Singing with Crystal Bowls

My crystal singing bowls

My crystal singing bowls

For the last three weeks, I have been singing for a friend who is dying. On a Friday afternoon in October, I got a text saying Leslie was being transported to Hospice House. She was not expected to last the weekend. I brought my crystal singing bowls to Leslie’s room. I had played these for her the month before.  Leslie loved hearing and feeling the vibrations, the waves of sound rolling through her body.

I recently bought a nest of three crystal bowls. They are made of crystal glass about 1/4″ thick with slightly concave bottoms. They come in a variety of sizes, which effects their feel and tone. My three bowls are infused with minerals. The lowest pitched bowl, the color of a yellow leaf in autumn, is infused with citrine. Citrine is for the third chakra, the solar plexus, the seat of our intentions. Citrine brings attunement and inner calm, creating balance by attracting things we need and dissipating negative energy.

The middle bowl is the color of a ripe apricot. It is called the Grandmother bowl. I played this bowl for Leslie four days in a row. It felt like the ancestors calling.

The smallest bowl is infused with gold, which turns the crystal into a shimmery aqua color. It is for the high-heart chakra, the bridge between the throat and heart, where the thymus gland regulates the immune system.

Most visits, I have been able to sing with Carolyn Parrott, the first director of Songweavers. Leslie has sung with Songweavers for more than a decade, with both Carolyn and then me. She loves the Songweaver songs. Carolyn and I each take a bowl. Sometimes another friend plays the third bowl. We play the bowls by cupping the bottom of the bowl loosely in one hand while circling the rim with a sueded mallet. The core tone of the bowl slowly emerges, followed by its overtones. The sound is other-worldly. The vibrations flow through the hand, up the arm, and through the whole body. The citrine and the Grandmother bowls harmonize hypnotically. We add the aqua aura bowl for color commentary, its high bell-like tone calling the head down to the heart.

As we play the bowls, we gradually add our voices in an improvisation. Eyes closed, we communicate by feel, with our breath and our ears, joining our energies to each other and with Leslie. Carolyn’s low alto voice creates the ground for my higher explorations. At some point, a song drops into one of our minds and we segue to words.

“Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world…”

“One bright morning, when this life is over, I’ll fly away…”

“I wanna die easy when I die…”

“Courage my soul, and let me journey on…”

“Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home…”

“Amazing Grace…”

We move from one song to the next, as they appear, harmonizing, listening and following the deep pull of vibration. It feels like the clear, layered sound of the bowls creates an open window for spirit. Leslie describes her experience; “The waves of sound are very relaxing. I can feel the resonance vibrate through my whole body. It’s soothing and centering. I can feel myself expand with the sound. I receive it as a wonderful gift. The resonance and love are palpable.”

Leslie did not die that first week-end at Hospice. Her internal bleeding miraculously repaired itself and she is having a second wind. Now, she sometimes sings with us, depending on her breath, or moves her lips with the words. We began playing the bowls and singing to help Leslie, but the truth is that this sound bath, this meditation through sound is for all of us. The sound takes us to the heart of spirit, where we are connected to the whole of life.

As I hug Leslie good-bye one night, she whispers, “You give me such light.”

I whisper back, “It’s your light, reflected back through sound.” Luckily, we have more blessed days to embrace the light together.

Exuberant Music in Nashville

My head is full of music, more so than usual. I have just returned from a trip to Nashville to celebrate a friend’s 60th birthday and to visit my daughter, Ariana. Nashville is the Music City and the City That Listens. Live music is everywhere – in restaurants, bars, theaters, music clubs, the airport and the street. Over three and a half days we heard classic country, bro-country, country rock, rhythm and blues, Dixieland, top 40 covers, bluegrass, Americana, gospel, and roots. We heard a mandolin player in his 80s, numerous singer-songwriters trying to get notice, and 3 kids aged 10 and 11 blowing horns like pros.

Very talented kids drawing a huge crowd on the street corner.

Very talented kids drawing a huge crowd on the street corner.

The first afternoon, we walked in the alley door of Tootsie’s, a famous bar on the music strip. A tight 3-man band drew us in. A lone couple was swing dancing in front of them. We headed downstairs to the main bar which was packed with people, all tourists like us, listening to a guitarist playing cover songs by the front door. A band joined him; the drummer played in the window. A lanky young man, also a guitarist, he told us, requested a song about Texas, his home state. While the band learned the song on their IPAD, he bought them all fireballs. A fireball is a shot of cinnamon bourbon. They tossed them back and began to play.

