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Healing Music or Music Healing?

August 2nd, 2013 · Classical Music, Don Campbell, Music and Cancer, Music and Cardiovascular Health, Music and Emotion, Music Healing

Music is healing!  To the mind, the body and the spirit.  Almost everyone on the planet has some sort of music that they really, really love and choose to listen to!  But is it the music itself that heals and soothes, or is it about the person performing it, or is it the method of delivery, i.e. live, ambient (recorded and played through speakers in the room) or through headphones?

For almost 25 years I have been researching, performing and writing about healing music.  I have always believed that a live performance is the most healing.  For people who are willing to try vocal toning, or drumming or playing an instrument, this is best.  After that, a live performance is best.  My music medicine mentors, Arthur Harvey, Don Campbell, and Alfred Tomatis taught me that the intention behind a live performance is a key to its effectiveness.  Unfortunately, a live performance is not always possible.  For me, the next best thing is a recording of acoustic healing music through high quality headphones.

The piece of music I am playing in this YouTube video is one of my favorite pieces of healing music.  J.S. Bach did not characterize this piece as “healing music,” but I think if he were here today he would agree.  What do YOU think?

 

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Healing Music and the Cancer Patient

June 20th, 2013 · Genres of healing music, Music and Cancer

I’ve worked with lots of different types of patients over the past 23 years, but today I had one of the most touching experiences that I’ve had in a long time.  One of my current patients is experiencing cancer that began 10 years ago as ovarian cancer.  At that time she had chemo and radiation after her surgery and lived cancer-free for 10 years.  About a year ago, after some major life crises, she suffered a relapse of the cancer which was found in her lungs and now her brain.

I met her a couple of months ago when she was actually referred to me as a piano student!  This dear lady, age 74, and I have really connected around music, but today was something special!  She is having the 4th chemo session tomorrow and was just feeling so bad today that she asked me to stop by and play something for her on her beautiful Steinway grand piano.  I was able to do this and as she lay in her bed in the room next to the piano, I played J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C from the Well-Tempered Clavier http://youtu.be/hL0RZiVT5T0.  This is a beautiful, serene piece that she plays very well, herself, but today she was just too weak to even sit at the piano. 

After that she asked me to play her favorite popular song “Fly Me to the Moon.”  When I went back to her room, she was lying across the bed and her face was wet with tears.  I said “Gosh, was it that bad?!”  She said “Alice, that was the most beautiful experience I have had since my diagnosis.  Those two pieces bring back so many beautiful experiences in my life and remind me that I have had a fantastic life, up until this illness.”  Of course, nothing could have made me happier as this is exactly what I want to be able to give people.  If I could make my living just playing for people who are hurting and in pain, physically, spiritually or emotionally, I would love to do that.

Please do not underestimate the power of music to heal pain of all kinds.  Music is powerful and healing!

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Why You Need to Use Music during Joint Replacement Surgery

June 13th, 2013 · joint replacement surgery, Music and Surgery, Surgery with Music

With the aging of the Babyboomers, comes the need for replacing our worn-out and achy joints.  We Babyboomers have been very hard on our bodies, with jogging, running and aerobics skyrocketing to popularity when we were young and foolish.  It was also during many of our teen years that fast-food became extremely popular and McDonald’s and Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken on every corner.  I remember the birth of TV Dinners and frozen food of all kinds that our mothers thought was just great.  Little did we know what we were doing to our bodies.

Now as we hit our late 50’s and early 60’s, many of us are require hip and knee replacements and no wonder!  We’re carrying around lots of extra poundage and extra inches around our waists and hips!  Our knees are simply not able to support this weight on our trunks, and our hips can’t support the massive torsos.  Not only that, but with the advent of TV’s in every room of the house, we really don’t need to move much at all when we return home from sitting behind and desk all day.

Not to sound like the voice of gloom and doom, but this sedentary lifestyle has definitely created a generation of folks that are going to need joint replacement surgery.  The good news is, most of us love music and we love all kinds of music!  Not only the oldies from our youth, but also world music, New Age, Jazz, and even classical.  Can you listen to this music during surgery?  Absolutely!  Medical and nursing journals from around the world are publishing more and more articles about the benefits of music during surgery.  (see www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com

One of the many things about joint replacement surgery that I didn’t realize was that these surgeries frequently involve sawing, drilling, and hammering!   People do wake up from general anesthesia occasionally reporting that they heard these sounds under anesthesia and felt very unnerved by them.  What’s the solution?  Pre-programmed cordless headphones that are now going into surgery every day, around the country.  Yes, you can also probably take your own iPod into surgery if you want to create your own surgery playlist, but either way, it’s important to let your surgeon and anesthesiologist know that you’d like to do this and perhaps show him the research if he does not know about this.  I have created a complimentary download called “How to Talk with your Doctor about Using Music during Surgery.”  Let me know if I can help!

