The Fibonaccie Series - the "golden" series is ascribed to have regulated the whole exterior shape of the violin prior to the use of molds. For generations, violins created by the master luthier Stradivarius are known for their tone quality and their aesthetic form. Below left is a design of a scroll with the elegant curve of the series. The Golden Ratio \phi = \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2} = 1.61803 can be found throughout the violin by dividing lengths of specific parts of the violin:

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Music and Its Effect on Body, Brain/Mind, and Spirit
A brief look at history
• Some archaeologists believe that music and dancing preceded language.
• Since the days of the Greeks and Romans, music has had a profound effect on the body and the mind.
• Healing and sound were considered sacred science. 
• Healing and music diverged in the 18th century, music was for entertainment, healing was practiced through science and medicine.
• Since World War II, the health benefits of music have become more recognized in mainstream medicine.
• Today, no human culture is known that does not have music. 

Music affects the body and the brain
Music for Mind and Body (article) http://valleymusictherapy.com/research.html
Tuning the Brain for Music (article)  http://www.braintuning.fi/research.html
Music and the Human Brain (article)  http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Brain.htm
Music for Pain (Article and Video)  http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392834
The Healing Power of Music (article) http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/
Music+Therapy%3A+Benefits+and+Uses?archiveChannel=Home%2FArticle&clicked=true
Can Music Therapy Affect your Health? (article)
http://www.scientificblogging.com/erin039s_spin/can_music_therapy_affect_your_health 
“Music medicine” has only begun to receive serious scientific consideration, with rigorous medical research beginning to build up in the late 1980s.
“Music Neuroscience, Physiology and Medicine.” Fall 1997. Musica(IV)2. (article) http://www.musica.uci.edu/mrn/V4I2F97.html#neuroscience
Music as Medicine (article) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2002286998_healthmusic25.html

Music Medicine
Physical effects of music
• Changes in blood flow
• Speed of muscle reaction
• Lower blood pressure
• Lower heart rate
• Changes in cell structure
• Stimulation of chemicals in the brain

Music and its Effect on the Brain (links and websites) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=music+and+its+eff
ects+on+the+brain&start=10&sa=N 

Music and its Impact on the Human Brain (article)
http://stanford.wellsphere.com/general-medicinearticle/doctor-blog-music-and-it-s-impact-on-the-humanbrain/18975

Music and the brain
Psychological effects of music
• Calms the body and the mind
• Facilitates visualization
• Diverts attention away from unpleasant situations.
• Entrainment enables individuals to experience commonality with feelings conveyed in music.

Music’s effect on the brain
• The cerebellum is connected to the ears. Music produces emotional responses and positively impacts movement.
• Watching musicians perform affects brain chemistry differently than listening to a recording.
• Music triggers reward centers in the brain, the same neural clusters that process pleasure also fire up for music.
• Brain neurons are hard-wired for music.
• Processing music is complex and not limited to the right hemisphere only.
• There is a strong connection between memory centers of the brain and those that process music

• Music is transported via the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex.

• The right side of the cortex perceives pitch, melody, harmony, and timbre.
• The left side of the cortex processes changes in frequency and intensity.
• Both sides are needed for rhythm, as in differentiating time signatures.
• The hippocampus differentiates between styles of music.
• Frontal cortex perceives other aspects of melody and rhythm; patterns of neural activity are seen that are affected by music.
• Research has shown that activity in regions of the brain, in addition to the cerebral cortex, are heightened while listening to music.
• The limbic system of the brain evokes a feeling from a certain piece of music .
• The rhythm of a song makes people want to tap out a rhythm, or dance, which is controlled by the brain’s motor functions.  
• The experience of a live music performance is perceived and responded to by the brain even more strongly than recorded music.

Music’s effect on the brain
Psychoacoustics is:
• The study of how humans perceive sound.

How we listen
Psychological responses to music
Physiological impacts on human nervous system
• In the spectrum of sound, there is a chain of vibration.
All atomic matter vibrates.
 Frequency is the speed at which matter vibrates.
The frequency of vibration creates sound (sometimes inaudible to
human ears).
Sounds can be molded into music.

