Singer KD Lang performing Hallelujia
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A Secret Chord

by Emma Laurence

A friend of mine recommended a new book on music as medicine called I Heard There Was a Secret Chord — which is a line from the iconic song “Hallelujah.” Daniel J. Levitin, neuroscientist and musician, explores the curative powers of music and its effects on the brain. 

I’d be surprised if you’ve never heard the Leonard Cohen tune since countless versions have been recorded. My favorite is still this rendition by KD Lang, performed before the song gained huge popularity:

Did you hear the chord progression spoken of in the lyrics? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth / The minor falls, the major lifts… Perhaps this sequence impacts us in wordless ways.

Cohen once said this about the meaning of “Hallelujah”:

This world is full of conflicts…,but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess and that’s what I mean by Hallelujah. That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say ‘Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.’ And you can’t reconcile it in any other way except in that position of total surrender, total affirmation. 

Levitin celebrates the secret chord in his own way. He’s spent decades in neurological research, compiling studies to show how trauma, movement disorders, anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer’s have been improved by music. He helped Joni Mitchell recover from her brain aneurysm in 2015 by suggesting her nurses play a CD of her favorite artists, one that Joni compiled years earlier for Starbucks “Artists Choice” series.

Whether a secret chord brings healing through science or reconciliation through surrender, the result is the same. 

The question is, what’s yours? In your own way, you can discover your secret chord.

That is living as music.

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Chaldean plate shows the form pattern made by sound vibrations
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How Sound Shapes Our World

by Emma Laurence

Cymatics is the study of sound made visible, showing how sound shapes our world. We don’t usually see the effect vibration has on matter. Yet since 1967, when Swiss physician Hans Jenny published the first volume of Cymatics: The Study of Wave Phenomena, acoustic science has tested sound’s impact.

Experiments often involve what’s called a Chladni plate, a metal surface sprinkled with sand to show emerging patterns as related to sound frequency.

Listen and watch matter magically move in this brief demonstration (2 min):

What fascinates me about this phenomenon is the power that we, as sound producing beings, have on our environment. Ever seen a child shrink back at a teacher’s scolding? Or watched an athlete take in all the fans’ cheers for a sprint to victory?

Sound is powerful, whether individual or in a collective group. 

Certain frequencies produce patterns. Some tones form clearer images on the Chladni plate. This got me curious about resonance and imagery.

What if we’re more mindful of internal thought habits and external sounds in our environment?

Can we clear our mind with higher frequency thoughts? I’ve been experimenting. When stressed about a particular outcome, I choose to say “we’ll see,” as a more neutral viewpoint than gloom and doom. This increases my ability to ride life’s ups and downs and my confidence that all is in its right place.

Similarly, if we play an uplifting piece of music repeatedly, will we “see” a difference in our household? My husband and I notice that playing a sacred chant in our home on a regular basis calms us and our environment, including our cat Zoey.

When we recognize sound’s impact on matter, we look more closely at our choices.
We notice the effect of sound and try new thoughts, new tunes in order to stay uplifted.

That is living as music. 

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Three tuning forks on small wooden platforms
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Tuning Forks

by Emma Laurence

On a Zoom call I led recently, one of our team members mentioned that he’d just purchased tuning forks. We all wanted to hear the sound, so I suggested he strike one to end the meeting.

Perhaps you heard this sound once, long ago. Take a listen to these tuning forks on resonators from the Smithsonian’s collection, crafted somewhere between 1870-1900: 

Perhaps you heard this sound once, long ago. Take a listen to these tuning forks on resonators from the Smithsonian’s collection, crafted somewhere between 1870-1900 (1 min):

Does this vibration calm your mind or stop your thinking process for even a millisecond?
That, in itself, is valuable!

Tuning forks are being used to alleviate pain and to resolve all kinds of physical, emotional, and mental challenges. How is this possible?

Biofield Tuning is a sound therapy to relax and restore the body/mind by using the body’s natural intelligence to tune itself.

Biofield tuning works with our electrical system and the magnetic field surrounding our body. When forks are placed on or near the body, they register dissonance, as either resistance or turbulence. Practitioners listen for any changes in overtones or undertones of the sound.

Once dissonance is located, the fork is struck again and held in that spot until the resistance releases. Tuning fork vibrations create a harmonic that can shift a causative symptom. Mental and emotional habit patterns, as well as physical tensions, dissipate.

Amazing? Consider a time you attended a live musical performance and walked away feeling vibrant and uplifted. The sound rang through you, impacting your mood or state of mind long after the concert ended.

And, whether for healing or not, noticing sound’s impact on you is living as music.

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Two Lakota youth singing a gratitude song
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Lakota Gratitude Song

by Emma Laurence

Our neighbor, Steve, offered to trim our arborvitae shrub in exchange for collecting the branches. Steve is deeply connected to Native American culture here in Minnesota, where arborvitae is called “flat cedar” and burned in sweat lodges. Our dried branches would go to serve lodges further north.

