Has Your 'Someday' Arrived Yet??

If you're still waiting for the perfect time to live your life more fully, maybe you need to read my August Voicegram, all about 'doing it NOW', rather than 'doing it Someday'.

This month's Voicegram has a special tribute to Composer Jeff Day, also.

 Beth Lawrence's August Voicegram

http://conta.cc/Pulz9c

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Music and Alzheimer's Research

Music may help Alzheimer's disease

The early symptoms of Alzheimer's--memory loss, forgetfulness--are so similar to those of natural aging that the disease is often diagnosed too late for effective treatment.  Now an MIT team has created music software to help diagnose the disease much sooner.  Users compose songs and then play a Concentration-like game that involves recalling excerpts of melody pairs and other memory tasks.  You can track your own results and watch for signs of more serious cognitive decline.  "If Alzheimer's can be detected early, medication and mental exercises have a better chance of stabilizing memory loss or at least slowing down the progression," says one of the software's creators, Adam Boulanger, Ph.D.  The software is currently in clinical trials, but researchers hope to release a commercial version to the public within the year.

From AARP: The Magazine, August/September 2012  http://aarp.org/magazine

Music Relaxation

Music promotes relaxation

Music can promote relaxation of tense muscles, enabling you to easily release some of the tension you carry from a stressful day (or week).

It can help you get ‘into the zone’ when practicing yoga, self hypnosis or guided imagery, can help you feel energized when exercising, help dissolve the stress when you’re soaking in the tub, and be a helpful part of many other stress relief activities.  It can take an effective stress reliever and make it even more effective!

Music can help your brain get into a meditative state, which carries wonderful stress relief benefits with it.   For those who find meditation intimidating, music can be an easier alternative.

Excerpted from http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/musicrelaxation.htm

Benefits of Music

Music is therapeutic

Music can be used to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay. This can help prevent the stress response from wreaking havoc on the body, and can help keep creativity and optimism levels higher, bringing many other benefits.

Music has also been found to bring many other benefits, such as lowering blood pressure (which can also reduce the risk of stroke and other health problems over time), boost immunity, ease muscle tension, and more. With so many benefits and such profound physical effects, it’s no surprise that so many are seeing music as an important tool to help the body in staying (or becoming) healthy.

With all these benefits that music can carry, it's no surprise that music therapy is growing in popularity. Many hospitals are using music therapists for pain management and other uses. Music therapists help with several other issues as well, including stress. 

Excerpted from http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy.htm

Music As Therapy

Music can counteract stress

Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state.  Also, research has found that the change in brainwave activity levels that music can bring can also enable the brain to shift speeds more easily on its own as needed, which means that music can bring lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you’ve stopped listening.

With alterations in brainwaves comes changes in other bodily functions. Those governed by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate can also be altered by the changes music can bring. This can mean slower breathing, slower heart rate, and an activation of the relaxation response, among other things. This is why music and music therapy can help counteract or prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress, greatly promoting not only relaxation, but health.

Excerpted from http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy.htm

 

 

Music Therapy Promotes Health

Music Therapy Affects the Body and Mind

Research has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there’s a growing field of health care known as music therapy, which uses music to heal. Those who practice music therapy are finding a benefit in using music to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring. This is not surprising, as music affects the body and mind in many powerful ways. 

Excerpted from http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy.htm

Singing: The Key to a Long Life

King's Singers a capella group

This is an excerpt from an interesting article from Brian Eno:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958

I believe in singing. I believe in singing together.

A few years ago a friend and I realized that we both loved singing but didn't do much of it. So we started a weekly a capella group with just four members. After a year we started inviting other people to join. We didn't insist on musical experience — in fact some of our members had never sung before. Now the group has ballooned to around 15 or 20 people.

I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor. A recent long-term study conducted in Scandinavia sought to discover which activities related to a healthy and happy later life. Three stood out: camping, dancing and singing.

Well, there are physiological benefits, obviously: You use your lungs in a way that you probably don't for the rest of your day, breathing deeply and openly. And there are psychological benefits, too: Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness. And then there are what I would call "civilizational benefits." When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings — to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

So I believe in singing to such an extent that if I were asked to redesign the educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for co-operation with others. This seems to be about the most important thing a school could do for you.

Why Singing Is Good for Your Health

Harmony singing is good for health

Looking for a fun way to get and stay healthy?

Try singing on a regular basis.

But not any old singing will do. The kind of singing that will provide you with significant health benefits has to come from deep inside your chest, even from your abdomen.

If you've ever been in a choir, you've probably been told that the proper way to sing is from your belly.

The idea is to use your diaphragm - the large muscle that separates your chest and abdominal cavities - to push air out through your vocal cords.

Using your diaphragm to sing is a good way to promote a healthy lymphatic system, which in turn promotes a healthy immune system.

