Adventures in 432hz - Why 432 and what were my first impressions of my newly tuned piano?
It's been a dream of mine for some time to tune my piano to 432hz. If you aren't familiar with this tuning, it's a concept that has been gaining popularity in the past few years. Maybe this is because many conspiracy theories have been proven true in the past 3 years? What was once relegated to fiction is being adopted by many as fact. I put 432hz in this conspiracy camp because there are facts and fiction to delve through on this topic. Just do a light search on the internet and you'll see the breadth of claims from magical to healing to complete joke. It's something I wanted to explore for myself and this week I got my Piano tuned to 432hz to make up my own mind.
First of all, why 432hz? The global standard is 440Hz for A. Why mess with this accepted and uniform frequency for tuning. Isn't it more practical and modern so that musicans can travel anywhere and play in the same frequency?
I think Jonas Maluik says it best in his book 432hz; The Magic and Mystery of Sound and Music:
“A lot of the challenges and dis-ease human beings are facing today is a result of the fact that we are out of tune with the cosmos. We are supposed to live in harmony with our earth and universe, but somewhere along the way, we got lost; and now we are operating on our own frequency. One which is not in harmony with the music of the cosmos at all.”
I think this is well said, our own frequency indeed.
His book goes on to give the case that the frequencies of the notes that are generated from a 432hz tuning are much more harmonious and congruent with nature, then those irrational numbers made by 440hz tuning.
You see, when you study nature and the cosmos, there are numbers that pop up over and over again. So often in fact, it can't be coincidence. Beautiful Even numbers, alluding to a plan; a grand design. It's often been said that mathematics is the language of the universe, so why not explore and take note of these popular numbers.
For example, here's cases of the number 432 found in the Cosmos and the world around us. And in these numbers, we'll also show how this tuning creates more nubmers that we naturally find all around us.
(Keep in mind that 0's are not important in this search. So we can drop them when needed to make certain calculations which then bring up other popular numbers.)
Cycles of Time:
24 hours = 1/86400 of a solar day (1 rotation of the earth around it's axis)
12 hours = 1/43200 of a solar day – (see the 432, you can drop the 0's)
In 3 days there are 72 hours, 4320 minutes, and 259200 seconds – this last number is another popular one! It shows up as the Great year as well (minus one zero).
Great Year: (sun completes it's rotation around the galaxy) = 25,920
25920 / 12 = 2160 (Drop the 0) 216hz is the A below 432hz
25920 / 9 = 2880 (Drop the 0) 288hz is the D in 432hz tuning
25920 / 8 = 3240 (Drop the 0) 324hz is the E (and the perfect 5th) for 432 hz tuning
Zodiac:
4,320 yrs for the Sun to travel 60 degrees in the zodiac (360 rotation to hit all 12 signs, so this is 2 signs)
Hindu Time Keeping:
Kali Yuga = 432,000 yrs
Mayan Long Calendar:
6 x Katuns (7200 yrs) = 43200 yrs
Physics
432 x 432 = 186,400 Speed of light
Geometry:
12 circles of 360 degrees = 4320 degrees
This is just a few examples of how 432 shows up frequently in the study of the cosmos and natures. But we also see a connection to ancient cultures...
Ancient Architecture:
Great Giza Pyramid Base x 43200 = circumference of the earth
Great Giza Pyramid Height x 43200 = polar radius of the earth
Borobodur Temple in Indonesia has 432 statues of Buddah
Sacred Hindu Text Rigveda has 10,800 stanzas, and 432,000 syllables
These are all examples of finding 432 in some form in our world and universe. There are many more examples and if this interest you, I suggest buying Jonas Maluik's Book. He goes into great detail on these sacred numbers. I'll link it below.
But for this article, I'll end with one final one which is interesting. Ancient scientists had the diameter and radius of the sun as follows...
Diameter of the Sun – 864,000 miles, making it a radius of 432,000
In the last century, NASA measured them as follows...
864,938 miles, making it a radius of 432,450
This is similar to the moon in which the ancients said about the moon...
Diameter of the moom – 2160 miles, making it a radius of 1080
In the last century, NASA measured them as follows...
2159 miles, making it a radius of 1079.5
So the ancients were pretty darn close. That is if we accept the NASA #'s as fact or perfectly accurate themselves.
These examples also demonstrate that it's not just 432hz that show up over and over again when we study nature and the cosmos. There is a repeating cast of characters that seem so present in the most important roles in our reality. It's like they travel together as a family band playing out their roles as pillars to this creation.
And here's the crux as we've already seen... when we tune A to 432hz, many of these other character numbers appear as important notes in our music scale. For example...
When we take 432hz A string and divide it in 2, it creates a higher octave at 864 hz (86400 is said to be the diameter of the sun)
When we double that same string, we get 216hz A, one octave below – When you divide the great year (minus zeros) by 12 you get 216
2592/12 = 2160 = A (octave below)
When you divide the great year minus zeros by 9 you get D in the 432hz tuning (the perfect 4th)
2592/9 = 2880 hz = D
When you divide the great year by 8 you get E in the 432hz tuning (the perfect 5th)
2592/8 = 342 hz = E
(Note the zero's have been taken off the great year to calculate the frequency)
Octaves and perfect 5th's and even perfect 4ths are some of the most important intervals in our music today. The make up the vast majority of the harmonic structures we use in almost all of our musical styles.
I could spend all day writing out more examples. But these examples I chose are just to make the argument as to why 432hz tuning. With this type of symmetry, it does seem reasonable that playing these frequencies would align the musician and the listener to nature and the cosmos. Since natures seems to use these guys over and over again, you might just be speaking back to nature - in it's own language; it's own number identity.
