Music expresses itself in a wide variety of styles. They may be cultural (an ethnic group), national (region of like history/experience), situational, generational, group oriented (religious, political, rebellious, psychological), or personal (flowing from one’s experience and inner guidance and inspiration). Each becomes a vehicle that attracts others of similar frequency and idea. It is a fascinating process how something that is birthed in such a personal way attracts others and grows to become a movement and a recognized style. Musical tastes are influenced by exposure, popularity, life experience, social time, personal need, spiritual path, and more. Though certain preferences may seem exclusive it is inevitable that this will evolve into some other preference in time.
It all comes down to vibration. Everyone is a vibrating being in a process of unfolding and remembering. Each has a frequency of health and is impacted by personal choices and experiences in this life and prior lives. If the Higher Self is orchestrating the unfoldment of life’s moments for each, as some philosophies say, then our musical interests reflect our current place of awareness and growth. In other words, as we change we will be drawn vibrationally to different styles of music. Lyric, rhythm, melody, and feel are powerful attractants to align with.
It cannot be underscored enough…the true impact of generation on music. As each generation arrives at a higher frequency, their energetic requirements are different. Their collective and personal issues are different. Their interests and focus are different. Each generation creates a music that aligns with their vibration. When you throw in the ways that society, culture, and the previous generations have embraced them or not, you have the makings of a new genre of music…a style. Rock and roll was born out of the rebellion from the black and white fifties. Soul arose as a race culture found a means to express its passion and soul. Blues came out of suffering. Disco came out of the need to dance and express the confusion of the sixties, an attempt to forget about the incongruencies of society. Folk expressed the experiences and visions of the common masses. Jazz birthed in the inner energetic frustrations of life in urban settings. Country expressed the daily life and woundings of a section of the US. Punk came out of the angst and frustration and anger set upon a generation of highly sensitive but overwhelmed kids. Metal came out of spiritual disillusionment and a cultural anger. Rap came out of the continued inequalities of people and the subsequent struggle against perceived limitations, a claim of control and power and manipulation to create freedom. These styles and genres birthed out of successive generations, each born with a collective purpose that met the previous world head on, with mixed results, but surely with a twisting and shattering and a refinement of visions.
Music is a primary vehicle of the young. It is an extension of childhood frivolity and the struggle for understanding and power and separation and identity. We have our music become a rallying flag for community in a world that does not seem to show interest or care the least. In other words, it is a necessary tool for each generation, a seeming right of passage through which to find personal meaning for the inevitable questions birthed in each life. And this is not even addressing the impact of the vibration itself.
Some styles transcend the generations and become consistent vehicles for all of them. Others fade away with the aging of their creators. All serve purpose. And, it is this awareness that a musician who is intending to create healing music must develop. To be sensitive to the challenges of each generation is to understand, on a visceral level, the energies that have yet to be released. The woundings of cultures and communities and families and relations and self are all fair game for the healer. Of course, each person has a unique set of energetic debris to cleanse and clear, but certain generalizations can and must be made about the collective experience of a generation that is now showing up as physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dis-
It would be wise for you to do some historical research into the life of people from the forties till the present. Become aware of the issues, the challenges, the frustrations, the successes, the experiences that have lodged themselves into the tissues of humanity. For this is the energetic domain where the healing music does its work. We are creating the magical and holy hands to energetically lift out the woundings known and unknown. We can create the means to remember each being’s holiness and uniqueness…to give them, finally, the opportunity to reclaim their whole self.
To prove any of what I sharing here or about to offer in the next section is probably not possible. Is it a feeling? Is it a belief? Is it a knowing? Would I stand up to criticism about it? Yes…to all questions. I believe it is that important… and a vital element of healing music, that when a composer takes this attitude into their work and saturates it with the intention of clearing, ends up creating music that heals and transcends experience for anyone who hears, feels, allows, and embraces the piece. So be open and accept some generalizations about music styles and be prepared to explore the impact of each in your music. Please….
Native
Session Ten: Music Styles and their Specific Application
|
Rock and Roll |
Classic rebellion music that poised generation against generation. It is music of power and accessed freedom. Also addresses life themes, particularly relationship. Guitar based…most potent in key of E. Because of the wide variety of feels it is useful to house a statement or healing vision |
|
Folk |
This acoustic oriented style gives voice to common issues that reflect the masses. It is a powerful vehicle and style through which to write for a cause, for a purpose, for change. One person and a guitar standing against the system. Keys of G (Throat), A (Vision), D (emotion and passion) and E (action) are very useful |
|
Latin |
This style is about passion and movement. It is emotion expressed. It invites one to be in their body, in the feet and in the hips. It loosens up resistance to surrendering and letting go. It invites playfulness, sensuality, passion, the senses, and activates fire. Keys of D (passion and sensuality and life’s moments), E (moving out in an unfamiliar way with faith to do that which is before you), and F (letting Love frequencies free to salve the moment) |
|
African |
This music is all about rhythm and breaking out of the familiar patterns. The use of staccato and multiple beats and time signatures simultaneously invites new perspectives and solution. Move on it. Get insight and inspired by engaging consciously in African beats. Use it with the keys of C (Earth power and support), D (unbridled and evocative passion, and E (taking action and putting the intention in the viscera). Building compositions with the rhythms and the instruments and the tribal sounds are powerful. |
|
Middle- |