Friday night, we went to the Ryman Theater, aka The Mother Church. The Ryman was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943-1974, when it moved to a much grander theater. Playing the Ryman stage marks a big transition in the careers of young artists. The first act was Sam Hunt. He said he had been working in the Nashville music scene for five years and was grateful to make it to this stage. We heard two other performers. My favorite was Charley Worsham. Young, playful, a prodigy on guitar and mandolin, his passion for playing was infectious. His lyrics were catchy, including this memorable line, “Your sex is on fire,” sung at lustily by everyone in the theater.

Ariana, who has been in Nashville for only 5 months, has a song on the Billboard chart called “Brand New Key.” To pay the bills, she is a server at a music club called Third and Lindsley. Vince Gill plays there on Monday nights when he is in town to try out new tunes. On a recent day off, she shot video of some of her songs, hoping to get some good demos to help promote her music. She is about to release her second song, “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” to radio stations nationwide.

There is an exuberance to the music in Nashville filled with yearning, hard work and hope. Fans and artists adore each other. Songwriters routinely co-write songs together. Talent tantalizes at full volume from open bar doors and unamplified on street corners. Being around so many musicians who just love to play any way they can, makes me want to run home and practice. I want to play scales and songs and improvise. I want to play piano and sing all my old favorite songs, from classical to folk. For fun. For joy. For my soul.

September Meditation

I wake up cold with the covers drifting off the bed. I put on my new purple tie-dye leggings, a yoga top and a heavy gray pull-over sweatshirt. I refuse socks.

Busy Bee!

Busy Bee!

I’m late. I quickly make coffee and toast, take it in the car and dash to meditation class – aware that I’m dashing, that I have chosen to leave the car running in park while I dash yet again to let in Luna, the cat whom I have noticed perched forlornly on the arm of a deck chair. She is cold, too.

Unlike other early morning drives to meditation, today i am hoping for red lights. I get the first one and relish the pause to sip hot coffee. I am hoping to be able to stop at the high school crossing, which is usually jammed at this hour with students and teachers also dashing. No luck. I am waved through. Luckily I get the only other possibility for a red light and finish my toast.

Margaret, my meditation teacher, asks this question, “What is the feeling tone in the body right now?” She probes further.

“How do you know? Where does the information come from?”

Honestly, I don’t know. I am aware of breathing, of kneeling astride a meditation cushion, of yawning, of wishing I had brought my coffee with me, aware that perhaps caffeine with meditation is an oxymoron, chuckling at feeling moronic myself at the association.

I have taken meditation with Margaret for two years. Only being out of town or seriously ill, which I rarely am, keeps me from getting up 60-90 minutes earlier than my body really likes and plunking myself on a cushion in a basement-cave yoga studio. The good think about not taking my coffee in to meditation is that I can have my second cup of coffee now, in the sun, after showering and successfully transitioning from night to day without a meltdown.

I hate September, I realized this morning looking for my feeling tones. I hate the cold, the encroaching dark. I hate having to wear more clothes, especially socks. I hate not being able to comfortably be outside. My mind latches on to this hook. The boat zips ahead, dragging me along behind, until I hit a wave and flop off. Sinking back into the breath, I catch myself waking back up to my cushion and Margaret’s voice saying, “I feel my throat closing.”

“Oh, yeah, my throat is also tight,” I think. No surprise there. Just thinking can close my throat. I notice it is constricted right now, that my jaw is stiff at the hinge. “Ah,” I sigh. Noticing my habitual patterns, it relaxes a bit.

I hate September. I hate the communal slamming of the door to summer and the wholesale hurl into doing – more, more, more. Margaret tells us she has made herself too busy this fall. “I did it to myself, “she says, ” so I am teaching what I need, which is to be aware of what I’m feeling and drop into that meditation state of aware acceptance even amidst the clatter.”

September is the month I am having, not August or July. At the moment, I am writing in the sun with bare legs and arms. By mid-day in September, it is the late side of summer, hot with a cool breeze, the best of both seasons. Bees and wasps are very busy getting every last drop of nectar before the flowers fade completely.

A red dragonfly just landed on my ankle attached to a second dragonfly. In the language of totems, dragonflies are about seeing through illusions – the illusion that I need to resist September and the cold, dark time it ushers in. I am not having a cold, dark time. I am having a face-to-the-sun, warm-colored flowers, red-tinged leaves, hair-blowing-breeze, puff-white-clouds time.

I have learned two invaluable truths from meditation. One is the only moment we have is right now. Staying with ourselves in each moment is the way to actually live life – right here, right now, no matter what. The second truth is that trying to make what is present go away never works. It just creates constriction and frustration. Acceptance – summer is waning; a friend is dying; I am aging -takes the fight out of my body. After holding my breath out, I inhale and expand. I can breathe again. My lips relax upward all by themselves. At this moment, the feeling tone is relief.