When Steve arrived at our backyard, I was struck by his fully present and respectful approach—as if tree trimming was sacred work. When he finished, he asked if it would be OK to sing a Lakota gratitude song. And he did, heartily!

Take a listen to the two Lakota youth who sing a Lakota song of thanks in their way (2 minutes):

The care our neighbor put into trimming branches mirrors the respect these young men have for keeping Lakota culture alive through music. All three of them create harmony and bring awareness by honoring Native culture, ancestors, and all life.

What inspires your respect? What do you take great care in doing, even if it’s a small task?

Choosing to be more harmonious as we go about our day impacts others. Think of the small act of letting another car merge in front of you, or picking up trash where you walk your dog. Your choice creates a ripple effect, without you knowing where this courtesy lands next as others pass it along.

When we do this, we’re singing our own gratitude song, in our own way. We’re recognizing and acknowledging the gift of this person, this plant, this culture, this moment.

We’re demonstrating an appreciation for life.

That is living as music.

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If you want to hear what our neighbor sounded like, this is close.

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How to Scale Your Game

by Emma Laurence

Bill is an advanced pickleball player who knows how to scale his game. When he joined our intermediate level group on the court, I’d never experienced a more generous player.

We don’t often mix with advanced players because they take the game very seriously. Much of the laughter we enjoy is lost. A few prefer to join in our games even if it means scaling their game because, in their words, “it’s more fun and less mean.”

To appreciate a musical metaphor, listen for a moment to a simple C major scale—to the up and down direction (30 sec).

American culture is all about scaling up—bigger, better, greater, faster. This can burn us out. Yet, just like in music, scaling is the ability to play up and down the resonant range.

Bill’s choice to slow his pace and calm the intensity of his game is like moving down the scale. Rather than forcefully slam the ball, he uses a lighter-touch accuracy. This models how to make better split-second decisions on the court by choosing precision over power.

Opting to slow down or decrease our intensity in life or at work is not lowering standards. It’s learning finesse. When we’re not driven by a need to prove ourselves, we’re freer to enjoy moving up or down the scale to suit a situation.

Riding the full scale requires listening, paying attention to others, and adjusting. We do this when we break things down into smaller steps for ourselves and our team, or parent a small child. Great teachers consistently scale, tailoring curriculum to their students’ comprehension.

So, let’s scale up when that’s required. And let’s consider when it’s more beneficial to ride down the scale—slower, easier, gentler, simpler, and perhaps more precise.

Is there a situation in your life where you could benefit by scaling your game? Could you benefit someone else by doing so?

Flexibility is the key to success. Remember the musical scale.

That is living as music.

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Call of the Loons

by Emma Laurence

Last week, I drove to a lakeside cabin in northern Minnesota and returned to the call of the loons. Midwest loons are the same species as those of the Adirondacks, my heart’s home.

Common loons call out to one another across a misty lake. Their sound emerges from stillness and silence. Before dawn, I paddled a kayak to the center of the lake to listen. It’s a resonance like none other, haunting and healing.

Take a brief moment to appreciate their beauty:

When we make room for stillness and silence in our lives, we hear a soul-stirring sound. We’re moved by, changed by, a call we must somehow answer.

This sound often becomes amplified during transition times. Like the sunrise or sunset that invites the loon’s cry when humanity settles, our inner call emerges when our thoughts settle.

We may recognize an inner nudge to heal a broken heart or to trust a new, amazing opportunity. The call might beckon us to soul-awareness or to a renovation of our life’s work.

For me, it takes courage to perceive this penetrating signal because I know it will be life-changing.

Yet when a loon-lover friend of mine sits in quiet, the environment awakening around her, she says, “The revelation is so compelling, I go into it with love, affection, and beauty— without needing courage.” Maybe that’s you, too.

Are we willing to be still and wait—to hear, to accept, and to answer?

That is the call and response of living as music.

[Want more loons? https://www.nature365.tv/video/2024-04-29-loon]

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Piano player and elephant playing music together outdoors in clearing.
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Interspecies Music

by Emma Laurence

Elephants World, a self-supporting sanctuary in Thailand for special needs and rescued elephants, provides an unexpected studio for making interspecies music.

Until 1989, elephants in Thailand worked for humans in the logging industry. When logging was banned due to deforestation and floods, these animals needed protection. Today, the elephants play in a new way—making music with their human caretakers.

Pause and enjoy this unusual trio. (1 min):

In human interactions, we sometimes feel like we’re talking to a different species. Of course, we’re the one making music while the other person is blaring dissonant, unintelligible sounds.

Yet, if it’s possible for human-elephant connection through music, surely we humans can learn to play better together. What’s a good way to go about this?

