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Thread: Music is Healing

  1. #1
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Music is Healing

    I’ve been going through some sad times, but music refreshes me so that I can be strong. I have a band practice tomorrow, and playing will be fun and healing.

    Many years ago, when I first moved to Germany. I got so sick that I spent seven weeks in the hospital. Pink Floyd’s Division Bell came out, and I’d sit for hours, playing along with Dave. It helped me while I was healing but weak. I owe my recovery in part to that album and to the joy of playing.

    How has it helped you?
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  2. #2

    Re: Music is Healing

    First- I sincerely hope that some positive things come your way soon, Willie. Jamming/ practicing with others is something I really miss sometimes. It's great that you have such appreciation for that interaction.

    Certain albums and songs definitely keep me grounded at times. About 30 yrs ago I came VERY close to ending it. At that time, Black Sabbath's first album was on my turntable almost non-stop. Now days whenever I hear any song from that album, it has a sobering effect on me and instantly makes me appreciate how much good I've experienced in the past 30 years.

    Tim McGraw's 'Live Like You Were Dying' will always remind me of my father and of a time in my life that was so hard. Almost always brings a tear to my eye as I get older yet it also frequently makes me breathe deep and and feel a little stronger for a brief moment.

    'If Tomorrow Never Comes' by Garth Brooks will always be a song that reminds me how fortunate I am to have a loving, compassionate, and supportive wife. At times that I'm aggravated by some stupid little thing that she or I did or said... this song always brings me back around to appreciating our differences and our weaknesses.

    There's plenty more but those are off the top of my head and straight from my heart.

    Peace be with you, Willie.

  3. #3
    Forum Member OldStrummer's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    Sorry you're going through a rough patch, @ch willie. A late friend of mine used to remind me, "This too, shall pass." The only thing that's permanent is death.

    Music has been a key part of every stage of my life. Right now, I'm streaming a re-broadcast of KCUR-FM's "Night Tides" program. I $ub$cribe to several podcasts and music services. My Apple TV is more often a musical "fireplace" than a watched device.

    I live alone, and the sound of music flowing through my house fills me with comfort and serenity. No matter what the world brings to my feet, Music always seems to soften it and make it palatable, if not enjoyable.

    If I'm not trying to play music, I'm listening to it. My collection of iPods, speakers, earphones and players is nearly as vast as my guitar collection. Music is the first thing I turn on in the morning and the last thing I turn off at night.

    Whatever is going on in your life, @ch willie, I hope it passes soon. And that music helps you through it.

  4. #4
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    For me it's enjoyable, but hardly healing. I wake up on Sundays with aches and pains from hauling gear and standing for three sets with guitars hanging on my shoulders. You want to sleep in but the dog still wakes me up to go out and do his business.

    For me it's more about a night out wit the fella's and seeing old friends. The music is just the vehicle to do it. I still very much enjoy performing too, so I continue.

    I find my time in the cockpit much more healing - all your troubles go on hold the instant you push the throttles forward. I really feel refreshed even after a long flight, in the clouds at night when there's nothing to see. I guess it just gets that part of my head working that clears out the bad mojo. Those lucky days when you get to cruise in severe clear are righteous!

    I also enjoy model planes too. Don't get me started on boats and fishing!!!

    Chuck
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    Getting in a studio room and plugging the guitar into an amp has kept me going, many times, including back when I was fighting depression and deep sadness.

    I wouldn’t be the same man without music.

  6. #6
    Forum Member FrankJohnson's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    Listening is good -

    BUT.......
    Playing, the right music, with the right people, at the right times......
    ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!!!

    I find it therapeutic,and therefore.......I find it healing.
    Its more than "Bowling Night" for me.
    Kenny Belmont
    >:^{I)>

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    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    I guess I really enjoy the teamwork aspect of it. A band is the epitome of teamwork to me. I like working to get the parts down and it's always satisfying when you nail a hook or phrase that you've wrestled with while practicing. The little nothing lick on Chain Gang, for example was a problem for me with that alternate picking, catching the the A on the 6th string, fretting the F# on the 5th string then sliding up to the A - getting right every time vexed me for about a month. But if you don't finger just right it never sounds like it should.

