Music Isn’t Just Sound - It’s Medicine
How Frequency Talks to Your Body (and Makes Your Eyelids Leak): Goosebumps, Soul Cracks, Sonic Healing and Everything In-Between.
Maybe you’ve always felt it.
That strange ache in your chest when a certain song hits.
The way your breath shifts, goosebumps rise, and suddenly you're sobbing into a tiramisu for reasons that are unclear but deeply felt.
It’s not just nostalgia.
Not just "emotional music things."
It’s resonance.
Why It Matters (Like, World-Saving Matters)
I genuinely believe music can heal.
It can shift the atmosphere, calm and reduce stress,
support neuroplasticity, can support natural rewiring,
help process emotions, and shift our nervous system
in ways that support healing.
Music doesn’t just change our mood - it can change us.
And if we use it intentionally, it might just change the world.
This isn’t just a lovely yet somewhat whimsical thought.
It’s science.
I’m fascinated by this, so I’m diving deep into answering why
and how music can be used as medicine for our nervous systems,
and maybe even for the world.
If you’re here reading this,
and you also feel the world is crumbling around you
(and I’m not talking about delicious apple crumble kind),
you’re so welcome to join the quest.
We’re going to explore how resonance - through not only music,
but every aspect of our lives could just be one of the most powerful
tools we have to heal, reconnect, and rebuild.
From Remembering to Resonating
Over time - through the joyous, brutal, beautiful mess of life - I realised I wasn’t just reacting to beautiful music. The music was resonating with me. This wasn’t expression. It was remembrance.
Music doesn’t just reflect your mood. It can reshape it.
That’s why sad songs can be cathartic and why choosing a hopeful piece
can help you breathe when your world feels like it’s closing in.
That certain chord, or instrument, or note hits you and suddenly you’re not just listening, you’re remembering something your body never forgot.
If our emotions are not processed, then they have to be buried in us somewhere, and music is the remedy to getting them out.
Because music isn’t just sound.
It’s medicine.
Goosebumps and Science (Yes, Both)
We love calling it magic, but really it’s scientific (I get it, some of you may have just thrown up in your mouths a bit with the mention of ‘science’).
Stay with me though. It’s worth it.
Frequencies hit your nervous system.
They stimulate the vagus nerve.
They shift your internal state.
They help you:
Breathe softer
Cry harder
Feel safer
Remember something ancient and true
Alan Silvestri (legendary film composer of Forrest Gump, The Avengers, Back to the Future) said it best: “The job of the music is to tell you how to feel - not by pushing, but by gently guiding your heart there.”
And let’s be real - we could all use a little gentle guidance.
John Williams makes us sob., Alan Silvestri makes us want to punch the air and fight for justice and Billie Eilish makes us float through a neon forest in a nightgown made of sadness.
Adele wrecks us all (with love).
That’s not coincidence.
That’s resonance and frequency working together and doing their thing.
It’s not just music.
It’s medicine.
And it absolutely matters what kind you take.
Yes, there’s a time for sad songs when you’re sad.
A time for ragey songs when you need to scream.
But we forget that we can use music to shift our state.
To alchemize grief into softness, anger into motion or numbness into breath.
We don’t just have to match our mood.
We can choose where we want to go by allowing the right frequency to carry us there.
Music is medicine.
And it’s time we stop consuming it passively and start using it on purpose.
The Real Reason I Compose (And What I Found When I Dug Deeper)
I used to think I just wrote music. That it was just my creative superpower-
and a way to express whatever I couldn’t quite put into words.
And while that’s absolutely true, there was always something deeper going on.
I realised I was creating resonance.
It was less “I’m making this music,” and more
“This music is making itself through me, for someone who needs it.”
(As I said in another post: I’m a coffee-infused conduit and a grateful one.)
As a composer, I want to be intentional about the resonance I create.
The world is loud, messy, and lately seems to be crumbling
(I really do wish it was the delicious apple kind).
I want my music to help heal.
To shift the atmosphere and to be a frequency worth catching.
My mission is to write music that resonates so deeply, it bypasses logic and speaks straight to the soul. To intently design music to be soul-level medicine.
To help people feel and process emotions they didn’t even know were stuck in their bones.
I accept my mission.