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What’s the difference between music therapy and music medicine/music healing?

June 1st, 2013 · Music and Emotion, Music and Relaxation, music and spirituality, Music Healing, Music Medicine, The Mozart Effect...why Mozart?

This is a question that I get a lot.  Many people, maybe most, assume that these descriptions are all interchangeable and there is definitely a lot of overlap.  Music therapists will tell you that in order for music therapy to be administered, there must be a trained music therapist present to help the patient select music they love and then to present that music for them and, if possible, process with them afterwards.  With music medicine, the music itself is actually the entire intervention.  This is very useful when a music therapist is either not on staff, or just not available because of patient load or other responsibilities.

When I have worked at hospitals in the past, I conducted numerous music groups each week, and depending on whether I was working with  geropsych patients,  chemical dependency patients, or new mothers of preemies, there was specially chosen music for the benefit of that population with specific goals and measurements.  For me, music medicine is usually music with people who are ill in mind, body or spirit, as opposed to music healing or music wellness.

For the average person, music is enjoyed off and on throughout the day, just purely to lift the mood, calm the spirit, energize the body or just to entertain themselves.  Music can be used by everyone to recall happy times, celebrate special occasions and speed the day along.  Trained music therapists are important and can sometimes help people that no one else can reach or help, but everyone can benefits from the joys of music!

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Music and the NICU: NY Times reports on newest study

April 20th, 2013 · Music Healing, Music with Newborns and Preemies, Music with Pregnancy and Childbirth

On Monday, April 15, the New York Time reported on yet another study documenting the benefits of music with preemies in the NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit).    It’s one of those many music healing/music medicine phenomena wherein an ancient practice, known since the beginning of time as lulling or singing softly to your newborn for calming, soothing, and comforting, is studied in modern times and found to be beneficial!  And it’s a good thing!

When I started my family back in 1975, I know that I wanted to do everything as naturally as possible.  I knew that, as a professional musician and music teacher, that my unborn and newborn baby would be hearing lots of music all day every day.  Today, my oldest daughter is a professional music in Boston and hear daughters also hear music, classical music, all day, every day.   There is no question that when a baby is growing inside the mother, the baby can hear mother’s heartbeat, digestive sounds, and eventually, her voice.  When a mother sings to her unborn baby, that baby begins to asociate her mother’s voice with love, safety, security and protection.  This is exactly why I encourage all pregnant women to sing or hum softly to theri unborn child.  You never know when baby may decide to come early, for whatever reason, and if mother has been singing all along, those same songs will prove to be a huge asset.

The study reported in the NY Times documents that babies who are sung to by their mothers, gain weight faster, stabilize their body temperature and pulse sooner and are ultimately discharged sooner!  At a cost of $15,000 per day in the NICU, mother’s song is a huge bargain!  After almost 25 years in the field of Music Medicine, I have worked with lots of mothers who gave birth anywhere from 1-3 months earlier than expected.  Many were career women who were still working and planning to read up on childbirth preparation “soon” but had not yet done so.  Needless to say, they were all pretty much in a state of shock to find out that they were in labor and that the baby was coming whether they were ready or not.  Those that had even thought of some lullabies or simple, melodious songs while pregnant, fared better when trying to sing to their tiny preemies.  If only women realized the power of their voices while pregnant, I think more would begin humming or singing as soon as they found out they were pregnant.

In our society, many people have been told that their voices were not pretty enough and that they should just be listeners.  Believe me, your own baby will never feel this way!  So listen to lots of lullabies while you’re pregnant and start singing or humming along as soon as you feel ready!  I have made a lullaby CD that is all piano, but the words are included so that you can sing them in any key you want when you’re alone and be familiar with the tunes and the words.  To find more information on that click here:  Lullabies for Mother and Baby.  Best wishes for a wonderful birth experience with your precious child.

To ready the NY Times article go to Music in the NICU

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How Music Affects the Person in Love

March 26th, 2013 · Ancient beliefs about music, Love, Music and the Golden Years, Music Healing, Music with Alzheimer's patients

We know that music is extremely important as well as influential to the person who is in love.  Can you remember the first time you were in love?  Was it puppy love, teen-age love, or young adult love?  Falling in love, unrequited love and being in love has inspired probably thousands of love songs since the beginning of time.

Why do songs and other music mean so much to us when we are pining for our loved one, or missing our loved one, or even worse, if we’ve been rejected by our loved one.  Thankfully, music can truly be a balm for the soul if we’re separated from our loved one or even just waiting for them to recognize our feelings for them.  There is definitely some brain chemistry at work.  When we’re feeling attraction or infatuation, our brains release endorphins and serotonin, the so-called “feel-good” chemicals that our bodies make naturally.  When we’re depressed or anxious or sad, those chemicals are in short supply, but when we’re feeling those great “in love” or even “in lust” feelings, the endorphins and the serotonin start flowing freely.

