music is accessible and affordable

Great news! Our Music Care Conference idea made it to the Aviva Fund Competition's Final Round. Thank you to all our supporters for their daily votes over 30 days. Aviva will announce the winners of their generous funding on January 25, 2010. Be sure to check here for results.

Two really obvious reasons why music is an effective means of care is that it is both accesible and affordable. Because of technological advancements like recording, broadcasting, film making and now digital downloading, the way we produce music and distribute it is radically changed. As soon as music is recorded it is instantly available. Music care may be something we can offer without having to wait for specialist appointments, drug patent testing or insurance plans.

I'm not cheapening the training for specialized therapists who use music i.e. music therapists, expressive arts therapists in their practise. They are necessary and provide specialized services. I would suggest that with Canada's growing aging population, health care institutions need to more intentionally invest and make a budget line for a "music person" and hire certified music or expressive arts therapists to provide best practise care.

With some basic understanding of music's therapeutic capacity and some contextualized approaches, music as care becomes even more accessible to volunteer and family caregivers, nurses and spiritual care providers.

music care conference idea moves to aviva semi-finals

The Room 217 Foundation submitted an idea to the Aviva Community Fund contest called THE MUSIC CARE CONFERENCE, a project already underway for November 6, 2010. The Aviva grant would be a great help to get this idea off the ground in a significant way.

The Music Care Conference idea made it to the semi-final round where it will be one of 62 ideas. The top 25 ideas are then entered into the finals by popular vote. We need your help! Here's how you can do it.

1. Register and then vote once a day at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2679.

2. Semi-final voting dates: December 2-16

3. For this contest, votes are tabulated by email address, not by person. If you have more than one email address, please register them all and vote using each address! You just need to sign out from one address and sign in with the other address (top right). Then click on "My Supported Ideas" (top right) and click on the Music Care Conference idea box which brings up "Cast Your Vote" page.

4. Pass our information along to friends, colleagues who may be interested in helping. Post it on your facebook. We will post daily updates on the Room 217 Foundation facebook page.

Thank you in advance for your donation of time in helping us push the Music Care conference idea into the Finals.

music expresses both identity and diversity

Music helps form individual identity and identity among groups of people. As an expressive means, music help us express what we're feeling, what we believe and value, what we are protesting, our hopes and our longings. Among groups of people, music can support national identity through:

• nationalist classical or folk music


• national anthems


• musical ambassadors

Music may express the interests of subcultures within a nation through:

• community musical expression (choirs, bands)


• collective conscience (Live Aid)


• common religious identity (songs, hymns, canticles)


• adolescent and teenage identity conjoined with clothes, colors, symbols (goth, rap, hiphop)

While the phrase music is a universal language may be widely accepted, not everyone can appreciate how it bypasses cultural barriers. It also expresses our diversity. Music may express differences of:

• meaning (interpretation, aesthetic values)


• cultural pratice (musical elements, context)


• generations (styles, associations)


• preferences (familiarity, personal choice)

In respectful music care, we need to know that music has this dual expressive function: expressing connectedness and expressing uniqueness.

music an intricate part of life passage and human experience

Recently, I was at a football game at the Rogers Centre and paid attention to the ways in which music was part of the event that gathered close to 30,000 people together. Upon arrival, there was a one act sousaphone plyaer by the entrance on the east side. A little further along there was music pumping from large speakers in a number of concession stands. Right by our entrance at gate 11 there was a live heavy metal band that played us in. Once we were inside the stadium there was music coming from the ads on the Jumbotron. Tere was music when the players entered the field. The game began with O Canada played by a Salvatin Army brass band. And at the half time show, there were some local dance troupes that used music. The cheerleaders used music to perform their routines to. As the game progressed, there were several bands moving around the stadium hallways playing short cheers.

The point? Music is an intricate part of life passage and human experience. Every ritual we share calls for its own music. Some of the rituals include:

• birth


• birthdays


• marriage


• anniversaries


• death


• mourning


• planting and harvesting


• changing of the season


• fertility


• suffering


• wellness


• honoring leaders


• war


• sports events


• entertainment


• romantic dinners


• graduation


• religious/spiritual ceremonies

Music accompanies us on life's journey and helps us express the human feelings we all share.

Copyright 2009, Bev Foster

why the interest in music and care?

Today, we found that the Room 217 Foundation's idea of a Music Care conference was among the 20 most popular ideas in the Aviva Community Fund Contest. Over 1400 ideas have been submitted.

Why the interest in music and care? Here are at least 10 reasons why...

