Of dogs and the soundtrack of our lives

It's not often you see a dog in the ICU at a hospital! Above is Sasha, a pet therapist dressed up for Halloween. This picture was taken outside the door of a patient I had a request to play music for. It sure made me smile and soon after this picture was taken, Sasha rolled over on her back for me to pet her belly. Animals are so comforting. In fact I often as patients i meet if they have any animals at home and you ought to see their eyes light up. Sometimes there are pictures on the walls of them. Animals are unconditionally loving and are always there for us. At our best, our worst and everything in between, they remain loving friends and family to us.

I think of music in this same way. Everyone loves music and it is always there for us, just like a loyal pet. We have songs that created the soundtrack of our lives. Songs that accompanied our happiest moments; a wedding, graduation, a new love and we have songs that helped us through our hardest times of loss, sorrow, challenge.

Today in ICU, I played my guitar for a woman who has been on a rough journey for awhile. She's had several very serious health challenges come her way and her road is a hard one to be on for now. Her sister requested music for her. I sat down and improvised some soothing chords and melodies in a slow, even tempo in the hopes to bring her high heart rate down. Within minutes as I started to play, she closed her eyes and a most serene expression came on her face. She looked to be in a state of profound comfort and ease. Two sisters stood on each side of her, holding her hand and stroking her arms to show their love and caring.

It was such an honor to be present to this patient who is in such a time of need. Playing my guitar, I watched her closely to see her response.  If I noticed certain chords or notes brought her more peace, I repeated them over and over again. If she appeared agitated at all by any note or change in the music, I smoothly transitioned over to the musical prescriptions that were calming her.

I am grateful for the work I do and amazed with the healing power of music.

Celebrate Nature!

Hello everyone! What is the autumn season by you like? I love living in a place that has 4 seasons because I love each season for different reasons. I love autumn for the colors of the leaves on the fall, for the changes in the daylight, for the quiet the early nights bring.

Yesterday was a special day at Ivy Creek Foundation natural area in Charlottesville. I teamed up with the Live Poet's Society  in a celebration of the natural world with music, poetry and visual art. I sang some of my songs which focus on the beauty of nature. My song, "Choose the Sky"  is the title of my CD which you can learn more about on my CD Baby page.  I taught a couple of Native American chants too like, "I am One with the Infinite Sun."

Best of all was the good feeling of kindred spirits coming together to celebrate the arts and Nature at one of my favorite places around. Above is a picture I took there of some berries but now I am forgetting the name of them. If you know the name of them, let me know! :)

I love bringing music to all kinds of places. Friday I played at my gym in the lobby and loved how people came to me and told me their favorite music story. Everyone is touched by music in some way or another. How will music touch your life today?

Spinning lullabies in ICU

I'm going on my 10th year of playing therapeutic music for patients at a hospital and I just love it. In particular I love to play for patients in ICU. I was there today and played for patients who were in very critical condition. All of them were unable to speak (trache in throat) and hooked up with so many tubes and wires. Most of them were in a deep sleep or in a coma. I do know they can hear me. I know this also by watching the heart monitors. I'll tell you some about what I do.

Firstly, I never play what would be considered familiar music to them. When someone is so ill and unable to communicate,  I cannot risk sparking an unpleasant memory. It's happened to all of us. Haven't you ever been somewhere and suddenly an old song from the past comes on the radio and suddenly we are transported to an old, unresolved memory. We each have a soundtrack that accompanied both our best but also our worst memories. So that is why I don't play anything that could awaken a dark time because these patients need hope, comfort, calming.

So what I do is I improvise for them.  Today for instance I was playing for one patient and the nurse came in and said, "Play soft. If her blood pressure rises, then stop."   So I started playing a chord progression in the key of E because those are lower tones which are more restful, while higher pitches are stimulating. I was weaving melodies in a slow 3/4 time like a lullaby or a waltz. I watched her slowly breathing and I worked to match her rhythm.  It's all very scientific. Music is rhythm, just like our hearts that beat in rhythm. I play music in a slow rhythm to help the patient "entrain" to my slow, steady rhythm, to help stabilize their pulse.  If I see the monitor numbers rise, I back way off and play more quietly, more slowly.

It is very calming for me too. I often feel in such a zone, I have to consciously be sure I am staying alert to the patient's needs and shift my musical prescription according to their current symptoms.

When I am done playing I sit in the silence and send them positive thoughts and wish them peace and healing. I thank them for letting me play (aloud) for I do know they can hear me. It is such an honor to do this work.

I post the picture with the 5 Regrets of the Dying because each time I go to the hospital, I am confronted with people who may not go home. It has been good for me to always be reminded of what is most important in life.

Channeling George Eliot

Last night was such a lovely evening of stories, poems and songs at BON downtown Charlottesville. Opening the show was poet David Vaughn Straughn who came all the way from Brooklyn, NY to be with us. Sharing the evening was Jona Noelle of the poetry duo The Fire Tigers. I sang some of my new songs as well as songs that have been with me for awhile.  I enjoyed sharing some of my newest works in progress which are poems by George Eliot I set to music.

This past spring I went looking for poems to set to music and wanted to find something old enough to not worry about copyright issues. It seemed that everyone I thought of like Rumi, Hafiz, Elizabeth Barrett Brown, The Brontes, etc had been done already. Then I found a bunch of poems by George Eliot.  She is mostly known for her novels from the Victorian Era, "Middlemarch" and  "Adam Bede".  Her real name is Mary Ann Evans but she published under a man's name so that her work would be taken seriously.

