The physical effect of music/sound

[Endrik]

Have some of you ever wanted to go deeper into the world of sounds... not just listening your usual stuff because the tunes sound cool or whatever... but going further... to get you in some "special mystical place" or even to the level that it can fuck you up.

You know humans hear to about 20,000 hz but if you play the sounds of 40,000 hz which we can't hear.. we still can feel it... we sense it somehow.

The sound waves are physical forms. Just like when someone punches you in the face... you can feel the sound too... but it's a lot more subtle and it goes deeper into the body and to the places that most physical objects can't. And has a lot more different colors which can have a lot of many different effects on you.

Different sounds have different effects... let's go step by step.

Play AC/DC's Back In Black... it makes people feel good/happy... they want to party or break shit.... you know whatever.

You listen to some cool guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen or Gary Moore or some other dude... and when they go to the high register and play those crazy bends and vibratos... then you feel chills on your body... you can have goosebumps... which can be visible.

When I'm listening to certain psychedelic music. It really starts to fuck you up. You are like on drugs... your head is floating... but actually you are sober.... your mind goes funny. It's pretty strong when I listen to Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" or Mile's Davis' live performance at Isle Of Wight.
I started noticing that affect when I first heard Deftones "Digital Bath"... shit I really thought someone had drugged me.

That feeling goes a lot stronger sometimes when I'm jamming with some other cats... they have this cool groove going on... and I have some effects.. like delay, wah, chorus, flanger whatever.... and start just jamming along... and make some really trippy stuff... your mind goes to totally different place... you don't really sense what is happening. And you feel this strange thing a lot more because you are not just listening to music anymore... but it comes out of you... somewhere... from your deepest places.

One of my really good friends is a great bass player who likes to experiment with a lot of different sounds and effects... he has bunch of shit... delays, synths, chorus, octaves, drives and so on. Often when I'm at his place with some other dudes and he wants to show us some idea he came up with ... usually it ends up us messing around with all the effects. It goes on for about 30 minutes. After that we all are totally fucked up, we are so tired, we can't do anything.

There's also many other effects... for example when I hear a song called "As We Speak" by Soilwork... goddamn... I can't listen to it... it makes my feel really really bad.. it's like someone wants to stuff a cauliflower inside my head through my ears.

But some motherfuckers feel all that shit on a way higher level. I'm pretty sure Hendrix had orgasms when he played his shit. The only way I've had an orgasm playing guitar was when I got smoked by a very rock'n'roll friendly girl at the same time.

So how many people actually try to make their music strongly physical? How many people actually notice that effect?

You know good songwriting, riffs, hooks, melodies, arrangements, production etc. really makes us like some particular piece of music. But some of my fav. music has had a strong positive physical effect on me. Hell the music doesn't even have to have all the previous values, the physical effect counts the most... it just has affect you positively (I don't mean it has to make you happy.. but make you feel comfortable)

So whataya think?

Peace!

[Spivonious]

Neat observations. For me it's not the music itself that causes reactions, but the emotions attached to it.

Heh, I thought I'd write more, but that pretty much sums it up for me.

[Aaronharmon]

Some of Pink Floyd studio stuff has this trance like effect on me. When I listen to the Have a Cigar album, time just disappears, I float through it.

Some of you know that I work in the psychology field, I have mentioned it before. You may find this interesting. I read a study recently that looked at the personality types of youths attracted to hardcore/metal/thrash/etc and they found that the children were actually well above their peers in I.Q. They speculated that the children were attracted to the music as an emotional outlook because they had a more realistic world view and were more sensitive to the injustices of the world.

[phill_up]

What kind of feelings do you get from this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ74G4lU84I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI5K0AzNHI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cDAb0cLTC0

[Endrik]

Neat observations. For me it's not the music itself that causes reactions, but the emotions attached to it.

yeah... emotion is a very important thing... everyone gets some emotion listening to music... and if the emotion is what they feel comfortable with then they like the music

to like some music we first have to feel it emotionally


but this physical thing is like coming from a different world... very weird experience... much more stronger effect than just emotion... physical emotion is also emotional but different




oh... I go into trance with Pink Floyd too... awesome!

[åron]

Well... of course! The transporting nature of music is the best part, and when you jam from a wordless emotional place and never think a thing about scales, modes etc life is perfect. Other people might not want to hear the end product sometimes, but it sure feels... therapeutic.