Your Brain on Music

A hummingbird making its own vibrant music.

A hummingbird making its own vibrant music.

In Sunday’s Concord Monitor, there was a fascinating article on a recent scientific study on how music effects our brains. Listening to music we especially love changes our state of being. This we know from experience. Published in Scientific Reports, the study shows what happens in the brain to create this experience.

The Washington Post reported, “When listening to a preferred genre or a favorite song, the participants had greater connectivity between regions of the brain called the default mode network. The DMN is associated with that switch we can flip between inner and outer thought. When the DMN is active, you’re not focused on what’s happening in the physical world around you – you’re using internal stimuli, like memories and your imagination.”

What’s fascinating is that researchers played music to a person in an MRI and were able to watch what parts of the brain lit up. The implications for music therapy for individual with autism and schizophrenia are vast. But just as great for the rest of us. Researchers found that listening to music we love, regardless of genre, allows us to turn inward with greater self-reflection. This creates a calmer, more centered experience, the chance to re-connect with ourselves at some fundamental level. Connected to ourselves, we can more easily connect to others.

My favorite music these days is a folk tune by Bill Staines, called “Child of Mine.” I play it on the piano, rock myself as I sing the words and think of my adult children, living far away, having the courage to pursue their own musical dreams. When I play this song, it makes me feel more connected to them and reminds me that they will find their way.

What is your favorite music? What does it do for you?

 

 

Just Play!

“The purpose of music is to discover and be who I am. There is no “ought to know how.” There is only the uncovering of

my piano

my piano

ourselves as we polish or present our sound.”
~WA Mathieu

I came upon this quote while cleaning out the piles of paper and music that have accumulated in my studio. Reading it again made me stop, sit still and breathe.
My husband, Paul, and I have been playing more music together. In this current iteration of Peggo & Paul, I am playing piano on many more songs than I used to, freeing Paul to play more creatively on the guitar. Playing the piano with the right chords and notes in the right time is a challenge for me. I am getting better at it, which is quite a lot of fun.
And then a moment will come in rehearsal or performance when my judgmental mind begins to notice and comment louder and louder on everything wrong – every misplaced finger, every note not in time, every botched chord. All I can hear is the litany of what is bad about my playing. This negative harangue soon colors all of my thoughts. I have to take a time-out.
When this happened at a recent rehearsal, Paul said, “We are playing music. This is about play, not right or wrong. Just play.”
What I discovered is that I like to play piano, but my critical mind thinks it’s in charge. It doesn’t know how to play. We have declared a truce – my inner critic and I. We each get our time – time for me to mess about on black and white keys and time for my inner teacher to help me to become a better pianist. The blessing of music is it pushes me to grow beyond my limited concepts, inviting me to be who I am and just play.

A Rondo of Daisies

It’s lazy July time. In my garden, the elegy of peonies has made way for the rondo of daisies.  A rondo is a musical form in which a theme (like the chorus in

Daisies light up my front garden.

Daisies light up my front garden.

a folk tune) is introduced and then repeated between each of several musical forays. From my breezeway rocker, the entry garden has blossomed with tall, Shasta daisies, their bright yellow centers mirroring the hot summer sun. Behind them is a burst of spiky purple liatris, followed by another mound of daisies, then some silvery soft lambs’ ears, then daisies again in the far bed by the sun arch. It is heaven to sit here in the cooling breeze, whiling away the hot hours rocking and watching.

As I write, the rapid whirr of hummingbird wings alerts me to the presence of an eager feeder at the hanging pink petunias. I turn my head slowly, having learned that quick movement sends them flitting away. If I’m lucky, I will see a small, lithe female hovering to feed. Occasionally, I see her ruby-throated mate sticking his long nose into a flower. In the Native American totem tradition, hummingbirds mean Joy. Every time I hear and see their vibrating, joyful presence, I smile.

Nature is amazing. May your summer be a symphony of long, lazy, hot days of wonder and joy.

Ariana’s Brand New Key

Ariana's new publicity photo. She is lookin' good!

Ariana’s new publicity photo. She is lookin’ good!

