JOHN HARVEY
Spanish Music.com
MUSIC MASTER STUDYING
MUSICAL MOODS
This article was published Sunday, March 27, 1983, on page 12E
in the Laredo News.
It is published here with permission from the Laredo News.
John Harvey feels that music can greately influence a person's thoughts and feelings, so, for the past two years he has temporarily abandoned his performing career to further research his ideas.
MUSIC MASTER STUDYING
MUSICAL MOODS
By Emilie Dodier
News Feature Writer
The area that Harvey finds the most interesting is the effect of music alone on thoughts and emotions. "I have always felt that my moods could be affected by the music I hear," Harvey said. "The different tones, chords, and melodies affect the brainwaves, affecting your pulse rate and mood."
According to Harvey, it is possible to lower a person's pulse rate by gradually slowing down the beat of music the person was hearing from 200 beats a minute to 74 beats a minute; what Harvey said is accomplished is the synchronization of the pulse beat to the music's beat, thereby moving the person from his fully awake "beta" state to his more relaxed "alpha" state. Eventually, the person falls into a deep sleep, known as the "delta" state.
Harvey thinks that his prior work with computers has aided his current work greatly because he was able to build his synthesizer to his own specifications. He said that he liked working in Encinal "because it’s small and quiet. But, it is kind of limiting as far as finding books that deal with what I'm interested in. I've been doing this work for two years and I thought it would be fast, but, with each step that I take, I find new inspiration."
He feels that a natural step in his research is to study the effect that color has on an individual because as he explained, color translates into vibrational frequencies that can produce a musical tone. "The frequency is beyond the range that we can see or hear," Harvey said, "but, I think that music/color therapy will someday come into play. Sound has already taken the place of x-rays and I know someday a computer will be able to tell if your body is in tune musically."
However, as Harvey pointed out, "my ideas are way ahead of the equipment that I have. I've read a lot and formed my own conclusions, but I need more sophisticated equipment to go further."
Harvey would also like to find volunteers who are willing to take part in his experiments because, so far, only his wife has volunteered. "People are very skeptical." Harvey said. "Maybe only one in ten believes me. I suppose the only one who really believes in me is my wife."
Though Harvey hopes to resume his performing career and tour again, he said that he took a break from touring because "there was no time left for anything, much less research. I've always wanted to know how far music could take someone to make himself feel happy or make himself feel better, so at this point, my research supersedes everything else."
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According to Harvey, it is possible to lower a person's pulse rate by gradually slowing down the beat of music the person was hearing from 200 beats a minute to 74 beats a minute; what Harvey said is accomplished is the synchronization of the pulse beat to the music's beat, thereby moving the person from his fully awake "beta" state to his more relaxed "alpha" state. Eventually, the person falls into a deep sleep, known as the "delta" state.
Harvey thinks that his prior work with computers has aided his current work greatly because he was able to build his synthesizer to his own specifications. He said that he liked working in Encinal "because it’s small and quiet. But, it is kind of limiting as far as finding books that deal with what I'm interested in. I've been doing this work for two years and I thought it would be fast, but, with each step that I take, I find new inspiration."
He feels that a natural step in his research is to study the effect that color has on an individual because as he explained, color translates into vibrational frequencies that can produce a musical tone. "The frequency is beyond the range that we can see or hear," Harvey said, "but, I think that music/color therapy will someday come into play. Sound has already taken the place of x-rays and I know someday a computer will be able to tell if your body is in tune musically."
However, as Harvey pointed out, "my ideas are way ahead of the equipment that I have. I've read a lot and formed my own conclusions, but I need more sophisticated equipment to go further."
Harvey would also like to find volunteers who are willing to take part in his experiments because, so far, only his wife has volunteered. "People are very skeptical." Harvey said. "Maybe only one in ten believes me. I suppose the only one who really believes in me is my wife."
Though Harvey hopes to resume his performing career and tour again, he said that he took a break from touring because "there was no time left for anything, much less research. I've always wanted to know how far music could take someone to make himself feel happy or make himself feel better, so at this point, my research supersedes everything else."
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ENCINAL --John Harvey has been involved with music since he was a six-year old, learning to play the guitar and accordion from his Grandfather. He later taught himself to play the bass, drums, organ, bajo sexto (a 12-string guitar), and synthesizer and went on tour with a number of groups including Gerardo Reyes and Los Guadalupanos of Joey Lopez .
Harvey recorded five albums on his own lable (Harvey Records), one album for CBS-Columbia, and another for Peerless Records. The composer of over 460 songs, ranging from country-western to tejano music, Harvey has also written two books on playing the three-row accordion and another on playing the bajo sexto.
Today, though, Harvey has temporarily abandoned his performing career in favor of researching the effect that music has on a person's thoughts and emotions. "My interest just switched into the kind of music that takes over your subliminal thoughts," Harvey said. "Music works on different centers of the brain and the rhythm and the sound engages it to do many things that you wouldn't think possible, such as healing the body with less, or without, the use of medicine."
Books on metaphysics, psychology and hypnosis line the walls of Harvey's small studio in Encinal, while guitars frame a sythesizer that he uses to create special sounds to suggest different moods. Though Harvey is not affiliated with a school or research lab, he hopes that his study will offer insights that other researchers may not have found.
"Working here on my own has allowed me to pursue my own ideas at my own rate of time," Harvey explained. "So far, the results of the experiments on myself and on my wife, Pat, that I have performed, have supported most of the ideas that I had. "
One of Harvey's first experiments involved designing a tape to alleviate some of the anxiety and pain people experinece when visiting the dentist. According to Harvey, he "recorded a message behind music, subliminally, so the message could barely be heard. The subconscious mind will pick up the messages and accept it more readily because the mind has gotten away from conscious overanalysis."
Harvey said that his wife listened to the tape before a visit to the dentist, and, as a result, experienced less pain and anxiety than she was accustomed to feeling. "A lot of people don't understand the way this kind of thing works," Harvey said, "but, it is not complicated. It is something that is really cut-and-dried and can be understood and proven very quickly."
Harvey recorded five albums on his own lable (Harvey Records), one album for CBS-Columbia, and another for Peerless Records. The composer of over 460 songs, ranging from country-western to tejano music, Harvey has also written two books on playing the three-row accordion and another on playing the bajo sexto.
Today, though, Harvey has temporarily abandoned his performing career in favor of researching the effect that music has on a person's thoughts and emotions. "My interest just switched into the kind of music that takes over your subliminal thoughts," Harvey said. "Music works on different centers of the brain and the rhythm and the sound engages it to do many things that you wouldn't think possible, such as healing the body with less, or without, the use of medicine."
Books on metaphysics, psychology and hypnosis line the walls of Harvey's small studio in Encinal, while guitars frame a sythesizer that he uses to create special sounds to suggest different moods. Though Harvey is not affiliated with a school or research lab, he hopes that his study will offer insights that other researchers may not have found.
"Working here on my own has allowed me to pursue my own ideas at my own rate of time," Harvey explained. "So far, the results of the experiments on myself and on my wife, Pat, that I have performed, have supported most of the ideas that I had. "
One of Harvey's first experiments involved designing a tape to alleviate some of the anxiety and pain people experinece when visiting the dentist. According to Harvey, he "recorded a message behind music, subliminally, so the message could barely be heard. The subconscious mind will pick up the messages and accept it more readily because the mind has gotten away from conscious overanalysis."
Harvey said that his wife listened to the tape before a visit to the dentist, and, as a result, experienced less pain and anxiety than she was accustomed to feeling. "A lot of people don't understand the way this kind of thing works," Harvey said, "but, it is not complicated. It is something that is really cut-and-dried and can be understood and proven very quickly."