Another reason lies in the law of Entrainment – if an object is exposed to a frequency for a long period of time, it will start to resonate with that frequency. So if we are playing in the same frequencies in which our world is built on, then perhaps we will be entrained to resonate with this world. Seems reasonable enough to me. And certainly worth a try.
But the truth is that it's only a theory to me still. The fact is, it's very difficult to hear any music that is tuned to 432hz in our modern world. 440Hz is the standard, set before many of us were born. And when you work out the numbers with 440hz, you get many irrational, repeating decibles. Not beautiful mathematics at all. (The reason why 440hz was chosen as the standard is the subject of my 2nd article in Adventures in 432 tuning. So stay tuned for that.)
But to get back to the topic at hand, you might say, “well I've listened to youtube videos that are are tuned to 432hz.” But I question what the digital medium does to the frequency? There are definetly options with in certain DAW's (digital audio workstations) that allow for a different tuning. And from what I understand, there are ways to produce music that keep it in 432hz. But I also know there are standardizations that happen when uploading to youtube, spotify ect. The sound files are compressed and unformly formated to fit the platform. So is it still 432hz? This is part of what I'm trying to figure out in my research. And will need to do much more research to answer the question. But this is why I wonder, Can any of us truly hear 432hz in this modern world? And since none of know if we've experienced it, it's hard to know if this theory is only a myth, or a practical solution for a decaying society.
So in an effort to side step the digital component question, and because I always do prefer organic, accoustic music when it comes to healing and feeling, I decided to have my piano tuned to 432hz. I wanted to see for myself!
Here are some of the answers to my questions after playing on my 432hz piano for 1 week:
Can I even hear the difference in 8 hz below for the same pitch?
I could hear the difference. And so could my family and friends. It was flatter sounding, a little duller in places - which is to be expected. But it was also brighter at the same time which is hard to explain. Most of us had a hard time describing the difference. But one listener said it was like hearing the song on a different guitar.
And the most interesting part, there were harmonics that seemed to be feeding off each other in a way I'd never heard before. Like a string section was playing from the middle of my board, sustaining a root note. It was beautiful.
I have become more used to it each day, and but when playing a guitar tuned to my strings, the guitar still sounds strange – but only in certain chords.
Can we even achieve a perfect 432hz healing in 12TET modern tuning?
Unfortunately, No. First of all, 12TET tuning is actually not that harmonious by it's concept. There are cheats that have to happen to make the proper intervals, so this will mess with the perfect frequencies you are looking for. So to truly experience 432hz you'd have to use a different tuning system. 12TET is once again the standard. And our pianos are built for 12TET.
On top of that, for my particular situation, my piano tuner had NEVER tuned a piano to anything other than 440hz. He's an expert at that, and he was actually quite uncomfortable attempting the 432hz. I didn't find out any of this til he was there. He didn't bring up the concerns on the phone when I asked him about it. But when he arrived, he didn't have a tuning fork for 432hz. He was quite resistant and felt this was just a gimick. He might have even thought he could talk me out of it when he arrived. But when I wouldn't budge, I had to encourage him that it was just an experiment and didn't have to be perfect. This is a guy that learned piano tuning from his father, and I trust his ears completely. I've used him for over 10 years. He was right that it might have been more precise to use a digital meter. Something I'll try next. But I reassured him, even if he didn't hit all the famous frequencies I was hoping for, I knew it couldn't be worse that the crazy, irrational intervals created by 12TET in a perfectly dead on 440hz tuning. So he proceeded to tune with some hesitation. But by the end he was proud of his work.
Tuning will the best subject of another article, but it was a myth busting moment to realize that having these perfect frequencies would be pretty difficult for a combination of reasons.
So this is part of the myth of 432hz. It's not as simple to achieve as some claim. (More on this in my 2nd article in the Adventures of 432hz)
And the final question, can you feel or sense the difference? YES! For me, the first night I played on it was the most amazing. It was like my hands just felt so good and relaxed. The music poured out so naturally and I felt the gigginess of discovering the piano for the first time again.
Even now, a few weeks later, I've loved playing on my piano since it's been tuned. Even if it's not quite 432hz, perhaps the joy I have felt in playing my newly tuned piano is that the lower frequency is getting me out of the my own rut, metaphorically and sonically.
Here’s a video documenting that first night…
https://youtu.be/inK3qwBzETw?si=seUD9bNv_yw277hu
The same thing seemed to happen to my tuner. He said as much! His whole life only tuning to 440Hz made him an expert at it. But then again, it keeps you pretty limited as well. So he felt uplifted and excited about music by the time he left. We plan to have lunch to discuss more of these topics.
It does make you wonder what it did to our collect psychy to go from a variety of tunings to one and only 440hz. This is where some of the conspiracy comes back in. The theory that this uniformity would be one of the detrimental effects of this music on our collective culture. This is what I'd like to explore in the another article. (working through the fact and the fiction on 440hz's history – why and what affect does it have on us)
In the meantime, I'll be playing regularly on my newly tuned piano and documenting the affects on others, as well as the longterm entrainment on myself.
I'll also be exploring ways to measure the hz digitally and seeing if I can get another tuner out with such measurement. I'm also interested in trying 444hz, which will be the subject of future writings. This is going to be a longterm experiment so stay tuned.
Please share any relevant experiences, opinions about 432hz you've had personally. I'm so happy to be exploring this topic and would love to share this journey with others.