    That kind of stuff I enjoy. Putting in the work to be both accurate and precise. I think that type of thing is what draws me to classic rock and pop. The diversity is so great; there's always a challenge.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  8. #8
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    I guess I really enjoy the teamwork aspect of it. A band is the epitome of teamwork to me. I like working to get the parts down and it's always satisfying when you nail a hook or phrase that you've wrestled with while practicing. The little nothing lick on Chain Gang, for example was a problem for me with that alternate picking, catching the the A on the 6th string, fretting the F# on the 5th string then sliding up to the A - getting right every time vexed me for about a month. But if you don't finger just right it never sounds like it should.

    That kind of stuff I enjoy. Putting in the work to be both accurate and precise. I think that type of thing is what draws me to classic rock and pop. The diversity is so great; there's always a challenge.

    Martin Scorsese, in an interview about the filming of Raging Bull, said that he didn’t really understand sports. He said he liked music better.

    I feel the same way. I used to do a lot of Judo, karate, boxed as an amateur at a local gym, tried to learn how to play tennis... but I don’t really “understand” activities that are all about “one against the other”. Playing in a band is a teamwork based on harmony. That’s what I like and understand.

  9. #9
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    I like being in a band too, especially when it's a band of friends. That's therapeutic for me too.

    It's not like I'm always a wounded animal looking for comfort, but when I am in that situation, music is there for me.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  10. #10
    Forum Member Volumeknob's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    Good times jamming with friends are ALWAYS therapy -- good soul therapy :)
    The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
    T. Roosevelt

  11. #11
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    I have a friend, a young man of 26. He and his 14 year old brother lost their mother to an opioid overdose. The night she died, she and my buddy were supposed to go to a James Taylor concert. He's loved JT since he was 4 years old. The brother is a big fan, and their mother was too. My buddy has felt so bad that his mother hadn't gone with him. He and his brother have grieved hard for these 1.5 years since she died.

    Fast-forward to this weekend. My buddy and his brother got tickets for the JT concert in Tupelo. They were very emotional because they were fans, but also because of the connection to their mother. After the show, they hung around. Soon, they saw that the crowd had left, all except for a small group of people near the stage, so they made their way down from the nosebleeds. And James Taylor was there signing autographs The security guards shouted at my friends and rightly turned them away. But the guards continued to be loud and rude. JT looked up and saw, and he invited the boys to come over and let him sign their JT albums.

    They told him how great his music is. My buddy told him that he'd been an inspiration and that he had learned a lot about the guitar from playing JT songs. JT was so nice and started asking them questions about themselves. They told him the story of their mother, and he was so sweet and kind to them. He then posed for three pics with them. The little brother cried hard. JT is his hero, but it was also for his mother. The concert and then meeting JT helped him to openly grieve. It made him feel better, and my buddy got a little peace about his mother.

    You might be cynical and say, yeah celebrity is what got em. But that's also simplistic. The music means something to them first. And that's all of a piece. Music is helping them to get stronger.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  12. #12
    Forum Member gibsonjunkie's Avatar
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    Re: Music is Healing

    If beautiful music can make you cry or laugh, then it can heal too. In college I had a really bad breakup with my first real girlfriend. I was devastated. My friends knew I was a Stephen Stills fan and ran out to buy me the new Manassas album the day it was released. That album saved my life. I listened to the snot out of it. I put my speakers in my dorm room windows on Sunday morning at 7 AM and blasted it for the whole world to hear. I got into a big fight with the campus chaplain about that one...!

    BTW - that girl is now a facebook friend - I really dodged a bullet!!!
    "We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain

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