Psychoacoustics
http://www.sound-remedies.com/psyc.html

Spiritual effects of music
• Music creates a point of focus for the mind.
• Music aligns energy fields, when coupled with intention,
vibration and resonance flow.
• Music allows access to inner resources:
• Renewed vitality
• Balance
• Clarity
• Inspiration
• Relaxation
• Creativity
• Transformation
In conclusion
• The brain is the CPU for all human thoughts and actions;
only now are we beginning to understand how it
orchestrates the symphony of music and its effects.
• The brain synthesizes music unlike any other “input” and
uses all of its parts to create pleasure or pain from the
sounds and frequencies we hear.
• From cancer to Alzheimer’s, to mentally handicapped, to
spiritually broken, as well as many other conditions, music
flows into the brain and aids in the healing of body, mind
and soul.
References
•
“The Importance of Music and Brain Research.”
http://www.centerformusicmedicine.org/pdfs-music-andbrain/THE_IMPORTANCE_OF_MUSIC_AND_BRAIN_RES
EARCH.pdf
• “The Role of Music and Sound in Healing from Cancer:
Developing Your Own Sound Healing Practice.”
www.healingmusic.org
• Sancar, Feyza “Music and the Brain: Processing and
Responding.”
http://www.centerformusicmedicine.org/pdfs-music-andbrain/Music_and_Brain-Sancar.pdf

This article is from:  http://www.musicforhealthservices.com/Music_as_therapy/Pages/Module%2007_Creative_Applications_of_Music_and%20_Sound/7.2_Music_and_its_effect_on_Body_Brain_and_spirit.pdf

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In search of the golden ratio...in Music... in architecture

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Article From : Huffington Post

It lights up your brain like fireworks on the Fourth of July, spurring on complicated processes and making connections like crazy. Your synapses fire. Your neurons are in hyperdrive.

This is your brain on music. #musicalrentals

We're still learning more about how our brains work, but thanks to neuroimaging technology we do know that playing music requires some pretty unique mental acrobatics.

Many things we do are associated with activity in singular part of the brain. Playing an instrument, in contrast, engages almost every part of the brain simultaneously, according to a recent Ted-Ed lesson from educator Anita Collins. The parts each process different information, relating and interrelating it with incredible speed.

And all that violin and oboe practice adds up, meaning that as you get better at playing tricky concertos, your brain gets better at processing all the information that made it possible. That newfound strength can then be applied to other, non-musical activities.

We're not saying that you should give up your SAT flashcards for a quick tutorial on maracas, but if that's just one way that playing music benefits your brain, it sounds like musicians might be on the right track. Watch the lesson above for more.

Video From : YouTube.com

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 Hope is powerful because it energizes and propels people forward even when the odds are against them. It helps people find innovative ways to work around their constraints. Hope helps people rise above their circumstances. Continue reading

Image Retrieved From : http://www.mwoy.org/pages/pb/spb13/nancydemarchi

Scot McCracken is a second-generation music industry veteran who has managed and worked with countless producers and musicians, including Rihanna, The Black Eyed Peas, 98 Degrees, Joan Osborne and the Fugees.  His father, Hugh McCracken, was the only guy to play with all four Beatles, was the first member of Paul McCartney’s Wings and played with everyone from Aretha Franklin and Billy Joel to Paul Simon and Steely Dan. How did his career affect your attitudes to the music industry?

Scot McCracken: My dad had this amazing career that could only happen in that window of time when people actually touched instruments and made noises that other people had to record onto a tape – with no mistakes and in real time.  My father would always bring me to the studio with him, so as a little kid, I would be in recording sessions instead of baseball games. Music was like a second language to me and a passion that began at a very young age.  Scot decided to go into management as he saw them as the guys that were calling the shots.

