The Power of Music Thinking – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

The Power of Music Thinking

Christof Zürn

Business

Arts

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/25d. Total Eps: 61

What can the dynamics of music teach us about navigating today’s complex world? The Power of Music Thinking podcast dives deep into this potent analogy. Host Christof Zürn, founder of MusicThinking.com, explores how concepts like listening, tuning, rhythm, and improvisation translate into powerful tools for business, creativity, and leadership. Through engaging interviews with global thought leaders, designers, entrepreneurs, and artists, discover practical ways to improve collaboration, spark innovation, and lead teams more effectively. Learn how to listen differently, find your team’s rhythm, and embrace improvisation in the face of uncertainty. And there are special episodes around a theme or experiment. For anyone fascinated by the intersection of creativity, strategy, and human dynamics – subscribe to The Power of Music Thinking.

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Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇫🇷 France - management
28/07/2025
#91
🇫🇷 France - management
27/07/2025
#73
🇫🇷 France - management
26/07/2025
#65
🇫🇷 France - management
25/07/2025
#51
🇩🇪 Germany - performingArts
15/03/2025
#29
🇩🇪 Germany - performingArts
14/03/2025
#18
🇩🇪 Germany - performingArts
12/01/2025
#96
🇩🇪 Germany - performingArts
23/12/2024
#93
🇫🇷 France - performingArts
13/12/2024
#84
🇫🇷 France - performingArts
12/12/2024
#73

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

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https://link.chtbl.com/fleQe5kL
43 shares
https://musicthinking.com/
31 shares
https://creative-companion.com/
29 shares

https://www.linkedin.com/company/music-thinking/
5 shares
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalbach/
2 shares
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmichaelhendrix/
2 shares

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7RVw3I8eg
2 shares
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wzXZRd087I
2 shares
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTBAxXugXGp8Mw9B--WMDnw/featured
2 shares

RSS feed quality and score

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RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 68%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

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Thinking Music - Music Thinking - special epsiode

Episode 53

Friday, November 29, 2024 • Duration 38:18

Christof Zürn talks about music thinking, the music thinking framework, and JAMMIN’ before SCORE and what this means in the context of co-creation in the business. How does this sound?

It sounds marvellous; we hear a lot of musical experts from the new (digital) album of MRZ - an ambient improvisation trio - and get an explanation of how this relates to the music thinking practise.

Show notes

Thinking Music Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0yITUGcz4pH8qU0FbN4vhc?si=bdb26633538a4495
Download Music Thinking Framework: https://musicthinking.com/download-music-thinking-instruments/
MRZ on Bandcamp: https://mrznl.bandcamp.com/album/improvisations-in-an-ambient-space

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.

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What is orchestration?

Episode 52

Monday, October 21, 2024 • Duration 15:09

What is orchestration? And

What is an orchestrator? What do they do?

Is everybody now a musician or music thinker?

Is it important? And Why should we care?

What challenges around orchestration are there in different fields and can music, music thinking or the grandmaster of orchestration, Rimski-Korsakov, help?

In this short episode, I discuss a pre-research concerning orchestration in different fields. If you are an orchestrator or use orchestration to explain your work, please fill in the form below.

Show notes

Please fill in the Pre-Research Survey about Orchestration: https://forms.office.com/e/MJchG9yEgP
Principles of Orchestration by Rimski-Korsakov on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33900/33900-h/33900-h.htm#rimsky1
Prize-winning orchestrator from Berlin: https://musicthinking.podbean.com/e/everything-about-orchestration-with-robin-hoffmann/

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the only.

Rewind 2023 - The Power of Music Thinking - Podcast

Episode 43

Wednesday, December 20, 2023 • Duration 43:30

Welcome to the Rewind 2023 of The Power of Music Thinking podcast, where I have conversations with extraordinary people from all over the world who are also musicians or use music in the broadest sense of the word to learn, teach, inspire and collaborate meaningfully.

This year, we had 15 episodes, and virtually, we travelled from Nijmegen in the Netherlands, where all podcasts are recorded, to Berlin, Braunschweig, Zürich, London, Oslo, New York, West Virginia, Nashville, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Singapore, Tokyo, Mumbai and New Zealand.

What were the themes? The overarching themes were leadership, co-creation, creativity, and how music can be used as an analogy to explain the world and work more meaningfully together.

We had some unique themes and zoomed into subjects like health, sound healing, city policy, political journalism, sonification of data, sonic branding, storytelling, AI, and photography.

