The Whole Music Experience

Best Newcomer, Brianna Lea Pruett, Gypsy Bells, Canyon Records Top World and Traditional Album Ana Alcaide, La Cantiga del Fuego, Arc Music 2. Vieux Farka Toure, Mon Pays, Six Degrees 3. The Idan Raichel Project, Quarter to Six, Cumbancha 4. The Henry Girls, December Moon, independent release 5. Mario Adnet, Villa Lobos, Boranda 6. Maria Ana Bobone, Fado and Piano, Arc Music 7. Nitanas Largo, Serenity, Canyon Records 8. R. Carlos Nakai and Will Clipman, Awakening the Fire, Canyon Records 9. Vasco Hernandez, Luz de Otro Manana, Arc Music 10. Techung, On the Road, Arc Music Honorable Mention: Cheevers Toppah, A Good Day, A Better Tomorrow, Canyon Records

Lisa Spector and Sanchez Feed Your Mind with Whole Music  Originally published in the Natural Inquirer (Skagit Valley Food Coop) What if your shopping list looked something like: Organic broccoli, organic carrots, organic soy milk, and acoustic music CDs? It might if you think of music as an energetic substance that your body absorbs and digests.   Current research shows it does. According to psychoacoustic experts (researches the effects of sound/music on the nervous system) music entrains our minds and bodies.   Every cell in our bodies responds to musical vibration and while some types of music lifts our moods and immune responses, some music can lead us into a black hole of depression and low immune responses (think heavy metal).    While many of us recall Don Campbell’s 1997 book, The Mozart Effect , not everyone prefers classical music. We can still reap the benefits of music by listening to other genres including world...

photo by Patricia Herlevi Ever so often I wake up with an idea for a new blog post for working with sound and music.  Today while meditating, I started paying attention to how my body responded to the songbirds outside my window.  Then I pondered the question, what constitutes music? Since I have listened to music from around the world in a variety of modes, scales, and structures, I understand that when even 3-notes are repeated in a pattern, this constitutes music.  Since all of this music came from humans there was no question as to its status as music.  But when we deal with nature do we consider the frog and bird songs actual music? And what about the frequencies contained in these nature songs, how do they affect our health and well-being? Do you ever wonder? To indigenous musicians and people this is a no-brainer.  To them of course nature provides music and healing frequencies.  Indigenous people the ancients believe that the world is made...

photo by Patricia Herlevi, Angels in the Sky A strange idea came up for this post.  I feel that since many people are going through divorce, separation or breakups, I'll blog on healing music for these circumstances.  And of course, you would listen to different types of music during the various stages of your soul's evolution after a breakup or divorce.  I'm including music that is familiar to most people, mainly popular types of music such as rock, jazz, show tunes, and bluegrass. Let's start with the tension felt by a couple when separation is inevitable.  The couple has tried therapy, learned better communication skills, but the spark has left, and so have any reasons for keeping the relationship together.  This stage also reveals the inner workings of each person in the couple, if they tune into that silent space inside them.  The souls yearn for a different life, and not just the grass looking greener in the neighbor's yard. For this stage, ...

photo by Patricia Herlevi, Happy Flowers Consider how music affects our moods.  When we listen to songs from our formative years, we wax nostalgia, but this can have therapeutic effects too.  We hear of people listening to romantic music to get them in the "mood" and marches and political anthems often accompany rallies.  But how conscious are we of shifting or creating moods with music? I've already mentioned rhythmic entrainment and resonance on this blog so we're not heading in that direction today.  Hopefully, you have kept a music journal where you have tracked emotional and physical responses to music and sound exposure.  I would even go as far as asking you to listen to music you heard as a child, even if this music was the favorite of a sibling or parent.  Then track your emotions, feelings, and thoughts. Where does your mind wander to, which memory surfaces? How does this memory cause you to feel? Do you feel angry, sad, or elated? And ac...

Exploring Music from Childhood and Beyond (Healing Potential) music of my teen years In the realm of healing with music, two theories predominate.   First, music therapists employ music to remove blocked emotions, relieve overtaxed brains and nervous system, help with brain diseases and malfunctions, motivate depressed or lethargic clients, etc... Second, sound healers raise the frequency or vibration of their client’s body.   So this leads to two views of what to do with harder-to-digest music such as heavy metal or hard-edged hip hop.   While I understand both points of view, and practitioners and researchers from both camps have evidence to back up their work with music, if someone’s goal is to lift their vibration, heavy metal and hip hop with hateful lyrics won’t accomplish this mission. However, for the purpose of this article, I’m gazing at music therapy in the form of a psychological tool.   After acquiring a higher speed internet service a...