Click and read the article with numerous fascinating anecdotes about the music industry.  More interesting however is Scot's comment on his new phone ap: "As I’m sure you’re aware, music has always been an original source of exploration and transformation, and I believe it will continue to drive social change. I want to inspire the younger generation with genuine role models so they feel empowered to step up and get involved. When you look at the 1^st Verse area of our app, you’ll see it’s buzzing with all the responses from folks eager to connect on today’s topics.  Music is a big part of that.  I want to unlock the potential of Snapverse to be a force that taps into the positive dynamics of culture today."

From Forbes Magazine:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/dansimon/2014/07/31/selfie-starter-scot-mccracken-rethinks-the-music-business/

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His dream has always been to travel the world and tell stories of change through music. Cyrus of Raw Music International went to Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region in the north of Iraq, because few places in the world are changing more rapidly.

He’d read about a rich musical tradition carried out under the most brutal conditions. Singers traveled on foot and kept the Kurdish language and culture alive despite the best efforts of Saddam Hussein. During that regime, the very act of singing in Kurdish was political, and many musicians caught doing it were punished with death.

But in the Kurdistan of 2014, I found a musical void. The old musicians were gone. They were dead, or living abroad, or they had simply taken other jobs and forgotten how to play. The ouster of the old dictator came with the side benefit of new oil money. Those who once sang sad songs of the Kurdish past now found themselves preoccupied with more capitalist pursuits. The Kurds may be ignoring the music of the past, because for the first time in recent history, they can afford to imagine a future.

He traveled mountain villages and dusty cities and found almost no one who could play an instrument. In Kalar, a conservative, religious desert town, 18 year-old Mohammad described his situation to me: “I crave art, but my family says make money. My mother burned my books. They don’t understand.”

He met Helly Luv and Iraj, two amazing artists from opposite ends of the socio-economic scale, trying desperately to make it in the new Kurdistan. "I may have arrived too late to meet the legendary singers of old. But I was just in time to meet the young musicians shaping a new nation"    NBC News story on Cyrus:  http://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/ground-kurdistan-musicians-shaping-new-nation-n157901 Continue reading

The All-Time Top Six Psychological Reasons We Love Music from Psyblog

Modern technology means it’s never been easier to hear exactly the music we want, whenever we want it. But whatever technology we use, the reasons we listen to music are universal. It engages us on all sorts of different levels.  A few bars of a song can take us back decades, to a different time and place.  North (2010) asked 300 young people about their main reasons for listening to music to see which came out top.  Here are the answers, in order of importance, counted down from six to the number one spot.

6. To learn about others and the world
Languishing down at number six was the way in which music teaches us about the world.  Music tells us stories about other people and places and it gives us access to new experiences.  Music can teach us how other people think and even suggest how we might live.

5. Personal identity
In at five is identity. The type of music we like expresses something about ourselves. Even the broadest genres like rock, classical and blues begin to give us a picture of a person. We also seem to discover ourselves through music: it can teach is who we are and where we belong. Through music we can build up and project an image of ourselves.

4. Interpersonal relationships
The fourth most important function of music is its social dimension. Music is a point of conversation. We listen to it while we’re with other people and we talk to them about it. It’s a way of making a connection.

3. Negative mood management
Tying for the second spot is negative mood management. When we’re in a bad mood, music can help us deal with it. When your mood is low, there is something cathartic about listening to sad music. Somehow it helps to know that you’re not alone. We use music to relieve tension, express our feelings and escape the realities of everyday life.

2. Diversion
Also coming in at number two is diversion. Music relieves the boredom of the commute, or of a lazy Sunday afternoon. It’s something to do when we don’t know what else to do.

1. Positive mood management

Right up at the top of the charts is positive mood management. This is rated people’s most important reason for listening to music: making our good moods even better. It entertains us, relaxes us and sets the right emotional tone.  Music makes us more hopeful, even after things go wrong for us. In one study by Ziv et al. (2011) participants were falsely told they’d done badly on a task. Those who were played some positive music afterwards, were more hopeful about the future than those left in silence.

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