Georg Friedrich Handel, composer

"Milord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wished to make them better."

Georg Friedrich Handel, composer

Lord Yehudi Menuhin world famous violinist and yoga

Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was an extremely influential figure in British society. He made this island his home for a significant portion of his life, partially due to the influence of his British-born wife, the ballerina Diane Gould (1912-2003). Menuhin was given an honorary knighthood in 1965; citizenship in 1985, and a Lordship in 1993. These honours were not only for his outstanding musical ability, but also for his philanthropic and humanitarian interests.

Menuhin's Stradivarius

A child protégée, the New York-born violinist had an intuitive genius in expression on his instrument. But in middle age, strains and tensions in his body began to interrupt the consistency of his playing and he struggled to bring his intuitive understanding into consciousness. Menuhin searched to discover how to bring release to his bodily tension.

In 1951, as Menuhin describes it, a “life changing encounter” took place in the waiting room of an osteopath during a concert tour in New Zealand. Trying to fill the time while his sister Hephzibah had a treatment, Menuhin found a small book on Hatha Yoga. He writes:

I had stumbled across a key to unlock old enigmas, to make me aware of my capacity, encourage the physical ease missing from my upbringing, point the way to further comprehension of violin playing, and perhaps – if I persevered – stand me on my head in long-delayed fulfilment of childhood ambition.

Although he had never heard of yoga before this book, he gleaned enough from borrowing the book for the duration of his week-long tour of New Zealand to develop the rudiments of a regular asana practice.

Shortly after independence, Indian Prime Minister Jaraharlal Nehru gave an open invitation to world's best musicians to tour the newly independent country. In response, Yehudi Menuhin arranged tour India for two months, turning any profit from his concerts over to the Famine Fund for Madras. In 1952, the Menuhins stayed as personal guests of Prime Minster Nehru who shared Yehudi Menuhin’s interest in yoga. Famously, Nehru made a friendly challenge to Menuhin about his practice and the two were found in headstand as the butler came in to announce dinner. When this story reached the press, “gurus began to queue up wherever [Menuhin] went, each recommended by some prominent patron.” One of these prominent patrons fetched Iyengar from his home in Poona to visit Menuhin in Bombay.

After warning Iyengar that he only had five minutes in his busy schedule, Iyengar guided Menuhin into a deep relaxation and awoke not five minutes, but an hour later. At the time Menuhin was suffering from insomnia and this was perhaps the best gift possible. Upon awaking, Menuhin asked Iyengar to demonstrate his art and then enthusiastically requested Iyengar to teach him. During that tour of India he met Ravi Shankar, sitar virtuoso, and eventually persuaded him to perform in the west. Ravi's popularity had significant consequences for both music and vegetarianism in the following decades.

In 1954, Iyengar spent more than six weeks in Gstaad, Switzerland where Menuhin was performing as Menuhin's personal yoga instructor; this year also included a brief visit to London. This began fifteen years of regular interaction between Iyengar and Menuhin (see photo on the right), Iyengar travelling to Europe to teach Menuhin most summers between 1961-1984 as well as teaching Menuhin whenever he toured India. During the 1980s Menuhin made jazz recordings with Stephane Grappelli and of Eastern music with the great sitarist Ravi Shankar (see picture of Shankar).

Menuhin's interests outside music were broad. He was known as an environmentalist and practitioner of yoga. He was introduced to yoga in the 1950s and studied with B.K.S. Iyengar, a noted guru. Menuhin's daily regimen included 15 to 20 minutes of standing on his head. He also used yoga to relax before concerts. Menuhin advocated a vegetarian diet and warned of the dangers of eating white rice, white bread, and refined sugar.

Renowned, American born violinist and conductor, Yehudi Menuhin was a vegetarian and committed supporter of many social and environmental causes, with a great interest in Yoga and eastern religion. He was an anti-pollution activist and vegetarian advocate.

The following extract is by James Henry Cook, quoted by his daughter Kathleen Keleny in her book: The First Century of Health Foods

"Kathleen had music lessons from the age of 8 to 15 and then from 18 (when she typed for a composer in exchange for piano and singing lessons). As we lived near Birmingham she was able to attend most of the big Symphony concerts conducted by Adrian Boult in Birmingham Town Hall. She had free entrance because she was a programme seller. She heard Paderewski, Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin, a Vegetarian who said that his violin teacher was his Yoga teacher because he taught him how to relax. Much later when Kathleen was President of the Bath Vegetarian Society in her fifties, Yehudi Menuhin played at one of the Bath Festival events. He agreed to meet three Committee members after the concert and told Kathleen how very important his Vegetarian diet was to him and the work he did."

