Music ...MMMMMM Natural Nourishment for the Whole Family
An article about professional singer Karen Howland

It all began with an invitation to a potluck and no time to make food. Instead I grabbed my guitar, Gabriel, hoping that my contribution of music instead of food would satisfy voracious July appetites. As it happened, it did and then some. But maybe it began before that, when my mother cradled me with song as we did the rock-a-bye dance. Maybe songs are encoded in our cells which strangely lie in organized rows so like musical notes in harmony. No, it goes farther back, through our genes, even through the heavens. The Hopi Indians believe that a song created life on earth. If so, the implications of this today would mean we could re-create ourselves, our community, and our very circumstances and health with music.

From the first whoosh that rocked us in our mother's wombs as the drumming of her heart promised us a bigger world, we were toe-tapping, rhythm-flung creatures with an instinctual hunger for music. Any kind will do--rain on the roof, a cricket-filled night, the crunch of an apple warm from the tree, our footsteps in a snowy field, and the rhythm of the bat hitting the ball as the crowd screeches. There are many natural rhythms that fill our everyday life offering us inspiration and satisfaction if we will only listen to the feast of sounds around us. Recently, I stood on a dock at midnight in the northern
woods. With the Milky Way above me and below me in the lake, it was easy to feel my body pulsating synchronously to the same celestial rhythm of star-flicker and the unseen spinning of planets. The seasons and the sea are always affecting us with their moody goodbye songs which the best blues singers try to capture with similar passion.

Song is vibration and scientists now tell us what mystics have always known-- everything that lives and breathes is vibrating and therefore emotes a vibrant lifesong. Taoists have understood for centuries that the universe is woven in verse as opposite forces play out their harmony through the elements. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek physician, believed that each planet hummed. Consider this the next time you're pushing a cart down aisle five. Begin humming and don't be surprised if the tomatoes respond all the way from produce (the organic ones especially). In her book "Sound as a Tool for Transformation," Vicki Dodd explains how the simple act of humming nurtures, feeds, and calms the nervous system.....creating a deep experience of centering. If a weightlifter's grunt helps them direct power through the body, why not groan, or grunt, or wail, or warble the next time you need a quick dose of energy? Why not give yourself a sound bath or an inner sonar massage during a stressful transition?

We need no convincing about how phenomenally good music makes us feel. There's nothing esoteric about the fact that when we sing, our pupils dilate and a rush of endorphins (our body's natural painkillers) surge through our bodies. Singing increases oxygenation in our bloodflow, tones the nervous system, heightens our immunity, and affects glandular secretions. Healers often use sustained vocalization of individual pitches for the purpose of resonating specific body areas to realign and rebalance.

When I was in Florida swimming with dolphins, those quirky singers of the sea, I felt cocooned in their clicking music which felt healing and beautiful throughout my body and soul. When we sing, we deepen our breath, which often becomes shallow in our anxious pursuits. By breathing from our belly, we return our power to the Tan-T'ien, the center of vital energy which the Chinese say is just below our navel. Take a deep breath right now and feel how satisfying it is. Now breathe again and on the exhale, say ahhhh, letting your voice cascade like a waterfall. Feel good? Don't worry that all your co-workers are staring. Breathing, singing, inspiration, and intuition are natural body functions which we often don't allow due to fears and expectations. Trust yourself and you will hear a new clarity in your voice.

We live in a time where music is once again prescribed medicine. Down through the ages, shamans have used song to heal wounds and broken bones. Ancient practices in India, Egypt, and Greece often composed and performed music with a healing intent. Even Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz used her mantra--there's no place like home--to return her consciousness to her body. Now days there's Mozart for the restless child, sonatas for PMS, and lithotripters which use sound waves to shatter kidney stones...As a nurse, I saw time and time again how music lifted the sadness of the elderly, released fear and pain during labor and delivery, and gave hope to people considering suicide.

As a new mother, I've used music with my baby to teach her to trust and recognize the love in my voice. During my homebirth, I used tones to gather my energy. Having Helen Dentice, my midwife, along with my husband and women friends chant the simple musical phrase deeper and deeper, safe and secure, helped me reach a profound level of power and peace. The sounds, at one point, actually became an almost palpable texture that held me in its benevolent chamber.
Since that time I've sung Chloe, my nightowl, to sleep at two a.m. It is only the lullaby of my voice and milksong from my breast that soothes her on difficult nights. During the day, we bask in songs from the Hundred Acre Woods and other fuzzy niches where our songs turn learning into love and enchantment. When Chloe was just a baby I took her with me to the Conservatory for my voice lessons and I'd place her on the piano so she could feel the vibrations. Other times I'd hold her against my heart in a baby sling while I sang "Moonriver" and before we knew it we'd completed the voice lesson without interruption.

So how can we provide musical experiences for ourselves and our children when our hands trample the ivories rather than tickling them or when our voices launch a note we feel is headed for a star but instead lands with a thud like a bullfrog in a puddle? Think about music in a new way! Forget it if you can't sing or play an instrument. There are many sources of music. Some you can create easily and some just need to be discovered and heard with new ears. At the next family picnic have everyone spit watermelon seeds to Beethoven's Fifth--da da da da, da da da da. During cleanup, find a few brooms and have everyone sweep the floors while brushing songs out with the beat of the bristles like the chimney sweepers did on the rooftops in Mary Poppins (or for you theater go-ers, like Stomp, a British group that makes riveting music from running faucets and brooms, to plastic blown-up bags) Next time there's a thunderstorm, don't hide under the pillow or turn on the TV. Sit in a circle with your family and friends, turn off all the lights, except for a candle, and just listen. Feel the earth tremble with its symphony of nitrogen. Then when you feel brave, mimic the booms with your voice and see who can boom the lowest. Go make some popcorn and crunch in different rhythms. Put some of the unpopped kernels in Tupperware, close the lid and shake, shake, shekere. Soon you'll be part of the storm and the thunder outside will seem awfully quiet compared to the noise in the living room. When the rainstorm ends, you may feel so nostalgic you'll have to go buy a rainstick. Rainsticks are wonderful percussive instruments anyone can play. All you need is one hand and a bit of gravity to make the beads inside the stick cascade their song for you.

The French have a saying "That which cannot be spoken can be sung" Those things felt so deeply, such as our love for our family, need to be said if not with words, with a tune connecting us to what is most true. Our American perfectionism has us thinking when we open our mouths we have to sound like Maria Callas. There's a saying from Zimbabwe: "If you can talk, you can sing!" The writer Eudora Welty tells a story of how lacing her shoes as a child became a musical event. 
One morning her mother began singing while frying the bacon. Eudora's father responded from the upstairs with a whistle.
This continued as Eudora fastened her boots and felt their musical exchange enter her fingers and memory forever. It is this spontaneity of the senses that feeds us with rich delicious memories filling us with creativity for the present moment.


Karen Howland is a professional singer, poet, composer, and registered nurse who offers Music Spas and does 1 on 1 song medicine consultations. Karen's acoustic vocals and guitar are available for healing retreats, weddings, children's parties, and any special event. She resides in Milwaukee WI and can be reached at (414) 351-1825.


Copyright 2001. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be used or reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.