Sound Healing occurs at any frequency, 432Hz doesn't make you feel more spiritual.

Take a moment and think to yourself…How do we define music?  Do certain musical vibrations affect us if we are hearing it or feeling it?

This question is simple, yet the answer is theoretical and seems to be unique to each individual.  For decades my answer was simply “Personal interpretation of sound.” This held solid for me until I started to ask myself the question, “what is sound?”  Sound is one type of vibration. Vibrations are how messages are transmitted in our world, and our bodies react to many types of vibrations. It is important to understand that light, temperature, aura, and many digital transmissions on the spectrum (cell signals, radio waves, wireless transmissions) are also vibrations that our bodies receive. Some of these are received consciously and some subconsciously. 

When it comes to vibrations of sound, “pitch” is the term used to define how high or low the note sounds.  Pitches are also called “Musical Notes”.

How to define pitch:

1. Naming it as a musical note

2. Measure it by how many times it vibrates per second

Vibrations per second are measured in Hertz (Hz). 1Hz is 1 cycle per second…this cycle can be visualized as a “Sound wave '' and is also called “Frequency”.

440 Hz = 440 vibrations per second, it vibrates at a frequency of 440 sound waves per second. 

According to the ultimate resource Wikipedia, “in 1936 the American Standards Association recommended that the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz. This standard was taken up by the International Organization for Standardization in 1955 as Recommendation R 16, before being formalized in 1975 as ISO 16.” 

From that point on the vibration that vibrates at exactly 440Hz (440 times per second) was called “A.”  In Western Music (just about all of what you listen to) there are 12 notes that repeat over and over. We use 7 letters named A, B, C, D, E, F, G and there are 5 notes between which are called Sharp or Flat notes. There are high As, Low As, and Middle As.  The A below Middle C is 220Hz and the A below that is 110Hz.  As the notes get higher, the A above 440Hz is 880Hz and the A above that is 1760Hz.  It’s exponential…doubles each time the note repeats. Eventually the notes get so high (so many vibrations per second) that humans can no longer hear them. A dog whistle for example is around 35,000Hz and can not be heard by humans but can be heard by dogs.

So, now that we have defined the note A, how are the other notes defined in Hz?  

All of the notes between two As have decimals as they are also evenly spread exponentially but don’t have even numbers of vibrations per second. So, the note below “A 440Hz” is “A flat” and in the standard tuning it vibrates at 415.305Hz…approximately 35 vibrations less than A.  The next note down, “G”, vibrates at 391.995Hz…approximately 23 vibrations less than the note above it.  As the notes get lower there are less vibrations per second (sound waves) and the number of vibrations becomes closer together, as the notes get higher they each have more vibrations between each note.

When we listen to music we experience many notes played at the same time.  More than one note played at the same time is defined as a “Chord”.  Some chords sound harmonious and others sound cacophonous (the opposite of Harmony is Cacophony…it’s one of my favorite words). Cacophony causes more tension and harmony causes more resolution of sound when listened to.  That said, our minds can be trained to hear chords and sounds that are cacophonous and as we get used to them they can begin to sound harmonious.  Chords in Jazz for example may sound crunchy and coarse to some that don’t often listen to jazz, but to a jazz pianist those chords just become part of their harmonious musical library of sounds with practice. 

So, what happens when someone plays a note that is just slightly lower than 440hz, 432hz for example?  Well if all of the other notes are tuned with the understanding that 440 is a standard, then that note will sound out of tune when compared to the other notes. Out of tune notes are simply just a little bit below or above the standard tuned note.  But, if it is agreed that all of the notes will be slightly lowered and the standard of A will be 432, then it can sound in tune as long as all of the notes are lowered the same amount (on an exponential scale).  Now the A below 432Hz will be 216Hz (half) and the A below that will be 108Hz. All notes in this case will be shifted down slightly from 440Hz on an even scale.  

Well, why would we do that???  

Simply put, our bodies can detect slight changes in vibration (consciously or subconsciously) and some believe that we react differently to vibrations set to different standards in tuning.  Especially true when the sounds create healing vibrations.

432Hz is of particular interest to those that study energy because scientific studies have shown that when an electronically created sine wave which is just isolated to 432Hz hits water, it vibrates in very unique ways!  This is important because our bodies are largely made up of water and when we hear music or receive vibrations, our bodies also vibrate and react to those healing vibrations.  

This has led many to believe that music that is played in the lower tuning standard of 432Hz will have a unique vibrational experience that is for lack of a better term, magical or spiritual!

Those who believe this will frequently talk about the scientific studies which show that water has a unique vibration at 432Hz. While I don’t debate this, individuals who understand music theory understand that none of us have ever been exposed to an electronic sine wave isolated to a single note vibrating at 432Hz. Music is made of many many notes and each note played on an instrument is actually producing multiple notes but our ears isolate the one that is the dominant pitch (if you want to learn more about that google, “harmonic series in music”). 

Also, some of these notes, even if tuned to a standard of 432, are slightly out of tune due to environmental factors such as temperature and barometric pressure and the quality of the instrument. Some instruments are more in tune than others or hold their tune better than others, and notes can be slightly bent up or down for effect and can still reach our soul with a spiritual or magical feeling. 

When considering this, it will be obvious that our bodies react to all vibrations of sound. Music can be played to a standard of 44Hz or 432Hz or any other standard and when the vibrations hit our body we can have a spiritual experience simply because we are receiving vibrations and our bodies are reacting to them! 

The truth is that people react more spiritually to music that is in a specific style that they like than they do to notes that are played at a specific pitch or key (grouping of notes). And people reject music for the same reason. For example, me personally - I like jazz but I don't like death metal…ok I like some but not most. Each person has styles of music that they prefer to listen to and prefer not to listen to.  There are many factors that go into these individual choices.

Factors that lead to a connection to music are vast including the types of instruments played, volume levels, quality of the sound or instrument or speakers and microphones, expectations of what the music will sound like, and are there vocals or not for examples. Differences in styles of music can be vast and will create extremely different feelings, emotions and thoughts in listeners based on their personal experience with music.  But, does the frequency change the effect?

The truth is that people can have a spiritual experience and feel spiritual vibrations with music at any frequency. Is 440Hz tuning different from 432Hz?  Yes - that’s been proven.  But for most people this difference is not noticeable in their bodies and it has no determining factor on how they relate to the spirituality of the music. 

432Hz, 1111Hz, 888Hz. These have become marketing ploys and many people have become fooled into thinking that if they see these numbers on a video of a song then it must be giving them a more spiritual experience.  If it is, then it is simply because an expectation has been set of the music being spiritual which creates an intention.  It is a placebo.

All music can be spiritual music!  All music vibrates and if we are hearing it or feeling it then it is affecting us.  Set intentions when receiving vibrations and you will find that you can improve yourself with sound at any frequency. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the music. 

Josh the Keymaker