The Power of Music Thinking

Listening to the Field - Special Episode

This is a special episode about listening in the field and some activities I did last month. 

Hear more about a short field recording in the middle of the most dangerous roundabout in the Netherlands, about the visit to my birth town in the South of Germany, where I have recorded the Turmbläser, which are performing a sonic ritual since 400 years high above the belfry on all four balconies every Sunday. 

And I also share some news, development, and info about the Listening Day at the Design Academy in Eindhoven.

 

Special thanks to the Turmbläser for allowing us to listen high above the belfry and Cordula and Onkl Hanzl for all the info.

 

Show notes 

• Info about Möckmühl / Germany: https://www.moeckmuehl.de/startseite
• Kaiser Karel Plein, Nijmegen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uguJjfFFuo
• Conducting Design with Raf De Keninck / Design Academy Eindhoven: https://musicthinking.com/conducting-design-with-raf-de-keninck/ 

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Sound pictures with Charles Brooks

Today we touch base on the intersection between music and photography, and that in many different ways. 

My guest today is Charles Brooks, an exceptionable photographer and  musician, that for the last 20 years has been New Zealand’s most successful orchestral cellist. Charles held principal positions in Australia, China, Chile and Brazil, with concerts worldwide. 

He also gives us insights in the organisation and culture of professional symphony orchestras and shares personal stories about the life of an orchestra musician that played with Lang Lang and for celebrities like Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While his music career took him around the globe at an early age, photography was always there. Charles refined his photographic craft of making musician portraits, astrophotography and landscapes until National Geographic took notice in 2011. 

In the pandemic, he prototyped and developed a spectacular new way of photographing the inside of a variety of musical instruments, literally opening up a new space and visual world that give insights in the craft of the most formidable luthiers and instrument makers. 

And these got picked up worldwide by magazines like The Telegraph, classic fm, Domus, France Musique, Daily Mail, and just recently Die Zeit in Germany. 

Please find a selection of the photographs on the episode page of the music thinking website:
https://musicthinking.com/sound-pictures-with-charles-brooks-photography

Now, sit back, relax and be prepared for a long episode on all things creative.

You will also have a chance to navigate through the different chapters, give it a try and let us know how this works.

Show notes 

• Connect with Charles via LinkedIn:
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-brooks-a9773a30/
• Charles Brooks Photography:
  https://www.charlesbrooks.info/ 
• The software Charles is using for focal compression / focus stacking:
  https://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft-products/helicon-focus/
• Lloyd Webber Theme and Variations:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1lpCszsOMU 
• Disturbed's version of The Sound of Silence:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7RVw3I8eg 
• Highlights from Thais, the last opera Charles performed with the Sao Paulo Symphony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QlGfCzPZN0 
• First realisation of a Zaha Hadid Architecture: Fire Station
  https://www.vitra.com/en-ca/about-vitra/campus/architecture/architecture-fire-station

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How Music Speaks with Ben Pelzer

Today we are in Singapore; we talk with Benjamin Pelzer, Assistant Professor of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University. 

Ben is trained in Music Theory and Psychology. He works as an assistant professor and scientist with expertise in the methods of cognitive neuroscience, machine learning, computational social science, and empirical psychology.

And Ben is teaching a one-of-its-kind course in the world of research on music as a sort of socio-cultural phenomenon and is using techniques from the field of communication and applying them to the field of music.

Our Conversation

We talk about how music and sounds can drive a particular scene of a film in two opposite ways, using a positive or negative valence soundtrack. And that music is almost uniquely powerful in its deeply emotional impact and ability to evoke complex or more profound, lasting emotions.

Ben shares with us that there are some universal features of music, like low tones are connected with sinister or aggressive emotions that are part of the evolution when big animals were a severe threat. 

A little survey

And he conveys insights from a little survey he did with the multicultural students of his music course for The Power of Music Thinking podcast about how they listen to music in the context of Asia. 

In his music course, Ben also reflects with his students questions like If you were alive 1000 years ago, what role would music have played in your life? And the realisation that for people outside of wealth and royalty, it would be folk instruments or just the human voice. 

Ben shares with us some strategies of music; for example, if you use happy lyrics with happy music, you get less happiness than if you have happy lyrics with neutral music. 

 

Good to know

For some themes we talk about, I have put links in the show notes, and if you have a look at them, please consider subscribing, make a comment and give us a rating. This will help a lot to get the show going.

We had some connection issues, so please excuse the little dropouts near the end.

 

Show notes 

• Connect with Ben Pelzer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-pelzer/
• More about Olivier Messiaen and his Turangalîla-Symphonie : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r4eeMZBInY
• And the Ondes Martenot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp4mBmsV6Xk later also used extensively by Radiohead.
• Mentioned episode: Glenn McDonald (Spotify) and his Every noise at once website
• Mentioned episode: Steve Keller (audio alchemist) and his research on Sonic Discrimination

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There is more about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.

Do you like books?  Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking

 

 

World-building and empathic storytelling with Eelko Lommers

What are the links between daily work for a multinational company, an omnichannel fantasy story and playing in a band?

