music of the spheres

What is tonality? Is there a grand structure and organization of the planets of our universe that exists within the sounds and organization of our music? Where do the groove, pitches and rhythms of our music come from? How can we tap into the cosmic energy of the music from the spheres within the universe that surrounds us?

I always like to think that any kind of music completely surrounds me. In thinking this way, I feel centered and connected to the cosmos. I can tune in and create a pulse for my music drawing from the pulse of the spheres. And as a creative musician, I can bring forth and share this energy with all around me, drawing together people from all walks, in the celebration of life led toward the light. I can do all this and sometimes even more, with simply a snap of my fingers.

I remember when I learned to snap my fingers. I was just a little kid doing a version of "Hound Dog" for the folks one hot summer night down by the shore. My mom snapped her fingers to my music, and after the show, began to teach me how to snap mine. Eventually I got it. Little did I know but from that point on, any groove I ever really wanted has always existed, and I can bring it to life by just thinking of the music, finding the pulse and snapping my fingers. The clicking sound my fingers create brings the groove out of my conscience mind and into the present, audible now. Ah, to be in the now ... That we are physically surrounded by all of the vibes that can create all the grooves and that all these groovy vibes are continuously happening all around us is perhaps part of what makes it all go round and round. We just have to focus our thoughts, our minds are already organically connected to the cosmos of the spheres.

What if we counted off a bluesy folk groove by speaking the words for beats one and three and snapping our fingers, clapping our hands or tapping our feet whatever for beats two and four? Here's the music. Find your groove in it. Example 1.

Cool drum lick in bar four huh? This books version of the big crush roll. Anyway, is finding beats 2 and 4 are cool for you? Catch the surprise in the middle? Beat 4 of measure 2? Catching the groove is something we tend to do naturally when we hear a tune we dig, we all do it, we all got it, it's called soul.

The spheres thing here is simply that the groove can be initiated from within us, we start the groove. One, click, three, click. Va, voo, va, voo, one click three click. Can ya do it? Say one before the click and go? Can ya feel the pull? If so, welcome to the world of Groove. Or tonal gravity if you will. So very cool. Not finding the groove, just keep trying, it's there. Cue up your favorite tunes and search for their groove. Once ya got it, it's yours too, forever.

Try locking into this next four bar phrase, a darker, more earthy idea. Once it's going, simply click on two and four to lock in. Example 2.

Got it? One, click, three, click, one, click, three, click etc. Simply click along with the chords in the middle staff. Getting in the groove is getting in the pocket, getting in the pocket is where a lot of fun can happen. Can you sing the above melodies and keep the click thing happening? Check it out. Combining these two physical tasks together gets us into the groove, heart and soul. We can share our created energy with others, so cool.

If I can pull the groove out of the cosmos and recreate the pulse by simply snapping my fingers as we did in the above ideas, where do the pitches to create the musical sounds come from? How about the rhythms? How might they come to us from the spheres? Curious?

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Listen, or thy tongue will keep you deaf.

American Indian Proverb