April showers bring more than flowers with this amazing composition tool "Not only is it fun but it is almost impossible to make something that doesn't sound lovely." Try out the Lullatone here. Thanks for the tip, Helen!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Pie Jesu
Watch this video of a 13 year old boy, Andrew, who also wowed the British audience in the same audition format as Susan Boyle. He states how he had been bullied for years by peers about his taste in music. Tears will spring to your eyes as you watch and hear this young man bare his soul via his angelic voice. The power of music to move us all is so compelling! Stay true to your heart in the face of ridicule for being gloriously unique. Encourage every "ugly duckling" you know!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Musicians set the tone for healing
The many applications of music for healing: hospice settings, coma, stroke and rehab of all kinds. Enjoy this fabulous story:
Anna Jenkins wears a solemn expression while she gracefully plucks the strings on her harp. The notes fill the room and coat it with an aura of peace. Next to her, in a hospital bed, a patient is dying. Jenkins is one of a handful of music therapists who volunteer at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way. “I usually am serious because I’m playing for people that are very sick,” Jenkins said. The notes are dream-like and seem to float from the harp, following no recognizable melody. To play a song a person recognized would hold them in reality, Jenkins said. An unfamiliar song helps people let go. “They can just listen to that and drift off,” she said. “Music helps people to let go and if they’re actively dying, their hearing is the last thing that stays with them.” Jenkins doesn’t only play for those who are dying. She also plays to relax those who are critically or chronically ill. She plays for children and the elderly as well as patients just coming out of a difficult surgery. Music helps heal, Jenkins said. She recalled a story from two years ago. She was playing the harp at a comatose patient’s bedside while the family gathered around singing hymns. The man suddenly awoke from a coma. It could have coincidentally been his time to wake up, but Jenkins likes to think otherwise. “I couldn’t help but wonder if the love from all his family there somehow reached him,” she said. For those who are dying, Jenkins spends a considerable amount of the afternoon playing her harp at their bedside. A story in the Bible mentions angels playing the harp at a person’s death. “There are rare occasions where it’s a little scary for people,” Jenkins said. “They say ‘Oh no, I’m not ready for that.’”Although Jenkins insists she is not an angel, she said there is often a spiritual presence in the room when she plays. “I’ve had people comment that they’ve been touched by the spirit. I don’t want to imply that it’s me, but it’s something that happens in the room at the time,” she said. Soothing music reduces a patient’s blood pressure, relieves anxiety and affects the heart rate, said Renee Krisko, a chaplain at St. Francis. Krisco assigns Jenkins and other music therapists to patients who would most benefit from the music. “I believe there are medical healing effects to this,” she said. Jenkins said she’s watched a person’s heart rate go down on the monitor while she’s playing. She was trained in music therapy as part of the Music for Healing and Transition program. Although most people will never have the opportunity to hear Jenkins play the harp, all visitors to St. Francis could meet Bonnie Knight-Graves.Graves volunteers to play the piano in the lobby and in the mental health ward at St. Francis several days each week. “It’s serving the public, actually,” Graves said of her work. “It’s setting the tone for people coming into the hospital.” Music is healing because it relieves a patient’s anxiety, Graves said. “It frees the mind of stress and gives them a more relaxed approach to life so they can heal themselves,” she said. “The body can heal itself if it’s not loaded down with stress.”
Someday soon I dream of doing the beautiful work Anna is doing!
Anna Jenkins wears a solemn expression while she gracefully plucks the strings on her harp. The notes fill the room and coat it with an aura of peace. Next to her, in a hospital bed, a patient is dying. Jenkins is one of a handful of music therapists who volunteer at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way. “I usually am serious because I’m playing for people that are very sick,” Jenkins said. The notes are dream-like and seem to float from the harp, following no recognizable melody. To play a song a person recognized would hold them in reality, Jenkins said. An unfamiliar song helps people let go. “They can just listen to that and drift off,” she said. “Music helps people to let go and if they’re actively dying, their hearing is the last thing that stays with them.” Jenkins doesn’t only play for those who are dying. She also plays to relax those who are critically or chronically ill. She plays for children and the elderly as well as patients just coming out of a difficult surgery. Music helps heal, Jenkins said. She recalled a story from two years ago. She was playing the harp at a comatose patient’s bedside while the family gathered around singing hymns. The man suddenly awoke from a coma. It could have coincidentally been his time to wake up, but Jenkins likes to think otherwise. “I couldn’t help but wonder if the love from all his family there somehow reached him,” she said. For those who are dying, Jenkins spends a considerable amount of the afternoon playing her harp at their bedside. A story in the Bible mentions angels playing the harp at a person’s death. “There are rare occasions where it’s a little scary for people,” Jenkins said. “They say ‘Oh no, I’m not ready for that.’”Although Jenkins insists she is not an angel, she said there is often a spiritual presence in the room when she plays. “I’ve had people comment that they’ve been touched by the spirit. I don’t want to imply that it’s me, but it’s something that happens in the room at the time,” she said. Soothing music reduces a patient’s blood pressure, relieves anxiety and affects the heart rate, said Renee Krisko, a chaplain at St. Francis. Krisco assigns Jenkins and other music therapists to patients who would most benefit from the music. “I believe there are medical healing effects to this,” she said. Jenkins said she’s watched a person’s heart rate go down on the monitor while she’s playing. She was trained in music therapy as part of the Music for Healing and Transition program. Although most people will never have the opportunity to hear Jenkins play the harp, all visitors to St. Francis could meet Bonnie Knight-Graves.Graves volunteers to play the piano in the lobby and in the mental health ward at St. Francis several days each week. “It’s serving the public, actually,” Graves said of her work. “It’s setting the tone for people coming into the hospital.” Music is healing because it relieves a patient’s anxiety, Graves said. “It frees the mind of stress and gives them a more relaxed approach to life so they can heal themselves,” she said. “The body can heal itself if it’s not loaded down with stress.”
Someday soon I dream of doing the beautiful work Anna is doing!
Friday, April 17, 2009
A Child's Prayer
God make my life a little light,
Within the world to glow;
A tiny flame that burneth bright
Wherever I may go.
God make my life a little flower,
That giveth joy to all,
Content to bloom in native bower,
Although its place be small.
God make my life a little song,
That comforteth the sad;
That helpeth others to be strong,
And makes the singer glad.
God make my life a little staff,
Whereon the weak may rest,
That so what health and strength I have
May serve my neighbors best.
M. Bentham-Edwards
Within the world to glow;
A tiny flame that burneth bright
Wherever I may go.
God make my life a little flower,
That giveth joy to all,
Content to bloom in native bower,
Although its place be small.
God make my life a little song,
That comforteth the sad;
That helpeth others to be strong,
And makes the singer glad.
God make my life a little staff,
Whereon the weak may rest,
That so what health and strength I have
May serve my neighbors best.
M. Bentham-Edwards
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Noticing
Becky Bailey, founder of Conscious Discpline, was a speaker at two of our national Kindermusik conventions, and she has so much valuable teaching to share. Her book, I Love You Rituals, is a must-have for parents, in my opinion.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Next Time (Beautiful, beautiful poem)
Next Time by Mary Oliver
Next time what I'd do is look at the earth
before saying anything.
I'd stop just before going into a house
and be an emperor for a minute
and listen better to the wind
or to the air being still.
When anyone talked to me,
whether blame or praise or just passing time,
I'd watch the face,
how the mouth has to work,
and see any strain, any sign of what lifted the voice.
And for all, I'd know more -- the earth bracing itself and soaring,
the air finding every leaf and feather over forest and water,
and for every person
the body glowing inside the clothes
like a light.
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