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Vedas constitute a body of ancient wisdom of India, inherited for the welfare of all human beings. Since ancient times, Vedas have been chanted in various ways. According to some authors, there are eight major ways of chanting Vedas. Out of eight types of chanting, as reported in the literature, only five methods are currently […]

In modern therapeutic settings, music activities are usually confined to achieve several benefits. Composing songs to express emotion, playing the piano to improve fine motor skills, use of instruments to improvise unspoken emotions, improving movement activities in patients, building up communication with the mentally retarded etc. fall under this category.  In the American hospital setting,

Though the Indian music system is ancient and one of the highly- developed musical systems of the world, the study and application of the therapeutic aspects of this music has witnessed severe ups and downs. Once lauded in literature such as Raga Chikitsa and known to the ancient yogic systems of sound vibrations as nada

Music Elders feel youthful and rejuvenated when they hear the music of their youthful days. Though such music can seem to be outdated for the current youth, for elders it is this music, which is youthful as it reminds them of their younger days of dreams and aspirations, struggles and mischief.  Songs and music that

Improvisation is the practice of acting and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one’s immediate environment. Musical improvisation involves the act of composing immediately before or even during the performance. Improvisation usually occurs in music either in individual rendition or in a duet, or in a

ln Sanskrit, the mind is known as manas, which is often compared to a mighty ocean, because of its infinite spread and depth and the constant agitation and turmoil that it witnesses, especially while struggling for survival and mundane achievements. As the mind is susceptible to the frequent storms of passion and breezes of cravings

Scientific findings confirm the essentiality of music in day-to-day lives of people. Music has been part of all human groups such as nomads, tribal, hunter-gatherers and settlers. The realisation of the need for music therapy for enhancing cognitive ability is due to recent findings. Psychologists are now aware of the role of pleasant and sweet

Listening to music and appreciating music is a complex process that involves memory, learning and emotions. Music, unlike noise, consists of those selected sound vibrations and the intermittent silence, which have a pleasant impact on our mind. Several components in music viz., pitch, rhythm, melody and timbre have a personal one-to-one and deep-rooted association with

Recent experiments in neurology, employing sophisticated neuroimaging techniques, have all gone to confirm that there is a close linkage or synchronization between the musical rhythms and those of the brain waves. Thanks to the recent advances in brain mappings, the scientists are now in a much stronger foothold for unveiling the myths and magic of

Acoustic activism is a new age concept involving volunteers who seek to reform the soundscape of the cities and towns. It aims at bringing in sanity in the noise levels of the cities and to minimize the metallic noises of the automobiles, trucks and aircrafts of high decibels that affect the mindscape of the citizens,

All music which depicts nothing is nothing but noise – Jean Le Rod d’Alembert  In spite of great strides made in Science in recent centuries, very little has come to be known about the breadth and depth of the human mind. From time immemorial music has been employed in various human civilizations as a mind

Music has become a fascinating subject for neurologists and psychologists in recent years. How the strains heard through the ears or felt through the body could affect our health has become the subject for research for many health professionals.  According to Arthur Harvey, the human brain responds to music in – four different ways- but

Music Therapy In the words of Joanne Crandall, the author of Self-Transformation through Music, physicists are discovering that the foundation of the universe to be not just matter, particles of quarks, but also movements of energy.  Application of musical vibrations has been part and parcel of the ancient yoga system, which encouraged the repetitive use

Neuromusicology is an emerging branch of science, born out of the combination of neurological sciences and music; intended to explore the biological and biochemical responses to the sounds of music. The recent developments in this field represent just the rediscovery of the ancient concepts and practices of nada yoga.  Based on textbooks’ understanding of synchronization

The word acoustics is derived from the ancient Greek word, which meant ‘ability to be heard’.  Acoustics is a branch of modern physical science, dealing exclusively with sound. It is concerned with the formation, transmission, reception, regulation and the impact of sound. In recent years, acoustics has been applied in technology. Acoustical engineering is the

Music therapy is a nascent discipline in India and yet to be rooted into the system of the elderly care. However, without really being aware of the significant impact of music, and without any fore-thought, many of us are habitual in seeking for the type of music which we like as and when we find

Listening to music as a complementary treatment for relieving pain is gaining ground in recent years, although the efficacy of music for the treatment of pain is still under active research in India and abroad. Music therapists around the world study their clients and prescribe an “appropriate” and “acceptable” music for this purpose. There is

Listening to music and appreciating it forms a complex process in our minds, involving memory, learning and emotions. Any musical input would consist of a selected pattern of sound vibrations, with its intermittent disappearance (silence) and which have an overall impact on our mind — often described variously as ‘pleasant’, ‘powerful’, ‘beautiful’, `exhilarating’, ‘soothing’, ‘aggressive’,

There is a growing awareness in the West that certain music can provide physiological as well as psychological benefits. Several experiments conducted on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have revealed that many of Mozart’s sonatas result in increased joie de vivre and quality of life, regardless of one’s age or health conditions. Dr. Oliver

For a physicist, sound refers to those pressure disturbances, traveling through a medium (air or water) by particle interaction. It is also recognized as a series of compressions and rarefactions. While the human audible range is measured somewhere between 20 to 20,000 Hz, the human voice range lies somewhere between 75 to 1400 Hz. The