In this article, Tambor Party founder and resident DJ Stan Zeff discusses the true value of music and movement. Read on to discover the science of sound, and explore it's deep and profound potential to heal, unite, and inspire.
The Science of Sound “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” – Beethoven
The Science of Sound and Its Importance in Our Lives
There are some things in life that we need to survive like air, food, water, the Sun, shelter and in this modern-day society we of course need money. There are also things that we actually don’t need to survive but is a necessity to have like love, faith, books, art, the internet.
How does music fit into these two categories? Is music something that’s essential to our survival or is it something we can do without and is a nice to have? I see music is a spiritual energy from the planet originally born out of organic instruments that will attract the hearts and souls of individuals to form a creative expression. We seem to think that music comes from a person when in reality music comes through a person. Creatives are vessels who allow themselves to mediate between the spiritual and physical worlds to deliver art forms that bring joy, happiness and healing to the world.
“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” – Kahlil Gibran
I have always had a connection to music and in times of being emotionally down, music has always lifted my spirits. The right song will always pop up out of no-where that will energize my heart to look at situations in a more positive way. It has made me want to share music with others, produce/create music with certain frequencies to make people want to dance and be happy. It has allowed me to carefully select playlists of music not just for entertainment’s sake, but to open gateways for people to allow the conscious energy of the music to relieve them of their stress, troubles and worries, basically creating a healing energy.
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” – Lao Tzu
Music as a Spiritual Energy: Bridging the Physical and Spiritual Realms
When we delve into the intricacies of the brain, we have something inside us called Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Which is a neurotropic serum that is essential for our brains’ health and development. When BDNF is released in the body it helps the brain alleviate, stress, anxiety, and depression. It will also repair brain damage of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer. BDNF makes the mind feel better, more relaxed and creative.
Exercise is by far the best way to increase your BDNF levels working out for 20-30 minutes 4 times a week will have you not just feeling better but have a more positive outlook on life.
The other way to increase your BDNF level is to have a synchronized form of activity, like dancing to music. We always talk about how a night dancing makes us forget about our troubles and allows us to be free, well this is because dancing raises your BDNF substantially especially when you are being stimulated by the sound system, and other people dancing around you. You have been submerged into a container of euphoric energy that is literally healing your brain making you feel better more relaxed and feeling that natural high.
Some people compare a good night of dancing to going to church, that’s because it makes them feel better about themselves and life. From a young age without knowing the science behind music I had the ability to understand the unusual effects of frequency and sound and how great it made me and others feel.
When I play music as a DJ, I carefully watch the crowd, I can see how groups of people in areas of the room feel the music. I feel that my job as a DJ is to bring everyone together in the room, get them to vibrate on the same level creating an energy of happiness, love and togetherness. It’s not an easy feat and sometimes it happens easier than others, but when the stars align it looks like i'm watching a cinema screen of flowers blooming on a spring day, being replayed 1000x the speed. I see it all happening in front of my eyes, people connecting, frowns turn to smiles and then laughter, people dancing with themselves closing their eyes and experiencing a natural ability to take themselves to a space where their body and mind is calm. In this place there is no stress, just freedom. Tears will run down cheeks and people hug and hug more because they want to share the feeling of freedom and oneness with others in the space. Watching all this unfold before my eyes is a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. To me it’s worth more than gold.
What I love seeing in music is how it shifts a person’s consciousness more often than not in a positive way. It will connect with something inside a person that releases a serum of delight.
“Music is spiritual” -Miles Davis
Music's Role in Personal Growth and Healing: Unlocking Courage, Confidence and Connection
The right sound waves heal the body and alleviate stress. People will use their preferred music to decompress after a busy day at work, make long drives seem short or have pleasurable times with loved ones. It’s really magical how music creates special moments. Sound baths have become common today where a group of people are in a room with a musician operating sound bowls, gongs, shakers, rain sticks, flutes or any sound making object that will add to a sound healing experience allowing your body to absorb the frequencies allowing it to relax and heal itself.
In a study Apple and the speaker manufacturer Sonos took a deeper look at music's power to connect by tracking how much music people listened to at home. (In this case on average 4.5 hours per day), and they studied what happened while they listened. They rigged 30 homes with sonos speakers, Apple watches, NestCams and iBeacons. When music was playing, the distance between house mates decreased by 12 percent, while chances of cooking together increased by 33 percent, laughing together by 15 percent, inviting other people over by 85 percent, saying “I love you“ by 18 percent and, most telling, having sex by 37 percent.
I find these statistics amazing as it shows how music on a simple everyday level transposes your life in such a positive way. If you add regular exercise and dancing to the routine who knows where your life will take you and your confidence will increase substantially.
“To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins. Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music?” – Michael Jackson
As the energy of music relieves us of the negative emotions like stress, anxiety, depression etc there is also music that can take us the other way, adverse frequencies can take us to a depressive state, therefore we have to be intentional to align ourselves with the music that uplifts us, makes us feel better and allows us to live a natural wholesome life hopefully reaching our ultimate potential.
I see music as something essential we need in our life just like the sun, water and food. With music in our life, we are able to increase our connection, passion, love, compassion and purpose for ourselves and people around us. It’s the spiritual food that is necessary for us to digest in order to heal the body by letting go of all the bad memories, self-hate, traumas that are stored in pockets of our bodies. Allowing us to become a courageous, confident loving person that has a relationship with the spirt called music.
“One good thing about music, When it hits you, you feel no pain”. -Bob Marley"
Beautiful article. Music is essential to my well-being.