… but not ’Music Therapy’ which is a procedure used by “music therapists”
This comes in three parts
Part A. Identifying the music which is therapeutic for the person
This vitally important. Fortunately, many people know themselves what type of music is therapeutic for them. Caution: it is not necessarily music that they would normally sit and listen to, e.g. in 2005 I would have said “I was just into classical music”. But then I discovered Dire Straits – particularly the songs ‘Why Worry’ “Your Latest Trick” which I found to be very therapeutic.
People sometimes do not know the name of the piece. Some years ago, I heard a piece being used to advertise coffee. I was bowled over by it and it took me over a year to find out what it was an aria called “Lascia chio Pianga” from Handel’s opera “Renaldo”. These says the application Shazam would have helped me identify it almost instantly.
If the therapeutic piece cannot be identified in any of the ways above one can look for a bodily response such as a big sigh, bodily tremors or a feeling in the back of the neck. The person may say “that is a piece that is therapeutic for me”.
Where that fails or is inconclusive or uncertain then “Applied Kinesiology” can be used to select from pieces on a CD; which i believe are therapeutic
Time spent selecting appropriate music is seldom wasted
Part B. Listening through vibro-acoustics.
Listening to music through a vibro-acoustic chair is an enhanced experience to just listening through the ears [see separate section on this website] through my own vibro-acoustic chair or the Somatron version [for which I am an agent]. I can’t speak for others but myself find it to be a much more satisfying experience than just listening to music through the ears.
This is something to be experienced for yourself rather than being read about in a ’published paper’ though there has been some publication by the National Institute of Health in the USA and by Somatron Inc.
Part C. Matching the pitch
Working in this field was like being in a quagmire or shifting sands. The art of trying to measure the pitch was changing the very thing I was trying to measure. The other difficulty was that I did not know the absolute pitch of the CD, sometimes when the CD is made the pitch is changed by time stretching to make it fit in a certain amount of minutes and the pitch changes proportionately
I believe that people have their own “personal pitch” and if the pitch of the music is adjusted to match this therapeutic power is enhanced. The pitch matching must be very precise to about 1 part in 500, I believe because of the need for such precision that others may not have notice the effect, if the pitch is slightly off the effect is worse than being a long way off.
I think it is because of the need for very precise matching that others have not noticed this phenomenon. Unless you were looking for the effect it is unlikely you would find it if I think it is my most important discovery and also the one I can least back up. I have no hard objective evidence and there is no theory to fall back on.
I hope people will take me seriously in view of my other work described on this website. And in view of my qualification and experience. I was in the process of testing it with clients when I suffered a stroke which cut the trials short. I got excellent results from three people and got glowing testimonials from two of them. That of course is no proof as people could say the effect was caused by a change of diet or getting on better with their partner, but I have no reason to think that was the case.
The concept of pitch matching is very prevalent in the language and other languages, I have checked but of course it may just be allegorical.
“She and I are on the same wavelength (which is the same as saying the same frequency).”
“I am finding his note.”
“I am tuning into her.”
I have only two pieces of semi objective results too back up my contention
1. I selected 12 pieces of music which I believe were therapeutic for me. I set-up a recording as follows: first at my pitch as selected by method of applied kinesiology, and second the same piece but a small amount off what I believe was my pitch and so the CD contained 10 pieces “right, wrong” in turn. I then took this CD to an expert in kinesiology much more qualified than me and to use a method that I was not familiar with and to test whether each piece was right or wrong. The results came out right/wrong in turn and she thought she must have made a mistake because the pattern was so consistent right/ wrong throughout the CD.
2. I went to a top expert in acupuncture who was able to diagnose from the subtle Chinese wrist pulses and my results were completely consistent with his. Indeed, he thought I was ‘really onto something’ and, ahead of my time’. Even just possibly achieving the results of acupuncture without using needles which of course would be highly attractive for those with needle phobia. But that is not my concern at the moment but rather additional support for my pitch matching contention.
I’m not even sure if this is necessary to determine the pitch when they arrive but rather what pitch they need to be moved too for balanced health and (wellness).