If you want to start singing for health and have some fun with it, I highly recommend that you learn how to sing in harmony with another person or group of people. Singing in harmony with others is easily one of my favorite things to do.

Whether you get your feet wet with singing in harmony with others or not, do your health a favor and belt out a few tunes on a regular basis. But remember: it has to come from deep within, not just from your throat.

And if you're a bit shy, you can always save your singing for the shower when no one else is home or when you're in the car and have the windows rolled up.

Your immune system will thank you for it.

Excerpted from Dr. Ben Kim: http://drbenkim.com/articles-singing-for-health.htm

Building a Better, Younger Voice



Vocal exercises can create a younger
sounding voice 

Some people want to not only look younger, but sound younger, too. 

An increasing number of older adults are putting more pep into their speaking with voice therapy.  "Research has shown they can sound younger than their chronological age" through proper techniques says Nandhu Radhakrishnan, a University of Missouri specialist in voice science and therapy. 

Vocal exercises improve loudness and strengthen the tone and endurance of muscles that have lost elasticity, says Ellen Markus, a speech pathologist at the Universty of North Carolina Voice Center.

Breathing and vocal exercises twice a day along with relaxation techniques greatly improve raspy voices.

Adapted from AARP Bulletin, July-August 2012, Vol. 53, No. 6

Does Singing Make You Happier? Part 3

Choral singers are happier

Psychological Effects of Singing

Some of the greatest connections between singing and happiness are more mental than physical. They're harder to measure, but just as significant.

Choral singers need to concentrate on their music and technique throughout the singing process, and it's hard to worry about things like work or money or family problems when you're actively concentrating on something else. So choral singers tend to have a built-in "stress-free zone." Learning is also part of the process -- learning new songs, new harmonies, new methods of keeping tempo. Learning has long been known to keep brains active and fend off depression, especially in older people.

The question remains, though -- why choral singing specifically? Concentration and deep breathing can happen in a recording studio, or in the privacy of your own home.

It's because some of the most important ties between singing and happiness are social ones. The support system of being part of a group, and the commitment to that group that gets people out of the house and into the chorus every week -- these are benefits that are specific to group singing. And they seem to be a big component of why choral singers tend to be happier than the rest of us. The feelings of belonging to a group, of being needed by the other members of that group ("We can't do this one without our alto!"), go a long way toward combating the loneliness that often comes along with being human in modern times.

Excerpted from http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/singing-happy2.htm

Does Singing Make You Happy? Part 2

Choral singing makes people happy

Physical Effects of Singing

All types of singing have positive psychological effects. The act of singing releases endorphins, the brain's "feel good" chemicals. Singing in front of a crowd, a la karaoke, naturally builds confidence, which has broad and long-lasting effects on general well-being. But of all types of singing, it's choral singing that seems to have the most dramatic effects on people's lives.

A study published in Australia in 2008 revealed that on average, choral singers rated their satisfaction with life higher than the public -- even when the actual problems faced by those singers were more substantial than those faced by the general public.  A 1998 study found that after nursing-home residents took part in a singing program for a month, there were significant decreases in both anxiety and depression levels.  Another study surveying more than 600 British choral singers found that singing plays a central role in their psychological health.

But why? Could you just start belting out a tune right now in order to make yourself feel happy?

It's possible. Some of the ways in which choral singing makes people happy are physical, and you get them whether you're in a chorus or in a shower -- as long as you're using proper breathing techniques during that shower solo. Singing can have some of the same effects as exercise, like the release of endorphins, which give the singer an overall "lifted" feeling and are associated with stress reduction. It's also an aerobic activity, meaning it gets more oxygen into the blood for better circulation, which tends to promote a good mood. And singing necessitates deep breathing, another anxiety reducer. Deep breathing is a key to meditation and other relaxation techniques, and you can't sing well without it.

Excerpted from http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/singing-happy.htm

Does Singing Make You Happy? Part 1

Singing makes birds and humans happier

In the United States, choral singing is the most popular of all arts-related participatory activities. Across the country, 28.5 million people regularly sing in one of 250,000 chorus groups.  It's a group activity that seems to stand the test of time better than others, and there may be a very good reason why: Singing has some effects that other participatory activities don't.

It has become pretty obvious in the last couple of decades that singing has special draws. Regular people all over the globe are addicted to karaoke singing. And many of those people can't even carry a tune. Bars use it to draw customers on slow nights: People will come if they can sing for a crowd. People will watch others sing for a crowd, too -- "reality" competitions like "American Idol" and "X Factor," two of the most popular shows in the United States and around the world, respectively, are all about singing.

Of course, some of the competitors on those shows can actually sing really well. It's clear why people are drawn to them. But what's the draw for somewhat-less-talented singers to belt out a tune? Why the huge interest in karaoke? Why all the singing in the shower, in the car, in the chorus? Does singing make people happy?

