RockOm

By Tom Crenshaw, Tom@RockOm.net

Three melodic strings, a drumbeat and a passionate desire to connect with another can create a force that is larger than life. This immense, graceful force can be found in Christine Stevens and UpBeat Drum Circles as they travel the world, often venturing into hostile and war-torn territories to bridge cultural and spiritual barriers through music.

Music holds many keys for conflict healing and is an incredibly valuable weapon for promoting peace and reconciliation. Through music Christine Stevens has selflessly dedicated her life and resources in a mission to change the world one heartbeat and drumbeat at a time. Christine is an internationally acclaimed musician, author, music therapist and speaker as well as the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles. RockOm has made a dear friend in Christine featuring her work many times on our website.

We caught up with Christine recently to talk about bridging cultural barriers through music and instrumentation knowing she would have much to share with us on the subject. In connecting with Christine again we are introduced to the Strumstick: a three-stringed instrument whose small nature belies its capabilities. Through the Strumstick and drumming Christine has propagated goodwill, grace and peacemaking not only in Iraq but around the world as well.

Tom: In your work with Ashti Drum in Iraq, when you first are introduced to perform for a group is there an air of apprehension on either your part as a musician or those you’re meeting for the first time with regards to your being a Western musician? If so how do you make that first, all-important connection?

Christine: Well that’s a good question. "The beginning is half the whole" as they say and the first moments of a connection are crucial. A lot of preparation goes into going to Iraq. I dress according to the cultural norms; I dyed my hair, wore a hijab and prepared to meet people in their way. The first connection - what I noticed - it was all about making music and not talking at all.

More often than not, I introduce myself with drumming  and then wait and see if someone will answer you. [Laughs] What I love about the Strumstick and bringing a melodic instrument with me to Iraq to complement the drum circle program is that the Strumstick is in open tuning, like a drone. When you start to make that drone, people start to come. It’s a magnetic force for group gatherings. When you play a Strumstick it’s a call for singing and chanting. So I would play a simple open drone and often someone would just stand up and chant using Middle Eastern scales.

The idea for music for peacemaking has to do with some very important principles including inclusiveness and we get everyone to participate by handing out our rhythmic instruments. Everyone can join the beat. I love what Mickey Hart (drummer for The Dead) says, “When we drum together we create sacred space.” When we add the Strumstick and that drone - chanting and rhythm - we create a symphony of cultural sharing from the heart.

Tom: So using a Strumstick made the difficult work in bridging cultural barriers easier?

Christine: I would say that it makes it much easier because this time I had this fantastic instrument that was created by Bob McNally (he’s based in New Jersey and his information is at strumstick.com). What I love about it is that it’s three strings and no wrong notes! Anyone can play this! The biggest barrier is words, I think. As long as we’re aware of each other's culture and we’re sensitive, what is the real barrier? It’s words! With music, we can talk. We have to simplify to create that bridge for cultural connection.

The other thing I will say is that in my travels around the world with the Strumstick, everybody knows Bob Marley and you can play Bob Marley tunes on this real easily. According to the Dalai Lama, what we need to do to create peace on the planet is to have more music sharing and music festivals.

Tom: Oh, I agree. More music and more music festivals. That’s the plan and a perfect prescription. Many times we get caught up with words, like you say, when we simply should just let the music speak for us.

Christine: I think we’re becoming energy linguists. In sound and in music we can communicate best… our heart, our feelings. When we communicate on that plane there’s no conflict, there’s no war. We create “sacred space.” What happens in sacred space? We create connections and harmony. Just the word harmony is a metaphor for what we’re creating on the planet right now, one beat at a time.

Tom: Why is it that some people think they could never learn a musical instrument when drumming and the Strumstick, with only a fraction of instruction, turn anyone into a music-maker?

Christine: The key is having a very easy, immediate learning curve. We give up on ourselves too easily. If I had to sit down and try to learn piano scales right away I’d probably quit too, but because you can get a sound immediately on a drum, and a good sound immediately on a Strumstick without any training, all of a sudden children who have never played an instrument before can be in a jam session. I think it’s time to remove that dualistic thinking that some people have talent and some don’t and recognize that music is who we are - that we are biologically wired for music. We all have a singing voice, we all have a drum beat called our heartbeat, and it’s time to let go of all those myths and lies, find the instrument that calls to our heart and be part of the music.