My guest today is Eelko Lommers, Global Director Product Experience Design at IKEA, creator, designer, writer of a (not yet published) novel and a musician in a post-hardcore band.

We talk about empathy with clients, personality in a brand context and global operations that need adaptations in different markets. And that a lot of a country's culture is directly related to its original music. 

We discuss the endless loop of listening, tuning, playing and performing, how stories change while we tell them to the world, and how the audience plays an active role.

Eelko shares with us the strategy of promoting his band with a limited budget and how this relates to a global design strategy because every data has a context of delivery for the right moment and audience under the right circumstances.

And he conveys with us some details about the novel he just finished writing, a fantasy story about magical places in Germany and mythological creatures that live in a parallel world. As an extension of the book, he plans a whole ecosystem of multichannel media like locative art, TikTok videos and a 3D omni verse. Every chapter has an emotion, including colour and a song that connects with the essence of the chapter.  

He explains this world-building and how he uses generative AI to build his characters to brief and guide an illustrator to make the final design.  

So technology, content, storytelling and design are not separate activities but an integral part of the total product experience and customer satisfaction. True satisfaction and customer delight happen when all of it comes together to create experiences that solve people's needs in a way worthy of praise, remembrance and advocacy.

 

Show notes 

• Connect with Eelko via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eelkolommers/ 
• Phoenix’ Ashes on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7bPfZO3cREmap4Z4Mpnb39?si=LqNvRT_mRYmU6pCItmtwSA 
• The String Theory article mentioned in the talk:
  https://www.theinteractivist.com/home/2022/9/21/the-two-strings-theory
• Idoru by William Gibson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru
• Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle 

 

More about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.

Do you like books?  Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking

Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode

 

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A Sound Life with Dr Jen Palladino

From the wild Punk scene in New York and London of the 70s to a sound healing practice in Los Angeles, my guest today is Jennifer Palladino, also called Dr Jen, a Doctor of Chiropractic, the Regional Director of the You Rock Foundation and a holistic health facilitator connecting mind, body and spirit with Chiropractic Sound Therapy.  

Her musical experiences span from being a young performer wrangler at the American Ballet Theatre while Mikhail Baryshnikov was Artistic Director, to working in the music industry and a mastering studio in New York to the legendary Marquee Club in London, where she made friends with members of the Punk and New Wave scene.  

We talk about a rich life in music from the impact of the Beatles, the power of Punk, and an orchestra of instruments that she uses in her sound healing practice. 

Jennifer shares with us some music hacks, like how different frequencies resonate with our body, which contains 75% of water, and how she uses tuning forks with slightly different frequencies to produce binaural sounds in a sound bathing session. 

And she explains the full moon performances she is doing as “The Sound Healers” on the Hollywood cemetery, where Rudolfo Valentino and Judy Garland rest.  

Show notes 

• Connect with Dr. Jen via website: https://rocknhealthylifestyles.com/ 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083204122839
• Music Hacks for Mental Health: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1255859064818851
• Dr. Jen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rock_n_healthy_lifestyles/ 

 

More about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.

Do you like books?  Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking

Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode

 

Like this show? Please leave us a review — even one sentence helps!
Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Thank you for your support; it helps the show!

 

What Music taught me about political journalism with Matt K Lewis

What has political journalism to do with music? Well, quite a lot.
My guest today is Matt K Lewis from West Virginia, a political columnist for the daily beast, former CNN contributor, TV commentator for MSNBC’s morning show, a podcaster on Matt Lewis and the News (pun intended) and musician.

Matt shares with us that he started his career, or better, the foundation of his later career, in the basement rehearsing with his band. Years later, when already a political journalist, he reflected on his music years and wrote an essay about the lessons he learned from playing in bands and how they helped him to understand his work in political journalism today.

We talk about his musical upbringing, country music, steel and slide guitars. And make many analogies between music and journalism.

Here are the five lessons from his article that he explains in the show:

1. Having an audience of “followers” is vital.

2. Music, like TV commentary, involves performing.

3. Playing music (and being a political commentator) isn’t nearly as glamorous as people think.

4. Not every song (or blog post or column) is a hit.

5. Collaboration is key.

 

Show notes

• Connect with Matt on Twitter: @mattklewis 
• Matt Lewis & the News Podcast: https://www.mattklewis.com/
• Matt’s article: https://dailycaller.com/2016/11/22/what-music-taught-me-about-political-journalism/

 

There is more about Music Thinking:
a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.

Do you like books?  Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking

Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode

Like this show? Please leave us a review -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

 

Thank you for your support; it helps the show!

 

Healthcare, Sound Healing and Mantras Rasa Priya

Rasa Priya in conversation with Christof Zürn.

Rasa Priya describes the concept and advantages of sound healing, especially the vibrations behind the chanting of mantras, which are essential in his teaching of vocal empowerment, like the word 'Om' that, besides the sound, also has a healing effect on our facial muscles, creating possibilities of experiences.

Rasa also introduces us to the work of the Japanese water photographer Masaru Emoto who visualises different styles of music but also words like hate, love, and guilt with his water crystals. 

And he explains to us how everybody can be a drummer and get involved in right and left brain stimulation to nurture creative thinking and break the moulds of our limitations. 

Show notes

• Connect with Rasa via his website:
  mauisoundhealing.com
• Watch his YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjNWWjtk6iLdCLrarEeD9hw
• Info about Masaru Emoto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDW9Lqj8hmc
• Info about Gregg Braden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUVt650GdEI 

Worth knowing

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Listeners of The Power of Music Thinking podcast will learn from some of the most exciting people in the world with practical tips and inspiring stories that will inspire your personal and business life. Listen to The Power of Music Thinking here: https://musicthinking.com/podcast or on your favourite podcast player.

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Are you a polymath? With Barbara Kleeb

In The Power of Music Thinking podcast, we have conversations with exciting people that are also musicians. They see analogies between music and the areas they are working. So what they do is combine knowledge and skills from multiple fields to make significant contributions to various areas. 

In The Power of Music Thinking book, I call them the AND-musician. I talk about this, especially in the Backstage chapter, where we dive into analogies to switch from one field to the other, like: Black is to white as off is to on. Or, conducting is to classical music as producing is to hip hop.   

But there is another expression for this: polymath. Think about people like Leonardo Da Vinci, Hildegard von Bingen, or any guest on this programme. All of them are masters in different fields.

 

So today, I speak with Barbara Kleeb, a trained photographer, a doctor of medicine, a leadership coach for polymaths AND-muscian.  

We speak about her personal journey, how studying multiple approaches leads to openmindedness and that every team or board should have at least one generalist to understand and connect different perspectives. And Barabara shares with us a tool she uses in her coaching practice: Ikigai.

We also learn, for example, that most UX designers are polymaths, which resonated with me a lot, being in UX and service design positions in different companies.

 

Shownotes:

• Connect with Barbara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-barbara-kleeb 

• Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PnZvP1WfY3Cg1iTQcoCm6?si=ejzISnZqSrWVZaOLGq6Ilg 

• Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTBAxXugXGp8Mw9B--WMDnw/featured 

 

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website 

 

Do you like books?
Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking

 

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Every Noise at Once with Glenn McDonald

Well it's this time of the year. And I am not talking about the countdown until Christmas and the holiday. I am also not talking about ‘the word of the year’, or any other review compiled and curated by air quote “specialists”. I am talking about you, or better about your data, or even more close about your musical behaviour, taste and most played songs. Yes, it is the time when all Spotify users get their personal wrap-up of the year.  

But this episode is not about the making of the wrap-up. This episode is about musical genre types, technology and research with musical behaviour. 

My guest today is Glenn McDonald, Data Alchemist of Spotify and founder, programmer and producer of the Every Noise at Once website, which holds and updates examples from all genre types Spotify is tracking. 

We talk about personal music algorithms, genre categorisation, subsets of listening, what you can learn from listening data, and how listening behaviour shapes communities that can be the start of a new genre. 

Glenn shares with us how he compiled playlists on his Spotify account and a memorable sonic experience when he heard the band Low for the first time live ‘opening up a door’ to a transformational moment. 

Shownotes:

• Website Every Noise at Once: everynoise.com
• Glenn McDonald personal site: furia.com
• Twitter: @glenn_mcdonald

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website. 

 

Do you like books?
Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking

 

More like this

Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking.

 

Gender equality with Gabriella Di Laccio

My guest today is Gabriella Di Laccio, public speaker, curator, activist, award-winning soprano and recording artist. She is one of the leading voices in the fight for gender equality in music. Listed as one of the BBC’s 100 most inspirational and influential women in the world, Gabriella is also the founder and curator of the charitable foundation Donne - Women in Music - dedicated to achieving gender equality in the music industry. 

We talk about the incredibly long list of woman composers and the unbelievably few plays they get in conservative classical music organisations. Gabriella shares with us the research and the numbers from the latest report: that in 2021, almost 9 in 10 compositions played by orchestras around the world are written by white men.

But there is hope. At least in a different field. This year's Biennale di Venezia, invited 213 artists, among them 21 men.

And here is an Exercise you can do very easily in a quiet moment:
Check your playlists and count the artists that you are listening to (also the producers and composers) and find out how biased your musical taste is.

We also made a start with a Top 6 of woman composers you should know and listen to:

• Lili Boulanger
• Nadia Boulanger
• Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel 
• Clara Schuhmann
• Leokadiya Kashperova
• Florence Beatrice Brice
• Rachel Portman, was the first woman who got an oscar.

Show notes and how to connect with Gabriella

• Website: https://www.gabrielladilaccio.com/  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GDiLaccio/  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gdilaccio/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielladilaccio/  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GDiLaccio  

More about Donne, Women in Music

• Website: https://donne-uk.org/  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donneuk/  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donne_uk/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/donneuk  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Donne_UK  

 

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialises in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website 

 

Do you like books?
Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking

 

More like this
Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking.