Is it sounding like noise?

"The difference between sound and noise, is that noise is unwanted."

There is much in the media at the moment about wind farms. In particular about their viability as an alternative energy source. The government is concerned about the  “Noise” they make. There is an excellent paper outlining all that relates to wind farms, "noise" and their development for anyone who wishes to know more."The noise emissions associated with Wind Farming in Australia".

Windfarms create high levels of infrasound and low level frequency noise. 
They say you can have a normal conversation standing underneath a wind turbine. 
Those who oppose the wind turbines say that these infrasonic frequencies might release endorphins that won't let people relax: it might interfere with our brain waves. There is much that we don't know yet about sound and all of its properties. What we do know is that coal can be hazardous for many reasons. It was certainly a respiratory hazard, with other adverse health effects, acknowledged by  the Royal Commission into the Hazelwood Open Cut Mine Fire in 2014.  

Sound can be classified into different frequencies. The frequency is the speed at which it vibrates per second: Interestingly, Hertz is the German word for Heart. I remember at University delighting in the coincidence: the possibility that something at a higher frequencies might have a higher “Heart"
Just so you know...
Infrasonic: below 20z
Ultrasonic: above 20000 Hz
Supersonic: (faster than the speed of light). 

Where I am living in the urban bush (the middle of a State Park) presently, there are 3 sonic mice repellants plugged into wall sockets. Apparently, they are working well here, as before there were lots of mice in the house. I haven’t seen any, nor heard any (which is nice!). It seems like the dawn of a new implementation of technology, with sound being used to repel many animals. Using a phone app can exude the correct infrasonic frequency to repel mosquitoes. The mosquito frequency sits between 9.6 and 18.2 Hz depending upon the many factors that affect when mosquitoes come out to eat. Mice frequency sits higher at 32-62 Hz. And, just for some extra knowledge those dog and cat whistles are ultrasonic, being at 20000-25000Hz, out of our human hearing range. Check out our human Ranges of Hearing.

Just because we can’t hear something as humans, doesn’t mean it is not “hearable” (audible) It still means that it exists and we may just need the correct instruments to measure the sonic patterns. It can still affect us, possibly in both positive and negative ways. Here is a great story of a hearing impaired man who is recording the wifi landscape.  Wifi also has an infrasonic frequency and it is growing rapidly around us. Most homes these days in our modern, urban world are connected to Wifi and yet no one says their Wifi is noisy. (They may and do voice concerns about it in our environment).

We have found and are still finding all sorts of uses for these sound frequencies. 

As I sit here writing this, I have the crackle of the open fire, birds singing in the late pre-spring sun and the constancy of the Yarra River that never seems to stop making sound. I have been wondering whether the river is classified as white "noise", or pink "noise". As the river is near the rapids, apparently, it is more like red noise. It is loud and constant and took me a long while to get used to it.  I wrote a poem about the sleepless nights, called RiverBed.

All these colours remind me that there are rainbows of colour in light and that through the light we can see the colour. Messiaen was certainly a composer who used particular scales as they represented particular colours, and it is the Synesthete who often will say they see colours when they hear music. How exactly are light and sound related, and how do we explore this in more depth? I am indeed curious. 

The many different coloured noises are also amazing. Pink noise is white noise, with a predominance of lower frequencies so it sounds deeper.Pink noise affects tides and river heights, our heart beat, and the firings of single neurons. Pink noise can be found in pitch and loudness variations in speech and music.

White noise has been used as a remedy for tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and some people turn their radios to off the dial to get this white noise, and there are a multitude of you tube videos as well as sleep CD's to assist those who hear the constant zing. 

There is a voice and speech exercise that focuses on garnering the breath to sustain fricative sounds. The first is ssssss, which is “white noise” The second is shshshsh, which is pink noise.

Interestingly, a study in one of the big four banks here in Australia revealed that with piping pink noise through their speakers, there were less reported complaints. So perhaps pink noise is a key in achieving harmony…So much yet to discover about these frequencies. 

