What is your key or fundamental note?

[Doug_Tipple]

This experiment in sound is about focusing on one tone, such as a sung vowel tone or a note on a flute. When the voice is used to sing the note, it is called toning. Toning theory states that the physical body is tuned to a specific set of vibrations, although each person is different. Musically sensitive people have certain keys, or tonalities, which they prefer to others. There is also, purportedly, a connection to health, but it is not my intention to make that claim here.

Anthony Newman is his CD “Toning” plays a piece of music in each of twelve tones of the Western chromatic scale, starting on D and ending on C#. An organ pedal note drones the fundamental throughout each of the pieces. At amazon.com you can listen to a one-minute audio sample of each of the tunes. I suggest clicking on the option to “Listen to All”, and the tunes will play in sequence. While you are listening to each tune throughout the scale, trying toning on the fundamental with your voice or with a flute.
Listen Here

The question is: What is the tone or tones that feel most comfortable to you? Do you have any tones that feel especially uncomfortable? I had intended to do this as a survey, but twelve options for the twelve possible tones is beyond the limitations of the survey software.

[emmline]

Very interesting Doug.
I listened, and joined the pedal note vocally.
It was immediately evident to me that my note was E. G came in a sort of distant second, and A was jarring.

[Darwin]

I had quite a bit of trouble with D, until I dropped down an octave. A came close to being at the bottom of my range, and used a lot of air, but going up an octave didn't sound so hot. (I do most of my Bluegrass singing in A.)

The ones I could really get behind were E, F, and Ab. I think that the drone stood out more in those.

I think I have a bit of a problem holding a note steady, so I was surprised not to get too many beats. Maybe this would be good training.

[cowtime]

I listened to all and sounded each tone vocally with the music and made notes. Then I went back and listened again to several that were either especially good or bad. Mine came out this way-

F# must be my tone. I could do it with the recording and could not hear myself- like when you have instruments perfectly in tune with each other so that none are individually distinguishable when playing the same note.

Eb was second, in ease, but not as in tune.

Actually most were ok, but one was just awful- Bb.

Now, tell me, what does it all mean? It was intresting, by the way.

[Doug_Tipple]

Now, tell me, what does it all mean? It was intresting, by the way.

Cowtime, I wish that I was wise enough to tell you what it all means. You may see from the variety of answers that we all respond differently to the tones of the scale. One thing that I can say is that I think that it makes good sense to surround ourselves with tones that we have come to understand resonate with our bodies and who we are. Tones that we find unpleasant, jarring, or discordant may not be helpful to our well-being.

With regard to flute playing, if your best tone is an E, then, by all means, when you are practicing the flute, try playing a flute tuned in E. Or else, try playing your D flute in E.

[talasiga]

Doug, after years of singing (and I sing every morning before I touch any flutes) I have come to the conclusion that my attunement to any particular tonic depends on the day, the mode, the season, and my state of being.

For instance, recently, I gave up habitually heading for the harmonium for my daily singing session. I gave up railroading my voice into some preconceived scheduled key. Now, when I wake up, I sing a line of whatever comes to me, sing it a few times so that I find the most comfortable pitch, get my tuner out, identify the last note I sang at the end of the song and decide that is going to be my tonic for the day.
This has worked wonders for me.

I haven't graphed this but I know that generally I prefer E, B, G and A tonics. Though I do not generally go for a D tonic I find spontaneous comfort with it with certain pentatonic pieces. The major pentatonic is not included in this.

Today was an A morning for me. Mondays and Friday mornings I have set aside for Phrygian Mode (Bhairavi) and so this morning (Monday in Australia) I did this mode with A tonic. (And then I played it on my F bansuri with A tonic and my C flute likewise). For me the music and the composing flows better this way than if I had cerebrally told myself to do the practice in a preset key. I let my voice tell me what its going to be.

So today, given the tonic precedent from this morning, I will sing all heptatonic scale pieces with an A keynote. The only exception may be pentatonic pieces.

[Wombat]

Quite a long time ago, I played and sang in a rock band that was probably the only rock band in history to play songs in all the major and most of the minor keys. That four of us with very different voices shared lead singing duties helped to make this possible. We didn't do this to display our technical prowess—after all most of the audience wouldn't have been aware—we did it because we thought that sameness of key sounded boring. Whilst I liked some songs better than others, it never occurred to me that the choice of key was important except for placing a song in a certain part of the singer's range. I actually still feel like that.

Today I find this attitude a bit excessive and I tend to gravitate towards those keys that are instrumentally and vocally comfortable.

[Flyingcursor]

I can't try this yet because the sound of my work computer is sharp by several steps. My guess is I'm a F# or G though I prefer D and Eb

The suspense is killing me.

[I.D.10-t]

I wish that I had downloaded all of the samples and hit random. I think that I am biased towards certain groupings and would be determined to make one work and another fail. Maybe in a month when I forget what key Bach's Organ Toccata in F is in I will be able to be more open. :roll:

Yet another prejudice to overcome.

[Cynth]

Well, I didn't feel much other than a certain irritation at the way the pieces were played. I just spent an unsuccessful hour trying to find a free listen to the 3rd movement of the German Requiem by Brahms just to see if it could really sound that much like Bach (I did learn that it was considered very austere at the time and it is a fugue). And what the heck was all that jangling in there? Well, you can see I am feeling cranky today. If there is a key for crabby people, that would probably be the best one for me!
Doug, it's just me, your post is interesting.

[Nanohedron]

Long ago I realised that for some reason I "resonate" (or whatever you want to call it) at Fnat. Before I checked the sound samples, I hummed a note at random, checked it against a D whistle, and there it was: Fnat. Weird. And indeed, I related well to the piece with the F tonic.

I'm with you on the jangly stuff, Cynth. It all made me think I should place a crystal on my solar plexus or something. Maybe F is the key for crabby people.

[Doug_Tipple]

The jangly stuff is celesta, hand bells, and wind chimes, all on or closely related to the tonic. Personally speaking, I enjoy the presence of these higher bell notes.

Anthony Newman writes in the liner notes: " I think that someday, within the near future, people with illnesses of body, mind or emotions will be sent into rooms tuned to specific pitches, e. g. an "A flat" room, to enhance healing. I imagine that very specific instruments will be developed that work solely with pitch vibration to help heal illnesses of the physical, and perhaps mental or emotional bodies."

I also suspect that Talasiga is correct in his idea that the "best tone" for any person may vary with time and personal circumstances.

[Doug_Tipple]

Long ago I realised that for some reason I "resonate" (or whatever you want to call it) at Fnat. Before I checked the sound samples, I hummed a note at random, checked it against a D whistle, and there it was: Fnat. Weird. And indeed, I related well to the piece with the F tonic.

I also like the F note. In our Western tempered scale, F is 349.2 Hertz and 352 in Just intonation. I understand that some makers of shakuhachi flutes tune a note on their scale close to 360 Hertz, thought by many to be the sound of Nature, the sound that sensitive people can hear when they are in a natural setting and away from other disturbances.

[Cynth]

It all made me think I should place a crystal on my solar plexus or something.

I didn't realize that "toning" was such a big thing. I did a search and we've got crystals, bells, bowls, chanting, humming, cosmic this and cosmic that, it just goes on and on

But look at this strange thing I found:

"Silvia teaching chants to Indigenous Children in the Brazilian Amazon, 2003, (photo by Ralph Metzner)"

Silvia seems to be a bit confused to me.

[Darwin]

The Web is Rife with nonsense about healing frequencies. :roll: