Raphael’s Music Class
Music Class: Part One
You will discover that everything that you have ever created first began with a sound. This room is here because someone had a sound inside their head that said, “I think we should build a building here.”
If you want to know the substance of anything, you don’t need to look at it. Looking at it all you’ll see is form. If you want to know the substance of something, you listen to it.
If you want to know the wind, just listen to it and you will now the wind. It is the root of all manifestation. Sound is the most substantial thing that we know of in the universe.
Scientists have discovered the whole universe is based on one note. It turned out to be B flat.
It starts with a note then the overtones grow then the overtones become universes into themselves and then they start singing a song and that’s why we are here.
We’re going to be talking about music from ancient times, Greece and Egypt and so on.
The way something is taught is as important as what is taught. You can imagine a young kid taking piano lessons from a mean old teacher, and for the rest of his life he looks at a keyboard and sees fear. When the Greeks would go out into the country, sit under a tree, then they would go into stuff. In ancient Egypt they wouldn’t even let you learn stuff until you went through this initiation and that because otherwise it’s in one ear out the other.
I really meant it when I said the most substantial thing in the universe is sound.
In the ancient Egyptian way, if you wanted to know what the substance of something is you would talk to your ears. Say Hello ears and ask the substance of something and then listen to what they tell you. If you want to know what to eliminate talk to your kidneys.
All creation starts with sound. When you make music you are creating a universe.
I’ll give you another example. So there was this one note, then there were overtones, these overtones created a world and so on. When you hear a note it sounds like one note, but really what you’re hearing is that note with overtones. If you went into a bathroom full of marble and sing a note.
When you want to learn to catch a note, don’t sing it, listen to it, let it go inside you and then you can sing it.
So, if you were somewhere with an echo, a bathroom or hallow room, what you’d hear eventually is something on top, out of nowhere you’ll hear this note (higher), then this note (even higher). After a while you’ll start hearing that there are notes on top.
Understand, if I don’t have all the answers to music it’s because science doesn’t have all the answers. They call it a young science, it’s a science we know the least about.
Let’s just take a regular A. According to science an A is vibrating 440 times per second. Whenever you go to a symphony orchestra you hear a obo play the A and then all the other instruments tune to it. In it is an overtone. First you’ll hear an octave.
If you had a string stretched tight and you plucked it, that’s an A. Then, if you pinched exactly in the middle and stopped it, that’s an octave. One side is vibrating 220 times per second, same as the other. If you take that same string and go into thirds, you hear what’s known as a fifth. And so on with the mathematics.
You can see the power in any ashram and so forth when everyone sings one note. Internally when we’re all vibrating at the same time (440 times per second or whatever), it’s powerful. All our charkas are aligned, and all sorts of stuff.
They asked the concert pianist Vladimir Horowitz, he was 80 years old. “If you could live your life over again what would you do different?” He calmly said, “I would have taught my wife to play the piano so we could play four-hand piano music.” The interviewer just smiled and moved on. But dig it when you’re sitting with a woman and she’s playing, and you’re playing, and you’re vibrating together, heat builds up. It’s sexy. Eventually, you can read her mind, I know what note she’s going to miss and all sorts of other stuff. A heat builds up because you’re vibrating at the same time. This vibration thing happens. Of course if you’re a guitar player in front of a thousand people then you’re really vibrating at the same time. That is the essence of sound, if you hear sound something’s vibrating if you don’t hear sound then nothing is vibrating. Scientists used to tell us if you went out into space and put a microphone outside the space ship you’d hear nothing because there’s nothing to carry the sound, but then they did it and there was all kinds of shit going on, woo woo woo, etc.
Is there anywhere in the universe where nothing is vibrating? Good question. Macrocosm, when you are nothing. Then you’re free.
Some of you may have learned in school Johannes Kepler. In the late 1500s when they were just discovering that the sun was the center of the universe, he discovered that planets are elliptical, not perfect circles. He said that certain planets vibrate at certain notes. I wish I could remember them, I think Earth was D, Mars was G, and Venus was C. He said each of these planets vibrate at an essential note. So here is the universe (plays perfect chord). Nice little choir right? This century they shot radio telescopes up there to figure it out and son of a bitch, they vibrate to a specific note. Of course, what a C is today is different than what a C was in Kepler’s day but the intervals were the same. Like Venus is a major third below Earth. How he could have figured that out no one knows.
Going back to sound, sound creates Universes. So when you’re making music you’re creating a universe. I could take you to Bali (Balinese music), I can take you to Hungary (Hungarian music), I can take you to New Orleans (bar jazz). You name the universe, and I’ll take you there. Matter of fact Music to Disappear Into was made from life after death. Music to Disappear In was from life after death.
Plato said the first rule in keeping a culture stable is: Do not allow new forms of music to enter that culture. What he is saying is while most people think music follows the culture, the culture follows the music. Because music is even deeper than words. I could say “Now we’re going to New Orleans, and a big mama will be up on stage singing,” but if I go (bar jazz), you get it pretty quick. We’re here.
Music is the root of all thinking. It is the very sound. When you came into this world it wasn’t with words it was sound. Mommy would make a nice noise and you would hear it.
Let me give you some examples, Wagner created Hitler. He was a German nationalist who hated Jews. In fact, one of his operas had a whole aria about how awful Jews are. He had the whole nation behind him. Hitler himself said, “If you want to understand me, you have to understand Wagner.”
It’s interesting to note that right after Wagner was a great composer named Mahler, a Jewish guy who wrote the world’s most pathetic music, it was just (plays depressing music). His most famous music is Das Kindertoten, music for dead infants. Isn’t it interesting that right after Wagner you have the most perfect music for Auschwitz?
Handel created the Victorian era. Elvis Presley brought the feminist spirit back. He brought consciousness back to the pelvis. He taught white people you can use your pelvis, and the feminine movement followed. Music creates universes. It’s like the pied piper.
Ok so we got some of the basics. Now then, the anatomy of the body, I think I’ve showed you the power of God is expressed in the pelvis, love of God is expressed in the heart, the mind of God is up top. Down in the pelvis you have the drums and base guitar, Africa and South America, it all moves the pelvis. Up in the heart has to do with relationships, and harmonies, show me a Mexican song that doesn’t have the word Corazon, heart. It’s Italy, Mexico, guitar, piano. Harmonies are just relationships between notes. They are a bunch of notes but they’re related. Just by playing one chord I can send you into an emotion (he plays sad, then happy, then mysterious chords) Like a movie score, harmonies create emotions. Up in the head, that’s a melody, that gives the mind something to catch. Great Britain, Russia, the thinkers, the voice, the violin. If you get into Handel or Bach you have three or four melodies happening. Then the mind really expands.
Here is the big one. They did studies at the Berkley school of medicine where they take 30 people, measure the strength of their immune system, how many white blood cells, the whole bit, put them in a room, play music for them, then afterwards measure the level of immunity again to see what the music did to their bodies. They discovered that Bon Jovi, heavy metal, all that put some people’s immunity way down. It was just completely destructive to the body. Mozart did nothing to the body but somehow raises IQ. You listen to Mozart, its like sugar without cake. People at Berkley listen to Mozart before they take tests.
The ultimate thing they discovered: It is not the form of the music that does the healing; it is the state the musician is in while making the music that does the healing.
They even showed an example. They had a scratchy recording of a 13 year old girl playing Clair de Lune for her mother. She raised people’s immune system 10% to even 20%. Then they had Van Cliver playing the same song and he raised nothing.
Dig it, if I played a recording of the Dali Lama meditating right now, you couldn’t hear anything but this room would change. This room would be different Now, lets say I went to prison and recorded death row inmates while they were sleeping and played that in here, we would all go to some strange places right now. You’d be surprised what music carries. Sometimes I talk to people on the phone and I can smell them. Sound can carry smells even. Science doesn’t know why but it does.
The first rule in recording music is where are you coming from.
The gifts and talents that you have, were not given for you to enjoy, they were given for everyone else, and you can give it by shining yourself.
I can tell you from workshops that the people who have the hardest time rapping are the ones who come out with the best stuff. I can come out with a rap anytime but its kind of all in my head, its just surface. If you’re rapping you aren’t just shooting out worlds but universes. If you watch 8 Mile you see Eminem go to his deepest places before it comes out. That’s him creating that universe out of the depths of himself for all of you to go there and know it.
Composing music usually comes from an experience. It usually comes from love. If you want to compose music go back to love. Remember love and something happens. Or you can be like Mozart and Beethoven, those guys prayed a lot. They just went right to God. Composers are very lonely people. They have to spend a lot of time alone. Handel locked himself in a room for thirty days, food and water was brought in and then he composed the Messiah. Beethoven lost his hearing, he didn’t have any friends, he was just alone half his life because he was deaf.
Another way is start with a visual. I’ll imagine I’m in a hot tub with all these naked girls and all of a sudden the music comes. Have happy thoughts.
I don’t play from the mind, I don’t play from the heart, I play from down here (pelvis). If you sing gospel you aren’t singing from up here you’re getting down low. (I feel the spirit.)
Go where you’ve never gone before. Composing music can be very painful. In the movie Amadeus, Mozart is composing on a pool table. He pushes a ball out of his way, and he’s writing all these notes, the ball rolls back and he pushes away again, writes some more notes, this as he composes. He said he did that to hide the pain. Maybe he was spending the next ten hours wasting his time but he had to do it anyway. Schubert wrote 500 corny songs but it was worth it to catch that one song, he created Ave Maria.