Back to wind farms....Engineers are looking to Owls for creating  the best blade design for wind farms, as Owls are renowned for hunting and flying soundlessly and they are keen to make blades that emit the smallest amount of "noise". We are on the cusp of this new advancing technology. 

What are your thoughts?

Freedom from the inner critic

"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains" Jean-Jacques Rousseau

There is so much information these days on how to manage our inner dialogue. Through our favourite search engine, there are a multiple different strategies. Often our inner dialogue, especially if it is negative, can get in the way when we are performing, public speaking, or even speaking to someone new in a personal setting.

I have done a great deal of work with clients over the last year, especially for performers in the area of the inner critic. I have to observe it in myself as well, otherwise the critic can suddenly explode and can lead to overwhelm and confusion. That internal dialogue of negativity stops us from being open, expressive and at ease with ourselves and our body. It is sometimes the inner critic that usually tends to trigger our adrenaline system. I draw on principles of mindfulness, as well as performance psychology to arrive at the easiest and most successful outcome for those that I see.

When we criticise ourselves, we respond with feeling under attack and our muscles tense. It creates a defence by tightening and tensing muscles. For many I work with, this judgement sits in the mouth and throat area and tightens the jaw, tongue, lips, neck and throat. So when we are looking for an open throat and jaw free from tension to obtain a free voice, it proves to get in the way (to say the least).


"Why do lock yourself up in these chains? No one can change your life except for you" Wilson Philips

Indeed why do we have such a harsh critic? What stops us from being more gentle with ourselves, for forgiving ourselves? Some of the things we might say to ourselves are mean, or nasty, or untrue, or based on something that happened when we were much younger. I often have clients who say that it was their year 3 teacher that told them they could not sing, and they haven't questioned it since!The first step is to be aware of when and why we do it, without criticising ourselves (using many of the mindfulness techniques).Is there a way of getting out of our own way and altering the stress-tension pattern. 

Below is one of the most interesting ways to view "stress"that I have seen. "Stress"is a term oft used and over-used: many of us glorify being "busy". Are we more obsessed  with "outcomes" in our modern world? I read recently that perhaps all we need is one life changing idea and it would alter our life forever. I doubt it would come in if we were frantic and focusing on our lack of time.

"Stress-tension-release-relaxation
 Stress-tension-release-rela
 Stress-tension-relea
 Stress-tension-stress"  King

We are not generally in the habit of releasing, nor relaxing as a general rule in Western society. The art of relaxing and releasing is often lost in our busy world and certainly stating to someone that we have had a great time dreaming and daydreaming lately may be met with considerable disdain. Or a judgement of being lazy....or in some circles extremely lucky. Distractions  and addictions are more common, rather than "releases" and focusing inward and reflecting. We may find that during the week, or during a rehearsal period, we are either at maximum speed or passed out on the couch.  Have we lost the balance?

So, as we focus on the doing in daily life, without breaking the tension, the stress cycle continues to develop and the inner critic rejoices that we haven't stopped, so that we may be successful and productive. I often wonder about some of the young corporate individuals who come to see me, as they often are unable to see that their bodies have any level of "stress". They no longer even recognise that they need to release, and they look at me as if i am quite mad to suggest that they need to actively release, focus on themselves, their breath, become grounded and flow again. How can this co-exist in their life? Especially if they are working 16 hour days, as well as weekends. What makes us then stop? 

For a lot of us, if it remains unchecked,  stress and tension continue to build. For many of my clients it is their voice, jaw or breathing that is affected. For some, I feel that their voice is giving them a warning to address their vocal symptoms. And sometimes, we need to know that we inhabit a space internally where it is safe to let go. For many perfomers and those that are more sensitive, being in a supported space with someone else can allow the release to occur. Sometimes it can feel too big to do on our own, especially if the critic is playing a heavy hand.

Here is a great video on the inner critic as suggested by Joyce di Donato, famous classical operatic soprano. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Mgb-kIZcOI4 She speaks of how everyone who performs has to silence that voice in our head that gets in our way. And it is great for any non-perfomers out there too. 

