The influence of music in our life is more pervasive than we might realize. This influence can harm or heal us. It can change our mood from boredom to exuberance. Music can bring tears to our eyes in graceful reverence. It can also plunge our spirits as with a Dirge. As a consequence music can enhance our creative potential or deter it, depending upon its harmonics and frequency.

To understand the power of music on our brain and creative potential, we first need to understand the mechanics of sound and how sound relates to other frequencies. One of the simplest explanations of wave frequency as it relates to resonance and musical tone is by Jose Arquelles in his book The Mayan Factor. He says, "When people speak of resonance, they also speak of frequencies and tones. Frequency refers to rate of vibration. As everybody knows, there are higher and lower rates of vibration, while all vibration is pulsation of waves. A frequency held for but a single wave-cycle, otherwise known as a beat, becomes a tone. A tone, then, is any sustained frequency, whose level determines which of our sense organs may be affected."

The range of frequencies that the human ear can hear is from 15 cycles per second up to 20,000 cycles per second. Below this range is called infrasonic and above this range is considered ultrasonic. An interesting note in man's relationship to the cosmos, via his audible frequency range, is that the wavelength of the earth's sonic frequency is 53.1 and 54.7 minutes. This is exactly 20 octaves below the audible range of man. The tone of the atom is twenty octaves above the audible range of man. Therefore, man is placed audibly exactly mid-way between the microcosm and the macrocosm.

Sound is an acoustical wave frequency as opposed to an electromagnetic frequency. An acoustical frequency operates on the principle of compression and rarefaction of air molecules. This means the pushing together and pulling apart of air molecules. Electromagnetic frequencies are created by an oscillating electrical charge. Since sound needs air to be communicated, there is no sound in a vacuum. Sound is also transmitted differently through solids and liquids than through gaseous material. The elasticity and density of the material it travels through determines the speed of sound. Gaseous material is more elastic and therefore retards the velocity of the sound waves passing through it. Sound travels more quickly through solids and liquids.

Sound waves are comparable by their pitch, loudness and quality. Pitch of a musical note is the frequency of the sound producing it. The loudness of a sound is subjective to the listener, but is a function of the energy of the transmitted sound wave. The quality, or timbre, of a sound wave depends upon the instrument producing the wave, i.e. the difference between a piano, violin or flute.

With the invention of radio wave technology music is now available to every man and women at a finger's touch. You need not own a musical instrument nor be present for the artist recording the melody. In order for music as sound to be made available to everyone the acoustical frequency has to be transformed into an electrical frequency. Electromagnetic frequency recorded as radar waves is bounced between two antennas and the receiving antenna transforms the frequency back to acoustical sound, to be registered by the ear. This has truly had a profound influence on the ability for music to permeate the creative consciousness of the whole of mankind, individually and as a collective.

Harmony is the quality of music as a frequency that renders its ability to touch and move the soul. Harmony is understood to be "a pleasing agreement of parts," according to Webster's dictionary. The difference between music and noise is defined by the attribute of harmony. Isaac Asimov describes this difference as, "The wave patterns of musical sounds are composed of separate sine waves that display an orderly set of interrelationships. Where this is not true, but where the component sine waves are chosen and combined at random, so to speak, the result is not music, but 'noise'."

With an understanding that music is based on the relationships of harmonious frequencies, and knowing that everything is energy patterns comprised of differing frequencies, we can see why music has such a profound effect on the human psyche. The human being is a compilation of energetic frequencies vibrating at a rate that appears as organic matter. It only stands to reason that one frequency body should be effected by the frequencies in its environment. Music is an environmental frequency of harmonic resonance.

How is this useful to all that invite music into their daily lives? How can this enhance your creative problem solving abilities and general creative potential? If you know that music can raise or lower your emotional and mental frequency, then listen to music that accomplishes this purpose. It has been found that particular harmonics increase the entrainment of the brain hemispheres.

In 1993 researchers at the University of California-Irvine reported in Nature magazine some results on acoustic enhancements to learning. When college students listened for ten minutes to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major before taking a spatial IQ test, they scored eight to nine points higher than when they listened to a relaxation tape or silence. In addition, the frequency beat of 60 beats per minute has been found beneficial to brain synchronization.

The work of Alfred Tomatis has also revealed that the frequency range of 5,000 hertz to 8,000 hertz can recharge the brain's batteries. He has done extensive work on the energizing powers of different frequencies and has helped to cure various learning disabilities with his pioneering methods, dyslexia, ADD and autism for example. Tomatis also felt that Gregorian chants were "brain food" in that they had the perfect resonance of high frequencies to optimize brain function.

An excellent source for an in depth study of the effects of sound and music on learning and creativity is found in the books Superlearning and Superlearning 2000 by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder. As a boost to creativity the works of the Baroque composers is very beneficial. These composers are Mozart, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Tchaikovsky and Corelli, to name a few. The beat, harmonics and frequency of their music is very conducive to brain entrainment, and optimizing alpha brain frequencies.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Perhaps the Word was the energy and frequency of sound. Sound is the primordial essence that moves through the deep and silent recesses of the Void to emerge on the other side of creation, as a fluid and malleable influence on all levels of the manifest worlds. It permeates and brings life to the material world. Sound is the basis for all music. Thus, it appears then that music was not only a gift from God to man, but music is the all-pervasive song of creation playing eternally as creation itself. As Pythagoras coined it, "the Music of the Spheres."

Certain music can not only enhance creativity, it is the stuff of creation itself. Experiment with different types of music as a background to your problem solving and creative efforts. Augment your imagination and creative genius with your favorite composer. This is a simple, easy and pleasant way to boost your creative experience and add some enchantment to your day.