Music Performance– Part IV – Scientific point of view

When studying the basic science of sound, one discovers that sound once sound is released, it is actually a waveform vibrating in the air that is then interpreted by our ear and translated to our brain as sound. Not only does our ear “hear” the vibration of the sound, our body consequently “feels” the vibration of the sound. In general, sound is not overtly “felt” as akin to touching our skin. Observation of the body’s reaction to sound on a molecular level, evidences the molecular structure reflecting or absorbing a sound wave. Further scientific evidence such as the use of Music Therapy as a viable medical science displays the societal acceptance that music, or sound, holds frequencies that are able to affect the body’s molecular structure and promote healing, and the converse, disease.

Cymatics is the study of waveform phenomena. This study is relevant to the aesthetic experience of music since sound is waveforms. A simple experiment of filling a pan with a thin layer of sand and drawing a violin bow across the pan edge demonstrates how sound moves objects, in this case sand. Without directly touching the sand itself, the sound vibrations from the violin bow creates a wave pattern in the sand. Using this basic understanding of cymatics, we can begin to understand how sound can effect the body.

Submitting that the body is a large complex organism, it can be inferred that such a small absorption of sound waves, such as I encountered in the concert, would not have had such a large affect on me. However, if we think about the consistency in which our society regularly encounters sound, the high absorption of numerous sound waves can be cause for some type of affect, be it positive or negative. Thus, from the point of the scientific community, there is plausible evidence that my personal experience could have been an acute form of large grade cymatic experience.


For further study on cymatics, http://www.cymaticsource.com/

Music Performance– Part III

The music that was coming out of my saxophone was not of the listening sort. It was as if the music held much deeper intonations than just musical pitch. It was as if music had life: a living and breathing presence moving about me. This presence was surrounding me in a blanket of peace and speaking deep into my spirit. Each note spoke in harmony to my inner being; sounds described who I was and the places that I had been. Darker tones cried out of past sorrow and mourning that my life journey had waded through while the brighter tones decreed a joy and playfulness that came from the restoration; salve to a deep wound.

As I continued to play, the music created more views: pictures that I had always yearned to learn about myself and answers I wanted to know. One by one little pieces of a greater puzzle began to piece together within me. As the music continued, I saw more details. The entire puzzle was never solved in those short five minutes of music, nor will it be until my last note is played. But that day, that ‘one day in Argentina,‘ was the beginning of a puzzle that would continue to be pieced together throughout the rest of my life journey.

Since others reading this post may not have had such a dramatic, aesthetic experience during a music performance, to assist the development of aesthetic understanding, it would be advantageous to include other praxial methods. As outlined below, similar practices or experiences found in the scientific community, and formal culture experience, would be a praxial approach to defining the explanation of my personal experience.

Music Performance– Part II

I was on stage with my soprano saxophone in hand, looking out at the crowd-packed auditorium, and knowing deep down inside, I was made for this moment. In that moment, it was like I got a “download of who I really am – the deep-down, who-are-you-when-you-get-to-the-true-you.” It wasn’t a voice coming out of the darkness or a flash of light. It was like a tiny switch had just turned on and I realized what my life was about and why I was created.

Now, not everyone reading this may believe in creation and a creator. My discussion is not to debate the issue, but to explain my experience. Here I am, horn in hand and getting ready to play a feature solo on the program. I hear my music cue, put my mouthpiece in my mouth and begin to play. Sound came out of the horn, as it normally does, but contrary to what everyone else heard at that moment, I saw the music.

It is said that as a performing artist you may come across an experience once in a while in which you get to watch yourself perform. In the theatre world, it is called the “third eye.” When someone once told me about this, I thought that it was impossible. But, with this “aesthetic experience,” I now have to admit that this performance anomaly does exist. I experienced it. I cannot dispute what I saw. It was my reality for that moment. I couldn’t touch it, but I was surrounded by it. (...stay tuned for more next time)

Music Performance– Part I: Personal, Aesthetic Experience

I was asked the other day if I thought it was possible to have an ‘aesthetic experience’ while listening to and/or performing music. This question led to a rather long answer that I thought would be worthwhile to put it into a post and get some feedback. I’ll use two approaches to explain my personal experience, both by aesthetics and by explanation from the culture of science, so that those of you reading this post will have a broader understanding of my personal experience. My hope is that you will be able to learn about the subject of musical performance as explained purely from a “feeling” perspective of a professional musician, while being exposed to the explanation provided by the scientific community.

First, the “aesthetic experience” can be interpreted as a means to describe a feeling, understanding or emotion expressed when encountering music or fine art. Using this definition as a general concept, I believe that it is possible to have an “aesthetic experience” while performing music. From the inclusion of a personal experience to the evidence of music’s aesthetic qualities observed in the science community, praxial methods in music education can strengthen the “aesthetic experience.”

My encounter with a personal “aesthetic experience” took place in Argentina five years ago. It embraced what Bennett Reimer (Music Education philosopher) has described as “linguistic, the musical, the logical-mathematical, the spatial, the bodily kinesthetic, the interpersonal, and intrapersonal”(1) levels of intelligence. It was only a five-minute song, but the ramifications of the experience will last a lifetime.

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1 – Bennett Reimer, A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision (2nd ed. Prentice Hall/Person Education: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002), 11.