I want to share great musical news about my daughter, Ariana Hodes. On Monday, May 12 (aka – my birthday and, therefore, auspicious), Ariana’s first single was dropped to radio, literally out of the sky, for radio programmers to “add” and “spin.” Translation – We hope Ariana’s newly recorded song, “Brand New Key,” (remember Melanie?) will be added to country radio station playlists and spun (remember records?) in rotation as often as possible.
Ariana’s photo was on the front cover of New Music Weekly, a radio industry trade publication, and the back cover of CDX, a second industry magazine. Check this link for the article in New Music Weekly. http://www.newmusicweekly.com/magazines/050914.pdf
In 48 hours, “Brand New Key” was reported by New Music Weekly to be the third most added single at a number of country music stations, ahead of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, as well as Rascal Flats. At an influential station in Lexington, Kentucky, Ariana’s song is spinning the same number of plays as Vince Gill and Brad Paisley. How cool is that?!
It’s all about gaining traction so that other programmers will notice, inspiring them to add the song to their playlist. In a quick visit to NH, Ariana visiting WOKQ in Dover and WXXK in Lebanon, giving a brand new cadillac key to the disc jockeys there (car not included.)
Ariana’s version of “Brand New Key” is fantastic, even by biased mother/voice teacher standards. You can hear it yourself by going to Itunes and purchasing it for $.99. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/brand-new-key-single/id872736482 Each Itunes purchase helps Ariana and her song gain attention and traction. You can also call your local country radio stations and request “Brand New Key.” The more requests and Itunes buys the song has, the more everyone wants to get on the bandwagon. Feel free to share this with your friends. Like Ariana on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ArianaHH11
This is all in the shameless plug category from a very proud stage-mama.
When you hear the song, you’ll know why I’m so thrilled. Happy listening.

Happy May Day!

Getting ready to weave the May Pole

Getting ready to weave the May Pole

May Day is my favorite Pagan holiday. I first learned of it when I was a teenager. My best friend, Robin, and I would spend the week before making May baskets out of woven pieces of colorful construction paper, filling them with crepe paper “straw” (not plastic in those days) and baking goodies which we put into the baskets – peanut brittle, brownies, snicker doodles and candy. On April 30, Robin would sleep over at my house. We would finish our baskets, then map out our route. Before school early the next morning, we would walk through the neighborhood leaving a basket on each doorstep of kids for whom we babysat. If they were up, we would ring the bell and run around the corner so they wouldn’t see who left it.

In college, I spent my junior year abroad in Oxford, England, where May Day, I learned to my delight, was a major holiday. My friend, Kit, and I dressed gaily and went out at dawn to join the throngs of people welcoming in the spring, or sumer, as it was called. There were Morris dancers on every corner, fiddlers and concertina players everywhere, people dancing in the streets. At the end of the day, a huge bonfire was lit to signal the start of sumer.

The ancient roots of May Day, or Beltane, as it was originally known, can be traced back as far as Roman times. Celebrated in Northern Europe, May Day was acknowledged as the first day of summer, a joyful celebration of the end of winter’s hold on the earth and the beginning of the growing season; seeds, crops, animals, creativity and life. The May Pole, a fresh tree of oak, elm or birch, was brought from the forest each May and placed in the town square as a visible symbol of new growth. Decorated with flowers and colored ribbons, the May Pole and its dance enacted the joyful return of spring, the release of the earth’s creative energies and the human connection to this “tree of life,” linking heaven and earth.

When my children were old enough for school, they went to Canterbury Children’s Center, a large, one-room school house with sheep, chickens, burros and a May Pole. I became the music teacher. On May Day, the teachers and adults all wore white. At school, we made eucalyptus garlands for everyone from the large eucalyptus tree in the greenhouse. We san songs celebrating May Day –

~ “As I mee walkéd in a May morning, I heard a bird sing – cuckoo!”

~ “Sumer is a comin’ in, loudly sing cuckoo!”

~ “Unite and unite, now let us unite for sumer is a come in today

And whither we are going we all will unite in the merry morning of May.”

Dudley and Jacqueline Laufman came every year to play their fiddles and the squeezebox, as Dudley called it, which was a concertina. They sang songs and told tales of May Day in England long ago, of St. George and the Dragon and the return of spring. When it came time for the May Pole, the fiddles called us to the dance. The children wove their ribbons in and out, in and out, round and round, all the while singing, “Unite and unite, now let us unite,” until the ribbons became too short. The colorful weaving down the pole reminded us all that we were one connected community from the CCC to the world.

After the May Pole, we all returned in to the school for some country dances, led by Dudley and Jacqueline. They always began and ended the day with a poem and song Dudley wrote, called “The Sweets of May.” The last verses leave us with hope for next year, knowing how the seasons circle around and around, just like the May Pole dance itself.

“On into the summer,                                      May Pole finished

June and then July,

Autumn and longy winter,

All the seasons die.