(Scroll down to you hear my song The Rise of the Phoenix. It’s an instrumental cinematic 4-minute long frequency journey designed to resonate with you)
I’ll also be sharing my other cinematic, instrumental frequency journeys here on Substack as they flow through me and specific frequency-based pieces designed for healing, grounding, and wholeness.
I want to help people realise that every time you hit play (on anything), you’re choosing a frequency.
Every time you sing in the shower, hum in the car, or cry to Adele at the bus stop, you’re shifting the field around you.
We can change the very atmosphere - not just in a room, but in a body, a home, a relationship, even the world - purely by the resonance we choose to broadcast.
Everything vibrates.
Your voice.
Your thoughts.
Your mood.
Your music.
They’re all made of frequency.
And frequency is contagious.
What frequency are you sending out to people and world around you?
Frequency & Resonance
(aka Why That One Song Wrecked You in Aisle 5 at Coles)
In order to gain a greater understanding of this, let’s unpack frequency and resonance.
These aren’t just mystical buzzwords musicians throw around, but
words your soul already understands.
(Which is why you suddenly cried in the car to that Adele song you hadn’t heard since 2011.)
You might not be aware of the science, but that doesn’t matter - your body already is. Also, for the record, I am not a scientist. I’m just following my curiosity.
Sound shapes our mood, our nervous system, our relationships, our world -
and in a time where so much is falling apart, I believe we’re being called to rebuild it with resonance.
Frequency = how fast a wave vibrates and is measured in Hertz (Hz).
I know, words like “waveform” and “Hertz” can make your eyes glaze over.
Stay with me. You can have a snack soon.
For example: If a tone vibrates at 432 Hz, it’s vibrating 432 times per second.
A wine glass ping has the frequency of 880 Hz (vibrates 880 times per second).
A deep thunder roll - About 65 Hz (vibrates 65 times per second).
So in summary:
High frequency = high pitch = fast vibrations (e.g. opera, 880 Hz)
Low frequency = low pitch = slow vibrations (e.g. bass, 65 Hz)
Alright, you’ve earned the snack!
Take a deep breath.
Sip your coffee.
Eat the cookie.
You’ve earned it!
Let’s continue because here’s where the magic comes in.
Resonance = What happens when a frequency hits something that naturally responds - like your body, your emotions, or your nervous system syncing with the signal.
It’s that involuntary reaction when a sound hits just right.
Your chest tightens.
Your eyes sting.
Your jaw clenches, or you melt.
That’s your body saying: “Yep. That’s for me.”
It’s not just music.
It’s also people.
Jobs.
Conversations.
Places.
Tv Show, Movies, Podcasts.
You resonate with a friend and feel joy flood your system.
You don’t resonate with a space and immediately feel drained.
Your soul knows what fits - and what doesn’t.
Like I said, everything vibrates, and every vibration has the potential to resonate within us. Sometimes it aligns. Sometimes it doesn’t.
But we always feel it.
It’s your practice of attuning to your body, and the intentionality behind the frequencies you allow in, that determines whether your resonance is protected, or compromised.
Here’s the Magic Bit
Resonance isn’t passive. It’s contagious.
Think about a yawn.
You don’t even need to see it - just sense it - and your jaw stretches too.
(I bet you're yawning now. You're welcome.)
The yawn is the frequency (an energetic signal, not strictly sonic) and the resonance within you (the response) is you yawning. (You’ve probably just yawned again, still welcome)
When we get intentional about what we take in, and what we broadcast, we don’t just change our mood, we change the room.
We can change the atmosphere.
We can change the field.
We can change the future.
All from one good note.
That’s why as a composer, and in my day to day life, I’m deliberate and intentional about the frequencies I let in.
I choose resonance that feels real and true.
I create and choose sounds that lift the spirit, soothe or stir the soul and carry frequencies that ultimately heal.
Because music isn’t just beautiful.
It’s medicine.
And I want mine to be a double dose.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
In another post, I’ll dive deeper into the science of how specific frequencies affect our bodies and nervous system.
Let’s learn to tune our instrument with care - and play it like it matters.
Because it does
Thank you for this. It really resonates. Music has always been medicine for me. Here is a memory: I can remember intuitively knowing this as a child as I watched its effects on my father's moods. And, when his eyes flashed storm threats, I had learned to put on some music..his favorite songs...and the storm would blow right out to sea and then he could talk to us about his concerns rather than blast us with a barrage of angry words. Music softened him...reminded him of the tenderness in his heart...