Tom:  In your experience how important are the arts, especially music in connecting us with one another and why aren’t diplomatic efforts on the part of nations engaged in peace making more focused on cultural exchanges involving musicians and artists?

Christine: That’s actually not true. There are many diplomatic efforts right now happening through music. If you look at U.S. history one of the first efforts of diplomacy was sending an African-American gospel choir to Russia during the beginning of the Cold War. Louis Armstrong was paid by the State Department to travel and play music.  I just think we need more of this and the vision that I hold is that before the United Nations talk - we have to have dialogue - first we would have music together. First there would be a performance and then there would be dialogue. I don’t believe it’s only about the music; I think it’s about the whole protocol of combining music-making, musical sharing and appreciation of each other’s culture, and true listening.

Tom: What’s upcoming in the near future for UpBeat Drum Circles?

Christine: We have opportunities to train people in the HealthRHYTHMS program that Remo Drum Company sponsors and we’ll be teaching more in the sacred drumming and peace building traditions in places like the Shambhala Mountain Center. We’re working on some new books and CDs about UpBeat Drum Circle's and Ashti Drum's whole journey in the Middle East hoping to continue to build our drum ashram, our drum ministry, our peace drum corps and continue to collaborate with RockOm. We love learning so much from visiting your site and tuning into what RockOm is doing. Thank you so much for that, Tom.

LINKS:

Visit Strumstick.com to learn more and to see and hear Christine demonstrate its versatility

Be sure to view all our features and interviews with Christine Stevens:

The Rhythm of Life

Social Change and the Power of Music

Global Resonance

By Diáne Mandle

Music has always been recognized as having a powerful effect on human consciousness. But in the past few years, there has been more research into the science of sound, and how it can be used to improve our lives. We are learning why different kinds of music and sounds have the effects that they do on the body, emotions, mind, and spirit.

Science tells us that all life is energy in one form or another. Further, this energy is eternal, changing and morphing from one shape or form to another. Each ‘energy shape’ has its own particular pattern of frequencies, or vibrations. When one form experiences a matching frequency in the form of a musical note, the form will begin to vibrate in sympathy with the note in sympathetic resonance. A strong enough vibration can even cause a form to restructure itself, as has been noted with cancer cells, crystal glasses, water crystals, etc. With the Himalayan bowls (also known as Tibetan Singing Bowls) every note creates sympathetic resonance with every other note producing harmonic overtones that commence the healing process.

Let us, for a moment, look at the difference between healing and curing: Curing is an end product or finite result. Dictionary definitions define it as “the complete biological resolution of a diseased state” or “the elimination of disease, distress, evil”.

Healing is a process and infinite in nature. Some definitions include: “the making or becoming whole, the mending of a breach”, “to free from grief, troubles, evil”, “restoring to health or soundness”; and my personal favorite by Jeanne Acheerberg, “an intuitive perception of the universe and all its inhabitants as being of one fabric.”

Healing is a movement from disharmony to harmony, from duality to non-duality or Divine Awareness. The journey of healing then is a spiritual awakening with consequences on our physical well being. As we awaken, our perspective shifts. As our perspective shifts, our vibration shifts. As our vibration shifts, our cellular make up shifts. The shifts can not occur as separate entities- they affect the whole of who we are and extend infinitely. This link between body and spirit has been much ignored by the medical profession but the link is quite clear.

Healing is a process where we are released from an ego centered finite perspective of ourselves in the world and move into our essence where our vibratory energy is connected with the universe. Healing can lead to being cured. But if one is simply cured on a physical level, without sufficient healing, the core issue that caused the condition in the first place is likely to manifest again. A vital step in the healing process is that of establishing resonance with the condition in question. Most people resist their condition. You cannot release that which you do not own. Sound is the train that helps us get to healing.