 

O how I miss the springtime

And the May again

When the men dance around the ladies

And the ladies go round the men.”

 

This May Day, go pick some daffodils. Put them in your hair or in a vase. Give some to a friend. Sing a song to welcome this luscious season. Don’t worry if you don’t know one. Make it up. May your light be strong and you spirit free as we expand and soar through the long, warm days ahead.

 

 

 

Why Do We Sing?

On Sunday, April 13, Songweavers had our annual concert, entitled “All My Life’s A Circle.”  Songweavers is 110 women and 15 African style

Songweavers in dress rehearsal, practicing our sign language for "Take Good Care of Each Other."

Songweavers in dress rehearsal, practicing our sign language for “Take Good Care of Each Other.”

drummers reveling in the joy of music. It was our best concert yet because we were focused on the music, what we felt about it and the joy we felt singing together. We are an amateur choir, rehearsing weekly with few expectations, rallying to the challenge of a public performance, transcending our abilities and experience in one 90 minute concert a year. The results are far from perfect. They are electrifying.

Why do we sing?

We sing because we have to. We sing to share our love with others. We sing to open ourselves up to feelings, joy and connection. We sing because it makes us happy. We experience clear joy – in the music, in the vibrations created in and between each singer, and in the internal expansiveness created by group singing.

We feel connected to all the other singers, and to ourselves. The singing brings us home. We share that connection with the audience and receive their energy in return.

We sing for love; what else are we here for? This is our channel, singing songs, giving them to ourselves and to each other, to family and friends, for the sacred dissolution of separateness. Singing unifies in the moment of each breath, each note, each harmonic sound coming from each throat. We open ears, mouth and heart. One of our songs, “We Are A Circle,” written by Ellie Rolnick captures this feeling: “We are a circle, we are a web, woven together, thread upon thread, interconnected, we are as one you see, we are woven together you and me.”

Lisa Eberhardt, a long-time Songweaver who was unable to perform with us this semester wrote the following comment from the audience. “Watchin you all,…what I kept thinking about was the amazing opportunity it is, for so many people from so many places, to come together and make meaningful music together. I watched a grandfather… watching his grandchild ….in his daughter’s arms listen to his wife, her mother, her grandmother sing! I was in tears because that is what Songweavers is all about. Our Songweaver community singing to and with the greater community.”

That’s what we do when we sing.

Revel in connection.

Love the moment.

Sing our joy.

Recording in Nashville!

My daughter, Ariana, spent a week in Nashville recently recording two songs at the Loud Studio with top Nashville session musicians. I got to

Ariana in the recording studio of The Loud Studios in Nashville, TN.

Ariana in the recording studio of The Loud Studios in Nashville, TN.

sing back-up harmonies on one tune. Backing up my own daughter – now that was a life-time thrill. What was also thrilling was watching Ariana sing without nerves or attitude. She was prepared, confident, focused and responsive to direction from the engineer and producer. Anxious worries did not bother her. She said afterward, “That was so easy – and FUN!”

I, on the other hand, was bedeviled with self-doubt, which surprised me. Luckily, my husband was there because he know how to communicate with me when I get edgy in the recording studio. Trying to match Ariana’s vocal lines exactly as she sang them was quite tricky. I had to be patient, listen closely and trust myself.

The results of the two of us singing in tandem together were very satisfying.

Afterwards, Ariana and I talked about what made it “easy” for her. First, she practiced these songs for several months, not to have them “perfect,” but to enjoy the words and melodies and to play with vocal and stylistic options so she would have options in the studio, depending on what the other musicians needed. Second, she had a chance to see the recording studio and have dinner with the engineer and producer in advance. Seeing where she would be performing and meeting the key players helped build trust, allowing her to just sing when the time came.  Third, Ariana went to a Reiki practitioner to help her be ready emotionally and to align her goals with her inner and outer energy.

These three simple strategies are enormously helpful in allowing a performer to actually be able to do what they have practiced in the key moment required.

1- Practice and play so that you are confident of your ability to perform in a range of circumstances. There are a host of unknowns in a recording situation as well as a performance. Practicing for options gives you choices when the time comes and the ability to respond effectively, immediately and from a centered, responsive place.

2 – If at all possible, meet the other players or at least talk with them beforehand. Go to the studio or look at pictures on line so you can visualize yourself performing your best in that space.

3 – Work on your emotional and mental readiness. Get appropriate help if you need to. Our mental attitude and bellefs influence our feelings, which in turn, influence how freely we can sing.

Being well prepared allowed Ariana to sing in the recording studio with confidence, experimentation, and joy. I was happy to be reminded of the value of these strategies, especially from my own daughter!