Tag: songs of comfort

Harp Side of the Moon Harp Escape vol. 12

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Get ready for a Pink Floyd reference; we’re going to the harp side of the moon. Harp Escape vol. 12 is “A Saucerful of Secrets” by Pink Floyd. I started Harp Escape videos in 2019, before the pandemic hit our world, because even then, I thought we need the space to heal ourselves. Times have definitely gotten more complex and stressful, so I continue to make therapeutic harp music on YouTube.

Specifically, Harp Escape is relaxing music that provides an aural getaway. Harp Escape is created just for you to: get ready for bed, practice yoga, meditate, nap, read, and add quiet to your daily personal rituals.

Monica Schley wedding harpist Seattle Tacoma harp therapy healthcare music teacher jazz music

Calming music of this nature has been scientifically proven to increase deep breathing, which in turn increases blood flow, decreases stress, and promotes deeper sleep. I prepared this song in the style and manner as I would play it at the therapeutic bedside, so this song is at a particularly slow tempo, and intended for deep relaxing. By finding inner peace, we get to outer peace.

That said, I’m not feeling so great today. This is my third cold of the winter and I’m in bed at 8:30pm. I hope to feel better by Saturday, so I can play my gig at Muckleshoot Casino (a totally different style of music I play!).

Because my brain was at half-mast today with this cold, I tried unsuccessfully to write this blog several times. The funny thing about my version of the Pink Floyd song, I started to second guess myself that it was the correct song title.

I saved the video as “A Saucerful of Secrets” – a song by the same name from their 1968 album. My video has been up on YouTube since 2021 and is one of my least popular videos. I thought it might just be too obscure and atonal, both fair assumptions. Then I listened again to their song “Echos” on the album Meddle. They two songs sounded so similar. Had I put up the video with the wrong title? Did I have a cold back in 2021 too when I did all this work?

I’m really second-guessing myself in this foggy cold brain of mine. After re-listening to both songs, I do the know the correct answer, but if you want to chime up, let me know –  is this song “Echos” from Pink Floyd’s album Meddle, or “A Saucerful of Secrets?”

Either way, I hope this volume of Harp Escape brings some intentional results of peace of mind and relaxation. If you want to know more about these videos, please subscribe to the Harp Escape YouTube channel.

Harp Escape vol. 11 (What the River Says / Aer Enim)

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For Harp Escape vol. 11, I played two songs: What the River Says and Aer Enim. Both of the songs have a river theme.

If you like this music, you can purchase an arrangement of this medley on my website here or at SheetMusicPlus.com

Monica Schley, Seattle Tacoma harp teacher therapy music What the River Says William Stafford
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How To Publish A Book of Sheet Music

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this article is published in April 2025 issue of Musicland, newsletter of the Musicians Association of Seattle

Many musicians, especially those who have taken music history classes and read sheet music, are aware of who Hildegard von Bingen was. I was first introduced to Hildegard’s music as a teenager by my organ teacher, when I was playing for mass. Fast forward a few years, and I went to university where I heard about her again (in music history). I even ended up writing a paper on her. Thirdly, I came across Hildegard’s music when I played harp in hospital and hospice as a Certified Clinical Musician.

Who Was Hildegard von Bingen?

Hildegard von Bingen lived from 1098-1179 in Germany during the Middle Ages, at a time when education and literacy were controlled by the Catholic Church. Hildegard was “given” as a tithing to the church, not an uncommon practice of the time. When she was 14, she was sent to live a life of religious devotion in Disibodenberg.

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Harp Escape vol. 9 (The Dorian Suite)

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In my YouTube series Harp Escape, vol. 9 features (The Dorian Suite), a song I wrote in honor of my young son. Born in 2017, he was just a toddler when the Pandemic hit, and I wrote this song. At the time I was an artist-in-residence at Nalanda West in Seattle, a Buddhist retreat center. There, I spent hours in quietude composing, meditating, and writing in my journal. (Months before wrote a poem inspired by my new baby, later published in Literary Mama.)

When the world was experiencing early signs of the virus, before lockdown, I was at the Nalanda West a couple days a week. It was a place for me to find peace with the unknown. Any parent with young children can tell you, finding time to oneself is a precious commodity. There are many shifts throughout the day, hour by hour, minute by minute. Music and writing have always been a tool for me to get to a happy place and connect with myself and my place in the world. Through searching, through writing music and words, I was able to find an expression for the time and space of 2020, personally and globally. That is a lot of what this song is about.

This piece has several shifts: from Dorian mode to a relative minor (B minor). The meter, or rhythm, changes back and forth from 4/4 to 3/4 time. This is a musical metaphor for how I felt pulled to and fro, as mom, as musician, as person comfortable in the world, as a person uncomfortable in the world.

Here you can listen to Harp Escape vol. 9 (The Dorian Suite).

Harp Escape vol. 9 (The Dorian Suite)

Sheet music for The Dorian Suite, available now at Sheetmusicdirect.com!

Top 10 Sounds to Heal Your Life

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Music can be a tool to aid in healing and relaxation. Relaxing sounds encourage us to deepen our breathing, which in turn can encourage many positive side effects like deepened sleep, decreased anxiety, lower heart rate, and decreased stress. Playing harp music is something I do often as a healing modality for bedside therapy, funerals, rites of passage, and for my children when they are ill or need help falling asleep.

Below are ten ways to use sound and music to improve and heal your life. All of these suggestions include awareness of breath and augmenting of breath. So much of our own wellness is linked to breath.

Music can be a tool to aid in healing and relaxation. Practicing meditation, for example, can be enhanced with music. Relaxing sounds encourage us to deepen our breathing, which in turn can encourage many positive side effects like deepened sleep, decreased anxiety, lower heart rate, and decreased stress.

Seattle Harpist

Below are 10 sounds that can significantly improve and heal your life. All of these suggestions include an awareness and augmentation of breath. So much of our wellness is linked to our breath.

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