In this deep guidebook to everything sonic, Mr. Leeds caters to the layperson and the professional alike. The content is exceptionally well researched and organized. He proceeds in sections that contain the history, theory and also references on the Internet that show the research for readers who want a deeper knowledge. Informationen zum Autor Joshua Leeds is a sound researcher, educator, and music producer with 40 hours of specialized soundtracks used in clinics, classrooms, and animal care facilities worldwide. He specializes in the field of psychoacoustics, the study of the effect of music and sound on the human nervous system, and bioacoustics, how human sound affects other living beings. The author of Through a Dog's Ear and Sonic Alchemy, he lives in southern Oregon. Klappentext Customize your sound environment for a better quality of life • Shows how to use music and sound to reduce stress, enhance learning, and improve performance • Provides detailed guidelines for musicians and health care professionals • Includes a 75-minute CD of psychoacoustically designed classical music What we hear, and how we process it, has a far greater impact on our daily living than we realize. From the womb to the moment we die we are surrounded by sound, and what we hear can either energize or deplete our nervous systems. It is no exaggeration to say that what goes into our ears can harm us or heal us. Joshua Leeds--a pioneer in the application of music for health, learning, and productivity--explains how sound can be a powerful ally. He explores chronic sensory overload and how auditory dysfunction often results in difficulties with learning and social interactions. He offers innovative techniques designed to invigorate auditory skills and provide balanced sonic environments. In this revised and updated edition of The Power of Sound, Leeds includes current research, extensive resources, analysis of the maturing field of soundwork and a look at the effect of sound on animals. He also provides a 75-minute CD of psycho­acoustically designed classical music for a direct experience of the effect of simplified sound on the nervous system. With new information on how to use music and sound for enhanced health and productivity, The Power of Sound provides readers with practical solutions for vital and sustained well-being. Leseprobe Chapter 1 WHAT IS SOUND? Sound is vibratory energy. Sound touches us and influences our emotions like nothing else. It is the stuff of tone and timbre, silence and noise. It is a frequency of vibration that we audibly hear between 20 and 20,000 Hz (cycles per second). We perceive it primarily through our ears, where it is transformed into electrochemical impulses sent to the brain. It is also perceived through the skin. Like air and water, sound is ubiquitous. It can be a great benefit, or it can create problems. The emerging field of soundwork or sound therapy, different from music therapy, is based on the theory of vibration: how frequency resonates and affects our nervous system. Soundwork is neurological in nature, working with vibrations to create a charge in the brain and nervous system. Through the understanding of what happens to sound once it enters our heads, we can more easily ascertain which sounds actually strengthen us, as well as which frequencies weaken us. The power of sound is often subtle and therefore easily ignored. But it is through this subtlety that sound surreptitiously influences our energy, our health, our ability to stay in balance. As with so many kinds of sensory input--food, aroma, sound, and images--we have a choice as to how and what we ingest. Ancient cultures knew about the power of sound long before the term science was coined. The spiritually wise men of India knew that the world is sound. From India's Vedic scriptures come the term Nada Brahman--the primal sound of being or being itself....

Autorentext
Joshua Leeds is a sound researcher, educator, and music producer with 40 hours of specialized soundtracks used in clinics, classrooms, and animal care facilities worldwide. He specializes in the field of psychoacoustics, the study of the effect of music and sound on the human nervous system, and bioacoustics, how human sound affects other living beings. The author of Through a Dog’s Ear and Sonic Alchemy, he lives in southern Oregon.

Klappentext

Customize your sound environment for a better quality of life

• Shows how to use music and sound to reduce stress, enhance learning, and improve performance

• Provides detailed guidelines for musicians and health care professionals

• Includes a 75-minute CD of psychoacoustically designed classical music

What we hear, and how we process it, has a far greater impact on our daily living than we realize. From the womb to the moment we die we are surrounded by sound, and what we hear can either energize or deplete our nervous systems. It is no exaggeration to say that what goes into our ears can harm us or heal us.

Joshua Leeds--a pioneer in the application of music for health, learning, and productivity--explains how sound can be a powerful ally. He explores chronic sensory overload and how auditory dysfunction often results in difficulties with learning and social interactions. He offers innovative techniques designed to invigorate auditory skills and provide balanced sonic environments.

In this revised and updated edition of The Power of Sound, Leeds includes current research, extensive resources, analysis of the maturing field of soundwork and a look at the effect of sound on animals. He also provides a 75-minute CD of psycho­acoustically designed classical music for a direct experience of the effect of simplified sound on the nervous system. With new information on how to use music and sound for enhanced health and productivity, The Power of Sound provides readers with practical solutions for vital and sustained well-being.

Zusammenfassung
Customize your sound environment for a better quality of life.

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

WHAT IS SOUND?

Sound is vibratory energy. Sound touches us and influences our emotions like nothing else. It is the stuff of tone and timbre, silence and noise. It is a frequency of vibration that we audibly hear between 20 and 20,000 Hz (cycles per second). We perceive it primarily through our ears, where it is transformed into electrochemical impulses sent to the brain. It is also perceived through the skin. Like air and water, sound is ubiquitous. It can be a great benefit, or it can create problems.

The emerging field of soundwork or sound therapy, different from music therapy, is based on the theory of vibration: how frequency resonates and affects our nervous system. Soundwork is neurological in nature, working with vibrations to create a charge in the brain and nervous system. Through the understanding of what happens to sound once it enters our heads, we can more easily ascertain which sounds actually strengthen us, as well as which frequencies weaken us. The power of sound is often subtle and therefore easily ignored. But it is through this subtlety that sound surreptitiously influences our energy, our health, our ability to stay in balance. As with so many kinds of sensory input--food, aroma, sound, and images--we have a choice as to how and what we ingest.

Ancient cultures knew about the power of sound long before the term science was coined. The spiritually wise men of India knew that the world is sound. From India’s Vedic scriptures come the term Nada Brahman--“the primal sound of being” or “being itself.” Even four thousand years ago, India’s scholars and religious leaders understood that we live in a state of vibration from which sound derives and on which sound has profound influences. Philosophers and prophets of old shared a …