Some music listeners prefer movie soundtracks for escape and healing purposes.  "The Sound of Music" gets the most mentions.  I have heard and read that the "Do re mi" song clears blocked chakras.  You can learn more about this in the late Ted Andrews' book, "Sacred Sounds". While Julia Cameron promotes morning pages (journaling therapy), I promote the concept of the music diary (keeping track of music's effects on your mind and body).  One of the tools that derives from the music diary is a set of power songs.  By tracking different music styles and songs on your mind, body, emotions, and neurological system, you discover at least 5 must-have songs that help you with insomnia, uplifting hour moods, energy-building, or for catharis (unblocking emotions). I give you an example of 5 of my power songs and their uses.  You might include these songs in your music tool kit or choose your own based on your musical observations.  I also mention t...

Imagine yourself eating a ripe orange. Imagine the tangy taste on your lips and tongue, your teeth biting into the orange’s texture and the feeling of your grateful heart. And if you ate that orange with conscious thought you might feel your body radiate with the essence of the citrus fruit throughout the day. While we don’t think of food as containing vibration, everything we touch, taste, feel, hear, or see possesses a vibration and when we connect with those vibrations, an alchemical process takes place within our bodies. Now, imagine listening to a Bach composition played on a cello. Imagine the low and throaty sound of the instrument vibrating in your chakras.   Allow your mind might wander to a memory associated with that piece of music. Your feet might tap in time and if you have developed consciousness in regard to your body, you might feel subtle vibrations moving through you and you might feel a slight crackle of energy in the room. And what if you were listenin...

While I was listening to Earth Wind & Fire this morning a thought occurred to me.  We all need to heal and clear our first chakra, as individuals, as communities, as nations, and on the entire planet.  As you know, the first chakra represents our roots, our powerbase, and our survival skills and tools.  When this chakra contains blocks we are unable to find employment, pay our bills, we feel powerless, and angry because anger, grief and other challenging emotions form the blockage. So I am going to suggest listening to three songs by Earth Wind & Fire, as I did this morning.  You can find these songs on The Best of Earth Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 or on YouTube.  Your library most likely carries this album or you can pick it up used at a record store and if you feel brazen with your money flow, buy the album new, and support these great musicians. 1) Listen to That's the Way of the World first.  For me, this song with its message of love and ...

photo by Patricia Herlevi Satiated by the right music at the right time Often I compare music to food.  With my book Whole Music (Soul Food for the Mind, Body, Spirit) , in progress, the food-music comparison occurs to me on a daily basis.  However, so many aspects factor into the right music for us at the right time.  First, planetary transits will play a key role especially the outer planets Pluto and Neptune, while Uranus will throw us some truly shocking musical moments.  Our state of health plays a role, as do our moods, stress levels and life circumstances.  This is why I have included essay on purposeful music and keeping a music diary on this blog. I will give you an example from my life.  With Pluto transiting in the first house of my natal astrology chart, I feel blocked energy in my first three chakras. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that I am drawn to primal music with roots in Africa. Africans with their polyphonic rhythms, earth...

Céline Moinet J.S. Bach, Berio, Britten Oboe Harmonia Mundi The oboe has always fascinated me.  The instrument’s timbre falls somewhere between a cornet, English horn, and flute--so mysterious and alternately melancholy. If you asked me to single out the sound of the oboe in an orchestra, there’s a good chance that I’ll mistake the oboe for an English horn.  On Céline Moinet’s recording Oboe , the musician explores diverse territory ranging from the baroque architecture of J.S. Bach and then skipping ahead several hundred years to modern composers Elliott Carter, Luciano Berio and Benjamin Britten. By bringing compositions by those composers, we might end up thinking that J.S. Bach was ahead of his time as far as polyphonies played on a single instrument. However, the Bach pieces that Moinet chose for this recording, (both father and son, CPE Bach's work), were originally composed for transverse flute. Still that doesn’t stop Moinet’s oboe from resembling a...

photo by Patricia Herlevi I was unable to round up enough students for my class Exploring Music with Ecological Themes, but I still think it's important for us to connect to nature through sound vibration.  So I'm including a short list of practices you can learn to do on your own.  I feel as humans in the modern world we have lost contact with the natural world.  We have given animals human personalities, treated the earth as a resource rather than a living being, and have forgotten how to communicate musically with the natural world or to truly hear its music. Those are the reasons why I created the class.  Too bad only one student signed up for it. 1) Sit in a natural setting (yes, outdoors), and focus on birds singing or another nature-based sound.  Meditate on this sound for at least 10 minutes.  Follow your body's rhythms and pulses as you listen to this natural sound.  Do you start hearing a melody in it? Harmony? How do you feel?  ...