These sinewy beats and seductive vocalizations invite adventure and sorties into the unknown, beyond the castle walls. There is a sensuous quality here that frees the hips and forces expression and abandon. It undulates and thrusts itself through the moment to break through certain paradigms and structures. Use any of the in body keys below the throat |
|
Eastern European |
Tight intervals that break patterns like nails on the chalkboard. Music of the folk that is soaring and haunting and pushes one over the edge of restraint. It is evocative and stirs the heart by its very sound. It is playful and fast and frivolous. It is gypsy like, inviting you to stop being a good boy, and go live…Keys of D, E and F are very supportive. Use the instruments or the vocalizings. Use major seconds as textures. Use whoops and shouts. |
|
Indian |
From the hips to the crown this music plays with spirit and invites the human to enter realms remembered. The beats move the hips and bring us back to the body (especially Bollywood beats), while the Ragas work the sublime realms to clear meridians and seduce the kundalini to crawl up the spine. As mantra and chant the motifs shift thinking and mental patterns to embrace our own magnificence. So many of the textures are in between Western pitches. So work between and let your voice slide and move like a serpent. Use any key but incorporate the Tablas and authentic beats. Learn and use the vocalizations and weave them behind and through your lyrics. |
|
Country |
For the good ol’ USA folks this music is actually a very powerful way to talk about frustration and disappointment and loss and lost youth. Country beats make a homey pocket for some powerful lyrics. They open up the heart to receive. Add banjo or dobro or violin or harmonica and use it to penetrate the walls set in place by life. Everybody wants a little love…and a dog…and a truck. Keys of C, D, E F and G are good’uns. |
|
Rap, etc |
The beats are nasty, they are sexual. They are confrontive and in the moment. They call for action. They exude an attitude. They invite you to take control. And they can also be controlling and abusive and disrespectful. Find the middle land. Lyric content of the raps is often degrading and violent. Though this may serve a cleansing property like the blues in naming the world in its current form of expression, it has limited value in healing music (except to name the hurt or abuse, which does have value). Use the feel and let it work its way into the spaces created by hard living. Keys of C, D, E are particularly useful. |
|
Jazz |
The frenetic and hard and confrontive urban life shows up in improvisational jazz. The fast pace and the incessant assault on the senses eventually cause the listener to surrender and find an island. Here one can let the intervals and the intricate melodies do their cleansing work.The sound is moody and filled with texture. It is sporadic and incessant, rhythmically piercing your conscious walls. Use the textures and the chordings in your work and open up a deeper land in the listened. All keys work because the music quite literally goes everywhere. Take the journey and find the soft spot where you can let it all go. |
|
Metal |
Nails on the chalkboard. Pounding and hard and assaulting. The textures are full of distortion, an uninterrupted barrage on the senses. It carries the hardness of life and reeks of rage, and overwhelm, and I’ve- |
|
Punk |
A driving style of anarchy and rage against the status quo. It is active and pulsing and fast and confrontive. It invites conflict and angst. Use it to release the pains and frustrations of life. Use when there is powerlessness and overwhelm to be expressed. Guitar keys of C, D, E and G |
|
Classical |
Very emotional and sweeping music filled with dynamics and color. It is passionate and evocative and inviting. It is emotional and revealing and spiritual. It is Holy. Orchestral textures in your compositions are beautiful. Use the families of instruments as tone colors to make a statement. Use it to soothe and empower and elevate. Use it to impact the heart and motivate the spirit. It can be meditative and freeing. All keys are used. |
|
Show Tunes |
This style is very interesting in that it allows frank and witty description and addressing of any issue. It is throaty and soaring. It runs all emotions and is obviously theatrical and over the top. Just the thing to broach a sensitive topic. It is humorous and light and very intense and heavy. Anything goes and all that jazz…any key is useful because it is about all of life and the story… |
|
Techno |
Pulsing on the quarter tone like strong ethnic beats. It is enervating and soaring. It is imaginative and annoying. It forces you to dance and move through your issues. It asks you to surrender and join the crown. It is a force feeding of Oneness. Synth driven it is artificial and science fiction. It calls from the heavens and from the hellacious places of the past. It is wildly dynamic and confrontive. It forces you to do something. It may be the perfect vehicle for a song that motivates. It speaks to several generations directly. All keys are good but C is strongest. |
|
New Age |
Ethereal and expansive and spacey and dreamy and meditative. It is a great vehicle for a music wash or drone to chant, speak or do mantra over. It has spaces for breathing. It can be very heart centered, visionary, and inspiring. It is spiritual by nature and a useful vehicle for helping people to remember their eternal roots. All keys are appropriate but the higher ones are more ethereal. |
|
Choral |
Because it involves so many voices it is powerful and inspiring and heart opening. It can be filled with grace, compassion, empathy, and humanity. It is inviting and washes the cells with the vibration that only the voice can do. Lots of vocals in a song can be rich and welcome. Keys of E, F, G, A and B are particular useful here. |
|
Native |
Of the Earth and tribal. It pulses like the Great Mother and involves and integrates the Natural World and kingdoms. It is visceral and community building while inviting the listener to take a solo vision quest. The drums are like the heartbeat. The flutes lift you into the realms of the Great Father. The voices are filled with the emotion of living and the power of surviving. Use many elements. They carry a particular healing frequency that cannot be denied, especially to those of North America. The keys of C and E are strong for this style. |
Trust your guidance and use styles that fit your vision. Combine elements of several to create hybrids that enter new realms. Each style holds a particular key to the entry points of the human story. One style may allow a message in because of the familiarity with it. Take risks. Know that those drawn to your creations often have a similar history of experience to you. Be willing to draw upon your journey. The styles invite you to different land. Go there. Much will be learned…much will be gained. And all of that is to share.
Session 1 l Session 2 l Session 3 l Session 4 l Session 5 l Session 6 l Session 7 l Session 8 l Session 9 l Session 10 l Session 11 l Session 12
