Exploring the way music creates magic in our minds...
The Sound Energy Aggregate… why it matters:
SEA theory is holistic, and promotes unity of experience as a listening phenomenon.
The approach allows anyone to gain insight into how music has its effect, regardless of the level of musical study one has amassed. The theory offers an antidote to the state of music theory, especially for modern music, which is very abstract, almost entirely pitch-centered. It is frustrating as a teacher to find that students have learned to ignore their natural musical instincts, have come to think that musical analysis is all about harmonic analysis, and generally wait for someone to tell them the "correct" answers. My experience using this approach for all kinds of music is that when we are allowed to use our stored, experiential musical knowledge, a light comes on, we become engaged, and great insights emerge.
Something that has gradually dawned on me regarding the SEA theory: it is globally-applicable, since it studies aspects of music that no culture has codified (dynamics, timbre, articulation, etc.) as the main purveyors of musical energy. Music may or may not be a universal language, but its elements are widely shared. It is the realm of pitch (melody, harmony) that is culturally shaped and which requires long study for mastery. Music is a holistic phenomenon, with its impact shaped by many factors, appealing at the same time to cognoscenti and novices alike. Music meets us where we are! Among other things, the SEA approach:
allows one to penetrate what one does not yet understand
allows students to trust their own experience, honors their inherent musicality
accustoms listeners to ask questions of a basic nature, gain entry into processes at work
accustoms students to the reality that all is change
lessens fear of the new
opens the mind for non-judgmental reception of all kinds of music