Can you be healed by a sound frequency? From sound baths to TikTok, a debate (gently) rages
LOS ANGELES — In 2015 the Grammy-nominated music producer, songwriter and rapper Maejor, 33, was living every artist’s dream.
The musician, born Brandon Green in Detroit, had started making beats as a teenager. By his mid-20s, he’d appeared on or produced tracks by Drake, Iggy Azalea and Justin Bieber and broke the top 20 in 2013 as Maejor Ali with his single “Lolly.”
The following year, he started experiencing what he calls “excruciating pain” in his arms and legs at night. As it got worse, a doctor gave him a blood test and sent him to an oncologist, who told Maejor that he had leukemia.
Battling fear, grief and depression while undergoing chemotherapy, he self-medicated with drugs, sought professional therapists and went on an ayahuasca retreat at the foot of Mount Shasta. None proved effective in fighting his feeling of hopelessness.
Then Maejor “started getting introduced to different spiritual communities,” he says via video call. “I started hearing about how people used sound.”
After profound experiences during yoga and meditation sessions, he began researching the mechanics of music and the underlying theories connecting the frequencies of specific notes and wellness. He was intrigued. Burrowing down an internet rabbit hole, Maejor was struck by a debate that had seeped onto YouTube.
Referring to the musical note of A, Maejor explains that for the past 80-odd years, “the standard tuning of music has been A equals 440 hertz.” Such a crucial determination, he says, “is just not questioned, not even really deviated from.”
His belief? Tuning A to