We have the capacity to tone our nervous system and our thoughts. We do not always have to be busy or stressed. We can learn to re-engage our calm nervous system (Parasymapthetic) We need to target our thoughts and our body and listen to them intently and with compassion. 

So some thoughts on finding more internal space:

How can we luxuriate more? How can we structure less?  How can we thank our internal critic for all it gives us, and then allow it to take a back seat and listen more to our inner voice? How can we give ourselves full permission to discover the walls that confine and bind us? For in that must led to increased freedom and ease.

When we are free mentally and emotionally and physically, then we can resonate vocally. Find flow again, find more freedom, in our voice and in our life.... xx

"The human voice is the organ of the soul" 
Henry Longfellow

"Voice Rehab"

"The wound is the place where the light enters" Rumi

I saw an old friend last night who had been seeing the limitations of themselves in relation to their injury. We do this. We limit ourselves. What happens when we are no longer able to do the things we were doing effortlessly and pain-free before? How can we not be hard on ourselves or punish ourselves, or as my lovely friend Sara says 'let ourselves off the hook'. Why is injury judged and what makes one judge it?

I had an accident back in June, and suffered whiplash (not for the first time either), with ongoing treatment being required. How may we work ourselves out of an injury? So many questions spring to mind. Is it easier if we have a high level of technical knowledge pre injury? Does it make it harder or easier if we have awareness about what is happening to us?  Where does our fear sit when we have an injury? Do we go into fear at all or is it all encompassing? If we know more what might go wrong, how difficult is it to surrender and allow healing and recovery to take place? How can we move out of the emotions that might be overwhelming, and move to a place of acceptance? What we know is that when we focus our intention upon the present and plan for the future that lies ahead, with all its unknown qualities, it leads to an easier path.

As a Speech Pathologist, my role is mulitfarious in terms of recovering the injured voice.  I create structures and guidelines (often quite strict) for my clients in order for them to rehabilitate vocally. Not to whisper, shout, sing, or in some instances talk much at all, depending upon the injury or infection. It is a big ask for someone to stop speaking, or at least, speaking as much as they used to. To stop singing, even for a short time, can feel as if someone is asking them to be one handed. Often as an explanation, in our voice clinic, we use the analogy of a vocal athlete. It is a wonderful analogy, so much so I created a business from this model www.vocalathletics.com Singers and other professional voice users are our vocal athletes. The opera singer sings a marathon night after night. (Wagner may be a double marathon!) But so is the local school teacher who runs the equivalent of 25km a day!

We usually don't think twice about an AFL footballer or elite sportsperson doing a "corky" or a "hammy" or sustaining an injury, especially at the elite level. In some ways we almost expect that this might happen. Post injury, these sport players get elite and frequent rehabilitation.The media reports on it (as a general rule) without punishment or blame and gives regular updates on how players are recovering. Not so, it seems, with elite singers. The recent surgeries of the likes of Adele and John Mayer received less coverage. We don't know who their surgeons were (unless we look extensively on the web), or what their rehabilitation was like. I could not find out who their Speech Pathologists were. It seems enshrouded in secrecy, as if these voice difficulties are best hidden. At the other extreme, such as in the case of Julie Andrews, negative publicity was generated because of her poor voice outcome. She later teamed up with those same surgeons in an effort to promote their work and raise awareness of these issues surrounding the voice.

Most of my clients, particularly those from the media or international/national singers do not want to be known to have had "Speech/ voice therapy". Obviously,  I respect their privacy fully, as it seems that they feel that they too may be judged from this. If they had a personal trainer to get a great physique, we would know about it, I am sure.

I speak highly on both a personal and professional level of the amazing specialist voice physio Annie Strauch of Performance Medicine Physiotherapy. A sports physio for the vocal athlete! Is neck tension and a tired larynx something to be ashamed of? I do not always think so, especially if our technique is good. Is it because they think they have done something wrong? Does an AFL player blame themself for their injury(ies)?  I do hope that this attitude is one that will change in future years, and that voice rehabilitation is not something to b ashamed of. The more awareness we have of the voice and how we can look after it well, the better, in my opinion. We are not flawless human beings with flawless medical histories.

