One of my all -time favorite poets, Laurence Ferlinghetti, the great American bard and book publisher, died this spring just shy of his 102nd birthday. From his poem “A Sweet Flying Dream” We drifted wafted easily We flew wingless Full of air our hair Buoyed us We trailed our slim legs In streams of silver air There Was nothing blowing us down Or away From each other
We cannot escape one another. Even though we haven’t been able to physically congregate for a year, we also cannot ignore each other. Though we may feel isolated, worried, and fearful as some of the outer world opens up, we are all floating in this unknown realm together. And if indeed we are flying, it brings us levity and sometimes loss of control. At times it might be easier to just let go.
I have wild dreams about what I’d like to see happen next in my life. Partly encouraged by an artist residency at Centrum; partly in response to the pandemic, I sense a new beginning on the horizon. A new chapter of life for us all is imminent. It is here in fact. There is no holding back, so, best fly with the tricks of our highest ability.
Therapeutic music is an art based on the science of sound. It is typically live acoustic music, played or sung, specifically tailored for a person’s immediate needs. During this pandemic, though my work as a musician has been severely limited in-person, Harp Escape online has blossomed.
Harp Escape
I have created Harp Escape videos (on YouTube) and audio (made available to Patreon supporters) with the major goal of decreasing stress for my listeners in mind. Benefits of soothing music are many, like allowing the body to relax, unwinding tension, and anxiety relief. Music can also and aid in the healing process. Perhaps one of the most fascinating things I have found in studying music for therapeutic purposes, is that it encourages a listener’s breath to deepen and slow. This relaxation has a domino effect and does several things to benefit our body like:
Love is the end of isolation. Sometimes, when I have meditative moments of insight, I get messages of clarity, wisdom, poetry like this: Stop trying to be normal. The end of isolation is love.
This week, after the virtual school started for my 4th grader, but before the preschool has started for my almost 3 year old, I crumbled in a day of chaos, fallen under the hammering spell of a low-grade stress headache. In respite, I sat on the porch, trying to find some order in my mind, and how to create a new work/live/school schedule all under one roof. Its Quarantine 2.0!
Harp Escape is a series of videos and recordings dedicated to relaxing and calming music. What started out in 2019 as a YouTube video series, has turned into a pandemic weekly live concert series (on Facebook) and a new hour of instrumental harp every month (on Patreon).
A contemporary of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, Satie was also a part of the French Impressionist movement. He was older that the others at that time and somewhat reclusive. He was a bit of a mentor to some of the younger musicians at the time, though his use of whole tone scales was considered unusual. Whole tone scales are based upon the Pythagorean theorum, also known as The Golden Ratio. I think one of the reasons why Satie’s music is so timeless sounding is because they are based upon ancient sounds. These old intervals in the scales are striking because they sound at once soothing, unusual and yet familiar.
Certain modes, intervals and tempos are favored when playing therapeutic music. Because the harp is one of the most resonant instruments, it makes itself an easy candidate in therapeutic settings. It is mostly made of vibration.
Often, I work with the songs of Hildegard von Bingen who, during Medieval times, frequently wrote modal music. A rare woman composer of the age, her songs are often in Dorian and Phrygian modes – starting the tonic of the musical scale on D or E, instead of C that we are typically used to. This can sound a bit ancient to our modern ears. Each mode is different from the next, depending upon where the half-steps and whole steps are. Combining modal scales with balanced intervals of 3rd, 4th and 5ths can be familiarizing, resonant in our bodies, and harmonious feeling.
Therapeutic musicians want to be
mindful of the particular ailments of the patient we are playing for.
Not everyone needs the same thing, and that person’s needs can also
change in a short amount of time.
Playing for the Orca whales on top of the world – looking down on the San Juan Islands, WA
Recently, I played for a man suffering from cancer, who was originally from Peru. South American culture is rich in upbeat rhythms. When I arrived playing my small Irish harp (nothing like the Peruvian harp), playing airs and American folk songs, he wanted something much more peppy with quick chord changes. It is atypical for me to play music at a quick tempo at the bedside, yet that is what this client wanted. When I switched styles, he visibly cheered up. It is imperative to look at the patient and harmonize with what they need to hear. If their facial expressions show a displeasure, you would want to change what you are playing, maybe even stop. The quick-paced songs that this client wanted were reminiscent of his youth. That is what made him happy, and that is partially what therapy music is about. Its like a concert for one person with a positive intention.