How? We now know that different pulses stimulate different brainwave centers. We also know that we can create brainwave entrainment through a process of sympathetic resonance and that we normally entrain or fall into vibrational step to the strongest vibrations in our immediate environment. Our body is a perfect transmitter of vibration, being 80% water Further, nerve bundles in our spine transmit vibrational sensory data to brain stem and limbic system (our emotional processing center). Placing Himalayan (Tibetan) bowls directly on the body significantly increases their effectiveness. The bowls vibrate at the frequency of perfection, otherwise known as the Sanskrit mantra ‘AUM’. They create harmonic overtones in which each note contains all other notes and none is a separate entity on its own. These bowls are made of seven metals which were collected, smelted and pounded into shape and sound in a ceremonial manner, with monks imbibing them with prayers and mantras. The intention of healing and consciousness transformation still resides in the sacred instruments and is transferred to the listener.

Their sound entrains our energetic system to resonate with them in their perfection. In the universe dissonant chords tend toward becoming harmonic. It is the nature of energy to harmonize. The harmonic resonance of the bowls literally pulls us back into a more universal energetic flow. They effectively transmit their soothing and peaceful vibrations through our water body in a way that affects our entire nervous and immune system. The sound waves initiate the relaxation response bringing us into a Theta brainwave state (waking dream state that is home to creativity, inspiration, intuition and where we can let go of our ego boundaries, of our consciousness of our physical state and connect with the non-physical, non dualistic). The sound vibrations of the sacred bowls balance our right and left brain and with repetition in conjunction with visualization can hold us in the Theta state for longer and longer periods of time. The vibrational sound from the Himalayan bowls initializes our parasympathetic nervous system and helps to raise the disease fighting immune cells while also reducing our stress response and creating cardio-respiratory synchrony (the synchronized flow of our brain, respiratory and heart rate waves). Our capacity to heal from any illness is predicated on our body’s ability to achieve cardio-respiratory synchrony and this is exactly what is achieved by listening to the bowls. When they are placed directly on your body, as in a private session, then the healing potential is greatly increased because you are receiving the vibrations in your muscles and organs in addition to hearing them. In other words Vibrational Sound creates the optimum physical/spiritual container needed for healing.

Dr. Mitch Gaynor, Director of Oncology at the Cornel Cancer Prevention Center states: “‘Sound can redress imbalances on every level of physiologic functioning and can play a positive role in the treatment of virtually any medical disorder.

Himalayan Bowls are teachers: Let’s not reduce the healing that takes place only to science. We have already seen that healing is predicated on spiritual awakening. The bowls can be seen as great teachers. They carry the Buddhist Voidness teachings which purport that nothing exists independently of anything else. Each note from these sacred instruments contains all other notes and herein lies their magic. Although possessing a variety of harmonics, the fundamental vibration of each bowl is rooted in the Sanskrit mantra OM. This is the vibration that our brains entrained with. This primordial sound is the perfection of the universe. The ensuing sympathetic resonance between brain and bowls reawakens the intrinsic blissful self in us.

Our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors will either engage with or sabotage the healing potential as well. Positive thinking can strengthen your immune system and change your life. The combination of the sound vibration of the bowls with positive visualization and affirmations will greatly enhance the healing experience. Thus, sound is a type of energy medicine that creates the sacred space in which people can heal from stress disorders, pain, depression, the emotional roller coaster and more. It also creates the perfect state for deep meditation, creative thinking and intuitive messages. The healing process is initiated by entraining our brainwaves and creating sympathetic resonance with the perfect vibrations of the Himalayan singing bowls.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Diáne Mandle is an author, teacher, healer and recording artist based in Southern California. She is Certified in Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing and Polarity therapy. Diáne maintains a private practice offering an integrated system for healing which includes Sound and Polarity Therapy, Toning and Visualization. She conducts educational programs, keynotes and Harmonic Sound Healing concerts nationally and presents frequently at the Deepak Chopra Center and the Golden Door. She has produced two acclaimed CD’s and the first comprehensive multimedia home study course in Sound Healing using Himalayan instruments (Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese bowls, tingshas, gantas and dorjes) ‘Ancient Sounds for a New Age’, an E-Book/DVD/ CD set available on her website http://www.soundenergyhealing.com

At a meeting of the American Psychological Association, Jack Lipton, a psychologist at Union College, and R. Scott Builione, a graduate student at Columbia University, presented their findings on how members of the various sections of 11 major symphony orchestra perceived each other.

The percussionists were viewed as insensitive, unintelligent, and hard-of-hearing, yet fun-loving. String players were seen as arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. The orchestra members overwhelmingly chose "loud" as the primary adjective to describe the brass players. Woodwind players seemed to be held in the highest esteem, described as quiet and meticulous, though a bit egotistical.