Hawaiians and Native Americans use music to call forth energies. That’s why you honor the Hawaiians and the American Indians by honoring that energy. I’m not exaggerating, you honor that energy.
Music certainly inspires love because it gets us to vibrate at the same time. What is love? Love is the recognition you and I are the same being. There’s only one person in this room, there is only one person listening to me. I’m sounding pretty technical but its much more romantic.
Some of the best music made when you talk before you think. That’s when the music happens.
If you’re going to compose music, first of all figure out what universe you want to create.
I’ve been doing psychic readings set to music for thirty years. I’ll be in their body. Kids put a towel around their neck and pretend their superman. All of a sudden I’ll pretend I’m Adrienne here and then I start hearing music, things happen. Really, figure out what universe you want to create and the music will come. Matter of fact go watch a movie and then wonder what music will go to that, see what happens.
You all know the story of the Wizard of Oz? Let’s take a look at the three centers. The instinct in the pelvis is mother, who am I, how do I take care of myself. Then instinct in the heart is how do I relate to people, father, your first friend. People who have a wonderful father naturally develop a relationship instinct without even thinking, they just relate, they don’t have t ask how do I relate to that person. Up in the mind is the instinct how do I relate to the world. Dorothy is you, the essence, she’s lost. She winds up in this land and sees the yellow brick road, the human spine. She goes to her first instinct the mother instinct, who am I, and finds out that this instinct is out of balance. She sees the scarecrow, “I don’t know who I am, I’ll follow any guru, take any workshop for people to tell me who I am. I don’t know who I am,” and so forth. Then she goes up the yellow brick road to find the Tin Man. Her relationship instinct is out of balance so she finds the Tin Man who has lots of armor and a hatchet. And he is the nicest person but she always feels kind of uncomfortable about him because he has no instinct so his mind takes over. He must control the relationship, and he is always angry, always has a hatchet to grind. Then she finds this natural instinct of what is going on around me and she finds the Cowardly Lion. He doesn’t know what is going on around him, he’s either going to take charge or cower. Every human being has one of these instincts less than the other. I’m typical Scarecrow. Lion’s usually become police man, they have to control everything.
Back to music, what you see in the whole world except maybe Bulgaria and the Arab places is a scale that has seven notes. Might be major or minor, but its seven notes. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, da.
They go into what’s called intervals. Here is the scale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So if I play 1 and 2 together, that’s a second. Play 1 and 3 together, that’s a third. 1 and 4 together is known as a fourth. 1 and 5 is known as a sixth. 1 and 6 is a sixth. Starting with any note and go up the scale to six and play that together that’s a sixth.
You go to any conservatory, any teacher, anywhere and they’ll show you intervals. I’m showing you ear training. It’s like learning to read, learn to read and you can learn anything in the world. If you master ear training you’re like the Beatles you can compose anything you want. It’s about the ability to compose and feel intervals. Once you do it your God.
Here’s a third, 1, 2, 3. Here’s a fifth. The most healing interval is a fifth. Five is mankind’s lucky number. For example you’ll notice in Hindu music they’ll just play for hours and hours the fifth. They just drone that fifth, healing. Scientists did a computerized perfect fifth to these bunches of plants and same plants but no droning and all the plants who had the fifth flourished, the others were normal.
A fifth defines a chord.
The way you learn your intervals is by learning a song. Twinkle, twinkle little star is a fifth. Twinkle, twinkle, that’s a fifth. From now on for the rest of your life you can sing a fifth.
Music Class: Part Two
How do I learn music? Do it everyday. A little bit, fifteen minutes everyday.
This is exciting, this is a bit higher up there but since I’m being taped I want to get it out. These are the major arcane of the Tarot. This also comes from the kabala, tree of life, and so forth. These cards were written inside a pyramid. Buddha states that as you go through life you go through….
Eventually they took those pictures and put them onto cards. Then the Egyptians took them to Europe and that’s why they were called Gypsies, they used the cards to tell fortunes. You go through various initiations and master various energies.
Now what I’ve discovered is the Rosetta stone for music: Intervals have a language.
Dig it. First of all there’s zero. Zero is macrocosm. That’s when you’re nothing. It’s just like jumping off a cliff. I’m nothing.
Next you have, the One. The Root. The magician. That’s raw energy, that’s one note. From that one note you can become a gospel, a Beethoven symphony, a rock and roll piece, anything. That’s raw energy. He has the red cape on, the water, the fire of the wands, the truth of the swords, and the knowledge of the pentacles. He has raw energy.
