Music = Mediation?

Last month I was talking to a friend overseas and she expressed how wonderful she thought it was that I was singing, she told me that the brain waves during singing can be compared to meditation. Certainly I can attest to the effect that singing has on my psyche, I feel tremendously different after rehearsals. Mondays are stressful days in this family and I barely have anything left inside me to go and sing. 30 minutes in the car by myself and with inspiring music and I already feel a bit better. But after rehearsals I feel elated, at peace, a content happiness. During grad school I would bike home late at night after rehearsals, being so filled to the brim with musical experience, that I had to sing out loud all the way home and damn the mosquitoes that flew into my mouth!

Music in general has a dramatic impact on my mood and behavior, I have noticed that decades ago and certain music, for example Baroque music, would somehow make me be a better me. On the other hand aggressive or very depressive music could have the exact opposite effect. A few years back I started to have music like Telemann or Bach in the background and the kids were more peaceful those days, were picking less fights and just seemed more together. My husband on the other hands likes to have very high energy crazy and wild jazz on and it drives me nuts. I like that kind of music, but I like it with nothing else, in a club or sitting down and listen to it intently, in the background, it drives me over the edge, while his hyperactive brain probably is in tune with it.

I had set out tonight to find some articles about the brain while singing and the equation of singing and meditation, but that was more difficult than anticipated, mostly because I only found information about Tibetan singing meditation bowls, an interesting subject, but not what I was interested in - even though it seems logically connected. I did find a lot of very lengthy articles about the brain on music/singing, the whole dispute regarding the Mozart effect, medicine and music and so forth. I neatly bookmarked them, for a later day to read as this requires some more in-depth research. One thing is absolutely clear, singing changes the brain and it changes it for the better and for me it is a fantastic antidepressant. And just between us, sometimes when I think I cannot take my life anymore, I think of all that music I would not experience, not getting to know or not listen to again, if I would not be alive.

Music is so wonderful, wouldn't it be amazing if we could plant it into the natural world? Paul Winter recorded amazing music while on a trip down the Grand Canyon and it is so breathtaking and pure, and displays such dynamics and harmony between the natural surroundings and the music, especially the drums (that make you think your speakers are broken), the french horn and of course the soprano sax. Imagine taking a chorus to Purgatory Chasm and singing out there between the rocks? That would be such an experience.