Sunrise Science May 5, 2026 at the Science Museum of Virginia

I had the honor to be a speaker at the Sunrise Science event and I wanted to use this post to share some of the Items I mentioned In the show. The worlds of science and music are so vast that one presentation could come no where close to the totality of what's there, but I was very happy to share some of my favorite thoughts regarding the overlap of science and music. For me my favorite part of that overlap Is exploring the music/emotion connection. Here are some Items that helped make the show possible. Sorry to not be able to provide a full-dome experience on this post! That was especially fun. Wow!

Physics:

We start with some definitions.

Sound - mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing

Music - the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity

Tone - a sound of definite pitch and vibration

Then we moved on to visualize notes! I used an oscilloscope to do this. Tone Generator app was the one I used but there are many other ones out there Including desktop web-based ones like this one.

Just keep In mind that the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch, the higher the note. The same applies In the other direction. Low means low means low.

Now we can see a c scale like this:

When these frequencies...wait...let's just call them notes from now on If that's ok? When two or more of these notes Interact we experience a chord. Here the human brain does something Interesting, It forms an opinion!

Various studies have been done over the years on the music/brain connection.

Some on the major / minor Issue.

Some on why music makes us feel emotions.

Others on what parts of the brain Interact with music.

These are all amazing for their own reasons, but to get the total understanding of music's Impacts on the brain, we're going to need more studies that Involved more parts of the world and the various relationships that exist at cultural capacities. The study that really got me thinking on all this was this one where average music listeners from England and a tribe from Pakistan had opposing views on the happy/sad relationship to major/minor chords. Showing that the emotional ties to music has an undeniable cultural tie-In. Thousands of years of cultural traditions have helped shape the emotional response to music for both the average listeners In England and those from the tribe In Pakistan.

Ancient cultural roots and music, what a lovely gateway to a quick 101 on Raags!

Raags are effectively an ancient musical approach to organizing sounds and life with the rhythms of the natural world. Modes of music Intertwined with times of day or season and also purpose.

For the folks that were able to be In the room I had a portion of the presentation going over the differences between the Western and Raag approaches to music. Seeing just the visual feels a little unfair and misleading, but obviously all this was done In good fun and no offense meant to the western world of music at all....after all, I've created my career In that weastern canon of music! So no disrespect, but this Image below was a fun way to show the differences between the two.

For anyone Interested In a deep dive on the swaras, or as you see them SrgMpDnS. the raag system, this Is a great link to dive Into how that works.

So how many raags are there? Good question! Here's the screen shot of a list I could find and keep In mind this list IS NOT COMPLETE AT ALL! This just served as a great visual on the Dome to show the vastness of expression possible through Hindustani / Northern Indian Classical Music.

Really though, how many raags are there?!?! 1164 at the moment according to Wikipedia.

But the possibility to have new raags? Sure, that means there could be thousands more left, maybe even more...whoa.

I'm enjoying exploring ancient Indian raags and fusing them together on acoustic guitar, my journey Is just starting and If you want to follow along, check out my YouTube shorts page! It has stuff like this....

Moving on...

One of the points I wanted to make with this whole presentation Is that there Is so much cool new research happening out there using music! Especially In India and the rest of Asia. These headlines often don't get past our fast and furious news cycle here In the US, but I wanted to take a moment to share some of my fav articles I came across while putting together this presentation. Check out the links below!

Indian Raags and regulating emotions.

Traditional Thai folk dances and brain stimulation.

Chinese and Western music and fatigue.

and my fav Is the case study of the brain of famous tabla player Zakir Hussain!

This study Is remarkable and even showed how during Improvisation his brain turned off the decision making parts to allow for more spontaneous creativity. His motion related areas and language areas acted up at a higher capacity when listening to Tabla bols as opposed to regular speech. Fascinating!

Music an the brain, truly a complex and beautiful relationship. One that Is finally getting more research put Into It at a global context.

I am of the opinion that music Is a universal aspect of life shared by all humanity. Making this a musical world for us humans.

...but we're not the only ones on this planet.

Whales have music.

Monkeys get music.

More and more animals are being studied and observed to have some relationship to... music!

Zoomusicology Is a thing, yall!

It's truly a musical world.

Which Is why are so lucky to be alive In a time where we can hear the myriad of beautiful sounds strung together In organized patterns or chaos, everywhere. If we choose to listen.

As always, thank you for your love and support and coming to the Museum to see my presentation.

If you want more of this music, my bandcamp Is full of fun offerings!

Or come see me live / tell your friends In these places!

Wed May 6th Richmond, VA - Gold Lion - 6 - 8pm

Fri May 8th - Fredericksburg, VA - Curitiba Cafe - 8 - 10pm

Sat May 9th Richmond, VA - Rest Fest - 1 - 2pm

Thurs May 14 - Chicago IL - Fulton St Collective 7pm

Thurs July 9 - Richmond, VA - Gramophone Winery 7 - 9pm

Sat July 11 - Philadelphia, PA - Tired Hands Brewing 7 - 9pm

Sun July 12 - Washington, DC - The Hub 4-6pm

Tues July 13 - Charlottesville, VA - Durty Nellys 8-10pm

Namaste, everyone! <3