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How Music Can Make Your City Better with Shain Shapiro

Episode 42

Saturday, December 2, 2023 • Duration 26:41

Today, we are in Nashville, and we speak with Shain Shapiro - a globally recognised thought leader at the convergence of music, culture and urban policy.

Shain is the CEO of Sound Diplomacy - a global research and strategy consultancy, and he also leads the non-profit Center for Music Ecosystems, which commissions research to help solve local, national and international challenges using music as a tool.

Shain has authored reports on the role of music in cities, tourism, the nighttime economy, real estate and recovery, including the most extensive guide to music and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in partnership with the United Nations.

We are talking about his brand-new book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, which was published in September 2023.

Note: Unfortunately, there was a very poor Wifi, so please excuse the quality.

Show Notes

Connect with Shain on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shainhouse/
Sound Diplomacy: www.sounddiplomacy.com
Music Cities Events: www.musiccitiesevents.com
His book: This Must Be The Place: https://www.shainshapiro.com/book

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!

The Sound of a Toy Dolphin - Special Episode - The Power of Music Thinking

Episode 41

Sunday, November 5, 2023 • Duration 24:50

Listen to an incredible sonic project by a Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) graduate: Louis Moeckel. Hear the story about the supply chain of the production of a Toy Dolphin and the creation of research into an artistic Vinyl record. If you like Techno and the Berghain Club in Berlin you will like this. See the show notes to pre-order this unique Vinyl record.

Show support to the Podcast

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!

Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards.

The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.

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Standing still with Alexander Refsum Jensenius

Episode 40

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 • Duration 51:34

What is the use of standing still for 10 minutes? I was asking myself when I saw a post on social media. It was a double picture of a man with a mobile phone around his neck displaying some data, and another picture showed the view he saw at that moment. I learned that he stood there for 10 minutes without any movement, listening to the sound that was already there. There were many pictures like this, and I decided to get in contact.

So, today, we are in Oslo. We speak with Alexander Refsum Jensenius, a professor of music technology at the University of Oslo, a book author, a music researcher and researching musician working in the fields of embodied music cognition and new interfaces for musical expression.

Alexander shares with us his experiences while performing and testing with artistic methods of embodied listening and how people experience music and sound. This goes from experiments with and without the conductor of a Symphony Orchestra to the sounds of our kitchen appliances.

We talk about his motion capture lab, where a person’s exact location and micro-movements can be detected while they hear different kinds of music, and how the researchers can understand what moves them.

Alexander shares insights about the Norwegian Championship of Stand Still, where until now, 1000s of people have participated, and the winner is the person with the lowest average velocity on standing the stillest over some time.

Alexander explains the interplay of body and mind and reveals some secrets on how to move people, for example, on the dance floor or to calm them down. It all has to do with our bpm, the average heartbeat of about 60 beats a minute.

Show Notes

Connect with Alexander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexarje/
Follow his still-standing on Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/tags/StillStanding
Standstill database:

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Sonification with Mike von der Nahmer

Episode 39

Monday, September 11, 2023 • Duration 01:16:38

Mike von der Nahmer is a sound researcher, music therapist, scientific collaborator at the German Aerospace Center and composer.

With over 30 stage works and 100+ compositions, he holds international recognition. He has collaborated with GRAMMY, Kenwood, Sony BMG, Rolls Royce and BMW, and his music has been featured in TV series like NOVA.

Mike shares with us some sonification projects in various domains, such as weather patterns, language, the brain, and sound design in autonomous vehicles. For example, he gives us insights into his work at the German Aerospace Center (the German NASA), where he works on the sonification of air traffic control.

Today, you will not only hear us talking but also experience different sound worlds. Because Mike brought some sound files to the conversation, we hear different sound layers from an air traffic game and examples of what he calls 'mood compositions' for Rolls Royce, BMW and Mini that are central in the sound strategy of these car brands.

We end the conversation with a longer piece of about five minutes of sonification of curves that Mike co-created with two outstanding mathematicians in Luxemburg.

So be prepared to hear about pioneering thoughts connecting sound, science, and human experience.

Show Notes

Connect with Mike via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-michael-mike-von-der-nahmer-0780964/
Sonification in Air Traffic Control, German Aerospace Center (DLR): https://www.dlr.de/fl/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1149/1737_read-74107/

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Musical Mind Hacking with Jeena Earthiva

Episode 38

Tuesday, August 22, 2023 • Duration 47:44

Today we are in Mumbai. We talk with Jeena Earthiva. Jeena is a Transformational Coach, a Producer with a master’s in Computer Science, an ex-Bollywood singer, the Founder of Conscious Music Code, and a ‘Mind DJ’.

