I haven’t written a blog post here since the pandemic and much has happened since then. I did teach in the NYC public school system as a full-time music teacher for three school years from Sept 2020 – June 2023 before I resumed performing and touring full-time. Before the end of each semester in the last two years of my full-time teaching I used to encourage the 11th and 12th grade students to think about what they could use that they learned in my class for a future profession.
We were always able to come up with about 15-20 different professions outside of being a performer where the knowledge of music or music theory would be useful or sometimes required (Sound Engineer, Music Teacher, Arts Administrator, etc.). I’d heard of Music Therapy and I’d always add that to the list for those who had never heard of it. But in investigating the latest in Music Therapy I started running across more and more astounding information about Sound Healing. Where Music Therapy might be more psychological, Sound Healing affected physical healing.
Many years prior, I’d bought the book The Healing Power of Sound by Dr. Mitchell Gaynor in 2004 and purchased an authentic Tibetan singing bowl the following year. I’d listened to singing bowl CDs and binaural beat tracks for meditation or to relax. I’d also bought a few other small instruments along the way, some authentic ting-shas, a 136.1Hz weighted tuning fork, a crystal quartz bowl, but nothing that would comprise of a collection.
It seems that particularly during the years 2005-2015 a large number of books had been published detailing the findings of pioneers who had been experimenting, researching and funding their own research over the last two decades or more. For those who had created protocols to teach others how to affect healing for their clients, the vast majority of these classes were taught in-person. Being that few people had ever heard of these modalities (or Sound Healing) their number of students was rather small and thus classes were not frequently offered. Also it usually meant physically leaving the city or town you live in to physically attend which often also involves airfares, hotels and/or extensive driving, plus the time commitment. For busy people it was nearly impossible to get involved in learning about these modalities.
Many of these practices continued to get refined, and by the time the pandemic came most all classes had to be taught online. This not only shifted the delivery of the information but also its reach became worldwide. Also during the pandemic far more people were looking for answers and had more online time to do so. Fast forward, I was astonished to find out that nearly anyone could learn these practices from the comfort of their own home and learn with a degree of competency.
Once I left full-time teaching and went back into performing I promised myself to devote lots of time to learning this Sound Healing which inherently I’d always thought was possible. Humanity in every culture has always had a version of Sound Healing whether it was drumming, clapping, dance, singing, special instruments like singing bowls, playing standard instruments in a certain way as to bring recovery to someone, or joining group musical activities. Even singing “Happy Birthday” in a restaurant for a person you’ve never met makes you feel better 🙂 I was excited to learn that not only could an average person begin to learn, practice, and gather knowledge and benefits about some of the ancient practices (like group drumming, Tibetan bowls, playing didgeridoo or reciting mantras) but many of the more recently discovered practices as well, such as the newer modalities of using tuning forks and crystal singing bowls.
I kept my promise to myself and embarked on this journey to learn and perform some of these practices. Since then I’ve seen first-hand healings occur in people mentally, emotionally and physically. It seems the first thing Sound Healing does is reduce the recipient’s level of stress, then offer them a re-patterning so the body can move in a more healthy “flow” to bring a higher level of “sound health” to the mind and body. It seems to open the ability for different bodily systems to re-harmonize with itself so organ systems are communicating better.
Since I’ve been studying these practices and performing them now as well, I’ll be starting a new sound healing website soon offering information and my services. In the meantime some great books to read are The Healing Power of Sound by Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics by Jonathan Goldman and Human Tuning by John Beaulieu. There are thankfully many other great Sound Healing books, films, courses, and references that have brought what some may have believed was “woo woo” into hard science. And thankfully there are more ways to engage as a recipient than ever. More on this coming soon!
