396 Hz: Ut, the tone of liberation

What is 396 Hz

396 Hz is a tone that vibrates 396 times a second. In air its wave is 87 centimetres long. On a piano it lies just above G4, the G above middle C: 18 cents higher, where a cent is a hundredth of a semitone.

In the set of solfeggio frequencies it is the third of the nine tones and the first of the six original ones. The six numbers, 396, 417, 528, 639, 741 and 852, were put forward in the 1970s by the American naturopath Joseph Puleo and published in 1999 in the book “Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse” by Leonard Horowitz and Joseph Puleo.

The number follows the pattern of the set. Its digits add up to 9: 3 + 9 + 6 = 18 and 1 + 8 = 9. The same digits in a different order give 639 Hz and 963 Hz. 396 Hz stands 111 above 285 Hz, and then the pattern breaks: the next tone, 417 Hz, is only 21 higher.

396 Hz meaning: Ut, the tone of liberation

The meaning of 396 Hz has two layers: the syllable and the purpose.

The syllable is Ut. It opens the Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, “Ut queant laxis”. In the 11th century the Italian Benedictine monk Guido of Arezzo took the first syllables of the lines of this hymn, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, to teach singers the steps of a scale. Later Ut became Do. So Ut is the first step, the one a scale starts from.

Guido's syllables named steps, not frequencies. The link between Ut and the number 396 was made by Joseph Puleo. The syllable is about a thousand years old, and the frequency in hertz is about fifty.

The purpose is liberation. In sound therapy 396 Hz is the tone for releasing fear and guilt and for letting go of heaviness. The tone that follows it, 417 Hz, is the tone of change.

396 Hz benefits and chakra: what the tone is used for

In sound therapy the benefits of 396 Hz are described as release: of fear, of guilt, of the heaviness a person carries.

Practitioners assign the tone to the root chakra, the first of the seven, which the tradition places at the base of the spine. The seven tones from 396 Hz to 963 Hz are assigned to the seven chakras in order, from the root to the crown, so 396 Hz is where work with the chakras begins.

In practice people use it for three things.

• Fear and worry. A short session with slow breathing when anxious thoughts circle.
• Guilt. A meditation in which you name what weighs on you and let it go on the out-breath.
• Work with the chakras. As the first tone in a sequence that moves from the root to the crown.

396 Hz and science: what research exists

No controlled studies in people have tested 396 Hz on its own. The nearest evidence concerns anxiety, the theme of this tone, and comes from three directions.

• 528 Hz music. In a small Japanese study nine healthy adults listened for five minutes to soothing piano music tuned to 528 Hz. Their tension and anxiety scores fell and cortisol in saliva fell; with the same kind of music tuned to 440 Hz none of these changes was significant.
• Music in general. A review of 104 randomised trials with 9,617 participants found that music interventions reduce stress. The effect on psychological outcomes was medium, the effect on physiological outcomes smaller, and the largest physiological effect was on heart rate.
• Binaural beats. A meta-analysis of 22 studies found a medium overall effect on memory, attention, anxiety and pain perception.

These studies show what quiet music and a beat can do. They are the reason the session for fear and anxiety below combines the tone with an alpha beat and slow breathing.

How to listen to 396 Hz

A pure tone has no melody to follow, so the setting does half of the work.

• Turn the volume of your device down, choose 396 Hz and press Play. Raise the volume until the tone is barely audible.
• Sit upright with your feet on the floor, or lie down. Close your eyes.
• Breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of six.
• Do not hold on to the tone. Let it stay in the background while you breathe.
• Begin with the 5-minute timer. When that feels comfortable, move to 15 minutes.

If the tone feels sharp, switch on the brown noise background. Headphones are not needed for a pure tone; it sounds the same through a speaker.

396 Hz for fear and anxiety: a session

Releasing fear is what the tradition uses this tone for, so this is its main session. It takes 15 minutes.

During the first minutes keep the count: in for four, out for six. Then let the breath find its own pace. When a worrying thought comes, notice it and come back to the sound.

For sleep change two settings: take the delta beat of 2 Hz, which gives 396 Hz and 398 Hz, and the 30-minute timer.

Anxiety that does not pass or that gets in the way of daily life is a reason to talk to a doctor. The page about binaural beats for anxiety describes the studies on beats.

396 Hz with binaural beats

A binaural beat is made of two tones, one for each ear. In the generator the left ear hears 396 Hz and the right ear 396 Hz plus the beat. With theta the pair is 396 Hz and 402 Hz, and the brain hears a slow pulse of 6 Hz.

Both tones must be below 1000 Hz and differ by roughly 1 to 30 Hz, which every pair in the table does. Headphones are required, and a beat is not for listening while driving. If you have epilepsy, talk to your doctor first.

396 Hz music or 396 Hz pure tone

396 Hz is one of the two solfeggio tones with a real place in music. In the natural, just-intonation scale of C major built on C4 = 264 Hz, the scale in which A is exactly 440 Hz, the note G4 is 396 Hz. A modern piano uses equal temperament, where G4 is 392 Hz. That is the difference of 18 cents.

The other such tone is 528 Hz, the C5 of the same scale. The two stand in the ratio 3 to 4, a perfect fourth, which is why 396 Hz and 528 Hz sound good together.

396 Hz music is music tuned so that one of its notes falls on 396 Hz. It is easier to listen to for a long time than a pure tone, which tires the ear sooner at the same volume. The pure tone is exact and plain, and it suits short sessions, meditation on sound and work with a tuning fork.

You can hear the fourth yourself: play 396 Hz, then move the slider of the generator to 528 Hz.

396 Hz tuning fork: how to use it

A tuning fork gives the pure tone without a device. Solfeggio forks are sold singly and in sets of nine.

• Strike the fork on a rubber activator or on the knee, never on a hard surface: metal on metal damages the fork and adds overtones.
• Hold an unweighted fork a few centimetres from the ear and listen until the sound fades, 20 to 40 seconds.
• Place the stem of a weighted fork, the kind with discs on the prongs, on the sacrum or on the hip bone. This is the area of the root chakra, which the tradition links with this tone.
• Repeat three to five times and breathe slowly between the strikes.

For a longer session use the generator. It holds the tone as long as you like and lets you add a beat or a background.

Is 396 Hz safe: side effects and risks

No study has described a harm specific to 396 Hz or to any other solfeggio frequency. Hearing is harmed by loudness and duration, not by a particular frequency. The World Health Organization considers sound of up to 80 dB safe for 40 hours a week.

A pure tone is more tiring than music at the same volume. Headache, irritation or ringing in the ears are signs to lower the volume or stop. If you have tinnitus or are sensitive to sound, start with the lower tones, 174 Hz or 285 Hz, at a very low volume, and come to 396 Hz later.

If a session leaves you more tense than before, shorten it or stop. The tone is a way to rest, not a treatment for anxiety.

396 Hz compared with 285 Hz and 417 Hz

396 Hz has an unusual place in the set. The tone below it, 285 Hz, is 111 away and was added later. The tone above it, 417 Hz, is only 21 away and is the next of the six original tones.

396 Hz and 417 Hz are less than a semitone apart, so they sound close to each other. In the tradition their themes follow one another: letting go, then change. Each tone has its own page, and the page about solfeggio frequencies shows all nine in one chart.