Jeena conveys her story of a successful Bollywood singer who lost her voice at the top of her singing career and how she found and developed the ‘Conscious Music Code’ that helped her get back on track and start a new career as ‘Mind DJ’.

We talk about the broad field of music between India and the West, and analogies between music and business. And the Koan of her mentor Dr Daisaku Ikeda, which became her life motto: “Transforming the life state of humankind”. And, ta-daa, – this is a first – Jeena is singing live in this episode a Bengali folk song mixed with a Persian poem.

And be also prepared for a 6-minute musical mind hack exercise at the end of the recording that Jeena is performing for us. So, lean back and enjoy; if you are listening in from your car, we suggest you take a break or do the exercise at another moment.

Show Notes

Connect with jeena via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeenaearthiva/
Website: https://jeenaearthiva.com/
All other links and Social Media in one place: https://linktr.ee/jeenaearthiva

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!

Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the .

Sound Strategies and how things go together with Michael Spencer

Episode 37

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 • Duration 01:12:40

Why can elements from music be applied for the benefit of communities or companies?
How do you effectively use music and music thinking as a tool?
What does Beethoven's 9th and Japanese woodwork have in common?

We are in the in-between space, between music and business, education and performance, listening and understanding, and London and Tokyo.

So, today we talk with Michael Spencer. Michael is the founder of Sound Strategies Ltd, TEDx speaker, Visiting Professor at Ueno Gakuen University (Tokyo), and the Communication Director of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

He was Head of education at the Royal Opera House in London and, as a member of the London Symphony Orchestra, worked with Leonard Bernstein, Deep Purple and on the Star Wars soundtracks with composer John Williams.

Michael gives us a deep dive into why music functions and shares the elements and learnings he used, for example, in the townships in South Africa and his work with companies like Unilever, BASF, IHG (Intercontinental Hotels Group), Daikin, and Fujitsu.

So, we talk about making better connections and how musical systems, timing, and structure help us to understand how things go together. And that music comes from the fact that it is some co-created system for creating relationships.

There is a lot to learn today - not only about music, but also about business and society - so let’s get into it.

Show Notes

Sound Business Tokyo: https://www.soundstrategiestokyo.com/
Sound Business London: https://www.sound-strategies.co.uk/about
Japanese woodwork: https://japanobjects.com/features/japanese-joinery
Beethoven 9th Symphony - with 10000 Japanese Choir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wzXZRd087I

Please consider the 3 ways to support the show!

Leading an Orchestra of Leaders with Harvey Seifter - Part 1 - Music Thinking

Episode 36

Tuesday, June 27, 2023 • Duration 36:08

This episode is about art, innovation and leadership.

What is the relationship between art-based learning, innovation and co-creation? How do you lead an ensemble of leaders? And why do people often use the metaphor of a conductor when discussing leadership? Or, is a conductor actually just a middle manager?

So, today we are in New York and talking with Harvey Seifter. Harvey is the founder of The Art of Science Learning, a US National Science Foundation-funded initiative that uses the arts to spark innovation in science, technology, engineering and education. And Harvey is also a classically trained musician and formerly served as Executive Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The only orchestra in the world that rehearses and performs without a conductor.

Harvey shares with us insights on giving directions as a ‘decision maker of last resort’ - as he calls it - stimulating co-creation and what this means for the innovative power of the organisation.

Well, you can say we have learnings here for any organisation.

By the way: we recorded this episode via Zoom when Harvey returned just a few days from his Ted talk in Madrid; before the talk, he lost his voice and finally did the TED talk without repetition.

To spare his voice and energy, we stopped the recording at a certain point and agreed to have a second conversation in the very near future.

So listen to Part One with Harvey Seifter and how you lead an orchestra of leaders.

Show Notes

Connect with Harvey via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hseifter/
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: https://open.spotify.com/artist/35pZsti1RSA5Zv98jAm8kX?si=FIjGn4yeTPKzZvD46PTdVA
Art of Science Learning: https://www.artofsciencelearning.org/

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The Power of Music Thinking – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

The Power of Music Thinking – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

LinkedIn44

Youtube29

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

LinkedIn44

Youtube29