[RhetoricThug]

Are you under the influence of music? What penetrates your ear holes?

We all know that life is full of rhythm, with vibrations echoing endlessly. Once conceived in the womb a tiny baby unborn hears the thump thump thump of its mother's heart. Her tempo will hardwire her offspring's proclivity for music. One feature unique to humans- our ability to create and enjoy complex music.

Did you know music is energy? An artist's album can take you on a journey. The ear senses life and emotion before any visual enhancement can be registered & perceived. The human brain modifies its waves when under the influence of sound. Truly an incredible physiological connection

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain


Science all but confirms that humans are hard-wired to respond to music. Studies also suggest that someday music may even help patients heal from Parkinson's disease or a stroke.

In The Power of Music, Elena Mannes explores how music affects different groups of people and how it could play a role in health care.

Mannes tracked the human relationship with music over the course of a life span. She tells NPR's Neal Conan that studies show that infants prefer "consonant intervals, the smooth-sounding ones that sound nice to our Western ears in a chord, as opposed to a jarring combination of notes."

In fact, Mannes says the cries of babies just a few weeks old were found to contain some of the basic intervals common to Western music.

She also says scientists have found that music stimulates more parts of the brain than any other human function. That's why she sees so much potential in music's power to change the brain and affect the way it works.

Mannes says music also has the potential to help people with neurological deficits. "A stroke patient who has lost verbal function — those verbal functions may be stimulated by music," she says.

One technique, known as melodic intonation therapy, uses music to coax portions of the brain into taking over for those that are damaged. In some cases, it can help patients regain their ability to speak.

And because of how we associate music with memories, Mannes says such techniques could also be helpful for Alzheimer's patients.

Less recently, archaeologists have discovered ancient flutes — one of which is presumed to be the oldest musical instrument in the world — that play a scale similar to the modern Western scale.

"And remarkably," Mannes says, "this flute, when played, produces these amazingly pure tones."

It's a significant discovery because it adds to the argument that musical ability and interest were present early in human history.

Many musicians have an instinctive understanding of how musical sound interacts with our bodies. They know — they feel — that sound impacts our bodies in a way no other art does. Opera singer Irene Gubrud says, "As a very young child, I experienced who I was through sound. I felt whole."

Daniel Bernard Roumain, a young cross-genre violinist who is known as DBR, thinks one reason music is so powerful is that sound actually penetrates our bodies: "You know when someone says that a piece of music 'touched me' or 'moved me,' it's very literal. The sound of my voice enters your ear canal and it's moving your eardrum. That's a very intimate act. I am very literally touching you, and when you speak to me, you are literally touching me. And then we extend that principle to the sound of a violin."

The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim believes that our early connection to sound is another reason for its power — one that in today's world we sometimes forget. He thinks that because we live in a very visual society we're more aware of what we see than what we hear. But he reminds us that the latest scientific evidence reveals that the ear, which we now know is active in the womb, has an advantage over the eye. He also says: "The ear has a head start over the eye, which doesn't see anything until it comes out. The eye is also something that one can control more fully. If you don't like the way I look, and you don't want to see me, you close your eyes and I disappear. But if you don't like my voice and you're in the same room, then you cannot shut your ears in a natural way. Sound literally penetrates the human body."

This human relationship to sound starts early. The fetus begins to develop an auditory system between seventeen and nineteen weeks. Already, we are in a world of sound, of breath and heartbeat, of rhythm and vibration. But how do we know what the fetus actually hears? Until recently, there were different theories. Some doctors thought that the fetus could hear only some frequencies, probably high ones. It certainly wasn't known whether we could hear and respond to music before birth until the groundbreaking research of Sheila Woodward, a South African, who wanted to know more about musical sound in the womb. She was a young scientist in the early 1990's — and pregnant; she wondered what music her own child was being exposed to before birth. In her studies at the University of Capetown, she worked with the Institute of Maritime Technology to adapt an underwater microphone so it could be placed in the uterus.

Her team came up with a tiny waterproof hydrophone, about two inches long, that doctors found safe enough to put inside the womb. As part of Woodward's research, this miniature microphone was inserted through the cervix into the uterus of a mother in early labor and placed alongside the neck of the unborn child. The mic recorded exactly what was audible inside the uterus as Woodward played music, sang herself, and had the mother sing. "The big question," she says, "was, 'Does music really exist in the womb and is it very different from the way we hear it in the outside world?'"

As we listen to the recordings that Woodward conducted with several mothers in early stages of labor, we first hear the rhythmic sound of blood coursing through the uterine artery. Says Woodward, "Nature allows us to evolve with rhythm all around us," And her recordings reveal that a landscape of musical sound does indeed surround the fetus. Along with the natural womb sounds, we can hear the strains of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto being played, or the melody of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" as Woodward sings in a normal tone of voice. The recordings show that the very high frequencies, like the sharp attack of an instrument, are attenuated and sound a bit muffled. The overall effect is like listening to music underwater. But when listening to the human voice, one can still detect whether it's a woman or a man. And the tonal quality of the voice comes through.