Now we get to the second, (playing one, two, interval). This is the one Tarot card I understand the least. All I know is it’s mysterious. I think its supposed to be an opening into your subconscious and past life times and so forth. Its mysterious I don’t really understand that card.
Now we come to the third. One, two, Three. And you have the Empress. She’s so sweet, she’s sitting in the garden, the flowers all around, and everything is so sweet. You’ll notice that the interval of the third is sweet. Mexican’s are into thirds a lot, they play everything in thirds. It’s just happy. You can feel that the interval of the third has sweetness to it.
Now we get to the fourth. That interval is the Emperor. We have some serious shit, the emperor is here, he has these Ram’s heads on his throne, boy, the emperor is here. See how hard it is? (playing fourths) The Emperor is here, you can just feel it. The fourth has a hardness to it.
They’ll teach you intervals but they won’t teach you this. If you listen to a movie score you’ll see. Most Romantic comedies begin on the third. When the King comes in there’s your fourth.
Now the fifth is the hierophant. In a white deck they show a picture of a Pope or Bishop which is really sick. But in Egypt a hierophant was the voice of God. He was a man who went through an initiation and then you could go to him and talk directly to God. A beautiful example of the hierophant is Johan Sebastian Bach who at the age of twenty said, “The sole point of music is none other than the glorification of God.” Being typical Aries and typical German he stuck to that and two hundred years later everyone plays his music. Diana Ross plays his music, flamenco guitar players play his music, Japanese flute player plays his music. It’s all over the place, its universal, it will not die. It is the voice of God. What is the most healing interval? Five. The voice of God.
Here’s a six. The Lover’s. Let me tell you about six, it has a feeling of it. (playing six’s) Do you remember a movie Love Story? The whole move was six’s. (Playing score) Here’s a six, and another six, here’s another six. Lover’s, its just romantic. There’s the six. It just has a feeling of love.
Now the seventh is the Chariot. The chariot is an instrument that moves, you’re on something that’s moving. You’ll notice that the seven is not a stable interval, it wants to move, it wants to resolve. You don’t hear the interval seven it doesn’t even want to stay there, it’s not even pretty, it wants to move. The first person who got the idea to keep the seven was James Brown. He’ll just keep it there. (Playing James Brown) He pounds that seven all over the place and what does it do? Makes everyone else move. He just pounds that seven, pounds that bass and everyone else wants to move.
I’m going to show you all this interval stuff with the frets and so forth, with your guitars, but understand if you start to feel and know these intervals you’ve got some power behind you. If you’re playing some music and someone is feeling strange, start playing some fifths. A chord isn’t one, three, five, a chord is either one of those notes. Or I’ll start playing a seven to get people moving.
Then comes the octave, which is the first note twice as fast. I consider the octave as heaven. You’re in a different universe ready to start another octave.
That’s something you won’t learn anywhere else, the feeling of the octaves.
Also there’s major and minor. One, three, five. It’s sort of happy, that’s major. Then move the third down a note, that’s minor. Sort of Earthy.
You have one, three, five. With me? What happens if I take the third and make it a bass? Usually the root is the bass, but if I have the third as a bass, that makes the heart the bass. See how compassionate that sounds. In Bali they don’t even play the root, they just start at the third. They start at the heart (Playing Balinese music). American Indian’s stay in the root all over the place because they’re all in the Earth.
This is one of the most healing music ever composed. Anu Gama, a pretty good friend of mine, it’s about the only good thing he ever did. Schubert wrote 500 songs, got Ave Maria. Now listen what he’s doing. First of all, fifths all over the place. Then he comes in with the melody on the third, comes in with the heart.
The tempo of the Earth is 60 beats per minute. Something about when you play a piece of music at 60 beats per minute it has a healing quality. That tempo aligns the body with the earth, it makes you feel at home. Madonna made a lot of money making songs at 120 beats a minute. A lot of her hit songs were because she had a tempo that put everybody’s spirit in their body, she took it to the earth. Any combination of 60.
The planet has a heartbeat. They’ve noticed that the heartbeat is getting faster. They think its one of the reasons for global warming. The first song of The Calling we had a recording of a radio telescope listening to the sun and we heard that and made it the bass of the song. In other words, the star the sun played the drums on our song. The planet is heating up.
When you’re looking at music- God is in the details. When I learned Gospel music I spent maybe twenty minutes learning this. But by God that’s with me for life. Music’s eternal. Building’s crumble, languages change, but music is eternal. It doesn’t die. If I spend twenty minutes learning this, it’s there for life.
Slow and clean. If you practice fast and sloppy, in year from now you’ll be playing fast and sloppy but if you practice slow and clean a year from now you’ll be playing fast and clean.
C by KahuaInstitute/Raphael