New Beginnings

Very recently my friend followed her dream.

She embraced a new relationship, lightened her life by selling most of her possessions, drove to the other side of the country and is beginning anew.

Life teeter totters between fullness and paralysis, praise and self doubt. For anyone this can be a daunting thing.

This song is accompanied by a shruti, an East Indian wind instrument. The shruti box is a drone instrument.

Drone is one of the eight musical elements that contribute to music’s healing power. Kay Gardner was at the forefront of composers creating lyrical music for healing back the 1970’s and she pioneered the field we now call “Sound Healing”. She was an authority on the healing properties of music and for me an influential teacher.  She described the monophonic oral incense of drone as:

A long, uninterrupted sound or set of sounds underneath the music. It could be environmental sound or, in East Indian music, the tamboura. It could be the Australian aboriginal drone instrument, the didjeridu, or a choir of singers chanting “Om” on a single tone. It could be any sound or musical tone that forms the “bed” on which the rest of the music lies.

The function of the drone is to touch us in our physical bodies. If you were to chant a series of musical tones, you would notice that each one resonates in a different part of your body. Drone tones that zero in and touch specific physical areas can, if listened to and felt long enough, be used to help break down blockages and tensions. Very low drone sounds will vibrate in the denser, more massive parts of our bodies-our intestines, our stomachs. Very high drone sounds will resonate higher- in our throats, or our sinus cavities, etc. Visualizing drones going to the tense and blocked areas of our bodies can free physical pain and stress.

The drone sound is one of groundedness, a landing place, an underlying bed of safety .

Today I sing this song for my friend who is beginning anew. Love you, J.