As I worked on some of the melodies for her poems, I really felt as though I could have written these words.  One of the collaborations in particular came out that way. As I sang Eliot's words with my melody last night, I felt that it was my own work. One of the audience members also said this.

Here is the poem I am referring to:

Count That Day Lost by George Eliot

If you sit down at set of sun 

And count the acts that you have done, 

And, counting, find 

One self-denying deed, one word 

That eased the heart of him who heard, 

One glance most kind 

That fell like sunshine where it went -- 

Then you may count that day well spent.



But if, through all the livelong day,

You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay -- 

If, through it all 

You've nothing done that you can trace

That brought the sunshine to one face-- 

No act most small 
That helped some soul and nothing cost -- 

Then count that day as worse than lost.

I will record these poems someday soon! In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying our lovely autumn season!

Just what I needed...

Once a month I play my guitar in the lobby at the gym where I go (acac). I often improvise or play my own pieces, sometimes I bring in music to read from too. I generally try to create energizing and restorative soundscapes that will invite those weary from the world to sit for a spell and listen. And that is just what they do.

"This is just what I needed," a woman said as she sat down next to me and closed her eyes and listened.  Another man I see every day but we've never spoken came up and tapped me on my shoulder and said, "it's beautiful!"

Some people come and bring a newspaper or magazine and sit and listen and read and relax. I love how they "get it" that the music is there to restore and energize them. Sometimes when people see me with a guitar,  I feel like they expect me to entertain them. Not that there is anything wrong with entertainment but it is a whole different feeling. To me music is like a food that can nourish any kind of craving, need or taste. It can fulfill a need for adventure (Brazilian and Latin American music), or be like sonic vitamins (Bach, Vivaldi) to calm you, or it can be that staple standard of an old folk song like Shenandoah to make you feel refreshed.

I love watching the people going by and our conversations we have when they choose to come and listen.  Their smiles and gestures of gratitude to me energizes me to keep going and fill the room with harmonious sounds. In a world filled with noises of construction workers, leaf blowers, traffic, loud car stereos.. .it is a nice thing to provide some peace through music.

A mixed bag

Most of the time I share stories that are positive and uplifting. I choose to focus on those moments. That is not to say that I don't have challenging experiences.  Quite often they are a mixed bag of elements of distraction, disruption, conflict amidst the good things going on.

Yesterday I was singing at a nursing home in the skilled nursing area. People were gathered in the living room where small tables are set up and snacks and meds are given during music session.  There was an elderly man sitting at one of the tables eating a plate of scrambled eggs and cornbread. He was hooked up to an oxygen tank and used a wheelchair.  Every time I started to sing a song, he would yell out something I could not always understand because his mouth was full of food.  His tone was very rude, to the point where it was surprising how rude he was. Crumbs of cornbread and eggs would dribble all down his shirt. Each time he yelled out, an activities assistant would come over to him and whisper for him to be quiet. "What?!!" he would yell. "It is time for you to be quiet," she would say.

Being hearing impaired, things like this can be hard to focus with people yelling, staff trying to intervene, residents reacting.   Meanwhile there is me trying to get others to sing along. I do have to say that instead of feeling really annoyed, it seemed comical to me. It seemed that the man was trying to get me angry and I decided I would not let him.  I started to sing again and he yelled out, "Hot Dog!" The nice activities director came over to say, "I don't have a hot dog to fix you" she said to him. "I want a hot dog!" he yelled again and eventually the nice woman wheeled him off to his room.

It turned out to be a good session though. Ms. Tyler came and sang and picked out some songs. There was a man I've seen for a couple of years who sang along. All this time, I never knew he could even talk because he never has. It was great to hear his voice for the first time singing. Usually Ms. Tyler is unhappy with me because I don't have enough country songs in my repertoire but this time she picked songs she knows I sing. Often singing with seniors is a mixed bag. Because of their illness or disposition, it is not always easy to make them happy. I do try though and I was glad I didn't let Mr. Hot Dog spoil our time.

I'll Fly Away

I love when I find a song that really strikes a strong chord with the people I see. Sometimes I am surprised by which songs do this.  I've found that the song, "I'll Fly Away" is one that really gets people singing.  I am surprised because the lyrics say, "when I die, hallelujah by and by" and I thought that by mentioning any suggestion of dying would not feel appropriate to sing for someone very ill in a hospital or nursing home. But I see the glimmer of hope in their eyes when they sing this song.   Many of the people I see are very religious and also Southern--while i was raised without a religious upbringing in Chicago. Before I moved to Virginia, I never heard this song.

Yesterday I was playing for a patient at the hospital who was feeling down becuase she thought she was going home soon--only to find out that she had to stay longer. I sang for her a couple of songs I wrote and then her nurse (male) came in the room and requested I sing, "I'll Fly Away." As I started singing, he harmonized with me with the most beautiful voice! Then I saw the woman in the next bed over singing along while sewing on her needlepoint project.  The woman who was down a minute ago was now smiling and she just looked so happy.

After that song, the nurse and I sang a few more. I asked him what key and he said, "I don't need a key" and sure enough he could sing any song and key and adapt his voice accordingly. I wished I had a video to remember our moments in that room.  How music transformed the sadness into hope and inspiration. It lifted us all.  what song does this for you?