Maanveer Singh
— S I N G E R S O N T H E F R O N T L I N E S —
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“Music is more than an auditory experience. It is also a tactile experience . . . people can sense music through their skin.“
—Maanveer Singh
Maanveer Singh is a passionate coach and trainer as the CEO for Extended DISC India, a psychometric assessment tool that helps people identify their own behavioral style, and harness that understanding to make decisions in their personal development. With a background in sales, Maanveer comes from a culture that highly values the role of music in life, in health and wellbeing. Over the years he has developed his own coaching style to incorporate music therapy principles and Indian classical music. While not formally trained as a singer, Maanveer uses his voice for healing and therapy – using songs, chanting, Tibetan singing bowls when working with clients, as well as Hindu devotional singing which uses specific songs for specific purposes based on their frequencies - different songs for different times of day, different environments, different health issues. He has received training from Kerns University in Vienna, The Indian Association of Sound Healing, Musicians Without Borders, and the Nutrilite Health Institute in the U.S..
Maanveer has suggested the following Indian ragas [melodies] to listen to during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the tradition of Indian classical music, ragas are intended to be heard at a specific time of day, to create certain frequencies that assist the body to heal itself. For more information about the science behind this, MedicinaNarrativa has an excellent summary titled, Sound Thearpy and Well-Being.
Throat Chakra (6pm - 9pm)
Raga Jaijaiwanti with flute
Raga Jaijaiwanti with vocal
Heart Chakra (6am - 9am)
Raga Ahir Bhairav with flute (6am - 9am)
Raga Durga with vocal (9pm-12am)
Solar Plexus Chakra (stomach and liver)
Raga Malkauns with sitar (12am-3am)
Raga Bhimpalas with vocal (3pm-6pm)
Sacral Chakra (liver, kidneys, spleen, pancreas)
Raga Gujari Todi with vocal (9am-12pm)
Raga Yaman with santoor (6pm-9pm)
SonicBloom: Tell me about the role that music plays in your life.
Maanveer Singh: In ancient Indian mythology there is the story of Abhimanyu, about a battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas [family names of cousins]. Abhimanyu is said to have learned the secret of how to break into a war formation, called the Chakravyuh, or a concentric formation of circles that creates a war formation His pregnant mother overheard this being discussed, but fell asleep before they finished. So, it is said that he learned [in the womb] how to get into the formation but not how to get out. I think I got interested in music because my mother was learning the sitar when she was expecting me. So, I think I get it from there. Since then, somehow this interest with music, especially Indian classical music, has always been there.
My mom used to be a regular music goer, she used to be an emcee for many shows and conferences, and I used to accompany her. Usually [I would] go to the last row and fall asleep – just escort her and bring her home. I started staying awake, starting liking what I was hearing. Started appreciating, started moving to the front rows. Then I went backstage and [later] became an organizer. But the love of Indian classical music didn’t end there. Not too much of the technical stuff, but more interesting was the appreciative part of Indian classical music, and the research, that got me and keeps me hooked, even until today. That’s what really keeps me fascinated about the various things that can be done with music, without having too much of a formal or in-depth, you know, learning. I’m not trained in that sense. The teacher who taught me sitar was a very senior student of Pandit Ravi Shankar, and he told me, “My guru taught me one raga for 12 years.” And I said, “Wow. OK, that’s fascinating, to be able to learn one melodic scale for 12 years, and then improvise that.” That’s amazing. That kind of tradition doesn’t exist anymore – we don’t have the time, we don’t have the patience – but that’s an amazing tradition to go through.
So that’s what kept me, that’s a little bit about how music came into my life, what I did with music, what I do with music. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some audio companies, so I’ve had the chance to record some of these great musicians from Bismillah Kahn, Ravi Shankar, you name it. I’ve produced more than 100 titles of music, been in the studio with these people – recording, editing, listening, working closely with them. Pandit Jasraj, Bhimsen Joshi the vocalist, Gangu Bai Hangal, Mallikarjun Mansour, T N Krishnan. I worked with the seventh generation descendant of Thyagaraja, Maharajapuram Santhanam. It’s amazing to have been in close quarters [with these incredible musicians].
SB: That sounds like a really rich experience. You say there are many ways to use music without a lot of formal training. What are some examples of how you’ve used music?
MS: I use it a lot in behavioral coaching as well as medical cases. About 4.5 years back my father had a stroke. He was normally a very calm and patient person, but when he came out of the hospital he was extremely agitated. He was agitated to the point of almost being violent. He used to throw tantrums, he used to throw his food plate. He used to get very short-tempered, he wouldn’t let anybody come close to him. And that’s possibly the effect of the stroke and the medicines that he had, we don’t know. But he was a very different person when he came out of the hospital, from the person who went into the hospital, the person whom I knew for 50-odd years of my life. And I remembered there was something that he liked to do a lot, and that was listen to devotional music from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the most holy place for the Sikhs. [Every evening] he used to love to listen to the live broadcast of the shabads [hymn or sections of the Holy Text] and the kirtans [call-and-response style song or chant]. Those are very calming. So I moved the television into his bedroom, and told the attendants that for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening, this must be put on. And mind you, my dad is deaf in one ear, and he hears only 40% in the other ear. But I know that music is more than an auditory experience – it is also a tactile experience. I know that people can sense music through their skin. So, the music was played at a loud volume for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. And in 15 days’ time, he started wanting to change channels, he started wanting to watch the news, he calmed down considerably, he was eating his food. That’s 4.5 years back, and until he passed recently he still had the TV in his room, he still watched Friends and soaps, sitcoms, you name it.
SB: And did he remember that period of time, recovering from the stroke? Was he coherent?
MS: He can’t remember. . .I don’t want to remind him. I have photographs, I have videos, but I don’t want to remind him because that’s not a good place for him to go back to.
Just before this lockdown, I was helping a person who had a stroke on one side of the brain 10 years back, and in October last year he had a stroke on the other side of the brain. He used to love to play the flute, and he couldn't even coordinate the position of his fingers. So we used song, movement, cognitive rehabilitation, to the extent that [he could play] the flute, His relatives were completely amazed how such a thing has happened, and I've been treating him for only about two and a half months, three times a week, and that's all. We’ve used so much music, we use vibration. I found out that he likes devotional Marathi songs, so I encouraged him to start singing those. Then I got him a set of cymbals and temple bells, and he started singing things like, “Mazhe maahera pandhari, Aiyee bheem a re jaati ri.” So these are Abhang vani and Sant Vani [devotional] songs to Lord Vitthal and other dieties. And he would come and sing those songs, and we would do meditation, prayer, the Tibetan bowls, we would sing together, we would dance together. And then, of course, there's nutrition. So, none of this can work without a good amount of nutritive support. Once you do all these things, you stretch the cells, you expand the cells, you agitate the cells to a level of positive anxiety. And you want them to remain in that state, you want them to be conducting, be working, to be firing, you want the neurons to work, you don't want the neurons to go back into this listless state of existence that he had, after he goes home. I want him to be active. So, we added supplements such as plant proteins, with ashwagandha [Indian ginseng], with tulsi [holy basil], with Omega 3 fatty acids. Those played a phenomenal role in scaffolding and supporting this initiative.
SB: Very interesting. In peacebuilding and development work, there’s this idea of “do no harm” – making sure the intervention takes a community’s cultural context and own empowerment into consideration. You talked about the beauty of music being that it can have a powerful effect even without a lot of formal training. I’m curious to know, what grounds you without this formal training? Is there something that you keep in mind as you do this work? Because you're using powerful tools, so how do you ensure that you ‘do no harm’?
MS: Well, though I don't have formal training in this, I do a lot of work with psycho-metrics and behavioral coaching. So, I keep that experience in mind. One of the principles of coaching is that when the person leaves, they must leave feeling better than they did when they came in. There is a very powerful line by [Lebanese-American writer] Khalil Gibran, who says that a good teacher is not one who encourages you to enter the depth of his wisdom, but he leads you to the threshold of your own awareness. So, I try and get people to move to the threshold of their awareness. I challenge them with questions, with activities.
SB: So, it’s not a matter of no formal training – your formal training is in coaching, and you apply that to working with music. Interesting. You’ve talked about a medical setting with your father, and the man who had two strokes. You also mentioned music in behavior coaching. Can you describe a little bit about DISC, and how you’ve linked that to music?
MS: DISC is based on [Jungian] psychological theory that introduced the concept of behavioral continuums. Jung wrote about people’s behavior being easily measurable on continuums of opposites – we can be introvert or extrovert, thinking or feeling, perceiving or judging, sensing or intuitive. Jung and Freud had this fantastic mentor/mentee relationship, and at one point in time there was a flashpoint, when Freud [did not] allow Jung to publish his work. And Jung, in retaliation to that disagreement, went ahead and published what would become the cornerstone of psycho-metric theory. All psycho-metric models being used now are based on Jung’s Psychological Types, in which he [weaves together] philosophy, theology, the concept of archetypes. So, it’s a complex blend of knowledge. William Moulton Marston [later] took these continuums and combined them into an axis, and created a four-quadrant model. The four [quadrants] of DISC are: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance – these are the four styles of behavior.
