The Sea Gypsies were sitting around enjoying the day, and with the help of my translator, I asked one of the women if she likes music. "Yes!" was her reply. "Yes, I'm a musician and I sing...if you would like I can show you." "Yeah! Please!" I said emphatically. "I would love to hear you sing." The woman then said something to the translator and unexpectedly jumped up and ran away. I looked at the translator in confusion. "She's going to get a drum," the translator explained. Seconds later the woman came back with two extra large cooking pans. I decided to wait before making any judgments about her choice of instruments. She then handed one of the drums to a friend and kept one for her self. She laughed and the others laughed with her. I started to wonder if this was going to be a joke and that she was not as musical as she said. However, the woman suddenly began to pound her cooking pan with clearly trained hands as her friend followed her lead. She then began to sing in rhythm along with her drumbeat. Her voice sounded ancient as if it were an echo from a distant time. I assumed the song was an old one. Her words bobbed up and down along with the drumming. Another woman began to dance, swaying her hips from side to side. I felt a sudden sense of renewed energy, of shared celebration of life. Someone yelled "Yippee!" The translator and I began to go into relaxed trance, a state of stunned relaxation. Then as fast as the music began the music ended. There was a moment of silence. And then we clapped. Something changed about our relationship with these people. We experienced a collective high together and there was a bond that wasn't there before.
I asked the translator to ask the woman what her song lyrics were about. I expected to hear that it was an ancient one. "My song" she explained, "is like many of my songs. My songs are generally about nature, about fish in the sea. But this one was about you" she said. My eyes opened in surprise. "About me?" "Yes." she continued. "It's a song about you who came from far away, who took a long journey on the sea to come and visit us." She then explained that her song was impromptu as many of their songs are created spontaneously, on the spot like this.
The philosopher Nietzsche said, "Life without music would have been a mistake." He was aware that music is enjoyable and therefore healthy. Music is a cultural universal.
The pygmies of the African Congo also have a good example of great traditional music of hunters and gatherers. They make music everyday. The Baka pygmies have a beautiful tradition in which they use a river as a drum or a percussion instrument. They slap there hands down on the surface of the water in rhythm and call it "playing the river."
The Baka have another tradition; before the men go hunting, the women often sing the "Yelly" in groups. These pygmies believe that these "Yelly" songs seduce the animals and make them submissive so that they can hunt them. The Baka often believe that their music has specific functional purpose. When they sing the "Yelly" with symphonic trained voices they bounce their melodies off of the trees of the forest. The rhythm blends in well with the nature that surrounds these people.
The Baka enjoy singing and dancing and will make any opportunity an excuse to have a party. In such a situation, usually the men would lead the drumming and percussion and the women will direct the singing. Other pygmy groups, such as the Bambuti, make similar music. The Bambuti as well as the Baka pygmies make their own instruments. They make their drums out of wood and animal skin, such as elephant hide. The Bambuti make flutes out of wood as well. They will often use sticks to tap onto their drums for rhythm.
The Belgian anthropologist, Alyette De Munck, talks of one of his experiences with these people when he spent a night listening to their music. He mentions one drummer, who was known for his skill in the tribe, he was studying. He said "Angualakiyana is the best drum player in the group; he contributed much to the success of the dances. At first he feels for his rhythm, after a few falterings the theme emerges. With a vague lost look he gazes above the dancers, one hand striking in cadence, the fist or the palm. The other hand holds a stick and follows the beat, tapping the side or the top of the drum to produce sounds that are vibrant and dry. It takes a while as everyone is possessed by the magic of the rhythm. The drum, carved from a tree trunk, is covered with elephant skin, and from time to time the dance is interrupted to dry the skin at the fire as it becomes lax with the dampness of the night."
Music in this culture is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation. It is very old. What is it exactly that these people are doing in the jungle? What is music in the first place?
One definition of music is sound vibrations, usually produced by instruments or voices that are arranged or played in order. Music is arranging or making sounds in patterns that create a desired effect. Basically, it is making enjoyable sounds. Music is in the ear of the beholder. Frank Zappa says "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best."
Humans have ears that evolved from a much simpler form. Much simpler animals have antennas. Human ears are in a way protected antennas with cup shaped dishes that catch vibration and send these vibrations to our brains. So whenever we hear enjoyable sounds, it is basically tickling our brains. Making music is also for communication; even non-verbal songs are communicative. A pygmy drummer may express a mood, emotion or even a way he wants to feel in the future. When Grateful Dead fans are playing their drums in parking lots around the U.S., maybe they are non-verbally communicating, "that is true. Energy is mass times the speed of light squared." No but really we tried to communicate that when you put your energy on the right level, you really ARE part of the universe, so wholly you can feel yourself blend and change and BECOME the earth, the sky, the wind, the rain. And you realize, if it has a belly button, it is your brother... To understand our musical nature and its relation to health we should view it in historical context and try to gain the "big picture".
Under the definition that music is pleasing noise making, music is actually every old biologically. The origin of music begins with looking at other animals, such as the obvious example of birds that arrange pleasant musical sounds. Other creatures may not make sounds that we like but they probably at least like their own patterned sounds. Generally other animals that we think of that make melodious sound are dolphins, whales, frogs, and crickets or even locusts. Of course, they're making much of their sound for the purposes of territory and mating. Naturalists have found that bird songs, for example, are full of sex and violence. We also communicate with our songs. Our songs are full of love and sometimes violence. The popular Beatles songs were mainly love songs and Elvis was full of sexual appeal. Some hardcore punk rock can be good examples of music that is full of territorial violence. So our past ancestors, such as insects, fish and other mammals, used music in early life forms. Music took on roles of communicating, mating, and group identification in some species.
