Gabrielle Roth’s five rhythms, which included among them, “flowing” and “staccato,” to na...

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson Rainforest & Ocean Waves With Alpha Brainwave Pulses The Relaxation Company/Sounds True Brainwave Suite The Relaxation Company/Sounds True My stress levels have been shooting through the roof lately. I have been suffering from insomnia, too many worrisome thoughts floating around in my head and a pinched nerve in my lower back. So this feels like the perfect time to experiment with relaxation recordings. Besides, high stress levels can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, suppressed immune system, aches, pains, and depression. The relaxation route seems a better way to go. Granted I laughed at relaxation tapes while I was a rocker in my 20s, but now hitting middle age, I want to see what’s available because I believe that psycho-acoustically designed recordings provide a better remedy for relaxation and sleep than sleeping pills and more fun than counting sheep. I still prefer acoustic recordings with sound healing tools, instrumental ...