1. Join a group sing. They meet weekly or monthly. You get together with other people and ... yes ... sing! Folk songs, rock and roll, spirituals.
2. Take lessons. Taking lessons as an adult can be a very meaningful experience. Find a good teacher, explain your goals, and practice, practice, practice!
3. See live music. Go to concerts. Widen your interests. Try out a bluegrass show or a classical concert. You might be surprised. Talk to other concert-goers while you're there. Develop a community.
4. Join a community choir. Yup. Lots of these are low-pressure and they don't require much experience. The amount of camaraderie in these is amazing.
5. Listen to music. While you're cooking, put on Mahler's Song of the Earth. During dinner, instead of the television, put on Giant Steps. When gardening, listen to the sounds of birds. On the subway/train/bus, listen to the sounds of other passengers or listen to the Flaming Lips. Whatever you listen to, listen with INTENTION!
Monday, May 21, 2012
A few thoughts on how music can help save the world
1. Making music together creates community. Community creates wisdom (knowledge + compassion = wisdom).
2. When you're making music, you're not hurting anybody or anything. You're not buying things you don't need. You're not watching news programs that try to distance our relationship to the world.
3. Music gets people in touch with their emotions. We live too much in the brain and not enough in the heart. Fairness comes when we combine the two...
4. Listening regularly to music can teach us how to listen to other people, animals, plants, trees, the wind, the water. Listening creates deep compassion.
_______
For those musicians out there, musicians must be advocates for their community and for the world. Tell the world about what you already know. Create work that brings people together.
For those non-musicians out there, make music more a part of your life (and your significant other, children, friends, etc.)! The act of making music activates more parts of your brain than anything else (except for, maybe, meditating). Music is good for you and good for the planet!
2. When you're making music, you're not hurting anybody or anything. You're not buying things you don't need. You're not watching news programs that try to distance our relationship to the world.
3. Music gets people in touch with their emotions. We live too much in the brain and not enough in the heart. Fairness comes when we combine the two...
4. Listening regularly to music can teach us how to listen to other people, animals, plants, trees, the wind, the water. Listening creates deep compassion.
_______
For those musicians out there, musicians must be advocates for their community and for the world. Tell the world about what you already know. Create work that brings people together.
For those non-musicians out there, make music more a part of your life (and your significant other, children, friends, etc.)! The act of making music activates more parts of your brain than anything else (except for, maybe, meditating). Music is good for you and good for the planet!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
What Will June Hold for Me?
I moved across the country over two years ago to start a new life and career as a music therapist. Two days ago, I completed and submitted my master's thesis and by the end of this coming weekend, all of my coursework for my program will be over. In under a month, my final internship will be completed. The question is....what now?
My wife, Jessica, has asked me what I would like to do if I could choose. And the thing is, I don't know. I love everything that I have done with music therapy so far and have learned so much more than I could have imagined in such a short time. I've worked with people with dementia, mental illness, brain injury, and developmental disorders, and I love it all. I've developed a protocol to work with other therapists (and soon, musicians) using a music-and-mindfulness group setting, and loved that.
This is an exciting time and I can't wait to get into the world and show others what amazing things that music is capable of. I can't wait to begin performing and composing again this summer.
I plan on being a certified music therapist by June 1, meaning that I have a month and a half of strange limbo before I can take any work that I am offered. So I must take this time to breathe and smile and return to music for myself!
My wife, Jessica, has asked me what I would like to do if I could choose. And the thing is, I don't know. I love everything that I have done with music therapy so far and have learned so much more than I could have imagined in such a short time. I've worked with people with dementia, mental illness, brain injury, and developmental disorders, and I love it all. I've developed a protocol to work with other therapists (and soon, musicians) using a music-and-mindfulness group setting, and loved that.
This is an exciting time and I can't wait to get into the world and show others what amazing things that music is capable of. I can't wait to begin performing and composing again this summer.
I plan on being a certified music therapist by June 1, meaning that I have a month and a half of strange limbo before I can take any work that I am offered. So I must take this time to breathe and smile and return to music for myself!
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