In contrast, I played for a 95 year old woman who became very emotional when she heard the harp. Her shoulders slumped and she appeared melancholy. She had dementia. When I saw she was crying, I switched to a popular soothing musical choice for harpists – traditional Celtic tunes. She didn’t stop crying. Then, I knew she was experiencing feelings deep inside that couldn’t be expressed otherwise. With her more progressed dementia, she spoke in “word salad”, a sort of unintelligible garble. It must be frustrating and scary to not be able to communicate. Music was helping those repressed feelings be released. When her daughter asked her if she’d like me to stop playing, she said no. Her tears were a relief.
Traditional Celtic music is often very relaxing for a general population.
Having a positive intention behind the
music is a good idea as a musician. Like any caregiver, it is wise to
arrive with no agenda other than to care for the individual in the
moment. If I am lucky, I may even improve their day!
Time is on my side, and yet it is my greatest challenge!
I am always on the lookout for how creative mothers make their way through the world – I don’t have any other day job; my work is based on writing and music and I have two young children.
There is a real need for artist mothers to share in their creative process in my opinion – for encouragement, creative tips, support, and just sharing how its done in a practical sense. The world doesn’t always make it easy for artist moms to continue on their journey once they’ve had a baby. The path suddenly gets very bumpy. The road bottoms out. You don’t know how to go on. I would read Dr. Seuss’s “Oh the Places You Go” to my daughter and think – Oh, this is real. This is exactly what I’m experiencing.
When I had my daughter 8 years ago, I was really searching for some creative support written by and for someone like me. I didn’t find anything of the sort. Now I know of at least three podcasts: Rachel Zucker’s Commonplace;The Longest Shortest Time by Hilary Frank; and musician Laura Veirs’ Midnight Lightning. I still haven’t found any written material that deeply addresses how new mothers adjust their creative process and how to support it, which is not to say that it doesn’t exist. I just know I’d still like to read a book like that. However, when you are multi-tasking making dinner, a hands-free podcast is just the ticket! (and these three mentioned are great).
I used to have a more elaborate system of writing poetry and prose. I would handwrite in my journal, then transfer to a more refined notebook, then type it up, print it out, and workshop the writing. Since having children, I don’t have time to do practically any of that!
With a baby, I always feel like there’s a ticking timer at nap time. I try to squeeze in moments to write or practice, but I never know how long it will be. How long will my creative freedom last? If I start to record, will I be interrupted with a cry? Certainly, when kiddos are school-aged, time opens up. With more than one child, time must be blocked out with more commitment.
I create lists of how to prioritize. There is the weekly one and the daily list. For example today is – #1 practice music for gig tonight; #2 transcribe a piece for Sunday’s Mothers’ Day duet with pianist Josh Rawlings (that I can use for Harp Escape as well); #3 blast out my album to one agency; #4 write something. If I can do that much – that would be AMAZING! I always aim high. Sometimes only one thing gets accomplished, and if someone has a fever or a field trip, forget about it. I have to be real about the current daily situation of food, laundry, school lunch, diapers, etc. that I have.
When I had my first kiddo, I blended my writing and music together, sort of by accident. Once I stopped gigging late night shows, I began songwriting. The poetry morphed into lyrics instead. I had to become selective about what I said yes to. Would I take a club gig at 10pm? No way, not unless it paid well (ha ha ha). Eventually, people stopped asking me, but that’s ok. Because I changed.
I won’t lie. Sometimes I find myself lamenting over the artists who have more freedom than me. It takes so much time to polish a craft and I never feel like I have enough anymore. I don’t have a creative stuckness; I have a restriction. This is interesting though, because motherhood is also the blessing that allowed me to open up into a new form! When I stopped saying yes to all of the club gigs, I put my energy into songwriting. I started singing in public. I wrote enough songs to record an album. I formed a band (The Daphnes) and now I can be leader and call the shots to what fits my lifestyle. I probably wouldn’t have organized it all this way if it had not been for motherhood “restricting” me. Plus, it always seems like half of my songs are inspired in someway by the process of being mom. So – its a two-sided coin. A yin-yang.