The human voice was certainly the first form of human music. One can imagine an ancestor, Richards Leakey's Lucy, of Africa, for example, humming on warm sunny day along with the rhythm of locusts. So music eventually developed as part of human communication and recreation system.
What was the first invented human music like? We can imagine a woman in Africa humming Oooga Booga softly or a group of men making rhythmic noises with sticks as an emotional expression of their happy feelings after finding something to eat in the forest. Humans probably learned to play rhythms with sticks and whatever they found in the forest to tap and beat and "play the forest" for creating psychological mood and for general expression. The forest was the original drum much like the Baka forest people mentioned before who "played the river" the original human instrument was the forest.
The oldest verified human artificial instrument was found at an Slovenian cave in Europe is said to be the "Neanderthal Flute" It is approximately around 60,000 years old Cave Bear femur bone segment with 4 holes. It is a hollow, carved bone with 2 complete holes, and 2 partial holes, one at each broken ends of the bone. Clay tablets found in Ur in the Middle East, which are 4,000 years old is the world's oldest known written music. Now of course music has progressed and has become more sophisticated. The biological creation of pleasant sound now includes orchestras that use wind, string, and percussion instruments recorded in the industrial age so that we can play it back whenever we want. It also includes techno concerts where earthlings go to for a therapeutic night of fun.
Berthold Auerbach said, "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Lately there has been a significant amount of evidence found in clinical studies verifying that musical stimuli can have therapeutic effects. At first there was a lot of verification and media promoting that, specifically, classical music heals. At a study at the University of California, Irvine, in 1993 there was a study that revealed that Mozart seemed to improve spatial skill abilities. This effect is now known as the Mozart effect. There were many conclusions that pointed in the same direction, that classical music could be preventative, calming and therefore improve brain function. Professional therapists say that classical music is not the only music that heals. Music as diverse as Pop and Brazilian Salsa can be healing as well. Listening to music can direct positive influence on pulse, blood pressure and the electrical activity of muscles. Therapists are using it as a technique in many cases of psychological illness. Yet the research tells us what we intuitively know. Music simply puts us in good mood and that relaxes our nervous system, which directly has effect on the whole body.
Medical Dr. Oliver Sacks noted, "Patients with neurological disorders who cannot talk or move are often able to sing, and sometimes even dance, to music. Its advocates say that music therapy also can help ease the trauma of grieving, lessen depression and provide an outlet for people who are otherwise withdrawn." This explains that music has an effect on the mind that seems to have been a great adaptation that our species was using ultimately for daily healing.
When the African Congo pygmies that I mentioned before were "playing the river" as a percussion instrument they were indirectly keeping themselves healthy, and intuitively using medicine and psychotherapy. Dr. Oliver Sacks said that music has amazing abilities to generate healing. "I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders -- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's -- because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged."
The American Music Therapy Association now has over thousands of members who practice, and over 60 universities have started graduate programs in music therapy in the U.S. alone. So if you're interested in experimenting with this form of psychotherapy with the use of professional care, it is available in much of the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Anytime you want this can be a free form of medicine in which you can use to self-medicate. Music that you enjoy is music that is the best for you to listen to. So whether it is the genre of traditional, ethnic tribal or Indian, Irish, World music or, Classical, Jazz, Rock, Rap, Pop, Techno, Folk, Oldies, Country, Bluegrass... listen to it often and everyday. Really this is not too hard. It is easy to make it a habit.
Making your own music, although, is even better. Making the first attempt is the hardest part for some of us because we compare ourselves to people who have become professional and expert. Don't think of performing for others, but think of having fun, which is the way these professionals started themselves. In fact, their experience of having fun is why professionals became so good at it.
The creation of music is an ancient one, and we can connect to our own nature to create it by just tapping on a surface humming or whistling a little. Try it and let the jive do the talking. Baja at boo Baja at boo. Let the soul come out.
Seriously.
If you want you can make a small investment in an instrument that will go a long way in therapeutic return on your investment. Music making is natural and the expression of it can come out of you if you set the time aside to do it. Music Therapy

The best way to tap into the real psychological need to make music is the way our ancestors did in a natural setting with drums. The writer of the Mozart Effect and a song therapist suggests using the drum, "when we beat a drum, we activate, muscle, breathing, heartbeat, and brain wave patterns...Ten minutes of drumming a day releases tension." He suggest the following exercise using the drum that is very similar to a common Shamanism way of drumming that has stimulating effects on the nervous system. He says that one can use anything that has a percussion effect such as plastic wastebasket. His instructions are to sit "comfortably in a chair holding your makeshift drum and mallet. Close your eyes and locate your heartbeat. Now pick up a stick and generally find a drum beat to match your heart. Continue for a few minutes and see if you can double the beat so that it's twice as fast. Then after three minutes return to a beat that matches your basic heart beat and notice whether it has become faster or slower.
Robert Browning said that "He who hears music feels his solitude peopled at once" Making music along with friends and family as our ancestors and our distant cousins are doing in the forests is really a definite solid jive. If you can take the time to actually get into a natural setting and have a drum circle with the use of drums and wind instruments around you may find an amazing effect on your relationships. You may find bonding as our ancestors bonded with each other in their own hunter/gatherer bands. Making music creates solidarity, a common communication in which everyone can join the same frequency. Just remember that making music is fun and having fun is good for you.