Sound & Vibrational Healing: Why 7 Notes? The Power of the Musical Scale...

On this 7th month of the year, the number 7 comes in to remind us of its spiritual significance. Whether it is the colors of the rainbow, the days of the week, or the notes in the musical scale, this number continues to show up in nature as a powerful energy to learn, heal, and grow with on the Earthly plane. Let's explore the musical scale and where it came from originally.

The original musical scale is a combination of cultural evolution through nature, mathematics, observation, and sacred ritual. From Mesopotamia to Ancient Egypt, China, India, and Greece, organized musical scales have appeared in these civilizations between 2000-1500 BCE. This music was primarily used for religious ceremonies, in storytelling, or for court music. The Indian System (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa) is one of the oldest musical systems in the world, dating back to the Sama Veda between 1200 and 800 BCE (or older). This system was created for chanting mantra and other sacred hymns, and it was important to them to have the correct pitch, hold the power and meaning of the prayer, and vibrated in a way that was sacred and vibrationally healing. This was a time in our history where music was believed to be spiritual and was not considered to be entertainment. Spiritual texts spoke of the power of the seven notes, the scales, the rhythm, the emotional quality of the music, and how it all can affect our consciousness. Sound was studied in nature and related to humans in a way that acknowledged that frequencies can promote harmony in the being.

Around the 11th century, a man named Guido of Arezzo created a musical teaching method to help singers. He used a Latin hymn and took the first syllables of each line to help people learn melodies. This later was edited to become our Western System (Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do). Later, Pythagoras experimented with strings to show numerical ratios between octaves in music around the 6th century BCE. This was the first revelation that music and mathematics were directly connected. These building blocks are what we have used in humanity to create the music that we enjoy today.

The musical scales originally were used in religious ceremonies and spiritual practices. Whether it was a prayer, ceremony, ritual, sacrifice, meditation, or in sacred texts, many traditions taught about perfect pitch, vibration, rhythm, and the spiritual energy of chanting prayers. These prayers were used to bring people together and synchronize their energies at work, festivals, military parades, dances, or other ceremonial gatherings. It was believed that specific sounds and frequencies helped to influence the mind, body, and spirit in a healing way. The seven notes were seen as a harmonious way to bring musical coherence to sacred intentions. It is important to note that we use the seven-note diatonic scale, while other countries like China use a five-note (pentatonic) scale, and there are also six, eight, or other notes used in other scales, including a microtonal system that uses twelve equal notes and half steps (semitones).

Through many different traditions, beliefs, and examples over time, we can see that music is much more than entertainment. It is part of how we understand, assimilate, and connect to the living world energetically, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Music crosses all beliefs, cultures, religions, and traditions since the beginning of time. Spirituality is the mathematics of the Universe, and music is math. Therefore, music is spiritual and universal. Chanting up the scale with RaMaDaSaSaSaySoHung can help to eliminate dis-ease in the body. This is another way to bring healing and Light with the power of vibration.