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Music and the 4th of July!! What’s your favorite song??

July 3rd, 2008 · Music Healing

When you get that 4th of July cook-out playlist together, the 4th of July cook-out should include some of the best patriotic country music songs. We usually begin a 4th of July cook-out in Texas with a few happy hour drinks, sodas, pool volleyball, and some pool patio welcoming chitchat while the brisket, sausage, and chicken is sizzling on the grill.

As the 4th of July BBQ  party progresses, we put on some of our favorite patriotic country music songs and do a little swinging, two-stepping, and slow dance hugging around the pool patio. This is when the patriotic emotions really heat up.

When the BBQ brisket is done, we enjoy playing a little patriotic country rock and ballad songs while dining. Of course, while the fireworks show starts on the pool patio, we need some classic 4th of July patriotic songs, too. Here is our Top 10 Fourth of July Songs with a few more added in to make the 4th of July BBQ party last longer.

4th of July Songs for your Country BBQ Party Greetings

This Land is My Land by Woody Guthrie

Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John

Red White and Blue by Lynyrd Skynyrd

There Ain’t No Yellow in the Red White and Blue by Len Doolin

Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

4th of July Songs for your Country BBQ Party Country Music Dance Fest

Courtesy of the Red White and Blue by Angry American

Only in America by Brooks & Dunn

American Made by the Oak Ridge Boys

This Ain’t No Rag It’s A Flag by Charlie Daniels Band

Have you Forgotten by Darryl Worley

Independence Day by Martina McBride

Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning by Alan Jackson

America Will Survive by Hank Williams Jr.

The American Way by Hank Williams Jr.

America by Waylon Jennings

4th of July Songs for your Country BBQ Party Chow Down Time

Our Country by John Mellencamp

Living in the Promised Land by Willie Nelson

America Will Always Stand by Randy Travis

This Ragged Old Flag by Johnny Cash

American Spirit by Mannheim Steamroller

4th of July by Shooter Jennings

Where The Stars and Stripes and The Eagle Fly by Aaron Tippin

4th of July Songs for your Country BBQ  Party Fireworks Show

Star Spangled Banner by Whitney Houston

America the Beautiful by Ray Charles
article by Aly Adair

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Lullabies, toning, chanting, breathing? What helps insomnia?

June 30th, 2008 · The Lullaby Effect

I’m frequently asked about musical tools for coping with insomnia.  There must be a lot of sleep-deprived individuals walking around these days.  Oftentimes the solution is completely individual, i.e. what works for one won’t work for another.  My lullaby CD has helped a lot of people.  Even though it was created for mother-baby bonding, the very nature of it is to calm, soothe and comfort a human being.

There are also many breathing and meditative techniques that work amazingly well to relax the mind and body.  As you may know, sometimes the body is exhasuted but the mind is working overtime.  Slow, deep breathing brings air to the lowest part of your lungs and exercises your diaphragm.  Deep breathing relaxes your mind and body, massages your
internal organs, calms emotions and promotes restful sleep.
I’d be interested to know what has worked for you!

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Live Piano Music During Surgery? Yes! Results are positive!

June 28th, 2008 · Music Healing

Classical music played on a piano in the operating room for 115 patients having eye surgery at the former St. Francis Medical Center-Liliha had “profound” physical benefits, it was reported today. The music lowered the patients’ blood pressure and heart and respiratory rates before any sedation or pain medication, according to a paper in the Medscape Journal of Medicine, a Web resource for physicians of peer-reviewed medical journal articles. Dr. Jorge Camara, a classically trained pianist and ophthalmologist, played music for patients before surgery as part of a study from May to August 2005 to demonstrate the medical benefits of music. The classical and semi-classical pieces ranged from Debussy’s “Arabesque No. 1 in E Major” and Chopin’s “Etude in E Major, Op. 10 No. 3,” to “The More I See You,” by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon.  To get all the information on this, please go HERE

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Music to cleanse the mind-body-soul!

June 26th, 2008 · Music and the Mind-Body

Today I found an interesting blog called “Cleansing Blog” that presents lots of different methods for “cleaning” and “cleaning out” the mind and body. Enjoy this unusual post:

Music has always been a very important part of our lives, from childhood to our being an adult. As a part of our experience, music can have both a physiological and psychological affect upon us as human beings. In addition to the influence that it has on our life, music also has many therapeutic qualities and has been utilized in promoting a variety of healings throughout the ages. As we know further, music can be a very powerful medium for altering our state, of changing how we actually feel. More specifically music can be very effective in producing a very deep and healing state of relaxation and in the process, reduce stress and even promote sleep. Music can also be used to assist one in improving his or her self-esteem and furthering an individual’s personal growth and development, transformation.

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Can infants un-Ravel classical music? (yes they can!)

