Sonic sound stuff can help do some pretty amazing things.
I’ve got a buddy on Instagram who has been posting about the healing benefits of music that is tuned to 432HZ. In music speak, this tuning hovers around the key of E flat, which musicians have been tuning to for a while. Jimi Hendrix, Prince, John Lennon, and Van Halen have all tuned down from standard pitch for a couple reasons - easier on the vocalist, and the lower tuning always fills out the sound (blues giant Hound Dog Taylor was probably onto something when he tuned down to D or C#. Maybe lack of a bassist was the reasoning. Hey, whatever works - the Dog had an instant vibe back in the day, and even now.).
I’m a proponent of music as a healer - most ancient civilizations figured this out long before we were around, and way before scientific analysis stated in a stately and brouhaha fashion, well, there’s a point with all these sonic frequencies and how they work on the human body. Of course, if someone presents some music to me that’s supposed to have spiritual and healing properties, well, cool, thank you. But if it doesn’t move me in some manner, then sorry Cochise, it ain’t happenin’.
As it should be - music is an intensely personal thang, y’all.
I was going to introduce cooking recipes in this blog, but since the chicken thighs are still marinating and I’m on a time crunch, that will have to wait.
Let’s get back to this whole healing music thing. As always, I tend to have some music projects on deck, three to be exact now. Another songwriter album, a blues instrumental thing, and a healing/meditation music project. I work on them in between work, household stuff and other obligations. A few months ago, I emailed my buddy Pastor Dave over at Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church here in the City Beautiful about possibly doing a healing/meditation music gathering at the church for any interested parties. I had a couple of rules right off the bat - the creative gathering had to be open to anyone, regardless of denomination or even the non-religious, to come and listen. Secondly, it had to be a safe space for those who, for whatever the reason, didn’t feel okay entering a house of worship (believe me, I’ve had work clients and students who were skeptical on this point, so I wanted to make sure that it didn’t matter if you were Lutheran, Buddhist, a naturalist, or whatever, that it would be okay to come and listen). Pastor Dave thought this was an acceptable approach, so I told him that I would start planning and get back to him.
“You’re not just going to jam and see what happens, right? Maybe you should plan this out a bit more.”
Words of infinite wisdom from my bride. And we’re still together after 34 years. Yes dear, I’ll plan and think it out a bit more. You’re ALWAYS right.
Writing music comes at some creative sorts such as myself and my friends from all angles. As that wise sage, and rock and roll shaman Neil Young says, sometimes you’re just the portal to deliver the music goods. I agree. Keep those phone lines open from all ports of call and see what comes down the pike. Except, I was hitting a couple of roadblocks in the ol’ muse department on this project.
Oh, it happens, If it’s writing, painting, music, or building music gear, I just figure, eh, I’ll just work my way out of it. Oh, the extemporaneous nature of writing down notes from your guitar that happen in your head - yikes. Tough at times.
I needed spacious, simple structures with some layers of sonic complexity for the music that I wanted to create. Yeah, I know, some of you readers are going, now what the hell is he talking about? I do this sometimes - sorry.
To be clear - the music needed to put someone into a calm state of being to help them move forward with whatever issues that were holding them down. It’s the best explanation that I can do at the present. What the hey, ya know?
I’m working with one of my students on a similar project - creating soothing music for some poetry and spoken word pieces that she is writing. So, this was turning into a two-birds-with-one-stone thing. Ponder, ponder, ponder, think, think, think. Then, it hit me.
What would Miles Davis do? He would write one of his seminal fusion classics,” In A Silent Way’. that’s what. Actually, he would enlist of the greats of jazz keyboard, Joe Zawinul, to write the piece. Joe had it already written and was noodling around with it at a studio session for Miles, when Miles rasped, yeah, play that thing you were working on. Ooh yes, okay, this could be inspirational - that’s the song that I needed to hear to see if I was on the right track.
Let’s go a step further. I pulled out an album that I had forgotten about from the 1990’s - producer/bassist Bill Laswell’s remix album of Miles classics “Panthalassa: The Music Of Miles Davis 1969-1974”. I cued up Bill’s restructuring cut of “In A Silent Way”, and there was the sonic house that I was looking for to write from. Deep bass drone notes, ambient tones, elegant yet simply complex guitar work - yep, there was my model. I started scribbling down music and setting up recording gear for my little foray into this world.
The final test will be if the music does what I want it to, which is help some people heal and get some clarity on some problems, worries, or pains. I guess we will see after I record all this in my studio.
Music just has that natural way to pull us in the right direction, ya know?
Great stuff!