I feel like its now or never these days, pretty much all the time. Its sort of Zen, but its also sort of desperate. I am very of the moment. After the baby boy fell asleep today, I checked my email and immediately blasted out a response which has turned into this blog post. It always feels so good to re-purpose something.
Being a musician mama means that I sometimes practice for 5 minutes with a squirming toddler in my lap, I cram in my own practice time between students, or I have to accept that I might be winging it at the gig a little more.
Its maddening! Its terrifying! Its exciting! Its the gift of a lifetime.
The world is full of static and noise, subliminal, and actual. Online. Offline. In our minds and in our streets. Garbage trucks and jackhammers. Nagging conversations and bills. Deadlines and confrontations.
Harp Escape is a respite from the chaos. It is an online aural get-away.
Twice a month, I will bring you new music videos from my harp studio. This music will be played with intention for a relaxing moment, for you to take a break from the demands of your life and breath deeply, while listening to the healing sounds of the harp’s vibrations.
As a Certified Clinical Musician, I have studied how certain intervals, musical modes, and tempos can have a particularly soothing effect. I will merge this ancient healing knowledge with my skills as a life-long musician and harpist of 25 years. I am a songwriter, an improviser, and I will be arranging particular songs for the intent of a healing Harp Escape.
Sound is vibration. Sound vibrates water. Humans are composed of 75% water. Therefore, we too vibrate from the sounds in and around us. Because there is so much stress and noise in our modern world, I feel it is imperative right now to pay attention to the sounds around us.
A New Journey
Harp Escape is an online place to relax. A virtual experience of the harp cannot take the place of a live session, but in this way, I will be able to reach more people.
Our eyes have lids, but our ears do not. We have no way to say “no” to displeasing sounds; therefore, it is essential that we become aware of when our world is too noisy and too stressful. It is important for our good health that we contrast the harmful sounds with pleasing ones, because they will relax us. Through relaxation we can unwind our nerves and return to a healthy homeostatis.
As I begin this journey of bringing you new calming arrangements of harp music, my goals are:
Upload videos twice per month
Share themes, chosen either by me or by you
Offer sheet music arrangements of particular songs
Did you see the full moon lunar eclipse last week? From my porch, I watched the moon fade to grey, then a bruised blue, disappearing entirely into the night sky. It became swallowed by a mystery, only to have a reddish, orange overtake its full shape in an hour. The blood moon.
The moon and I have a connection. Monica. Moni. Moonie. Moonbeam. These are some of the playful nicknames I have had.
Swallowed by mystery
I go back to the moon often in my lyrics: “moon I see you shining down on me by its you I see slither underneath Persephone”
This verse comes from my song, Mood Indigo, which is featured in Braids of Kabuya, book of lyrics. Made as a companion piece to The Daphnes album, Braids of Kabuya, this book of lyrics is a way to follow along with the music, and also enjoy as stand alone reading.
Three years ago I had an unusual encounter at my local coffee shop. I had been in such an awful funk in November 2015. So, one weekday, when I normally worked from home, I resolved to get out of the house and went to my local cafe with my laptop. It was pretty packed with people, so I sat down directly across from someone. She was an older woman reading a new hardback, still wrapped in Elliot Bay Books brown paper. I asked her, “New book?”
As simple as that, we began talking. The book she was reading was by Patti Smith and it opened a small doorway between the two of us. We talked about the book and Patti’s music. This woman had gone to hear Patti read downtown the night before. Music meant so much to this woman. She told me her name was Pam.
Pam had worked for the postal service. She retired early she said, “But for what? I got early retirement and worked hard all my life. Now I don’t know what to do with myself.”
She started off working in Spokane, and was a sort of punk herself. She had dominating male associates, whom she rebelled against in the small ways she could while still keeping her job. There was a lot of misogyny in the 80’s at the postal service she told me. She needed this job because she was on her own. She had wanted to be doing something meaningful and creative in the world but felt trapped and couldn’t find a means to go to school, so she just stayed at the post office because it paid well.