One of the fascinating things about the Extended DISC tool is that it [looks at] the expression of emotions and feelings in people. And a couple of years back, I got an idea: why not use the expression of emotions and feelings of people, as prescribed by a psycho-metric assessment (which combines psychology and statistics], and bring in the cultural relevance of Indian classical music in terms of emotions and feelings? We know there are emotions and feelings. We know that Tansen composed [the Raga Megh] Malhar to bring down the rains, we know that he composed the Raga Deepak when he wanted to generate heat. We know that certain ragas influence certain behavior in certain ways – ragas that are good for blood pressure, to calm people down. So why not use all this? And that’s when I started putting [it all] together, and it started to make sense. Even NASA sent The Beatles song, Across the Universe out into space to see if there was life in the cosmos, and whether they could communicate back to us through music. Because [music] is organized frequencies, [so would] those frequencies would make any sense to anyone “out there”?
SB: Are you familiar with the work of either Oliver Sacks or Daniel Levitin? Daniel Levitin has written This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs. Both have so much good information about vibration and frequency and the physical effect of music. Some of the research that's been done is absolutely fascinating. Now we're in this era of COVID-19, and when I originally contacted you about this interview you shared with me a story that I found absolutely fascinating, which was about the “sonification” of the virus. Someone actually turned the frequency of the virus into music. Can you talk a little bit about that?
MS: Ah, well, I'm not a science guy, but I've been using the solfeggio frequencies with people, [using the frequency of specific notes for healing]. If you look at it on a quantum level, we are all matter, and matter has its own frequency. So, if you're able to find what something beats at, is it a normal frequency, is it a binary frequency? What kind of a beat is this, this little irritant that is creating havoc in the world? If you're able to do that, maybe you could create something in terms of an “echo” or [counter frequency] that could arrest this. I think it's possible. I'm pretty sure the cure or the vaccine will come from something very unconventional. It has to. And music is a good way to approach this.
SB: I find it so interesting, what's happening in the science community. I keep thinking the study of vibration is going to be the next big thing. I wonder why these studies don’t seem to make the mainstream news. Do we have certain assumptions about music? You said earlier, it's a nice word, but we're sort of missing the real “meat” of it.
MS: Yeah, you need somebody with a lot of investment at stake to make this into what we want it to be. Because what is at stake is medicine, and medicine has got a lot of interests in terms of investments. So, they will approach it only from that direction, they will approach it only from the profit [perspective]. Music is something which you cannot . . . I mean, how much can you profit from music? What will you write? You will write a capsule, you will write a code, you write a song, you will write a set of instructions, and it will go viral, and in three weeks’ time the world will be healed. And who's going to make money out of that? Nobody's going to make money.
SB: Yeah, sad to say. I agree. So, what's next for you in terms of music and how you use music, or the role that music plays in your life? The DISC research sounds very interesting. Are you going to develop that further, or somehow share it in some way? Or is there something else on your horizon?
MS: There are two things. One is, I am trying to link DISC now with the musical intelligences. [Howard Gardner came up with the theory of] nine types of intelligence: [naturalist, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, intra-personal, and spatial. I'm trying to link these to musical intelligence and see if there's any correlation. Then I will work out an online assessment to [line up] with DISC styles to get a comprehensive understanding of behavioral preferences in relation to level of musical intelligence. By sending an online questionnaire with links, we're able to try and find out,
There are tests that are available [for] musical intelligence, but those are very narrow tests in terms of their appeal. They test if you can hear the tone or not hear the tone, whether the sounds sharp or the sounds flat, does it sound nice or does not sound nice? I want to widen the scope out of the nine intelligences. Music is a very strong intelligence. We know how important music is in treatment of things like autism, in terms of conditions like Parkinson’s, dementia, managing schizophrenia. All these things have case studies, we have examples. They’re very clear about this.
SB: Is there someone who's inspiring you right now? Is there someone who's using music for wellbeing and connection that you look to, or that you follow?
MS: Yes, there is. There's a very famous Indian musician, Zakir Hussein, a tabla player and percussionist. His crossover work is very good. He's very rooted in tradition and doesn't compromise on tradition, and that's what I like. A lot of people who do crossover work forget their roots. So not only is he very, very rooted and,
I’m [actually- very close to the family because Zakir’s younger brother, Fazal, was my classmate, and one younger brother was [also at the same] college. So, I've spent a lot of time with the family, in their house [where] we had music gatherings that went on, spontaneous stuff, went on for five, six days. Zakir’s father would call one musician, and another, and we would have three, four nights of music, dance, song just going on and on. A group of about 50, 60 of us, and we were we would be enjoying some of the best musicians in the world, there in the house, a completely informal setting.