Just because the sound of music exists in the womb doesn't necessarily mean that the fetus hears it. Yet, the "startle response" of the fetus was measured as well, and Woodward's team found that when music is played, the fetal heart rate becomes slightly elevated. Woodward says it was clear from the fetus reacted, as if to say, "Something's happened and now there's music!" Other studies show that even if only the mother hears music — if she has headphones on, and it is music that she finds soothing — the baby's heart rate lowers while the mother is listening. If the mother finds a certain piece of music stressful, the baby's heart rate goes up. So the fetus is echoing the mother's response to the quality of the music.

Woodward is convinced that we begin learning about music even before birth. She points out that even when music that can penetrate the womb is absent, the fetus is surrounded by those natural rhythms of the body — heartbeat and pulse and breath.

So how can layers of sound influence your brain? Through electrical currents the brain can be externally or internally stimulated, leading to a change in your physical mood and emotional flow.

Discovered frequencies

- Delta waves (below 4 hz) occur during sleep

- Theta waves (4-7 hz) are associated with sleep, deep relaxation (like hypnotic relaxation), and visualization

- Alpha waves (8-13 hz) occur when we are relaxed and calm

- Beta waves (13-38 hz) occur when we are actively thinking, problem-solving.

- Gamma brain waves (39-100 hz) are involved in higher mental activity and consolidation of information. An interesting study has shown that advanced Tibetan meditators produce higher levels of gamma than non-meditators both before and during meditation.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream2.htm

Our brains cycle through four types of brain waves, referred to as delta, theta, alpha and beta. Each type of brain wave represents a different speed of oscillating electrical voltages in the brain. Delta is the slowest (zero to four cycles per second) and is present in deep sleep. Theta (four to seven cycles per second) is present in stage one when we're in light sleep. Alpha waves, operating at eight to 13 cycles per second, occur during REM sleep (as well as when we are awake). And beta waves, which represent the fastest cycles at 13 to 40 per second, are usually only seen in very stressful situations or situations that require very strong mental concentration and focus. These four brain waves make up the electroencephalogram (EEG).

Beyond regulation of wakeful and sleeping patterns, sounds are literally influencing your state of being. With that being known, yet not fully explored, people should be more careful and considerate when choosing what sounds enter their body and mind. Treat music just like a drug, and take the good drugs over the bad drugs. Hopefully one day science will conclude that all sound waves are very important to a stable mental mindset.


Finally I want to address how popular music exploits natural human instinct. Bringing the idea that radio waves are not just providing humans with entertainment, but also responsible for subtle shifts in mass consciousness.

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

Rhythm is also an important aspect of music to study when looking at responses to music. There are two responses to rhythm. These responses are hard to separate because they are related, and one of these responses cannot exist without the other. These responses are (1) the actual hearing of the rhythm and (2) the physical response to the rhythm. Rhythm organizes physical movements and is very much related to the human body. For example, the body contains rhythms in the heartbeat, while walking, during breathing, etc. Another example of how rhythm orders movement is an autistic boy who could not tie his shoes. He learned how on the second try when the task of tying his shoes was put to a song. The rhythm helped organize his physical movements in time.

Responses to music are easy to be detected in the human body. Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn. Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate.

We are drawn in once we hear a rhythm we enjoy, but today's music combines seductive beats with suggestive lyrical information. Meaning that while you allow the sounds to enter your mind, you are also collecting and storing verbal information subliminally. This is why esoteric groups regard music as a powerful sociological tool, they recognize its potential and implementation as something that can seduce and persuade humans to interact with new behaviors or moods. This is serious because music can directly impact popular culture eventually reshaping intrinsic values and influencing the way we exchange thoughts and ideas with our contemporaries.

Cognitive ability is influenced by music. We may be able to learn something quicker by simply using a beat and line of verse. This technique produces idioms and conversational slogans that end up in lexicons, meaning our knowledge and ability to convey what we've learned is stripped down or limited to basic lines of verse, slowly eroding critical thought and our capacity to think outside of prearranged symbols of wisdom. You become more accepting of information if it feels right.

Science is fully aware of visual stimuli, the way symbols guide language and make-up our brain's intellect. I think it is time we realize how audio is equally important and study further its influence on society.

What we hear is life, what we see is confirmation of what we hear. Making a sound-mind possible

[OllytheBrit]

I've got glue ear in my left one so I can only hear music in mono!

[Torus34]

The OP is a nice compilation of facts about music, well-presented. That music -- its creation and enjoyment -- is part and parcel of what we consider the defining criteria of being human is something of a given.

There are interesting corners of the topic which are, at least to this pocm, worth pondering. One of them is just how interactions occur at the borderline between pure music and emotional response. By 'pure' music I mean music without words.

Those familiar with western classical music are well aware of how certain pieces or sections of them 'speak' to us emotionally. There's a 'feel' to, say, Gustav Holst's 'Mars' from 'The Planets' and the 'Adagio For Strings' of Samuel Barber that is distinctly emotional. For those so attuned [Sorry!] a section in one of the Brahms Piano Concertos 'tells' of a happy memory contrasted with a present sad reality.

From whence comes this ability of pure music to provoke an emotional response? Is it something we've learned [Music Ed, anyone?] or is it rather a characteristic of the music itself?

[Ummon]

It's obvious that music is a drug and should be outlawed! Damn you liberal scum! (Christian hymns will be exempt. Long live WASPs!)