unheard sound

Photo by Joel Lee.

To me, trees seem like organic statues depicting a frozen electricity sculpted by the grace of magnetism.

Hearing is not just done with our ears.

The perfect music exists among the air that we breathe, just like static electricity.
And it is only experienced only when we realize and resonate its potential.

From the essay “Yoga and Music” by Sharron Gannon in Arcana V, edited by John Zorn:

“Anahata nadam means ‘unstruck’ sound–it is not heard by just the physical ears, no one can make this sound… Ahata nadam means ‘struck’ sound–it is music that we can hear with our physical sense; it refers to sound that is made by striking two things together, like when a musician strums an instrument or blows through a horn or hits a drum…  The nadam is the vibrational underlying stream that connects all of life; it is the eternal pulse of the universe…”

Hazrat Inayat Khan:

“In all the occupations of life where beauty has been the inspiration, where the divine wine has been poured out, there is music. But among all the different arts, the art of music has been especially considered divine, because it is the exact miniature of the law working through the whole universe.”

 

binaural beating sleep aid

Photo by Finnbogi Petursson

Here is an audio track that is aimed at treating restlessness, taking the listener through a series of restful states via a process known as brainwave entrainment. The track begins with a dynamic binaural beating of 13Hz, changing and slowing to 1.5Hz. Also heard in the track is static background pink noise and an unchanging beating frequency of 3.4 Hz to further induce a sleeper’s brainwave frequencies.

I created this track using Gnaural, an open source binaural beating project found on sourceforge. See all related posts here.  You may also download my preset file below and tailor the timeline to meet your needs.

Note: It is most effective to listen to this while lying in bed, wearing over-the-ear headphones that you feel comfortable falling asleep in.

Download the track in its entirety:
Sleep Aid 01 (MP3)
Sleep Aid 01 Preset

drones and the feeling of unision

Photo by Ritwik Dey

Unison is the interval of great vastness.  It is the ratio of 1:1.  For every one, there is a one.  Its simplicity is paramount.

String instrumentalists begin their practice by tuning each string against one another.  But what are horn players, singers and other monophonic instrumentalists to do if we are only able to produce one tone at a time?  One thing is certain, playing a tone to an electronic tuner is artificial and disassociates the feeling of intonation from human experience.  It simply does not convey the physical sensation of unity that we seek.

By toning against a drone, wind instrumentalists can too experience the essence of pure unison.

If you don’t have access to a drone, it is quite easy to create one with a synthesizer: simply set it to a basic, single oscillating sine-wave, sustained with no added filters or effects.  A good example is Absynth‘s default ‘new sound’ patch.  Once the drone is established, sound a unison for a breath’s worth of air, adding no vibrato or inflection. Tune your body and your instrument.

“The idea is to sing and listen at the same time, with equal energy: receptively and expressively balanced.  To perfect that balance, to own and identify with it, is the essence of music practice.”
-W.A. Mathieu

Tips for effective results:

• Listen to the drone through speakers in the same room as you and your instrument, as opposed to headphones.
• Listen for the changing ‘beating‘ effects as your tone approaches the tune of the drone.
• Close your eyes.

The same unison practice can be exercised rhythmically, using a metronome as your ‘drone’.  Challenge your focus by setting a metronome to its lowest speed, usually 30 or 40bpm, and play single tones to the click with exact precision.

kymotropic musings I

Below are videos courtesy of MythMathFilms analyzing my initial sketches and patterns exploring the harmony of the solfeggio or Lo Shu tones.  All related posts can be found here.

Kymotropic analyses of sinewave studies utilizing several harmonic ratios within the 36 tone subset of the 81 Lo Shu Tones.  These experimental sound sketches represent preliminary studies for future compositions.

36 solfeggio tones

Image courtesy of Bob Phillips.

The following two musical experiments are based on the above hex-arrangement of solfeggio tonality, something based off of the 81 Lo Shu tones mentioned in a previous post.  These études, if-you-will, are a continuation of my initial compositional explorations with this temperament.

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Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

sound spirals

Sound is commonly displayed as a wave on a 2-dimensional X-Y axis, a snaking path that portrays vibration propagating over time:

What isn’t as obvious is the space it embodies.  Sound, like the rest of our perceived, physical reality encompasses a 3-dimensional space.  Sound travels around the X-axis, tunneling itself through time, like a vortex or a helix:

Sound spirals.  When a saxophone, or any other wind instrument is played, a whirlwind is created within the cavity of the instrument.  Moreover, a microphone transforms sound into an electric current that also oscillates.

This – 2d:

Really implies this – 3d:

∞

“We all imagine the sun sitting in space with the planets revolving around it in orderly ellipses and circles. Yet in reality the sun moves a tremendous distance—three quarters of a million kilometers each day; the sun moves rapidly through time and space as the planets moving around it create a series of harmonic spirals.” -A.T. Mann

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M.C. Escher‘s imploding toroidal spiral: