there was a really interesting article in the new york times yesterday about avant jazz drummer-cum professor Milford Graves.

apparently, mr. graves, who rarely performs these days, has been studying the sonic and melodic properties of the human heart for some 30 years, in an effort to help people who suffer from a range of heart ailments.

he has created a variety of algorhythms and biofeedback tools to help 'tweak' the heartbeats of people with heart probs.

for years, he recorded and observed the sounds and rhythms of healthy and unhealthy hearts, to see what properties they shared. it seems the sounds of a healthy heart are markedly different from those of unhealthy hearts. graves's aim is to create tools that help people program their heart to sound and run healthier, by playing back sounds of healthy hearts.

graves, who is also a holistic healer, is not marching to his own beat on this one. his research has garnered the interest of several respected cardiology researchers at yale university. they are using his knowledge to get beyond a purely clinical approach to heart health.

some of the biofeedback tools involve running a cd of healthy heart sounds to an 'electrified' acupuncture needle, which is inserted in an acu-zone in the patient's wrist. the rhythmic pulses are 'read' by the patient, who then learns to re-program his heart to beat properly.

so far, the results seem to be mostly subjective and anecdotal. nevertheless, i found the whole thing fascinating, especially the part where graves describes his tapes of multiple musicians' hearts. apparently, when combined, they make some beautiful polyrhythms!



and ten bucks to the dc member who can name the family that inspired this thread's title

ARRRRGGGHHHHH - now that song is stuck in my head!

<in Klingon voice>Now you must die!</end voice>

Allow me.  Ahem.

It's a small world aaaaafter-all.  It's a small world aaaaafter-all. . . .

Well, this isn't news is it? The sound made by the heart comes from one main souce (the sound of the valves snapping open and shut) and one "subsidiary" source (the roar of liquid moving at high speed through narrow pipes). Damaged hearts make different sounds for perfectly sensible physical reasons. Sound has been used as a diagnostic tool for centuries.


And there I confess I switched off. While there is much sound physiology to many aspects of so-called "alternative" therapy, and while bio-feedback is demonstrable (heck, you can do it yourself without stuff like "electrified needles in acu-zones"), much of the rest of that is, to me, indistinguishable from snake oil.