Yehudi Menuhin's BBC documentary (55mins)

From an article in the New York Times, 1982:

"When the violinist Yehudi Menuhin comes to New York the first thing he does is call his favorite natural-food store and place an order: porridge, yogurt, goat's milk, sprouted wheat bread, ice cream, butter, fruits, vegetables, tofu sandwiches and kefir. In each American city where he performs, Mr. Menuhin has a favourite place to shop, making his life as a traveling vegetarian more comfortable.
. . . Mr. Menuhin describes himself as ''self-indulgent'' about certain foods. He can eat an entire honeycomb at four breakfasts. ''I collect honey the way some people collect stamps,'' Mr. Menuhin said. He said he is particularly fond of Indian food because it is ''so stimulating and so delicious, the vegetables with all the spices and the dairy products, the flat bread, rice and the masses of fruit.'' He loves pasta, especially with pesto and white truffles. Mr. Menuhin also enjoys fine wine."

Meditating Just 15 Minutes a Day Could Change Your Life

One of the stories I like best of all tells how the novice monk asks a revered and ancient lama: 'What's it like to be an enlightened being?' To which the lama replied after a moment, 'I walk and eat and I sleep.'The young novice was startled by the simplicity of his answer. 'But I also walk and eat and sleep,' he said. 'Yes,' smiled the lama, 'When I walk I walk. When I eat, I eat. And when I sleep, I sleep.'

Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the conditioned, "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. Quality of life is significantly improved by two or three sessions each lasting twenty minutes, while to make an impact on quantity of life requires three daily hour-long sessions.

There are many different meditation methods.

At the core of meditation is the goal to focus and eventually quiet your mind. As you progress, you will find that you can meditate anywhere and at any time, accessing an inner calm no matter what's going on around you. But first, you have to learn to tame your mind.

Any position in which you're relaxed but your back is straight is permissible, even lying down - but be careful that you're not so relaxed that you fall asleep. In warm weather, consider watching the clouds.

Breath counting – easiest for beginners

Lye down on the floor, palm up position of hands.

Focus on your breathing. Establish a thought why you meditate – I am getting healthier every day/ I am getting closer to becoming President’s Team every day - whatever you want to achieve. If you can visualize yourself in that position – what you want to look like, feel when you are healthy and happy, see yourself being pinned on stage as Pres Team etc, it is even more powerful. Visualization is big part of advanced meditation.

Once you are settled, count each breath you take. Inhale is one, exhale is 2, next inhale is 3, next exhale is 4, etc. Observe your thoughts because they will wonder. They will get away from counting and you may even loose count and start thinking about your problems or your day. If this happens and you become aware of it, no problem, just get back to 1 and start counting again.

Try to get up to 100 if you can. Many people can’t get over 10 or 20 for quite awhile because their thoughts take over. The goal of meditation is to clear the mind and not allow your thoughts wonder and take over your mind.

There will be good days and bad days. Sometime you can meditate for 20 min and stay focused, other days you hardly can count to 20. No problem, keep doing it. The more you do the better it gets and more focused you become. The benefits in every way will be your great reward. It is worth the time and effort.

One Pointed Concentration

However you learn to meditate you must learn to concentrate on one thing at a time. Usually, the mind tries to hold several different thoughts and ideas at once. When you sit down to meditate for the first time, you realize how cluttered the mind is. Mediation teachers have described the mind as a “mad monkey”. However, the mind can be tamed and forced to concentrate on a single thought.

One helpful technique is concentrating on a candle flame. Narrow your gaze to the small tip and block out all other thoughts. When you get distracted, go back to focusing on the candle flame. You can also use other objects like a small dot or flower. The important thing is that you concentrate only on one thing at a time.

Mantra

Another way to learn concentration is through the use of mantra. A mantra is the repetition of a sacred word of a significant thought/sentence. For example, you might repeat a mantra (e.g.: I am becoming healthier, wealthier and happier every day) a certain number of times. Repeating a mantra forces the mind to focus on a single thought. If you can connect with a visual picture of your mantra it is even more powerful.

Silent Mind – this is total bliss when you can achieve it!