Interesting findings, to say the least! With such widely divergent personalities and perceptions, how could an orchestra ever come together to make such wonderful music? The answer is simple: regardless of how those musicians view each other, they subordinate their feelings and biases to the leadership of the conductor. Under his guidance, they play beautiful music.

[SOURCE: Today in the Word, June 22, 1992]

We all have our own preferences, ways, personalities and idiosyncrasies, but it is only by surrendering to the Great Conductor (whether you call that God, the Absolute, universal energy, nature, or otherwise) that keeps our lives in balance and all of our actions singing in chorus with others and our surroundings. We can try to struggle and fight to have our own way (and yes, there are times for solos), but the beauty of the music is magnified when there's harmony with those around us.

"For who accepts harmony, the Way harmonizes with him." (Tao Te Ching)

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

In Western musical scales, there are generally 12 half steps and therefore 12 different interval possibilities, not counting the octave (intervals are the distance between pitches). When two of these intervals are played at the same time, some of them are pleasant sounding and/or bright, such as the major third and perfect fourth and fifth. Others are darker, with a minor, strange or "sad" sound, such as the second or the minor third. There's one interval, however, that's the darkest and most dissonant of them all.

According to the V. Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary, a tritone is...

The interval of an augmented fourth. This interval was known as the "devil in music" in the Medieval era because it is the most dissonant sound in the scale.

If you're familiar with the piano and its notes, play a C and then play the F# directly above it at the same time. Or if you're a guitarist, play your second string (B string) open while playing the first fret on the first string (high E string) at the same time. This is the tritone, the "devil's interval."

Why is it known the "devil's interval"? In the middle ages this interval was often avoided in composition because of its dissonant, or clashing quality. The very sound of it suggests discord, opposition or even evil.

[With that said, this isn't a history or music theory lesson on the tritone. If you'd like more information, check out this Wikipedia article or Google search "tritone."]

Interestingly enough, what we consider music today wouldn't exist without it. The dissonance created by this interval introduces drama into the tonality.  As a piece of music moves along (if you listen closely enough), notes clash and then resolve, bite at your ear and then become pleasant, make you cringe and then make you smile.  Without it, music would be without life and would become boring very quickly.

Many of us want to sanitize our lives: pushing that which is dissonant far away, living a sheltered and safe life, avoiding the drama and fearing the darkness both in ourselves and in the world.  During those times when we want life's weird twists and turns to end or for everything to be safe and manageable, let us never forget that the end of drama is the introduction of boredom, of lifelessness. Yes, there are crappy days and terrorists, jock itch and natural disasters, but at least in this plane - in this life - everything that we know and experience couldn't exist without them.

Let's transform the paragraph above:

As life moves along (if you watch closely enough), it clashes and then resolves, bites at you and then become pleasant, makes you cringe and then makes you smile.  Without the drama, life wouldn't be life and would become boring very quickly.

When we learn to accept that the dance of harmony and dissonance, the clash of good and evil, is exactly the very thing that makes the world go 'round, we're free to participate in it with joy.  We're happy to roll with the punches and navigate a complicated and tricky existence without frustration, but rather with the acceptance that it has to be this way.  This isn't to say we have to be tolerant of the various kinds of evil or injustice we experience - let us fight them with vigor when we need to - but all the while knowing that in some grand, metanarrative, it is all - ALL - good.

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

This week I had an email conversation with an old friend that turned sour due to a clash in deeply held personal beliefs. There was some miscommunication that led to hurt feelings of the most significant kind. In fact, I was quite certain that irreparable damage had been done.

The discord between us weighed on me all day until at long last I began to think from his perspective. In placing myself in his shoes, understanding why he is who he is and allowing myself to be accepting of his life circumstances, I was able to return to him with a different, less guarded tone and attitude. Apologies were made, accepted and the air was cleared.

What does this have to do with music, you ask?

