Sound
The Solfeggio set is nine steady, single-frequency tones. Ascendia ships all nine — playable on their own or held underneath a sit — and labels each one with the association its tradition gives it. That is the whole of what we will tell you about a tone. What it is like to sit with is yours to find out.
The tones themselves play in the iOS and Android apps. This page is where you read what each one is.
What a tone is, and is not
These are real tones offered for relaxation and focus. The traditional Solfeggio associations are a contemplative framework, not a medical claim — sound does not diagnose, treat, or cure. Use what feels supportive, and rest.
The nine
The waveform next to each tone is drawn from its own frequency, so the nine line up in order down the page — long and slow at the bottom of the range, tight and quick at the top. It shows where a tone sits in the set, not its true wavelength, and it is a picture of a number and nothing more.
174Hz
Ascend
285Hz
Ascend
396Hz
Seeker
417Hz
Ascend
528Hz
Seeker
639Hz
Ascend
741Hz
Ascend
852Hz
Ascend
963Hz
Seeker
Read the second column as something you bring, not something you receive. The invitation is a line to hold in mind while you sit — the same way a mantra or an affirmation is held. The tone is a tone. It does not know what you brought to it.
In practice
Frequencies live in the mobile app, where the audio keeps running with the screen off. The web is where you read about them.
Start the practice timer, choose a tone, and let it hold the floor while you sit. The bells that mark the stages sound over the top of it, so you do not lose the shape of the sit to the sound.
Open the tone by itself with your eyes closed and nothing else running. It keeps playing when the screen goes dark, so the phone can go face down on the table.
Pick a length, or leave it running and stop it when you are done. There is nothing to finish: stopping after two minutes does not shorten a streak or mark anything incomplete.
Lengths you can set
The last one runs until you stop it.
Open on Seeker
396 Hz, 528 Hz, 963 Hz are free and stay free — one from the low end, one from the middle, one from the top, so the free plan is a real span of the range rather than a sample. The other six open with Ascend.
Where these numbers come from
The six tones from 396 Hz to 852 Hz were put forward in the twentieth century, read out of the syllables of a Latin hymn to John the Baptist. The other three — 174, 285 and 963 — were added to the set later still. There is no surviving record of anyone in the medieval church tuning to these numbers, and no scientific literature that establishes an effect for any of them.
We include them anyway, because the devotional tradition around them is real and people have sat with these tones for decades. But we would rather tell you the history is contested than let you assume it is settled. That is the same standard the 41 Teachings are held to: where something belongs to devotional tradition rather than documented history, the page says so plainly.
What you will not find here
No health claims
Nothing on this site says a tone treats, cures, heals or reduces anything. Not in small print, not in a testimonial, not anywhere.
No borrowed science
No cell studies, no brainwave charts, no frequency-of-the-universe arithmetic offered as evidence.
No prescriptions
We will not tell you which tone to play for a given day, mood or condition. Play the one you want to play.
No hidden history
The provenance is on this page, above the fold of the section, in the same size type as everything else.
The tones play in the iOS and Android apps. Three of the nine are open on Seeker, which is free; the full set opens with Ascend, and there is a fifteen-day trial before you pay for anything.
Ascendia is a contemplative and educational practice, not a medical or mental-health service.