Effect of Indian Raga Music on Conditions of Heart - A New Scientific Approach

Phenomenology or statistical survey to study the effect of music on humans gives us only human feedback, which comes from their intuition and feelings. Different conclusions derived from such surveys are prone to questions on accuracy. Here we tried to study the effect of Indian Raga Music [IRM] on the Autonomic Nervous System by studying ECG data in general and HRV data in particular. For this purpose, we chose sitar recitals of some ragas. We chose a raga with mostly the major tones [tivra svaras], and the other had mostly minor tones [komal svaras]. We also compared the effects between the slow renditions [alap, slow jod] and the music's faster renditions [drut gat]. We observed the effect on two types of subjects. One group had a general understanding of IRM, and the other had no or negligible understanding of the music genre. We collected HRV data from the subjects in normal conditions. Then they were allowed to listen to the music samples, each sample for ten minutes. The HRV data were collected.

All the acquired signals were put to scientific study for their long-term dynamics. The investigations were made to find out the changes, if any, in the heart conditions of the subjects when they were listening to the music of different parameters in terms of notes and speeds of execution. Finally, the results were compared to identify any significant changes in stress conditions found in Yoga practitioners.