Sound Healing

This is an exerpt from my March Viva La Voicegram. If you'd like to receive my monthly newsletter that features the complete article: "Sound Healing - Not Just for Britney Spears!', please sign up at: www.VivaLaVoice.com

Using sound as a tool for healing is as ancient as time itself. Shamans and Priests have used voice, rattles, drums and bells to stir the soul and free the body of physical pain and emotional suffering. Toning, using the voice as a healing tool, is incredibly powerful, and is used by everyone from sound healers to music therapists for grief therapy, energy balancing and emotional recovery. If the thought of toning makes you uncomfortable, let me tell you that you use toning every day without thinking about it. Imagine, you’ve just hit your thumb with a hammer. You unconsciously scream in agony. Can you imagine how unbearable the pain would be if you couldn’t release that pain with your voice? You didn’t even think about it, you just naturally expressed your feeling with the sound of the pain! Toning is simply a means of creating a healing, expressive vibration with your own voice.

There is much emerging data to confirm what sages have known for centuries, that sound, voice and music have the potential to heal the world. More and more people are seeking alternatives to the high cost, invasive, and often-ineffective nature of western medicine. If you think sound healing is only for Pop Divas and movie stars, think again. The power of sound is available to everyone, and worthy of continued investigation by the scientific community, as well as those seeking personal harmony and health.

If you would like to experience the power of sound healing first hand, I invite you to join me for a Chakra Tune Up workshop presented by Viva La Voice and Sacred Balance, March 25, 2006, in Salt Lake City. We’ll work with elements of sound, color and movement to clear and balance your energy system.
For more information: http://vivalavoice.com/chakra.htm
Voicegram recipients, get a $30 discount by registering before March 20!

The Right Path

Music can sometimes be a cruel mistress. There have been many times in my career when I struggled financially; was frustrated when a deal fell through; discouraged when I felt doors weren't opening when they should be. These feelings aren't exclusive to the music business, it happens to everyone. Life is inherently full of challenges. A wonderful writer friend of mine, Tama Kieves ("This Time I Dance") shared the following thoughts in her monthly newsletter. I especially loved the line 'I think the Universe loves you so much it won't let the wrong life take off'. Wow, isn't that great? It confirms that when things aren't flowing like you'd like them to, perhaps you're banging on the wrong door. We all have a path that is uniquely our own. Most of us spend a lifetime finding it, but when you do, your life opens up in glorious ways. Take time each day to do something you love; follow your artistic path, your altruistic path, the path that your heart yearns to follow. Thanks, Tama, for the reminder!

"What isn't working in your life? Maybe it's not supposed to. It could be there's a bigger life that calls you. Or a sweeter or more appropriate approach to what you're doing. That closed door may also be protecting you from an experience that would not serve you. Your true plum may not be behind the door you think, but behind another door that belongs to the house in the woods – that you won't even see until you take the wrong turn and find yourself lost...then found. I think the Universe loves you so much it won't let the wrong life take off.

I know that when a door closes, it can feel like all doors are closing. A rejection letter can feel like everyone will reject us. But a closed door leads to clarity. It's really an arrow. Because we cannot go through that door, we will go somewhere else. That somewhere else is your true life." -Tama Kieves

UVSC Songwriter's Class

Check out the photo of some of the students at radio station KTMP 1340: R to L - Dave Howard, Doug Swensen, Kelly Wright, Jerry VanBuren,Traci Madsen, Beth Lawrence (songwriting guru!) and Cary Hobbs

Last month I taught "Songwriting for Fun & Profit" at UVSC. It was the first time the class was offered (a four week class) and was a real success! There was a wide range of experience in class, which always makes it interesting and a great learning experience for all. A couple of the students had cut their own CD's; some had never written a song; others just wanted to learn how to put their ideas together in song form.

For our class 'final' Cary Hobbs, multi-talented musician and budding songwriter, had the class come down to radio station KTMP 1340 in Heber City (Cary's also an on-air personality there!) to share the music everyone had written in the four week class. Wow! It was really impressive! Even folks who had never written a song brought a completed version of the tune they'd been working on in class. It was good experience for the songwriter's to present their music live and on-air, and 'a good time was had by all'!

It's really amazing to see how much confidence everyone gains when the nuts and bolts of crafting a song are laid out logically, and presented in a de-mystified format. Usually at the beginning of the first class the students reluctantly and apologetically share a snippet of an idea; but at the end of that first class, with me laying out the foundation of rhyme scheme, cadence and form, everyone leaves empowered and excited to get writing.

We're so often told 'you can't' that when someone finally tells you 'you can!' it makes all the difference. All of a sudden, the students creativity opens up, as they change their belief system about their songwriting capabilities. I work really hard at getting the students to give up their belief in limitation, which blocks us from so much joy. So what a great reward it was for me to see the enthusiasm and creativity of each student culminate in this KTMP Songwriter's Showcase! I love to empower people to get excited about their art! Keep writing!

Jumping Off into the Blogosphere!

Here I go jumping off into the blogosphere! It's a brave new world here at Viva La Voice! Since some of you may have found this blog yesterday and read my first entry 'the quick brown fox', let me assure you that I'm a bit more creative than that template text would have let you believe.

Please check back often, as I love sharing my daily epiphanies. In fact, I told my fabulous Webmaster, Nashlah, at Buzz Booster, that if no one hears from me for a few months, they'll probably find me unshowered and surrounded by piles of discarded Starbuck's coffee cups....blogging!

Just finished teaching my Songwriting class tonight. It was a great class; we worked on how to get unstuck. I have a formula for that! Well, more like a 'process' that will take you from stymied to stellar! The secret is to open up the mind, quiet the self-critic, and basically, just let your self brainstorm the line, word, image or feeling that will lead you to your song concept. Then the overall concept drives the rest of the creative process. Okay, it's a bit more involved than that; please look for my EBook soon on this subject!

Well, too much fun for my first posting. I'll have photos of my recent workshops and this week's KTMP showcase for my fabulous songwriting students soon!
Beth