Notice what the Elephants World pianist does. He brings his instrument into their habitat. He’s not expecting them to walk into his practice room.

He also lets them be elephants. He’s not trying to convince them to be otherwise, or to make other than elephant trunk sounds.

We don’t have to be of the same genus—or even have the same perspectives—to harmonize. This is what interspecies music can teach us!

The next time you find yourself feeling like an upright piano in a field of trumpeting elephants—stop, and just listen. Look for a way to bring your song and theirs to a higher level of composition.

It won’t work every time, but if you can recognize that you’re playing different instruments, you can step into their world a bit.

Maybe you’ll discover how seemingly dissonant sounds can coexist.

That is living as music.

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Picture of Jacob Collier conducting his audience in singing harmonies.
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Jacob Collier Creates Community Harmony

by Emma Laurence

A community sound leader today is Jacob Collier. By creating beautiful, improvised harmonic experiences, Collier brings his audiences together in music.

Take a moment to notice how you feel right now, then listen to this extraordinary sound (2 min):

Do you feel differently after hearing this music? How so?

Harmony is heart opening, and it’s also mathematics. A surprising fact about this technique is that it’s quite simple. The sonic result is layered, so it may appear complex to create. But more than anything, harmony requires simple listening.

You can bring harmony to your family, friend group, classroom, office headquarters, courtroom, restaurant, Zoom call — anywhere you are, whenever you’d like — by listening differently.

You don’t even need to conduct the music. All you need to do is be the one who’s tuning into the overview, paying attention to where harmony already rings, where notes meet in the space between.

Two practical examples.

You manage a corporate team. You notice the common ground of disparate factions at a group meeting and speak up to say, “One thing we all agree on here is…” A single commonality serves as the strength of unison and the necessary first tone upon which to build harmony.

You’re a waitress at a restaurant. You begin to pay attention to the rhythm of co-working where timing is key — chefs to servers to patrons. Just by noticing the dance and your part in it, you begin to create a level of community harmony in your workplace.

Naming and noticing. Seems so simple. It is.

That is living as music.

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💛Emma

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Young Sugar Chile Robinson smiling while playing the keyboard
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Sugar Chile Robinson

by Emma Laurence

What is it that delights us about a child prodigy? Surprising talent flows naturally and joyfully in someone so young that we’re baffled.

Where does it come from? Whether we believe the gift is in-born, earned in past lives, or a simply a mystery, there’s no denying the result.

Smile big as you watch Sugar Chile Robinson at age six (less than 2 min.):

Did you happen to notice Sugar’s hands on the keyboard? Young Sugar Chile hits the keys in a way that suits his hands, not the restricted manner in which a player might be schooled.

We each have talents as natural to us as piano was to Sugar Chile at age six. We play the keys in our own way. But sometimes our gift is so natural to us, we don’t even recognize it.

I had a friend who could listen to anyone’s story without making a ripple. Holding profound respect at being invited to listen, the storyteller’s pain, joy, growth, learning, or simple observation emerged in all its fullness.

He never saw his gift as any big deal. But we did.

What’s your unrecognized gift? Maybe you just naturally:

  • know how to be patient when someone needs extra time
  • make others feel included in social situations
  • keep a cool head in an emergency
  • lighten a heavy moment with humor
  • repair any machine that’s broken
  • appreciate animals and advocate for them
  • distill complex ideas into simple, comprehensible statements

What’s most common to us may seem insignificant. It’s not. It’s music!

Today, when you notice someone else’s “invisible” talent, name it for them.

Help them see, and maybe you’ll begin to notice yours, too.

That is living as music.

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Find Your Rhythm. Harmonize with your heart.

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The Sound of Laughter

by Emma Laurence

The sound of laughter is universally human. It brings joy. It’s also contagious and builds connections because who doesn’t love joining in a good laugh?

Babies show us full-body abandon in laughter. They couldn’t care less if it’s a socially appropriate moment or not—and they find humor in the most common things.

Pause and enjoy this baby who finds sneezing hilarious (1 min):

Jean Houston once said that at the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

What a great way to be more creative, find new solutions to stubborn problems, and turn a bad day into something better. Especially when we can laugh at ourselves.

Think of a moment you did something really stupid. (easy, right?) Can you find the humor in your misstep? Laughter shatters shame. Yeah, you looked like an idiot. So what?

Humor also bonds us. When I share a joke with my 9-year-old grandniece, our age difference melts away. When we find commonality in laughter, we find our friends.

Today, ask life for an opportunity to find humor. Appreciate the sound of laughter as part of your day. Share a snicker with a stranger. Break through a disagreement with your partner by chuckling at how ridiculously attached we get to our own viewpoint.

And for one week, try marking Laughter on your calendar at 8pm. If you haven’t guffawed that day, find a funny video, pick up a comic book, or call a friend you know will split your gut.

That is living as music.