A Sema Ceremony symbolizes stages on the passage to God with rules along the way that “ultimately leads to a mystical ascent to God’s Side”. This is a Mevlevi tradition filled with its music and the culture, it is the Mevlevi worship ceremony. They use usul rhythmic patterns in the music that can aid memory and provide a sonic map of rhythmic progress during the cycle. The music is meant to engage the listener and guide them on their path as they are following along, this music helps them connect with God on a spiritual level. 

Amazing Grace is a Christian hymn and Is the “ultimate musical testament to the Christian doctrine of salvation”. This is Christian usually sung at a mass or a funeral for a catholic event. It is sung usually after something has passed and is a sign of overcoming a struggle or hard time. Like most catholic worship music it has a simple melody and one voice singing the lyrics, the lyrics are usually the most effective part of this song that the listeners resonate with. Both the Mevlevi songs and Amazing grace are played for religious purposes and on a path with God. Amazing Grace is a very melodic piece with lyrics and the soundscape consists of  (usually) a piano and a voice singing the melody. Unlike Amazing Grace, the Naat-i-Sherif piece started with a kind of dissonant sound of a flute, soon after comes in more instruments and there are no lyrics in the piece. A major difference usually between western art music and maqam can be told by the distance between pitches: “maqam uses intervals that are both smaller and larger than the half- and whole-steps of the Western system”. Throughout this, I learned that music plays a role in deepening the connection between the person practices their religion and deepen their spiritual connection to their actions. 

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