Monica Schley - Events Harpist, Wedding Harpist, Funeral Harpist

Harp Escape for the Darkest Days

Posted on December 27, 2020January 15, 2021

We are in the darkest time of a very challenging year. As we enter this winter season, we celebrate the light within and travel to inward time. Harp Escape taps into an old use of music, used as sound healing for your self care. Sufi mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan said “The use of music for spiritual attainment and healing of the soul, which was prevalent in ancient times, is not found to the same extent now. Music has been made a pastime…”

Join me on Patreon for Harp Escape’s Meditative audio recordings, sheet music and more. Once a month, I bring you high quality Meditative Harp Music audio recordings (ranging from 25-55 minutes), a Relaxing Music Video from my harp studio and places in nature, and sheet music arrangements. All of this music is recorded intentionally for you to find a relaxing space for meditation and mindful daily ritual, 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.

In Celebration of Poet Crysta Casey

Posted on November 10, 2020January 12, 2021

It is Veteran’s Day and I miss my friend Crysta Casey, who was a military journalist, poet, and painter. We met in 2002 at Red Sky Poetry Theatre (Seattle’s longest running open mic series). We were quite different people – she was 25 years my senior, a military veteran, and sufferer of extreme mental health issues – yet we had a very casual and organic friendship that came together quite effortlessly. It was only after her death, did I realize she was also my mentor and artistic advisor.

After the reading that night, Crysta and I talked on the street for a long time. She smoked cigarettes as we realized we shared similar poetic influences (Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds, the Surrealists, and others). We exchanged contacts to meet up and share poems. What started as frequent cafe meet-ups to read/critique each other’s work, eventually turned into a weekly date in Crysta’s Belltown apartment with wine and food and an exchange of books and literary magazines.

Harp Escape vol. 5 (Black Orpheus)

Posted on October 23, 2020January 12, 2021

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:

The End of Isolation

Posted on September 15, 2020January 12, 2021

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 4^th 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 Vol. 3 & 4

Posted on August 19, 2020January 12, 2021

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).

Recorded in 2019, volume 3 features Erik Satie’s iconic First Gymnopedie.

First Gynopedie (Erik Satie)

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.