I listened to her, but all the while I was emotionally fragile. I was feeling worried about how I’d pay all of my bills this month. I told Pam what I did for work, that I am a musician and poet, a writer of words and songs. I had made a well-thought out plan over three years that was five-fold. My focuses are: recording;public performances;private events;teaching; and the new addition: healing music.When one source of income didn’t come in, another would. Or so I thought.
https://monicaschley.com
I had recently quit a secure office job in arts administration to pursue my career as a full-time musician. But, at the time, things weren’t manifesting well as a Certified Clinical Musician. I thought I would have had five clients a month by now, but I only had one. It was making a real monetary dig into my small savings and was disheartening. I was starting to get worried. Scared. I also had a young child, and began to think that I had made a dreadful, self-indulgent choice to pursue my art as my career and she would suffer for it.
People have said sometimes its easier talking to a stranger than a friend, and I suddenly found myself speaking candidly to Pam. She was listening closely, in the same way I had listened to her, sitting across from me, with her long hair and thin face. She looked a bit like Patti Smith herself, a grande dame punk.
Because I had my laptop right there, I shared my website with her and some of my writing and recordings. I don’t know how it happened exactly, but suddenly, I found myself weeping. I tried to reign it in, but I had opened the gate. Pam listened so kindly and told me not to give up. That I was on the path to a uniquely rich life and most people didn’t have the bravery to take that kind of leap. She didn’t. She had wanted to, but was too afraid. To my great shock, she reached out her hand and gave me $50!
I couldn’t believe it. I certainly was not expecting anything to come out of our conversion other than that, a simple exchange of words. Instead, I had made a friend and a patron. She wanted to hear more about my shows and my work and asked to be on my mailing list of events that I send out monthly. That simple act of listening would have been enough, but the encouragement she gave me was lovely and fuels my spirits still today. Three years later at Thanksgiving, I still think of this encounter at the cafe with a wonderful stranger.
My daughter was five when this happened. When I would pack up for a gig, she would wave good-bye at the window and say, “Don’t give up!”
I am still not sure why she said that, but I sure needed to hear it. When I shared this story originally on my event mailer, many people wrote back with their own struggles and stories of endurance.
Now, I am in a new place, a better one I think. My work as a therapeutic bedside harpist did pan out, though there have been downs, I notice the ups too and realize that is part of the process. To my surprise, I’ve also become a mom for a second time. The fact that I can continue on with my five-fold plan with another person to nurture is a miracle in itself. My kids are both healthy and they help me to really prioritize my time – the balance of time I spend on my work; the time I spend with them; and how the two can overlap sometimes.
In Patti Smith’s book Just Kids, she describes leaving her home in New Jersey to make a new life as an artist in New York City. When she got to the bus terminal, she realized she didn’t have enough money for fare. She went to a phone booth to call her mother, and when she closed the door, she saw that someone had left her purse in there. Patti took that as a sign. She took just enough money from that purse to pay the rest of her fare and turned in the purse in to lost and found.
I might have given up on my dream had it not been for meeting Pam that day. I don’t know for sure, but I’m glad I kept going. The road isn’t always smooth, but the journey is real and sometimes there is magic.
… And we are launched! Braids of Kabuya came out on Oct 1st. I am so proud of how this album sounds and all of the work we put into it: the songwriting, the musicianship of all the players, the mixing, and the beautiful artwork by Stephen Schildbach.
I have so many thank you’s. The list is long and the gratitude so great. THANKS to these people and places who are a part of these songs, who heard them in fresh form, and helped me to polish them into a shape that has become real: the amazing musicians on this recording; Christina Honeycutt; Luara Moore; Jeppa K. Hall; Naomi Siegel; Marchette Dubois; Anne Matthews; Lori Goldston; Lori Andrews & Burt Samolis; Claudia Schmidt; Doug Haire; Jon, Betsy & Sam; Roseann Barnhill & Krukenberg Garden; Colleen Zickler; Sarah Kavage & Adria Garcia; Bobland; The Sorrento Hotel; The Cascade Mountains; Zephyr; and above all Stephen.
GRATUTUDE: to all of our Kickstarter donors! I feel blessed to have such a supportive community.
You can hear The Daphnes play the album live: on Thurs, Oct 25, 2018 The Good Shepherd Center in Seattle (Wallingford) at The Chapel Performance Space 7pm – $10 General Admission – All Ages