• Music is an intricate part of life passage and human experience.
• Music is an expression of both identity and diversity.
• Music is an accessible and affordable means of care.
• Music is associative and is connected to our memories.
• Music connects us to people and is integral to caring relationships.
• Sound/music has been used as a healing agent for centuries.
• Music reaches into all domains when someone is sick or suffering.
• Music is transformative.
• Music is a great pain distractor.
• Music enhances quality of life.

Copyright 2009, Bev Foster

music care conference

I have entered my "big idea", Room 217's MUSIC CARE CONFERENCE into the Aviva Community Fund, a competition that you may have seen advertised on TV. If our idea receives enough votes, it wil have a chance at sharing in $500,000 to bring it to life. I would really appreciate your help in pushing our idea to the finals.

Please vote for our idea at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2679.

The cool thing is you can vote once a day per email address. Can I get your help? Time is of he essence-we have 13 days left!

Please pass this information along to otherswho may be able to help us.

sounds and silence

Silence is as integral to music as sound is. In musical terms, silence is called a "rest". Rests are used for punctuation, (dramatic) effect, syncopation, inflection, taking a breath. Sounds of silence in music can be used effectively. I especially like experimenting with durations of silence in longer works, like sonatas or dramatic pieces. It helps punctuate sections and gives listeners structural reference points. I also find silence helpful in transitions where the mood of the music changes. As a performer, silence helps me breathe into the next section.

Silence or pauses are used just as effectively in music care. While music creates a space for distraction, stimulation, sedation or transcendence, silence may be effective for:

• reflecting
• remembering
• breathing
• centring
• connecting
• containing

We may be afraid of silence because it forces us to listen to ourselves. Our own inner sounds of unresolved conflict, unmet longings or needs, pain of loss, voices of the past, present or future may interfere with the beautiful auditory sanctuary silence provides. Alan Alda said that listening means being able to be changed by what you hear. It may be that in allowing the silences we have a greater possibility for growth and healing.

© 2009, Bev Foster

somewhere over rainbows in Kansas

Didn't see a rainbow, a tornado, or Oz for that matter but enjoyed my first trip to Kansas this week. Wichita was the site of the statewide Parish Nursing Conference and I was among them as a guest presenter. Being there made me think about Judy Garland's signature song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and how after 70 years (Garland recorded it in 1938) it's ranked as the #1 song of the century, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Google it - see how many renditions there are. Think of how many times it's been performed and recorded. What's the appeal? There are three draws that hook me in.

• cross generational appeal - Songs that find their original context in family settings seem to pull on the heartstrings of all ages and especially mine. A young girl facing loss of family, the unknown, new friends and danger, albeit fictional, is a story we are drawn into. The song comes at a time when the theme gives us hope for her plight and we have been endeared to her and the other Oz characters.

• resonant truth - Songs that stand the test of time are great stories with timeless themes that cross contexts and ring true. Whose world hasn't been in a hopeless jumble at one point or another? I can relate to that. Who hasn't experienced rainy, down days where there's doesn't seem to be horizon beyond the window? Taking us to the possibility of another place apart from our current bleak circumstance - transcendence - may be a resonant truth we share. All of us can relate to this song. Tragedy and transcendence -human themes.

• musical shape - Songs that have melodic hooks grab our attention and I like to analyze why. Harold Arlen, the composer opens the melody of the chorus with an octave span. This sure fits the story: Dorothy on the ground pondering what's beyond - what's up high beyond the tornado. He creates the happy bluebird feeling with repeated third patterns in the bridge. This almost sounds like a bird call.

Some reflections from Wichita. Oh yes, the other cool thing about Wichita is it is the home of Pizza Hut (I saw the original hut on the campus of University of Wichita) and Coleman camping equipment, a staple on our family vacations for more than twenty years.

© 2009, Bev Foster

what inspires me to write music?

Last night, I received an email from the Covenant Awards to submit a 30 second Youtube clip expressing my personal response to several questions about art and creativity and why I do what I do. The question that caught my attention was What inspires me to write music?

For me, writing is a means of expressing what I'm seeing, feeling, hearing. The lyrics may be deeply personal and become cathartic in my "working through" thoughts, emotions, questions. The first song I wrote years ago Living Sacrifice was a love song with a painful twist written after splitting with my boyfriend. My song Pictures in My Heart helped me work through the grief of my grandmother's dementia.

Other times, my songs are more like commentaries on experiences. Recently I wrote a song called Mannequin Woman which began from processing betrayal in a relationship I was in and then grew into something that became more philosophical.