After you’ve practiced concentration and learned to focus on one thing at a time, you can proceed to the next stage: no thought at all. Achieving a silent mind is difficult, but when to attain it the experience is powerful. A technique I advise is viewing your thoughts as separate from your self. When a thought appears, make a conscious decision to throw it out of your mind. Over time you realize that you are capable of allowing or rejecting thoughts. Your real “I” is not a collection of thoughts, but something far deeper. This is the most significant realization of meditation - that you do not have to be a slave to your thoughts.

Through meditation, you attain the power to control your thoughts, and on occasion stop them completely. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t attain a silent mind straightaway. It takes time and practice. There is nothing really else to it; meditation is a simple and spontaneous action. Unfortunately, our mind is used to complication and it takes time to unlearn bad habits.

However generally speaking a good meditation is about feeling better, raising your consciousness. We do not rely on others and outer things for happiness we get an inner joy that comes spontaneously. If you have a good meditation you will have a positive view of life. You will feel better about yourself and also others. Meditating well involves bypassing the critical mind, instead we try to bring the qualities of the heart to the fore. The heart by nature does not judge but identifies with others. We will have a feeling of sympathetic understanding with others. In our very highest meditation we get an unmistakable feeling that the heart of the world is good.

Meditation could appear to be a selfish activity because it is only we who benefit. However when we have a good meditation instinctively we feel it is an experience we share with others. Meditation connects us to the universal self we lose our limited ego perspective and a wider sense of identity. This oneness and wider sense of identity gives us a glimpse in to the nature of real divine love.

Meditation gives us a sense of peace. People sometimes associate peace with silence and a passive quality. Real inner peace certainly embodies silence, at least silence from the mind. But peace also embodies a dynamic quality; peace has its own energy. Again the peace we feel is something that we feel we need to share with others. Meditation gives us a sense of real gratitude. Gratitude helps you identify and feel your oneness with your own highest reality.

Even if we don’t experience anything particularly striking in meditation we should not be disillusioned. If we are drawn to meditation every day this shows that we are getting something valuable. Our soul is been drawn to meditate every day and this is like being fed inwardly. This is a good sign each day we are able to make progress even if the signs of progress may not be highly visible.

The benefits of meditation

Quality of life

Meditation helps manage pain, deal with unpleasant treatment side effects, reduce tension and blood pressure measurements, boost our immune function, and support the production of hormones such as endorphins and DHEA which has a vital role to play in helping us feel robust and live longer.

Quantity of life

Meditation extends our lifespan and improves our chances of full recovery. Ian Galwer, founder of Gawler Foundation in Melbourne, Australia on the work of his foundation among cancer patients: 'I have seen many people now recover from very difficult medical situations. It is possible to recover from cancer. It is possible.'

Emotional benefits

Meditation helps us lift the lid off the pressure cooker. The way others respond to us is a very strong reflection of the way we ourselves communicate. When we meditate, we become better at managing stress and living in the moment, making easier to express what we are going through, and be more open to the support and friendship of others.

The benefit of meaning

Victor Frankl, one of the most important psychiatrists of the 20th Century and an Auschwitz survivor, saw first-hand that even in the most painful and dehumanized situations people could discover meaning, and that those with the strongest sense of purpose and meaning were most likely to survive. Meditation is a holistic experience. We will enjoy extraordinary physical benefits that flow from enabling our body to heal itself. But we will also experience ourselves in a way that's extraordinary. We may uncover a sense of meaning in our lives which we didn't self-consciously set out to find.

A fabulous and easy reading on meditation is the book Hurry up and Meditate- Your starter kit for inner peace and better health by David Michie

Are you feeding your cells to degenerate or regenerate?

Cellular Nutrition www.herbabodyshop.com

We have no choice but to live in our present environment. Our bodies are affronted daily by excessive production of free radicals caused by our polluted environment, stressful lifestyles, and over-medicated society. Though we can certainly reduce the amount of free radicals our bodies produce by: not smoking, decreasing stress levels, and avoiding toxic chemicals, most of our bodies are still unable to fight the overwhelming daily attack on the natural defense system. Remember balance is the key--we need enough antioxidants available to neutralize the free radicals produced.

Over the past 50 years, nutritional medicine and supplementation has focused on replenishing a nutritional deficiency. Countless hours and dollars have been spent trying to determine exactly which nutrients our bodies are depleted of. Blood tests, urine tests, hair samples, muscle testing, and more have been conducted in an attempt to determine which nutrients we need to supplement. However, we have been aiming at the wrong target. The present problem is not a nutritional deficiency, but rather, underlying oxidative stress. Oxidative stress has now been shown beyond any shadow of doubt via medical research to be the root cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases. Diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s dementia, macular degeneration, lupus, MS, and the list goes on and on.

