Your Body’s Silent Symphony of Secret Sounds: Sound as harmony
Harmony, often associated with music and esoteric studies, also has a scientific and mathematical aspect. The word harmony comes from a Greek root meaning "a fastening” or “join".
When two sounds are played together at the same time they sound harmonious to us if the ratio between the two is something we as humans relate to as pleasing. What do we generally find pleasing? If two singers hit exactly the same note at the same time we find that pleasing. The ratio between the notes is 1÷ 1 = 1, which is called unison. Another ratio we like is 3:2, a perfect fifth.
Harmony occurs in more than just music. Colors are frequencies and we experience certain combinations as harmonious and therefore pleasing. The letters you’re reading are all the same shade of red known as pink. All being the came color means there is a 1:1 ratio, unison. Green is the compliment to red on a color wheel, and experienced as a harmonious combination. In fact, red and green are Christmas holiday colors and often relate to joyful emotions.
When two sound frequency waves join, their combination creates a third wave, called a composite wave. If the ratio between the two waves creates a pleasing third wave, we experience the sensation of harmony. If the ratio between the two waves creates a displeasing third wave, we experience the sensation of dissonance, or noise
If people are a cumulative set of frequency patterns that collectively create a Signature Sound, then our individual Signature Sound may relate more harmoniously with some people based on our ratio to each other. Does that seem strange? Consider this. If you were born on June 8, 1952 the BioAcoustic frequency equivalent of that date assigns you a musical birth note of D, a pigment color of orange, with light colors of green/blue and blue/violet. If your older brother was born on a date which created a frequency ratio between you of a major sixth, you might feel very comfortable with him. On the other hand, if your Signature Sound ratio to your younger sister was something minor – if even that, you might feel that you have little in common.
In a chorus, sopranos can sing high frequency notes very softly while baritones can sing lower frequency notes quite loudly – and visa versa. The sound wave’s frequency volume, or amplitude, depends on the level of air pressure in each fluctuation. If one or two singers in the chorus are too loud or too soft, the balance is disrupted.
Let’s recap. Sound is created when the energy of an object vibrates, moving air particles in a wave. Each sound is a particular frequency based on its vibrational pattern. The amplitude of a frequency, loud or soft, varies with the level of air pressure, but doesn’t change the frequency itself.
When a sound wave created in your environment reaches your ear, the fluctuations are translated into complex patterns of electrical impulses that your brain recognizes and interprets as being harmonious, balanced, or not.
When a sound wave created by your own voice reaches your ear, those frequencies are also recognized and translated by your brain. Your brain can hear “how you’re doing” by “reading” the patterns of harmony and balance in your voice. This might be one way our brains self-diagnose.
Your brain recognizes and interprets the electrical impulses from all sound vibrations within you as well as those from outside you. At the very heart of all this interpretation is the desire for harmonious frequency relationships and balanced rhythm which we experience as pleasure. The foundation of health and happiness is harmony and balance.
Based on Sharry Edwards’ and BioAcoustics practitioners’ research, not only do the sound waves created by your voice as you speak appear to reflect the vibrational patterns of all the objects inside you – from the smallest atom to the largest muscle, but those frequency patterns can be recorded and “read”.
Reading the frequencies patterns in your voice seems to reveal many secrets about the state of all those vibrating objects inside you – muscles, nerves, biochemicals, nutrients, genes, and neurotransmitters. Once these secrets are revealed, Human BioAcoustics is exploring the art and science of “tuning your orchestra” so that you sing your Signature Sound with vibrant health in joyful perfection – just as nature intended.
Disclaimer: Human BioAcoustics®, as originated by Sharry Edwards, M.Ed., does not diagnose or prescribe for medical or psychological conditions nor does it claim to prevent, treat, mitigate or cure such conditions. Human BioAcoustics® researchers do not provide diagnosis, care, treatment or rehabilitation of individuals, nor apply medical, mental health or human development principles.
© Nancy Blachly 2005