So. look after your precious voice: "You don't know what you've got till its gone...they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" Joni Mitchell

With voice injuries, I always suggest that a sound structure goes a long way- an email outlining what has been happening (usually a set of 3-4 varied emails depending upon who the recipients are) as well as a voice message on phones (recorded by them or somebody else) that suggests an sms or email is the preferred as a way of contacting them whilst they are having difficulty. This does help to take some of the pressure off the repetitive nature of retelling the story and the injury. Could we imagine the person with the "hammy" standing up and re-enacting the dreaded scene and showing us the same pose that they were in when they were injured. No. No, I think not. Yet the voice is perceived as different. It is of course, and yet also needs some of the same treatment.  

In terms of "real life", others judgement and concern certainly happens quickly. The questions usually come when they least want them; scuttling out to get milk and the cashier says- "oh, what is wrong with your voice, you should really get that checked out. You sound dreadful". Or friends who are wanting to be supportive and want to talk all the time with them. How do we say what is in our hearts when we are not able to use our speaking voice? How can we do it especially if we have not addressed the important emotional aspects of the recovery. What if we want to cry or yell in frustration every time we go to open our mouths? Can we do our job silently? Do we have 10 jobs that we are juggling? How do we make money? Most jobs these days require that we use our voice. Would you be able to perform your job duties if you had to be minimally speaking? How do we find that elusive patience and mindfulness in the midst of this process to really know it is a process and not focus on the immediate outcome. So many questions also means that people feel that their lives are no longer in their control, and it is an interesting and sometimes unfamiliar place to be.

Voice rest is a controversial issue currently. How long should we not make sound for if we have had an injury (or lost the voice?) What if we misused it on a night out and sang too much karaoke? How much rest would we need then? There are many factors for us to consider, and it is usually recommended on an individual basis. And for those for whom surgery is indicated, how long post surgery should one be completely silent for? As yet, we do not have the definitive answers according to the evidence, however it is becoming clearer as time and research continues. A Speech Pathologist and a Specialist ENT have some up to date answers on this. Unfortunately I have seen too many people who were advised voice rest (of up to one month) with no follow up specialist referral when they had a serious injury. Time lost in the most important part of the process, so that recovery can occur in a timely manner. 

And as my Nan used to say "A stitch in time saves nine." So if you are not sure about your voice, and it has been niggling at times, or you have had unexplained voice loss, croakiness, soreness and trouble talking perhaps it is a wise choice to book in with someone who knows. And I mean really knows. Not the "my friend who is an occasional singer told me that......" An excellent voice coach or a Speech Pathologist who has extensive experience with voice is a good place to start. We may think we have excellent vocal technique, however sometimes this is far from the truth. And our voices are important to us. Often only found out when it gives us trouble. We also can learn from when it is not feeling good. We can then take steps to care for it. and find the easier path to great and fabulous "shibumi" voicing!

Voice Mysticism: The Harmony of the Spheres

"The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the entire universe" Khan

Some train themselves to hear in the solitude, on the sea shore, on a river bank, in caves.... 

I bought a book a while ago, The Mysticism Of Sound and Music: The Sufi Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Several years actually, and since then it has been sitting on the shelf. I "randomly" opened a page today and found answers to questions I have been pondering all year. Right under my nose.  Clear answers. Clearly I have been in training.

I am exploring my sensory engagement to my environment, and associated issues with perception. I have been exploring the melodies that come by exploring natural structures. It is sometimes nudged by the etheric (almost above the tree tops) and sometimes it is the denseness of the physical environment, more like a Pranic energy. Inside the caves, sometimes there is a mixture of both of these.