Because oxidative stress is our concern rather than specific nutritional deficiencies, we must determine what is the best approach to preventing or controlling oxidative stress. This is accomplished by bolstering one’s natural defenses through cellular nutrition.

Cellular nutrition is simply providing ALL nutrients to the cell at optimal levels. This allows the cell to determine what it actually does and does not need. I don’t have to worry about determining which nutrients the cell is deficient in. I simply provide all of the important nutrients at optimal levels—those levels shown to provide a health benefit in the medical literature. Any nutritional deficiencies will be automatically corrected over the next few months by this approach and all the other vital nutrients will be brought up to their optimal levels as well.

Cellular nutrition is providing the body with all the antioxidants along with the supporting B vitamins and antioxidant minerals at optimal levels. This is "preventive medicine" at its best because we can literally attack the disease process at its core by preventing oxidative stress from occurring.

You may be wondering if we can control oxidative stress by simply improving our diet and eating more fruits and vegetables. This is definitely a good start. By simply eating 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day you can decrease the risk of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s dementia, and cancer, two to three fold. We certainly want to supplement a good diet—not a bad diet. However, even if you eat a great diet you can barely obtain the RDA level of all essential nutrients. Medical studies have shown that less than 1% of the American population accomplishes this on a consistent basis.

Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):

Research studies reveal standards of recommended daily allowance (RDA’s) have absolutely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases. RDA’s were developed to avoid what are known as acute deficiency diseases like scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C), rickets (deficiency of vitamin D), and pellagra (deficiency of niacin). In other words, if you consumed the RDAs for vitamin C, vitamin D, and niacin, you would not develop any of these illnesses.

Admittedly, the RDA’s have done their job—how many people do you know suffer from these diseases? RDA’s first developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The list of nutrients included in the RDAs grew over the next two decades and in the early 1950s, the definition of RDAs expanded to include the amounts of nutrients needed for normal growth and development. Despite the fact that RDAs have proved useful, most physicians and laypeople tend to assign more meaning to RDA standards than they should.

After researching medical literature on the topic of oxidative stress and the amount of nutrients needed to prevent it, I found the optimal levels of nutrients known to provide health benefits are significantly greater those suggested by RDA levels. For example, the optimal level of vitamin E is 400 IU. The RDA is only 30 IU. That being the case, you may consider eating 400 IU of vitamin E. You would only need to eat 33 heads of spinach, or 27 pounds of butter; 80 avocados will do, or an alternative 5 pounds of wheat germ each and every day to obtain that level of vitamin E.

Similarly, the optimal level of vitamin C is approximately 1200 to 2000 mg daily, while the RDA is only 60 mg. To eat the optimal levels of vitamin would need to consume 18 oranges, or 17 kiwifruit, or 160 apples. Put in this perspective, it becomes clear that the only way to obtain these levels of nutrients is to supplement our diet. And this requires more than a generic multiple vitamin. One-a-day multiple vitamins are primarily based on RDA levels, thus providing no measurable health benefits. Significantly more potent supplements are needed each day to provide the optimal levels to provide cellular nutrition.

By Ray D Strand M.D.

What colour is your music?

Are you one of those few people who see music in colors?

When I was a kid, I started piano at four and sang in choirs from eight. I loved singing and playing. There is a huge thrill to be part of a team, a choir, to be part of the vibration of sound, create perfect harmony and to perform. In the choir I always knew when we went sharp or flat. It was just an instinct. I thought everyone knew it. It is hard to describe. I felt or saw music in my head and if it went sharp I felt like the picture went lighter in colur and if we went flat it changed its shade to grey or dark. The more I sang and played, the more I could recognize each note of the piano and started to see colors. Any song I learnt, I was able to recall any time and always starting it on the right pitch. I remember rare incidents when during the concert something went wrong in the choir and we fell apart in a challenging piece. I just waited for the suitable place where the music had some structural cut or a new entry. I made sure that I came in first on the right pitch, leading the choir back where we all felt familiar, saving the performance. If all went well, nobody in the audience noticed it but everyone knew it in the choir and excitedly talked about it as we left the stage. It was a huge risk to take but there was no other solution. It was just a natural instinct. It was not planned, it just happened. Funnily, our conductor knew that someone will save the performance. He just did not know when and how! The same happened to me a few times as a conductor. It is a less ideal situation because when singing comes from the conductor, it is more noticeable, especially if not a choir but an orchestra is falling apart!!! These are behind the scene secrets but everyone remembers them for the rest of their lives. I believe, in medical or scientific terms, I have no absolute pitch nor synaesthesia. I just had good skills and I am a result of a long term, fantastic training and decades of disciplined work.

