The inspiration for this project really comes from my undying love of music, and my inkling for finding scientific explanations for everything. My volunteering experiences especially inspired how I undertook this project. I’ve been volunteering as a music therapist in places like our local science museum as well as schools in India using my drumming. I’ve noticed that drums are very effective at reducing stress, improving motor skills, and focus-related tasks for children in particular, yet when it comes to professional auditory therapy, drums are neglected in favor of synthesized compositions like binaural beats. As a result, auditory therapy can be difficult for some children especially, to use effectively, as the monotony of some therapy tactics could actually be irritants and end up having adverse effects. Thus, my research project attempts to make auditory therapy more universal and accessible for listeners of all kind, by adding elements of music and rhythm to it. I wanted to find out, however, if there is a scientific basis of adding musical percussion to a binaural beat, in order to make this method of auditory therapy more musical. This would allow me to use the same percussion that I have seen to work as music therapy, and introduce it into binaural beats to make this type of auditory therapy more accessible, appropriate, and enjoyable to listen to for many people, especially those with Autism or ADHD. In order for me to perform this research, Music Technology Professor Daniel Walzer from UMass Lowell graciously offered his help as a mentor. He suggested numerous tweaks and changes that I made to my research plan, including the recording setup, how I transferred the audio to my computer, which kinds of spectrograms and audio analysis tools to use, and even how to record two different drums to achieve optimal recordings. Overall, however, I didn’t use any labs or professional-level equipment to perform this project, and, for the most part, this project was done entirely at home … If I had to summarize this project and my experiences during it in just a few words, it would go something like this. Binaural beats are tools used in music and auditory therapy to improve memory and sharpen focus and motor skills. They involve playing two different tones into each ear so that the brain perceives a third tone with a pulsing effect and creates its own brainwaves. Since percussion is often used in music therapy, but rarely in binaural beats, I want to find if there is a scientific conclusion to be made about adding a percussive backbeat to binaural beats. I recorded and created percussion-based binaural beats using computer software, and I wrote a computer simulation software that takes into account frequency ranges, pitches, and pulsing effects of drumming among other factors to determine how efficient a certain binaural beat is in eliciting brainwaves. I found that whenever certain aspects of a percussion-based backbeat were optimized, they were 4% more efficient than regular binaural beats. I’d like to continue this research by performing brainwave analysis on humans in the future. This research could increase the accessibility of music therapy compared to monotonous binaural beats, as rhythmic compositions involving a binaural beat can increase therapeutic effects and appeal to more listeners in the general public, especially those with Autism or ADHD.

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