Comment

Comment by Cindi Zechman on November 6, 2012 at 5:43pm

By all means, Jeremy.  That was my original intent but was unsuccessful so posted here.  There are many different philosophies represented here so I believe we all can learn from each other

Comment by Evelyn L Abston on November 6, 2012 at 1:44pm

Hi Philippa:

I love to read about your experiences the Psaltery helped to open up your hearing. That is the experience I am having too. I feel the Psaltryists are being called to reach out to others. I used to joke that I belived the angels invented this instrument. I have also thought about performing a group concert via the web. it would be awesome.

Comment by Donna Malus on October 28, 2012 at 8:21am

Hi Evelyn!  Having suffered with depression off and on through my life I understand how music affects that particular "mood disorder". The mental and the physical are interwoven and balance is so important.

I know that there are notes that are supposed to be aligned with specific chakras and I have a chart somewhere, I'll look for it. Those notes are where the discussion about tuning in different mhz began. Some believe that 432 is the natural tuning and the one the chakras would respond to best. If you've read through this entire thread you've found that discussion already. 

Keep us updated on how you progress!

Comment by Evelyn L Abston on October 27, 2012 at 11:13pm

Hello everyone:

I started playing the BP a month ago. my goal is to develop music for balancing the Chakras. We all know how the vibrations of the sound is very soothing. When I am stressed I play simple melodies and I feel calm and centered. It has helped my depression. I feel happy waking up and knowing I get to play with my Bowed Psaltery. I am interested in how other Psalterists are using their instruments in healing.

Comment by Donna Malus on October 27, 2012 at 8:06am

I'm sad to hear of your hearing loss Janet, I would never have thought of that being an issue. Will you be able to prevent further loss?

Outside of you hearing loss your comments were fascinating and exciting! I never considered one sound counteracting another, nor have I thought much about how playing the psaltery has affected my own hearing. I feel it in my body and have considered that often. I have several psalteries and they all have different levels of reverberation. Two of mine are very strong and carry through my hand up into my shoulder. This certainly adds to the pleasure of playing. 

Comment by Janet Thompson on October 27, 2012 at 7:23am

what I do now is wear a pair of noise attenuating earplugs.  they drop the sound levels by 28db and still allow me to hear the important things like sirens, the radio etc. 

And..like a nut I got myself moved to a small bus with only 8 kids who dont scream, but do curse worse then sailors.

The damage already done is however permanent. What we're finding ( me and the doctor and some other drivers) is this is a known problem and that the bus manufactures and school boards dont want a study dont to solve the problem because that admits there IS a problem and makes them liable for the damage.

Comment by Janet Thompson on October 25, 2012 at 5:33pm

I've been watching the thread with some interest.  I am losing my hearing due to my job,  I drive a public school bus and have for years.  The sound level inside a school bus with just the motor running is between 80 and 90bd.  Thats before you add children who yell and scream at 110db or even reach levels of 130db in large groups.  Like the 78 I had on my bus, which is an accoustic tube. 

What I find amazing and interesting is as I lose conversational tones, I am gaining a sensitivity to vibrations.  The paltery in my hands when I play, sounds just a pure as any sound I ever heard, until I set it down.  Then its muffled.  An unexpected benefit of playing the psaltery is it does quiet the ringing I hear for hours after a short session.  I honestly believe the vibrations of the music are what is healing.  Our  ears hear them. Our body's feel them.  Our soul responds to them.  Its just interesting to think a simple soft sound can bring relief

Comment by Donna Malus on October 24, 2012 at 9:22pm

Great comments everyone. I suppose ego is at the base of my difficulty playing solo in front of others. I don't want to make a mistake or be "wrong" and be seen as "inferior"   (wow...I have issues  )

Anyway, I've picked up a Native American Flute and am enjoying improvising on it. From what I"ve gathered so far, that's where this flute shines...generally they are tuned to a specific pentatonic scale (and some really unusual ones also, the most common is F#m pentatonic) and in flute circles it's mainly improvising and joining each others improvisations. As long as all players are in the same pentatonic scale, or a compatible one, the music will work pretty much all the time and you are free to follow your heart, your vision, your muse, whatever moves you.

I'm hoping this will help me loosen up and get over "following the rules" perfectly and then I might be able to translate that to the psaltery!

Studying up on Native Flute there is a lot of discussion of healing, chakras, frequencies etc. Historically music was big medicine! It's fascinating stuff and I think that not only will the NAF sound wonderful with the psaltery, but the therapeutic aspect translate very well to bowed psaltery.

Comment by Donna Malus on October 24, 2012 at 9:09pm

Jeremy, thanks for sharing "Pitch Imperfect"  I'm going to share the link on the main page also. I enjoyed it very much.

Comment by Jeremy Main on October 23, 2012 at 5:10pm

And perhaps to move ahead a little: how does the healing skill differ from the musician's gift? We've set ourselves aside to channel a deeper power in both instances, and there are a number of those, earth power, divine power according to your creed, personal power, indeed shamanistic power, although whether that is positive enough to heal by is something I'd dispute, I just include it for completeness. Any other bids?
The use of tuned bowls and triangles as a form of selah, a how-about-that smack on the back of the head designed to open the inner eye, these are well known. We're within inches of the same, and merging the psyche with the instrument as Phillipa describes is also common to the practices of the blind harpers of old. Yet the two are somewhat different, we're working with the open eye of the blind, that zen-and-the-art-of-psaltery-playing which reaches for the unseen truths. At this point I need an active healer to step in and guide us, as I've been an adjiuvant so far.

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