In parts 2 and 3 of this series, we'll find out what effect singing has on mood, outlook and general psychological health. We'll look specifically at choral singing, which is where the most recent and surprising research has been done. Apparently, choral singing, whether with a church, city or private group, really does make people happy.

The physiological effects of singing are fairly well-documented. For those who doubt its power, just look at songbirds: When male songbirds sing to female songbirds, it activates the pleasure center of the male's brain. In fact, scientists have discovered that the effect of singing on the birds' brains is similar to the effect of addictive drugs on human brains.  But there's a caveat. That effect doesn't happen when the birds are singing alone.

As it turns out, singing's effect on humans has a similar caveat.

Excerpted from http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/singing-happy.htm

Jennifer Lopez Is a Better Singer after ‘American Idol’

American Idol Helped Lopez to Become a Better Singer

Jennifer Lopez has credited “American Idol” with pushing her to “grow as an artist” after stepping down as a judge from the TV talent show.

The “On The Floor” singer has quit the panel to return to performing but insists her two years serving as a mentor to contestants has helped her to evolve.

She tells MTV News, “Whenever it’s things like that, where you’re working with other people, like the audience, or even another artist, like we did with the contestants on the show, you learn, you grow. And whatever I’d tell them, it was funny, it was like telling myself. Like, ‘Don’t forget, when you’re onstage ... make sure you connect and make sure it’s about the feeling.’

“Because we all get caught up, when we’re the ones standing there, and everybody’s watching. But it’s about forgetting about that and conveying a feeling. And I always feel like whenever I was telling them this over the past two years of doing Idol, that it was helping me grow as an artist as well.”

Lopez calls her “American Idol” stint a career highlight, but admits she is ready to step back into the spotlight as a singer.

She adds, “It was a great experience to sit there and do that for a while, and I honestly feel like it was put in my life for a reason, to be part of my journey and part of my growth, because it definitely did that. But as much as I love the show, this (singing) is what I do.… And that was fun and it was great, but this is what I do.”

Music Improves Reading Skills

Music Can Help Those with Dyslexia

Do you know anyone who has dyslexia?  If so, music can help some of the skills associated with reading and compre-hension!   Fascinating!  This is an excerpt from the Los Angeles Times:

 

Research suggests that people with dyslexia, or difficulty reading, also fare poorly on tests of auditory processing. Their timing is also poor. They have difficulty filtering out unwanted background noise and "tuning in" to sounds — such as a teacher's instruction — that they want to hear. Intensive music instruction has been found to improve those skills, and with them, some skills related to reading.

Music Improves Memory for Dementia and Alzheimer's Patients

Music Can Help People with Dementia

Music is so powerful!  I have worked with dementia patients, and even though they may not have spoken for years, the moment I begin engaging them with music and songs - they begin singing along!  Read more from this Los Angeles Times article.

Memory: The progressive degeneration of memory in Alzheimer's disease cannot be reversed or slowed by any intervention. But music can temporarily unlock memories for patients who have lost their grip on nearly every other detail of their daily life and relationships.

Patients in the depths of Alzheimer's and other dementias regularly respond to — and even play and sing — music from their distant past, without missing a word or a note. Nursing homes have seized upon that fact, exposing residents to the songs of their childhoods or courtship years to help reunite spouses in dancing and singing and try to coax dementia sufferers from their isolation. One study even found that dementia patients allowed to punch a button on a robot and hear a familiar song experienced improved mood, function and performance on musical memory games.

Parkinson's Patients Walk With The Help of Music

Music helps Parkinson's Patients

This excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article further confirms the almost miraculous power of music in helping Parkinson's patients to walk with a rhythmic gait.

Movement: If you're old enough, recall John Travolta walking down the street to the song "Stayin' Alive" in the opening scene of "Saturday Night Fever." Now imagine a patient with Parkinson's disease, a degenerative brain condition that affects the initiation and smooth completion of movement. Here's where music's rhythmic qualities appear to get in the back door of a patient's brain and provide a work-around to brain functions degraded by Parkinson's. By engaging the network of regions that perceive and anticipate rhythm, music with a steady, predictable beat can be used to cue the brain's motor regions to initiate walking.

Once off the dime, a Parkinson's patient can use the music's beat to maintain a steady, rhythmic gait, like John Travolta.

"It works well and it works instantaneously, and it's hard to think of any medication that has this effect," Schlaug says.

Neuroscientists suspect that music may work in much the same way for stutterers, who can experience difficulties initiating speech and maintaining a steady flow of words. Case studies have long observed that when stutterers sing, their halting speech patterns disappear. Music's predictable beats may help them initiate speech and continue fluently.

If you are interested in learning more about my Viva La Voice program that uses singing as the basis for helping Parkinson's patients speak clearly and understandably, contact me here.

