Traditional music ways

Ancient musical traditions implemented elements of music as their focus. The shaman shakes the rattle, the Tibetan strikes the bell or bowl, the Baba chants OM, the dancers slowly flex their wrists and shift their bodies.

These are forms of musical expression.

We tend to think of music as one big, polished, thing we listen to on the radio or experience in its fullest state of existence.

In traditional cultures, music is rarely used in the way we have come to think of it in the West. The performance, the final product, the song on the radio. This is actually a sum of many musical elements, put together to create something more ‘musically dense’.

The truth is that music is an umbrella term that houses a big bunch of musical elements. To experience these elements individually in their trust form, to experience the therapeutic power of a core element of music, is still considered music.

Just clapping is music.
Just whistling is music.
Just swaying is music.

This beautiful truth means music is more accessible, mindful and inclusive than we’ve been led to believe.

You do not need to be ‘a musician’ to experience rhythm, or tempo, or vibration.

You are just required to be present, in a moment of rhythm, or tempo or vibration.

It is a powerful thing to dissect what we thought we knew, reweaving the threads of music back together in a way that works for us.

A very powerful thing.