Interesting that you should bring this up. This woman I know invited me to a sound healing workshop on Friday. Of course it's in the SFBA, and even more in the heart of the new age universe: Mill Valley :ROTF: .... but being a music/sound nerd, how can I say no?!

[FlyingSkull]

You know what I found strange? At VH last year, when they did "I'll Wait"... I did not realize how heavy and dark of a song that is live. There is something about Alex's drumming combined with Ed and Dave... that was something else. Even now when I hear the studio version, I can hear those darker tendencies in their music. Powerful stuff.

OP you make some great observations, enjoyed your post.

[Outlander]

vibration and energy. This is what helps music become a universal language.
It is that point in playing with others where you become one with the music/enegy that you are outside of your self and become a part of something else that keeps me striving onward. Moments when things just flow, you sometimes have to remember where you are and what you're doing. I've actually had to remind myself to breathe and looked to see if my feet were on the ground.

Please tell me I'm not crazy and the only one who has experienced this!!!

[Aaronharmon]

What kind of feelings do you get from this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ74G4lU84I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI5K0AzNHI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cDAb0cLTC0

Maybe it was the Marilyn Manson, maybe it was the burrito I had for lunch, one of them is putting a hurtin on my colon!

[Spivonious]

I always get pumped up listening to Beethoven's 5th, movements 3 and 4, just because it reminds me of some great triumph.

Beethoven's 7th, movement 2 gives me chills because it reminds me of a emotional eulogy.

Opeth gives me the creeps because my first time hearing them was when I was driving with some friends through the Adirondack Forest in the middle of the night.

[GodOfRhythm]

There's been research into this, in fact I'm friends with a dude at college who's deep into this exact line of research.

Certain sounds elicit certain chemical reactions, it's not really that 'mysterious'. Chemical reactions, along with altered synaptic responses = emotions & physical reaction.

[horns666]

Rap music always made my pp go inside out. But I live in the hood! So, whenever I hear that sound I think.."uh oh, they're coming"..but then it's just some small white boy pimpin' while drivin'..

False alarm..ainthatbouddabitch!

[Endrik]

What kind of feelings do you get from this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ74G4lU84I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI5K0AzNHI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cDAb0cLTC0

The Doors definetly sends my mind wondering around somewhere

Interesting that you should bring this up. This woman I know invited me to a sound healing workshop on Friday. Of course it's in the SFBA, and even more in the heart of the new age universe: Mill Valley :ROTF: .... but being a music/sound nerd, how can I say no?!

Mill Valley eh... that's a nice place... make the trip a worthwhile... I'm sure there's some folks there who don't have any problem passing out some grass

You know what I found strange? At VH last year, when they did "I'll Wait"... I did not realize how heavy and dark of a song that is live. There is something about Alex's drumming combined with Ed and Dave... that was something else. Even now when I hear the studio version, I can hear those darker tendencies in their music. Powerful stuff.
.

Yeah I noticed some colours last year too which I hadn't before listening to the albums. VH definetly moves me physically... that's why I love 'em so much.

vibration and energy. This is what helps music become a universal language.
It is that point in playing with others where you become one with the music/enegy that you are outside of your self and become a part of something else that keeps me striving onward. Moments when things just flow, you sometimes have to remember where you are and what you're doing. I've actually had to remind myself to breathe and looked to see if my feet were on the ground.

Please tell me I'm not crazy and the only one who has experienced this!!!

No, you are not alone

There's been research into this, in fact I'm friends with a dude at college who's deep into this exact line of research.

Certain sounds elicit certain chemical reactions, it's not really that 'mysterious'. Chemical reactions, along with altered synaptic responses = emotions & physical reaction.

yeah... soundwave is a physical form but very small... so it can get deep inside you and react with your body's chemical elements... it works very much like a drug

that's why some people call music a drug

[Norton]

Beethoven's moonlight sonata. a.k.a Orochimaru Theme


Some songs have very deep auras. I get lost in those songs. Usually , a "big sound" helps to achieve that effect. i.e listen to the Wake of Magellan by Savatage. You'll get what I mean.

[MartinBarre]

Certain music, like Karl Sanders' solo album, is great for meditating, or performing rituals to.
Nile also have a song on their latest album, I think the track is "Eat of the Dead", which apparently gave some people feelings of painful discomfort when listening to it (and not because it's a shit song, cos it's not!) I can't say it ever made me feel any pain, but some people reported it, and Karl said they'd used some tricks in the studio specifically to cause this sort of reaction.