In thinking about what I might want to share with you today, the word understanding kept coming to mind. It was then that I remembered a piece from NPR several months ago entitled "How I Learned to Respect Celine Dion" [Here, click Listen Now]. Music writer Carl Wilson found an odd disconnect between his being appalled and disgusted at the music of Celine Dion and her millions upon millions of album sales. He set out to investigate musical taste - what makes a person like a certain song or style of music - using Ms. Dion's music as reference material. He simply could not understand what people saw her in schmaltzy, cheese-laden ballads.

You can listen to the interview yourself and so I will spare you the details of the experiment, but what stood out to me was that it was through talking to Celine's biggest fans that Carl Wilson came to understand and eventually (somewhat) appreciate her music. You see sometimes it simply takes a willingness to engage in an open-hearted discussion with someone of a different opinion to ease tensions and come to a more full understanding. Most of what separates us from one another is mis-understanding and our own projections on who we think other people are or what they believe. In almost all cases there's more common ground than we initially think.

I hope today you can take two things away from this musing on understanding. First, in any area of your life, see if you can ease tension or discord between yourself and people of differing opinions (be they political, spiritual, or otherwise) through discussion and open conversation. This does not mean you have to agree with them in any way, but in opening yourself to see from their viewpoint, the bitterness and ill feelings may begin to lessen. That's what we're trying to do here at RockOm - providing a space for all faiths, practices and worldviews to be expressed around the subject of music, that we might be able to more fully appreciate and understand one another.

Secondly, keeping Carl Wilson's study in mind, the next time you internally repel in disgust as someone tells you their favorite song or style of music, ask them why they like it. (Afterall, they might be as equally repelled knowing your own favorites.) Ask questions from a willingness to understand and allow them to answer in detail. Though you might still not fully understand their preferred choice of genre, at least you may begin to see where they're coming from.

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?" [Elvis Costello]

Discuss this video/article

Transcription:

In Western musical scales, there are generally 12 half steps and therefore 12 different interval possibilities, not counting the octave (intervals are the distance between pitches). When two of these intervals are played at the same time, some of them are pleasant sounding and/or bright, such as the major third and perfect fourth and fifth. Others are darker, with a minor, strange or "sad" sound, such as the second or the minor third. There's one interval, however, that's the darkest and most dissonant of them all.

According to the V. Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary, a tritone is...

The interval of an augmented fourth. This interval was known as the "devil in music" in the Medieval era because it is the most dissonant sound in the scale.

If you're familiar with the piano and its notes, play a C and then play the F# directly above it at the same time. Or if you're a guitarist, play your second string (B string) open while playing the first fret on the first string (high E string) at the same time. This is the tritone, the "devil's interval."

Why is it known the "devil's interval"? In the middle ages this interval was often avoided in composition because of its dissonant, or clashing, quality. The very sound of it suggests discord, opposition or even evil.

[With that said, this isn't a history lesson on the tritone. If you'd like more information, check out this Wikipedia article or Google search "tritone."]

Interestingly enough, what we consider music today wouldn't exist without it. The dissonance created by this interval introduces drama into the tonality.  As a piece of music moves along (if you listen closely enough), notes clash and then resolve, bite at your ear and then become pleasant, make you cringe and then make you smile.  Without it, music would be without life and would become boring very quickly.

Many of us want to sanitize our lives: pushing that which is dissonant far away, living a sheltered and safe life, avoiding the drama and fearing the darkness both in ourselves and in the world.  During those times when we want life's weird twists and turns to end or for everything to be safe and manageable, let us never forget that the end of drama is the introduction of boredom, of lifelessness. Yes, there are crappy days and terrorists, jock itch and natural disasters, but at least in this plane - in this life - everything that we know and experience couldn't exist without them.

Let's transform the paragraph above:

As life moves along (if you watch closely enough), it clashes and then resolves, bites at you and then become pleasant, makes you cringe and then makes you smile.  Without the drama, life wouldn't be life and would become boring very quickly.

When we learn to accept that the dance of harmony and dissonance, the clash of good and evil, is exactly the very thing that makes the world go 'round, we're free to participate in it with joy.  We're happy to roll with the punches and navigate a complicated and tricky existence without frustration, but rather with the acceptance that it has to be this way.  This isn't to say we have to be tolerant of the various kinds of evil or injustice we experience - let us fight them with vigor when we need to - but all the while knowing that in some grand, metanarrative, it is all - ALL - good.

[By Trevor Harden, president of RockOm.net]

Discuss this video/article