Seeing Music

What colour and shape is your favourite song? For some people with synaesthesia, it's a pretty straightforward question. Due to connections between different perceptual areas of their brain - like the part of the brain that perceives colour being linked with the area that detects a tone - synaesthetes tend to have two or more of their senses that are connected. With one type of synaesthesia, those affected will see colours and shapes when they listen to music, and may associate a specific colour with each letter and day of the week. Synesthesia runs strongly in families, but the precise mode of inheritance has yet to be ascertained. As many as 1 percent of people have the most recognizable form of synesthesia, studies say. Acclaimed Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov, who wrote "Lolita," famously had the disorder, as did physicist Richard Feynman and Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt.

Is D Yellow for you?

"You can't get a more yellow key than D, he (Aaaron McMillan) told me as he played the familiar notes of Rachmaninov's Prelude in D. Most ears could not 'hear' any yellow, but for Aaron, every piece of music conjured a distinct band of the color spectrum."

"Aaron McMillan pianist was certain that he did not have the neurological condition synesthesia, which blurs the senses, causing people to taste names or smell colors or see sounds; he simply associated each musical key and its mood with a color. C major was pure white and the other keys fanned out in a rainbow from red A up to violet G. If he were asked to compose while sitting in a green field, for example he knew he would have to write in grassy E flat or the more stridently green E. This was his personal interpretation but he was satisfied to learn that the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin had also linked each key with a color. Aaron was uncomprehending when another composer told him he pictured G as the green key. G could only be violet. "Life In His Hands The true story of a Neurosurgeon and a Pianist by Susan Wyndham

How 8 glasses a day keeps the fat away

HOW 8 GLASSES A DAY KEEPS THE FAT AWAY

Incredible as it may seem, water is quite possibly the single most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off. Although most of us take it for granted, water may be the only true “magical potion” for permanent weight loss.

Water suppresses the appetite and helps the body metabolise stored fat. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase while an increase in water intake can actually cause fat deposits to reduce.

GOT TO FILL THOSE KIDNEYS

Here’s why. The kidneys cannot function properly without enough water. When they do not work to capacity, some of the load is dumped into the liver. One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolise stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work, it cannot work at full throttle. As a result, it metabolises less fat; more fat remains stored in the body and weight loss stops.

SHED WATER WITH WATER

Drinking more water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is stored in extra cellular spaces (outside the cells). This shows up as swollen feet, hands, and legs. Diuretics offer a temporary solution at best. They force out stored water along with some essential nutrients. Thus, the condition quickly returns. The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs-plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released.

If you have a water retention problem, excess salt may be the blame. Your body will tolerate sodium only in certain concentrations. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it. To rid the body of unneeded salt-just drink more water. As it is forced through the kidneys it takes away the excess sodium. The overweight person needs more water that the thin one as larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water.

Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration it also helps prevent the sagging skin that usually follows weight loss. Shrinking cells are buoyed by water that pumps the skin and leaves it clear, healthy and resilient.

Water helps rid the body of wastes. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to get rid of – all that metabolised fat must be shed. Again, adequate water helps flush out the waste.

WATER RELIEVES CONSTIPATION

Water can help relieve constipation. When the body gets little water, it siphons what it needs from internal sources. The colon is one primary source. Result!! Constipation. But when a person drinks enough water, normal bowel function returns.

So far we have discovered some remarkable truths about water and about weight loss.

· The body will not function properly without enough water and cannot metabolise stored fat efficiently.

· Retained water shows up as excess weight.

· To get rid of excess water you must drink more water.

· Drinking more water is essential to weight loss

HOW MUCH WATER IS ENOUGH

On the average a person should drink 8 glasses every day. However, an overweight person needs one additional glass for every 12kgs (25lbs) of excess weight. The amount that you drink should be increased if you exercise or if the weather is hot. Water should preferably be cold - it is absorbed more quickly into the system than warm water. Some evidence suggests that drinking cold water can actually burn calories. To utilise water most efficiently try and drink a full glass of water every hour.