June 24th, 2008 · Music with Newborns and Preemies

Recent research is suggesting that even infants can detect slight changes in a piece of classical music. Canadian researchers say babies can remember complex classical music, even after a two week delay. Their findings were detailed at a recent meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.   To read more about this fascinating study, click HERE.

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UK Hospital and Music School collaborate to create music medicine alliance!

June 22nd, 2008 · Music and Surgery

Dr. Jay Zwischenberger, UK chief of surgery, plays his harmonica. Staff and patients are said to find “Dr. Z’s” music a source of reassurance and comfort. June 13, 2008 Musicians have long known intuitively that experiencing the rhythms, harmonies and melodies of music —as listener or performer— can help mend the troubled mind, body and soul. And health professionals have long shared an intuitive understanding that this healing quality of music has a lot to offer medical science; witness the calming heart-rate monitors in a Savannah neo-natal ward as the regular visits of a harpist get underway. Now these enduring intuitions are converging to form the basis of an innovative program integrating the arts in health care at the new Chandler Medical Center at the University of Kentucky.

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Music Therapy and Parkinson’s Disease

June 19th, 2008 · Music and the Brain

Music acts as a specific stimulus to obtain motor and emotional responses by combining movement and stimulation of different sensory pathways. Click the link above to learn more.  Thus says Gina Shaw, a health and medical writer for Web MD.  This is an excerpt of a research study conducted in Italy:

BACKGROUND: Modern management of Parkinson’s disease (PD) aims to obtain symptom control, to reduce clinical disability, and to improve quality of life. Music acts as a specific stimulus to obtain motor and emotional responses by combining movement and stimulation of different sensory pathways. We explored the efficacy of active music therapy (MT) on motor and emotional functions in patients with PD.

METHODS: This prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blinded study lasted 3 months. It consisted of weekly sessions of MT and physical therapy (PT). Thirty-two patients with PD, all stable responders to levodopa and in Hoehn and Yahr stage 2 or 3, were randomly assigned to two groups of 16 patients each. We assessed severity of PD with the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, emotional functions with the Happiness Measure, and quality of life using the Parkinson’s Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire. MT sessions consisted of choral singing, voice exercise, rhythmic and free body movements, and active music involving collective invention. PT sessions included a series of passive stretching exercises, specific motor tasks, and strategies to improve balance and gait.

RESULTS: MT had a significant overall effect on bradykinesia as measured by the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (p < .034). Post–MT session findings were consistent with motor improvement, especially in bradykinesia items (p < .0001). Over time, changes on the Happiness Measure confirmed a beneficial effect of MT on emotional functions (p < .0001). Improvements in activities of daily living and in quality of life were also documented in the MT group (p < .0001). PT improved rigidity (p < .0001).

CONCLUSIONS: MT is effective on motor, affective, and behavioral functions. We propose active MT as a new method for inclusion in PD rehabilitation programs.

Authors: Claudio Pacchetti, MD, Francesca Mancini, MD, Roberto Aglieri, Cira Fundarò, MD, Emilia Martignoni, MD and Giuseppe Nappi, MD.

From the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Centre, Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico C. Mondino, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.

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A Musical Father’s Day Tribute to my Father

June 15th, 2008 · Music Healing

My father loved to sing! He was a Methodist minister in the S.C. conference and he loved singing hymns but he also loved singing the songs that he sang in the Army during World War II. Daddy used to sing songs with us at bedtime and taught my sister and me such songs as “My Grandfather’s Clock,” “Oh My Pa-pa,” “Do Your Ears Hang Low,” and “A Capital Ship.” If you’d like to hear a couple of these songs, go HERE. After I started taking piano lessons at age 8, Daddy was always my biggest fan! No matter how I played, he was at the front of the line to congratulate me and tell me how beautiful it was! My father was so easy to please, so quick to love and so quick to forgive. He instilled in me a love for music, for church music and for God. What more can a child ask?

My father told me that he wished he could have taken piano lessons as a child but that his family didn’t have the money during the Great Depression and so he and his family enjoyed singing and making music other ways. Music is a gift from God and I never take it for granted. As I grew up and became a parent and a professional musician I wanted to give my own children the love and appreciation for music that my father gave me. He was also extremely proud of my children’s musical ability and encouraged them as he did me. A few years ago, my oldest daughter played her violin in Carnegie Hall and I knew that Daddy was there with us in spirit. He passed away in 1999 and was a very beloved human being. At his funeral, three different ministers gave tributes to him. If you’d like to read what the newspapers said about him, go HERE. I miss my father very much today but I have all of his sermons and a few tapes of him preaching and singing the hymns of Charles Wesley that he loved so much.

I feel extremely blessed to have had a father like Michael Benjamin Hudnall!

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