When I write spiritual songs, they come from an inner place of surrender and openness. If they are based on someone else's text, I let the natural inflections of the poetry take me to melodic possiblities like Our Father a setting of the Lord's Prayer. Intuitively, I hear melody and harmony together. If the lyrics for my spiritual songs are original then it's almost always come from a place of digging deep into an experience for meaning like my personal favorite Father of My Spirit.

For me the process of writing music is like the process of making music - you have to live it. The great jazzer, Charlie Parker said it: Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.



© 2009, Bev Foster

wedding music

This weekend, I'm playing a wedding for a friend of the family. I've played a lot of weddings and I enjoy it for a number of reasons.

• Music sets the stage for the celebration. Tomorrow, the bride wants some folk music played as a prelude. The crowd will mix people of central Ontario and Quebec city. She thought that would help people relax about the language difference and set a more casual atmosphere. Sometimes I've played where the bride wants classical music to set an elegant mood. Other times, I get a list of favorite songs, sometimes popular songs, sometimes spiritual songs that creates a more sentimental atmosphere.

• There are never two weddings the same even if the same music is chosen. The effects of the music always has a context dependent on a number of variables. The music itself may be played on different instruments - take Purcell's Trumpet in D+ a favorite bridal processional. The effects of each of these instrumentations will be different: organ and trumpet, organ only, piano and trumpet, piano only, playing a recording, playing on a digital piano . The effects of the music will also be different depending on the choreography of the bridal party: middle aisle presentation, side aisle presentation, single file presentation, couple presentation. Other variables that determine musical effects are size of bridal party, style of dress, speed of music, pacing of music.

• Who selects the music? For the most part, it is the bride who engages me and talks details. Sometimes the groom "leaves it to her" to make all the decisions. Sometimes the couple has chosen the musical selections together. Often, a bride comes not having any idea about what she/they want and are looking for advice. On several occasions, I have had brides who are really clear about what they want and why. I think it's important to take the time to uniquely select music for each wedding as music can accomodate preferences and/or cultural differences and has the ability to set the mood.
  I get to be a part of two families' celebration. For the most part, weddings are happy occasions and a celebration of two families. I enjoy going to the rehearsal and meeting the "players" and being inside their world for a while.


• Inevitably, I learn new music. And perhaps this is one of the things I enjoy the most. For tomorrow's wedding, the bride has requested to walk into the theme song from Tuck Everlasting. The music is not available in print form, so I've lifted it from You Tube and arranged it for piano and oboe. Now that beautiful tune is in my repertoire.

All the best Emma and Phil - enjoy your day!

Bev

© 2009, Bev Foster

the prismic power of music

Although I'm not a die hard Bono fan, many of my friends are. A bunch of them were among the 120,000 U2 pilgrims who journeyed to the Rogers Center mecca in Toronto this week to hear them live. From all I've heard on media and from personal accounts, the concert was fabulous. One thing that I respect about Bono is the way he uses music around social justice issues to bring awareness, protest and challenge governments, offer opportunities for solutions and live aid and generally mobilize millions of people to action.

Music has that kind of prismic power in our lives. It can impact us profoundly and reach into our intellect, make our bodies move, connect us through shared events, feelings, ideas, alter our moods and touch us in the deepest places of our soul.

For me as a musician, I know that music and care are intertwined. And so did the great cellist, Pablo Cassals. He said, "the capacity to care is the thing that gives life its deepest meaning and significance." This is the philosophy behind the Room 217 Foundation: caring for the whole person with music. Music as a simple gesture of care or a means of therapeutic intervention is cost effective and can be done by professional, family and volunteer caregivers. It sounds simple enough and even obvious. But how do you introduce music into a care situation?

The starting place of using music in care is openness and compassion. But there are other practical considerations:

1. Be prepared

• how will the music be delivered, live or recorded?
• if recorded, is there a player in the room?
• if there is hearing loss, is there an amplification device available?

2. Assess who and what is in the room

• who are the people in the room and how are they related to one another?
• are there life events of the care receiver that may determine the kind of music used?
• are there favorite stories or movies that music could support?

3. Consider musical choices

• what is the desired effect?
• what is the person's preference?
• are there perceptual issues?
• is there previous musical exposure?
• does person have a particular religious background?
• what is age of the person?

4. Offer the music

• use questions like "Do you feel like some music today?" or "Here is some music that might help you relax or sleep"
• you may want to engage the person in response like humming or singing along
• you may want to gently stroke, massage or hold a person's hand while listening

5. Measure the response

• has the music made a change in the person?
• has the person's condition improved?

Room 217 Foundation link

© 2009, Bev Foster