Accoridng to Khan, abstract sound is called 'sawt-e-sarmad' by the Sufi's; all space is filled with it...the sound of the abstract plane, which Muhammad heard in the cave...Moses heard on Mt Sinai....Christ heard in the wilderness...Shiva in the cave in the Himalayas.

"Space is in the body and the body is in space". Almost like in the caves: being in the cave, and the caverns in the body. Paradox within paradox. Space within the space. Infinite. 98% of our body cells are empty space. 

Those who are able to hear the sawt-e-sarmad and meditate on it are releived from all worries, anxieties, fears, sorrows, diseases and the soul is freed from capitivity in the senses and in the physical body.

A shell, found on Bateman's Bay, possibly
 like the shanka, that awakens in man his
inner tone, his "inner song".

I went to a beautiful concert at the State Library of Victoria "Love and Devotion" back in March. It was on Rumi, one of the greatest poets of all time, in my opinion. It was presented as a combination of the Persian Flute, poems said aloud in both Farsi and English. Such a creative presentation. Exquisitely beautiful. Rumi states that he did not belong to any religion although he was Muslim. Persian poetry is highly symbolic, acting as a bridge that links earthly and heavenly images, spiritual and profane ideas. Shahnama of Firdausi is one of the songs. and so powerfully moving. 

Listening is active, hearing is passive. In his TED talk, Julian Treasure speaks of the concept of 'Sound Health'. (Check him out, there are several other great talks he does. I am a big fan) One of his comments is "It's when the birds stop singing that we need to pay attention". As I woke to the sound of chopping wood this morning, and the distinct absence of bird song, I was reminded of this. He urges us to consider listening consciously to the world around us. He also talks of "earlids" which i like immensely. Except that unlike eyelids, we cannot close our earlids when we do not want to hear something.

Marius Schneider is an ethnomusicologist  who coined the term "Acoustic Spirituality" and stated that all matter vibrates, and therefore everything in the world has a sound.

"The astronomy of the Pythagoreans marked an important advance in ancient scientific thought, for they were the first to consider the earth as a globe revolving with the other planets around a central fire.  They explained the harmonious arrangement of things as that of bodies in a single, all-inclusive sphere of reality, moving according to a numerical scheme.  Because the Pythagoreans thought that the heavenly bodies are separated from one another by intervals corresponding to the harmonic lengths of strings, they held that the movement of the spheres gives rise to a musical sound-the "harmony of the spheres.""
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000

In the  TED talk by Janna Levin, she speaks of how the universe isn't silent, but has distinct sounds and rhythms which is the sound of the planets vibrating. Just think, the big bang likely had a song! a description is that it is like a low banging on a drum. Perhaps the future of music is "Gravitational Tunes"? How can we listen to this? Open our ears more to that which surrounds us? What kind of equipment do we need? And because we can't hear it at our frequency, does that mean it doesn't exist ? And because we can't hear it with our ears, does it not impact upon our physical body? Sandra Selig says that there are "hidden rhythms and structures so that we can sense sound through the visual." Evelyn Glennie's aim is to teach the world to listen. As our accessibilty to sound has increased, how can we listen to music with our whole body?

So if everything has a sound, including the trees, caves, rocks, water, perhaps I can continue to make aural landscapes for these visual and kinaesthetic objects. So that they can be perceived on a multi-sensory and multi-dimensional level, and that I may be able to share with others such an aural experience that I perceive.

"We are ourselves works of art, and as we work to bring forward the art within us, we express our inner divinity" Julia Cameron.

Caves and the sound of the feminine

"Magic above and below" Mole Creek, Tasmania

I am currently immersing myself in Tasmania as part of my project as a resident artist. As part of this, I am exploring the sounds of the feminine voice in relation to caves.

As I write, I have a view of the old gums which seem to be happily chatting to me, a good glimpse of Opossum Bay and wonderful fresh air. I have already dealt with spiders, a scorpion (I think) and I had a late night visitor of a masked owl when it flew into my window: we then watched each other for a long time. I like this kind of living.  Hearing the birds. Being near nature, and in nature (although I am reconciling my ability to love all of the crawly aspects-a work in process).