When the body gets the water it needs to function optimally, its fluids are perfectly balanced. When this happens you have reached the breakthrough point. What does this mean??? The endocrine gland function improves. Fluid retention is alleviated, as stored water is lost. More fat is used as fuel because the liver is free to metabolise stored fat. Natural thirst returns. There is a loss of hunger almost overnight. If you stop drinking enough water your body fluids will be thrown out of balance again and you may experience fluid retention, unexplained weight gain and loss of thirst. To remedy this situation you have to go back and force another breakthrough.

Taken from the Snowbird Diet by Donald S. Robertson, MD MSc and Carol Robertson

The Fibonacci Sequence in Music - is music mathematical?

The Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 . . .) occurs throughout the worlds of nature, art, music, and mathematics!

Each term in the series is produced by adding together the two previous terms, so that 1 + 1=2, 1 + 2=3, 2 + 3=5, and so on. The sequence takes its name from a famous thirteenth-century European mathematician, Leonard of Pisa (?1170-1250), also called Fibonacci. Fibonacci was one of the first Europeans to use Arabic numbers, whose use he explained in his 1202 Liber abaci.

Arthur Benjamin: The magic of Fibonacci numbers Ted Talks

The basic structures of certain instruments display the use of Fibonacci numbers and the Golden section. The most widely used instrument in music, the piano, displays the use of Fibonacci numbers. For instance, there are 13 notes that separate each octave of 8 notes in a scale. The foundation of a scale is based around the 3rd and the 5th tones. Both pitches are whole tones, which are 2 steps from the 1st note of the scale, also called the root.

The keys of a piano also portray the Fibonacci numbers. Within the scale consisting of 13 keys, 8 of them are white, 5 are black, which are split into groups of 3 and 2. Look familiar? Well, it should, it's Fibonacci! The keys of a piano also portray the Fibonacci numbers. Within the scale consisting of 13 keys, 8 of them are white, 5 are black, which are split into groups of 3 and 2. Look familiar? Well, it should, it's Fibonacci!

Not only the piano, but also the violin is constructed through the use to the golden section. 

The proportions of the violin conform to the ratios of the golden section or the Fibonacci sequence.

The Fibonacci sequence can also display the preference of the human ear to music. The following is some Fibonacci music. It consists of the first eight Fibonacci numbers. For each new number that is performed, the note length is decreased rotationally by 1/2 or 1/3. After four steps of the sequence are completed the tune starts over at the root, one octave up, while the other one continues, so there is an overlapping effect.

Fibonacci numbers occur many times in the natural world. Plants tend to have a number of leaves that is a Fibonacci number, and flowers have a Fibonacci number of petals. Seeds in a flower head are often arranged in spiral patterns that are related to Fibonacci numbers (for example, the number of spirals that curve to the left and the number of spirals that curve to the right will be adjacent numbers in the Fibonacci sequence). Spiral shells also exhibit patterns related to the Fibonacci sequence.

Fibonacci numbers are also important in art and music. The ratio between successive Fibonacci numbers approximates an important constant called "the golden mean" or sometimes phi,which is approximately 1.61803. The higher you go in the Fibonacci sequence, the more closely the ratio between two successive numbers in the sequence approximates phi. (By the way phi2=phi + 1!)

A rectangle whose sides are in the proportion 1 : 1.61803 is supposed to be the most aesthetically perfect rectangle (the "golden rectangle"). The Parthenon in Athens has such a rectangle as its face, and phi is said to have figured in the construction of the Great Pyramids. The "golden section," in which a line is divided into segments of lengths in the ratio 1 : .61803 is supposed to be an aesthetically ideal way to divide a line.

Numerous artists have used the golden section in their works, as well as composers, including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy, Satie and the Hungarian Bela Bartok.

Fibonacci Fingers?

Look at your own hand:
You have ...
2 hands each of which has ...
5 fingers, each of which has ...
3 parts separated by ...
2 knuckles

Is this just a coincidence or not?

Golden Ratio in Human Body video

However, if you measure the lengths of the bones in your finger (best seen by slightly bending the finger) does it look as if the ratio of the longest bone in a finger to the middle bone is Phi?

What about the ratio of the middle bone to the shortest bone (at the end of the finger) - Phi again?

Can you find any ratios in the lengths of the fingers that looks like Phi? ---or does it look as if it could be any other similar ratio also?

Why not measure your friends' hands and gather some statistics?

For some amazing pictures of examples of the Fibonacci series in nature please watch this video:

1.618 Phi, The Golden Ratio, God Creator of Heaven and Earth