This is part of a series of articles by Garth Whitcombe, founder of TherapyMuse, that provides background information about the use of music in massage therapy settings.

Sound has long been recognized as an organizing principle of creation.

The mythic Word was with the Biblical God as it was the Vedic Brahman. It reverberates through the Song Lines of the Aboriginal Dreamtime and the Pythagorean Music of the Spheres. The Holy Wind of the Navajo, Nilchi, and the Breath of Life of the Maori, Te Hei Mauri Ora, these ancient truths tell us we are resonant beings giving voice to the dream of life.

From the sub-atomic quark to the movement of tectonic plates, creation hums with resonance. This is a musical universe formed around harmonic patterns. The song that divides a cell gives birth to a star. Human hearing encompasses a narrow frequency range from around 16hz to 20,000hz. Sound frequencies extend in a much greater range both lower, infra-sonic, and higher, ultra-sonic.

Developing an awareness of sound and its inherent musicality is an empowering response to the great flux of waveforms that bombard us.

To listen intently is to begin to perceive the world of vibration, the interweaving strands of frequency that form the hologram that we know as our world.

Intentional listening is a pathway into the matrix, a portal through the fabric of the universe. The art of listening is embedded in the New Zealand Maori concept of peace, Rongo. To listen, ‘Whakarongo’, is to make peace. A still deeper truth unfolds in this ancient concept, for Rongo is the root of the Maori word for medicine, Rongoa. The ancients knew how to listen.

Perhaps with less aural stimulus than we have in our modern world, there was time to listen deeply. Sound is one of the fundamental pillars of human consciousness. Developing an open field of sound perception is a way of anchoring oneself in the present moment. Through a process of refining the sense of hearing it is possible to perceive the ambient resonance of any given moment without responding to any one specific sound. It is possible to enjoy any kind of sound from the baying of the dog next door to the hum of traffic on a distant freeway. Embedded in the noise of everyday life, lies the mysterious beauty of overtone harmonics.

Each and every sound that we come into contact with offers a choice to embrace and truly listen, or filter and ignore. The cost of filtering is loss of part of our field of perception. If we filter the white noise of the air-conditioner, we also miss the patter of rain on the window. In extreme cases it has been reported that some factory workers develop a selective deafness to the frequency range of the machinery that they operate. In the modern world, surrounded by technology that produces continuous noise, we are all experiencing some degree of selective deafness.

How do we relearn the art of listening?

It is best to begin with music. Symphonic strings offer a good example of rich harmonic overtones, notes that are formed but not played. The harmonics sound like angelic voices in the higher register. They create themselves by the law of harmonic resonance. Whenever a note is played on a musical instrument we hear not only that note but also a cascade of overtones that resound according to precise mathematical ratios known as the harmonic series. It is the relative strength of each harmonic overtone that defines the quality or timbre of the sound.

Musical instruments have a clearly delineated shape to their overtones and it is the differences in the power of certain overtones that differentiates the oboe from the clarinet, the cello from the violin, one human voice from another. The picture of an instrumental overtone series resembles a steady wave, like rolling hills.

Sounds that we would classify as noise have less clearly defined overtones and are chaotic and complex. Visually they resemble jagged peaks and valleys.

The art of listening is to seek the harmonic pattern within the jumble of sound that we experience as noise. An easy way to start hearing harmonically is to begin with a recording of Gregorian Chant. Try listening to the whole sound rather than being carried away by the melody. You will notice a resonance beyond the notes that are being sung. This is the harmonic ring that occurs when massed voices reverberate in the arched ceiling of a cathedral. As you practice listening without judgment, hearing the whole sound, you will experience a subtle shift in perception.

During this non-localized listening, hearing merges with feeling and you begin to access the higher frequencies of harmonic overtones that are embedded in the overall sound. As you become more skilled in the art of listening, you will be able to find the harmonic patterns in all sound. The path to this ultra sensory perception of hearing simply requires a softening of focus so that all sound, from the chirp of birdsong to the rumble of a distant train, is given equal presence. It is a delicate balance that can be likened to surfing the sound waves.

This form of listening can facilitate a sense of tranquility even in a challenging sound environment. In this way any sound that is not too loud can be used as tool for centering. Any sound field can be heard as symphonic art.