Several events led me to coming down to the Apple Isle. One was a desire for quiet. Silence. To hear nature and the birds. To hear the breath of nature and my breath and how they relate.  One was to discover the cave structures here and make sound in them, where I felt that it was "right".

I know the physics which relates to our voice and speech, including our vocal tract. However, as someone who never really excelled at physics and acoustics, my exploration seems to be more intuitive in nature rather than prescriptive. One such structure in Marakoopa Cave (photos) was deemd by a physicist as having a certain structure that would make a wonderful sound. Sure enough, amazing it is. It sounds like a didgeridoo when a low hum resonates in just the right spot. I was tall enough to reach the spot, alas my lower range was not up to the challenge of resonating to make the exact harmonics. Higher notes were interesting, just not with the same resonant qualities. In King Solomon Caves there were two places where the sound would resonate into infinity. Almost shaped like a long stem of broccoli atop a wedding cake, my guide and I toned and made a beautiful sound that resonated spectacularly throughout the cave. A sense of feeling at one with the cave. A true interconnectedness between nature and 'man'. 

I was at Gunns Plain's Cave last week and Geoff, a wonderfully funny guide took me through. I was the only one on the tour. A theme which continued, luckily for me throughout my cave adventures. There was a moment where the lights were off and we were standing in the dark. The distant sound of the river below felt comforting, perhaps a little like amniotic fluid, and I was moved to tears by the complete and total peace and calm that entered my body. It was a true state of being. Nothing to do, nothing to see, just being. Revitalising. Incredible. They run musical concerts there which would be amazing. And yet, whilst I was there I only wanted to listen to her and not make sounds. A lady on one of the tours exclaimed when the lights went out "Oh I'm scared!" The same lady after several minutes said that "It was magic". That is the nature of how the caves are. Compelling and somewhat repelling at the same time.

This is a theme which continued to the other caves. Some desire sounding and some are encouraging us to listen to them and to ourselves. I went to Yarangobilly Caves in NSW a few weeks ago, and the North Glory Cave entrance really wanted to be sung to. Not so much the South Glory Cave. Interestingly, the North Glory Cave was not open and it was felt that there was much there inside her walls. Each structure having their own story, their own history. Part of my process is listening so intently to this so that I can ascertain what I feel is wanted. And make sure it is not from ego! Often I will get a feeling like someone is holding my mouth gently shut when I am not meant to make sound, and when I am meant to a different quality of breath enters for the inhalation. I am learning to respect and respond to these ever so subtle changes in feeling. More and more I have experienced the magic of the cave responding with a gentle wind, with her own song, not dissimilar to the sounds I had sung. Incredibly subtle. Like a sound made of gossamer thread, not a metal band.

One of the guides was so relieved when we both came to the conclusion that one part of the cave, that seemed to be designed for acoustic bliss, did not want sound in it at all. Paradox. Listening to the feminine intently. Honouring the ancient aspects of the cave. Asking permission to be within her walls. Recognising the ancient magic of the cave and all that it represents. Powerful indeed. 

The feeling once inside is innately beautiful. Deeply restorative. Some of the structures date back to the Ice Age 440 million years ago. A time when the whole world was geologically connected. There is something so awe-inspiring and powerful in that. Cave spiders found in Tassie are also found in Chile. They would have been geographically next door during Gondwana. Glow worms seen in the wild. Who would have thought maggots would be so gorgeous? Certainly not me.

Which got me thinking (I have been doing a lot of that here). Caves are often seen as feminine. We know that they symbolically represent the womb and feminine consciousness. Going deep into the internal psyche as Jung would say. Including the shadow aspect of ourselves. That which is hidden, unseen but oft deeply felt. How can we alter the unseen to the seen, the unheard to the heard. So that we may find ourselves within.

Is it that there might be places within the cave where the masculine voice is amplified and the feminine voice is amplified so that they may reach true harmony together? Quite possibly. I am continuing the exploration....