My mother has been a very strong inspiration [as well]. She used to sing very well at one point of time, and she's hosted a lot of events. She was very close to musicians. So, I've benefited a lot from the inspiration that I've got from my mother. But if there’s somebody who's work I appreciate, who’s crisp, who’s clear, who's very focused on what he wants to do with music, is Zakir. He's a great person, and as a musician he's a genius. Everybody knows that. There is no denying, no doubt about it.
SB: And so how would you describe what his intention is for his music, how he's using music?
MS: I heard him in an ensemble last year, and he had students who have learned unconventional percussion instruments like drums, djembe – African instruments, not classical Indian. They had learned Indian compositions, and Zakir said something that was very, very touching, and very powerful. He said, “Our role is not only to be custodians of the music. Yes, we are custodians of the theory, but our role is to be like an ocean, to flow.” And ‘the ocean refuses no river, the sky refuses is no song,’ that's what your SonicBloom tagline says. So, he says, “Our job is to just share and watch it grow as it goes away from us.” When it comes to my shore, it comes in my form, but when it goes to another shore it goes in its own form. And it's good, because everywhere it goes it just touches people. So, he says, “I'm not worried, why is he playing the djembe? It doesn't worry me at all. I'm happy that they've come to learn the Indian system, but then they'll go and they'll do something which is unique to their own styles.” So, I like the kind of thing.
SB: We're talking a lot about the intentional use of music beyond performance – so, music to help with health and wellbeing, and music to inspire and uplift. And for Zakir Hussein, does he have that kind of intention? Is it about the performance for him? Or is there something energetically, something more? A bigger wish or desire that he has when he plays music?
MS: I think the performance part has been achieved long back. I don't think there's anything more he needs in terms of performing. He's played with Shakti and John McLaughlin, he’s played with the orchestras and bands of the world … you name the groups. He's played with the orchestras He's played with the Symphony Orchestra of India. I don't think he needs to achieve anything more in terms of the performance part. Now, the thing is the challenge, “What can I do different? What can I do to integrate this, to integrate that? What can I do to impress this, to express that?” He was recently commissioned to compose a piece for the Symphony Orhcestra of India, called ‘Peshkar’, which was performed recently with 60 musicians using holy words from from three different faith groups: ameen (Islam), amen (Christianity), and shanti (Hinduism).
SB: Sounds wonderful. Is there anything else that you want to say about the role of music right now in these times, during this this pandemic, and the unknown, that we're looking at in this pause, this moment of potential reflection and introspection in people?
MS: Well, I think everybody knows that [music is] an extremely good accessory. It's good to use music when you're meditating, when you're doing any kind of personal “scaping”, landscaping of your personal spaces. We know these things, but I don't see any of the cure facilities or the containment facilities having anything, or any mention of the word ‘music’ in them. I don't see any of the hospitals. I don't see any of them than having any kind of piped music playing, or music channels where people can choose. Because we know what happens with altered states of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and we know that endorphins, the happy hormones, get released, and what they can do for healing. We know all these things, and yet for some reason, we are not doing these things. And why are we not doing them? I mean, that doesn't cost much if you play music, that doesn't cost much.
I spoke at an HR convention on music and it impressed one organization so much that they asked me to make a music wall for their HR department, [which had] over 10,000 square feet. We got the copyrights and permissions, and now they have a music wall. The efficiency and productivity have gone up, retention has gone up, resignations have gone down. Happiness has gone up. On Saturdays, people [have the option to] come in to work, and if they don't play the music, people say, “Why is this so quiet to hear? Can we have the music back on?” When we know these things, why can’t we build it into our recovery rooms? Why can't we build it into our rehab facilities? Especially when we know that people need this kind of thing. Music goes in in such a such a non-invasive manner. It goes in so easily, so smoothly. You don't even realize it.
SB: I can't help but believe that recovery benefits when our stress level is reduced. Panic and stress are terrible for the immune system.
Maanveer, thank you so, so much for your time. It's really great to talk to you.
Coach and trainer, Maanveer Singh.
“We know that certain ragas influence certain behavior in certain ways – ragas that are good for blood pressure, to calm people down. So why not use all this?.”
Maanveer Singh leads a body rhythm workshop for HR professionals.
Majhe Maher Pandhari
Aahe Bhivarechya Tiri
My mother's home is Pandharpur
Mother's home is very special to her
Baap Aani Aai,
Majhi Vitthal Rakhumai
My father and mother
are my Vitthala Rukhumai
Pundalik Rahe Bandhu
yachi Khyati Kay Sangu
Pundlik is my brother
What to say of his devotion
Majhi Bahin Chandrabhaga
Karitase Papbhanga
My sister is Chandrabhaga (River)
She removes sins of those who bath in her
Eka Janardani Sharan
Kari Maherchi Aathavan
Janardan (Rishi) is the one whose feet I fall to
I remember my mother's home