New program enables people with disabilities to perform with even the slightest motion.

The musical instrument is invisible – played by hand movements or nods of the head.

Sounds showering the air may be like the sweet purr of a harp or a full orchestra’s blast.

The players are residents of Belmont-based Holy Angels, a center for children and adults with severe disabilities that is run by the Sisters of Mercy.

They’re taking part in a new program that allows them to create musical sounds by interrupting an invisible beam that sends out ultra-sonic pulses. The sounds – anything from a guitar to a piano – are programmed into a computer/synthesizer connected to microphones that emit the ultrasonic waves. When the waves are broken, sounds come out in long or short bursts against background music created by the synthesizer.

Introduced in Germany in the late 1980s, the sound beams open up a world of possibilities for people who are extremely limited in what they can do.

“They can really enjoy music in a way in which they can actually participate,” said Gaye Dimmick, director of creative arts at Holy Angels. “They’re independent in a way they’ve never been before. It’s a big step for them.”

The sound beam is an addition to the recently announced Don & Lynn Leonard Music Program, named after two longtime volunteers at Holy Angels.

Don Leonard, who died of cancer in 2008, ran a Charlotte heating and air-conditioning business, but he made music on the side at Holy Angels.

Before he died in 2008 at 61, he asked that donations in his memory be made to Holy Angels, where he was considered the “resident musician.” Nearly $12,000 came in.

“Don wanted to do something that would last,” said Lynn Leonard of Gastonia. “I think he would be thrilled over this program. He knew the power of music.”

Faces light up

Lexington native Don Leonard got his first guitar in junior high. His passion for music took off, even though he couldn’t read a note and played by ear.

In the mid-1960s, as a student at Salisbury’s Catawba College, he traveled with a band called The Jokers Six & the Marlboros, playing beach, rock and soul.

Don and Lynn Leonard married in 1971 and moved from Salisbury to Gastonia in 1981.

Lynn Leonard connected with Holy Angels 10 years later when she helped build an endowment fund there and became a volunteer.

“I saw the care the kids were getting,” Leonard said. “The situations were sad, but their lives were so enriched.”

Her three children also became volunteers. So did her husband, who put his musical talent to use.

He and a friend, vocalist Johnny Brincefield of Salisbury, performed at Holy Angels’ special events – everything from groundbreakings to holiday parties.

“This was another way Don had of sharing his music,” Lynn Leonard said. “He said it just warmed his heart to see these children love music as much as he did.”

Don Leonard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000. Following surgery, he had 35 radiation treatments and experimental treatment in the Dominican Republic.

In the long fight for his life, music helped.

He liked all kinds: Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana; Chet Atkins and Jim Croce; Spyro Gyra and the Rippingtons.

“Music was his obsession,” Lynn Leonard said. “Don would go down to his little music room and spent time there. He said it put him in another place.”

Leonard stayed involved with Holy Angels, music and his job – right until the end.

Donations in his memory are also paying for another part of the music program: the Rhythmic Arts Project. Hand-held drums are used as a simple method of teaching residents such things as numbers, concentration and focus.

Lynn Leonard has watched the children’s reaction.

“Their faces light up,” she said. “They’re very moved by music. It calms them, inspires them and excites them.”

Beat goes on

Sister Nancy Nance, Holy Angels’ vice president of community relations, has also seen the power of music at work.

For a few minutes, the children’s limitations are loosened. The slightest body movement unlocks a flood of wonder.

“They’re delighted,” Nance said.

In the future, more sounds can be added to the program that’s a continuing legacy for the man who couldn’t read music, but loved sharing it.

“Don’s up in heaven smiling,” Lynn Leonard said. “The beat goes on.”

If you’ve ever come home after a long day and turned on, say, Brahms to relax, or jacked up the volume on Queen’s “We Are the Champions” to get psyched for a workout, you know that music can change your mood.

Research on music and the brain has shown that it can reduce stress, alleviate pain and promote relaxation. And new research from the Cleveland Clinic shows that music can even reach into deep brain structures unrelated to hearing and memory to literally soothe nerves.

Patients receiving deep-brain-stimulation surgery for Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor and several other conditions have to be awake for much of the surgery to tell surgeons if their symptoms improve when electrodes are placed deep in their brains.

Neuroscientist Damir Janigro took advantage of this conscious period to play clips of music for the patients to see what effect it had on their brain function and on their stress levels during the surgery, which can be many hours long.
Janigro decided to play music for these patients after his own experience in a noisy operating room this year. While being prepped for spinal surgery, he thought of how dentists often give patients headphones to listen to music or a TV to watch to ease anxiety.

“The reason why they do it — I asked my dentist — is because [the procedure is] easier, and you go home faster,” Janigro said.

Janigro presented his findings Oct. 30 at the Music and the Brain symposium in New York. Janigro is one of many specialists who work in the Clinic’s Arts and Medicine Institute, which is studying how the arts can be used to enhance healing.
Dirk Hoch, 52, of Delphi, Ind., agreed to participate in the music study without hesitation. Hoch is a former postal worker who had to retire in 2005 due to essential tremor, a neurological condition that causes involuntary shaking, particularly evident during voluntary movements like holding a fork.

During the April surgery, Hoch listened to different music clips and told Janigro how he felt.

Like all the other participants, about a dozen in this initial study, Hoch preferred the melodic music clips to the others. Janigro also offered purely rhythmic music and a clip that combined rhythmic and melodic music.

To eliminate the possibility of any emotional associations with the music related to memory, Janigro had Gregory Bonanno of the Cleveland Institute of Music compose the clips.

Hoch said the music was a welcome distraction from the pain of the halo-like metal clamp that held his head in place during the surgery.

“You were at ease and at peace with the surroundings, which, given the circumstances, is something,” he said. “I mean, after all, they’re drilling holes in your head and inserting electrodes. It just really made a huge difference.”

If you love Christmas music (like I do!) then Christmas music probably makes your brain light up and makes your face smile, your feet dance and your endorphins flow. Why? Because any music that we have positive associations with, that brings back positive memories or that energizes us, is clearly having a positive effect on the brain:

To that I would add, music that has lots of high, percussive sounds such as tambourines, small bells and brass instruments moving with a fast harmonic rhythm are also apt to stimulate the brain in a positive, energizing, endorphin-producing way!

I hope that you’ve heard lots of your favorite Christmas music this season! Happy Holidays! Alice

How does music enter the brain?

Neuroscientists are only just beginning to understand how music affects the brain. We know that music is extremely powerful and that it can elicit hundreds of shades of emotion very quickly. In this blog I will explore the latest findings on the brain and music as well as present some musings of these findings and their implications. Enjoy and if you’d like, participate!

http://the-brain-and-music.blogspot.com/