The experience of music is infused with time. Notation outlines the melody and harmony, and these can exist (sometimes for centuries) on paper. Melodies are stored in memory on magnetic tape or as 0’s and 1’s in a digital file, but only time brings music to life.

Noise. We all know it when we hear it, unpleasant sound that upsets our equilibrium by either being jarring and discordant or too loud. Sometimes it is both. In audio engineering noise is an unwanted signal, a hum from ungrounded wiring or the bleed of background sound in a microphone. But what is noise really? The very word ‘noise’ does not conjure anything particularly pleasant.  It’s etymology references the latin root noxia or nausea. The English language borrowed noise from the French, and it originally referred to strife or quarrel.

Music used in therapy can be thought of as a form of energy work, encoded sound waves oscillating and traveling through matter. As music traverses the delicate hearing mechanism it becomes neural energy, ultimately triggering an array of biochemical responses, which translate to meaning and emotion.

I have been asked more than once, ”What is healing music? What makes music transformative and balancing?” Transformation and balance are not transferred directly from the music; it is more mysterious and complex than that.

“Among the Indians, music envelopes like an atmosphere every religious, tribal and social ceremony as well as every personal experience. There is not a phase of life that does not find expression in song.”

Have you ever been standing in front of a waterfall and felt the roar of the cascading water vibrating through your body? It generates a feeling of awe and a profound respect for the power of nature, deeply nurturing and balancing.