Even decades later, those songs can bring back wonderful, detailed memories that can warm many a cold, winter night!  I often recommend to my therapy clients that they make a list of the long songs they remember from their teen years through the present time.  Sometimes we will even listen to them during a therapy session and talk about what the words meant to them back then and what they mean today.  I vividly remember thinking that Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” was one of the most beautiful songs I’d ever heard.  I remember slow dancing to that song in the school cafeteria in the eighth grade and thinking that I was in love.  I remember hearing Neil Sedaka sing “Sealed with a Kiss” after the eighth grade and thinking that when I had to be apart from my boyfriend that summer that I might not be able to make it.

Somehow, music intensifies the feelings that love (or infatuation) create within us.  Music enhances those feelings and also anchors the feelings in our memory banks.  As a music therapist I have loved working with elderly individuals and couples, and I have seen first-hand how their eyes light up when they hear “their” songs from long ago.  I have seen patients with Alzheimer’s disease who don’t recognize their family members any more but can still recognize a song from their youth or courting years and THEN, they recognize their spouse or their child for that brief period.  The power of music is well-known and widely recognized, but we still don’t know exactly how and why it works.   Research in music therapy and music medicine is increasing all the time and I believe that one day we will understand and be able to truly harness the healing power of music.

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Glaucoma awareness: Can music make a difference?

January 31st, 2013 · Glaucoma and Music, Music and Eye Surgery, Music Healing

January is Glaucoma Awareness Month, so I thought I would relate a great story from a woman who came to me with glaucoma and some serious anxiety.  This dear lady has a family history of both glaucoma and macular degeneration.  She sought me out because she had already had three ophthalmic procedures to treat these conditions and they had been extremely uncomfortable for her.  She reported to me that she had not only serious discomfort during the procedures, but had migraines the next day and had to miss quite a bit of work in her own busy office.

I talked with her about trying the Surgical Serenity Solution headphones and she was very eager to try them.  After the final procedure, she reported that it was an entirely different procedure and that she was much more relaxed and comfortable with no migraine the next day and no need for a preofessional massage.

We all know that music relaxes us and makes us feel comfortable and at peace, but until now, no one had to create wireless headphones with calm, soothing music already on them and ready to go!  Yes, you can take your own iPod in, but for many surgeries, the earbuds fall out and the cord connecting them to the MP3 player can get tangled in other surgical equipment cords!  I personally think this is a great idea and many others concur.  Listen to my patient tell her story:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdmfqOeb7Iw&w=400]

 

 

 

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A Magical Feeling to Christmas Music

January 1st, 2013 · Music Healing

During the Christmas Season, music is a key ingredient to creating holiday magic…for me and many others, I’m sure.    Just the other day, I was out walking my little dog, Jolie, and enjoying the holiday decorations in my neighborhood.  The air was crisp and there appeared to be a few snow flakes in the air, when suddenly, a nearby church began playing on their chimes, some familiar carols.  I was thrilled!

I’ve always been a huge fan of Christmas music, and as a child, growing up in a minister’s family, Christmas music was played and enjoyed throughout December!  Singing the Advent hymns and carols up until Christmas eve was always such a thrill for me and even now, the memories, images and smells rush back to me when I hear these melodies playing.  When the bells started pealing as I walked down the sidewalk, it just was a magical feeling that transported me, musically, to another time and place.  At that moment, thoughts of problems diasappeared, thoughts of conflict and tragedy temporarily vanished, and I was totally in the moment with peace on earth good will to people everywhere.

Holiday music, no matter what holiday you celebrate, comes in the sacred and the secular varieties.  There are literally thousands of songs, cantatas, musicals, oratorios, and symphonies that we typically hear during this season and, for me, they create a magical environment that is filled with memories of Christmases past and warm family holidays with laughter, smells of cookies, turkey, and pies baking, and visions of shiny bicycles and wind-up toys.  Is there a person in the Western World that does not know “White Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” or “Silver Bells?”  In our media-filled society, and with all the technological wonders like iPods and MP3 players, music is sung around the world and heard around the world.  If anything, they probably hear them just a little sooner than they’d really like to.  (I believe that playing Christmas music any sooner than November 1, is probably suspect, and what I suspect is commercialism gone awry!)

The power of a simple phrase of music to conjure up these kinds of images and feelings is nothing short of miraculous!  Humans have known this for thousands of years, and that is why the key events and holidays in our lives have so much special and unique music associated with them!   Take some time out of your schedule today and listen to some music that brings back happy memories for you.  You’ll soothe your anxieties, lower your blood pressure,  boost your immune system, and improve your self-esteem.

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