Preemie's Weight Gain Supported by Music

Music Helps Preemies to Gain Weight

Watch any baby when you begin to sing a lovely lullaby, and you will note an instant relaxation and calm take over.  Babies are soothed by music, and especially their own mother's voice.  Here's more about a study done that showed the positive effect of music in the neonatal ICU. (This from the Los Angeles Times).

Preemies' weight gain: An Israeli study, published December in the journal Pediatrics, found that playing Mozart quietly in neonatal intensive care units supported the weight gain of premature infants by slowing their rate of energy expenditure. Babies exposed over two days to 30 minutes of music (drawn from, yes, an Israeli "Mozart for Baby" CD) slowed their metabolisms, helping to accelerate their growth.

If you would like to soothe your baby, please download my beautiful, award-winning lullabies from Land of Sleepytime….Lullabies for the Heart and Soul.

Mary Blige Uses Music As Therapy

Mary Blige Uses Music As Therapy

In an article by Malcolm Venable in the Virginia Post, he talks about how Mary Blige has used music to heal her own demons.  In this article about her latest concert, Venable says," Blige, who's been public about her addiction, abusive relationships and rough inner-city upbringing, demonstrated the legitimacy of music as therapy.  Women in the audience - most of them African American - roared as she sang mantra-heavy songs like 'Good Woman Down.'"

 

Later, he quotes Blige as saying, "Ladies, we are so necessary!" she said. "We're very special, very beautiful! There's not a man or woman or child that would be here if not for a woman that carried them for nine months and pushed them out into this Earth!"

 

The next time you have challenges in your life, try writing a song about it. Write down your feelings, stream of consciousness if necessary, and then let yourself make up any melody that comes to mind. It doesn't have to be perfect; let the melody come from the emotions or frustrations you're feeling. There's no right or wrong; no one's listening, but it's a great way to heal you with music. When you bypass your thinking brain, and begin singing your lyrics you can tap into that emotional place that needs expression and healing.

Music has been used as therapy since time began. Next time you have a challenge in life, do as Mary K. Blige has done - write about it.

Singing releases feel good endorphins!

Here's more confirmation about the benefits of singing, especially group singing, from Julia Layton @ TLC network:  

All types of singing have positive psychological effects. The act of singing releases endorphins, the brain's "feel good" chemicals. Singing in front of a crowd, a la karaoke, naturally builds confidence, which has broad and long-lasting effects on general well-being. But of all types of singing, it's choral singing that seems to have the most dramatic effects on people's lives.

A study published in Australia in 2008 revealed that on average, choral singers rated their satisfaction with life higher than the public -- even when the actual problems faced by those singers were more substantial than those faced by the general public [source:MacLean]. A 1998 study found that after nursing-home residents took part in a singing program for a month, there were significant decreases in both anxiety and depression levels [source: ISPS]. Another study surveying more than 600 British choral singers found that singing plays a central role in their psychological health [source:ISPS].

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Inspiration on Demand

Engage in creativitiy

One of the challenges that comes up for many songwriters and writers is inspiration, and keeping motivated.  When you're not involved in an ongoing class or writer's circle, it's often difficult to make time for your art, even when that's your passion.

It's so easy to let the everyday stuff of living get in the way of your creativity. Sometimes when you're done with your day, it's the last thing you feel like doing. I think most of us would agree, though, if we just start working on a song, or play an instrument, or listen or dance to music, the time flies and the music works as wonderful therapy. We de-stress, forget the concerns of the day, immerse ourselves in right brain activity, and feel great. It's a fantastic way to end the day.

I suggest setting aside an hour or two once a week to do music, even when you don't feel like it. Put it on the calendar, and commit to that time. It's rewarding time for yourself, and you'll feel better when you make that an ongoing "date" with yourself. Also, during your work day, take 15 minutes to work on lyrics, music, or a song you'd like to share. It will free your mind, and you'll return to work more open, more productive, and able to "think outside the box," Take a moment to be inspired by the beauty of nature around you, by the sounds of life happening right where you are.

It's easy to let our passions assume a place of lowest priority in our lives; but when this happens we suffer. We feel out of balance, unfulfilled and resentful. Take time, make time, to indulge in those activities that you love, that bring you joy and peace; that make you feel good about yourself. Instead of thinking about music or art as a "hobby" that you do when you have time once in awhile, think of your art as being the driving force in your life! Only you can give it that place of importance in your schedule. It's not a hobby, it's your life blood; it's what makes you a creative, vibrant, artistic human being! Don't diminish the importance of your artistic outlets. Your creative spirit, your playful spirit is always there, tapping on your shoulder, reminding you to come out and play.

We all have responsibilities, but don't let those responsibilities rob you of the joy of expression through music and art that makes you who you are. We communicate through art, it is part of our collective psyche as human beings. Take time to express yourself! You will feel so much better, so free, so open when you integrate your creative spirit back into your life!