Music Can Heal

It has been said time and again that music can make you happy or make you cry. It can make you dance or make you relax. But most of all, scientist say that music can heal –- and that is through music therapy. And more and more, medical experts say that music therapy is now being used to treat many illnesses and disorders.

So what does exactly music therapy means? It is actually an established healthcare profession that uses music to improve physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning of individuals of all ages. Music therapy improves the quality of life for people who are well and meet the needs of children and adults with disabilities or illnesses.

The American Music Therapy in a recent research conducted regarding the use of music therapy find significance on how it can cure. Cancer patients instead of taking painkillers listened to Broadway tunes. Those with Alzheimer's sing along with classical songs. Even pregnant women use music to help them breath and relax during labor. Crying babies listen to lullaby. It benefits not just these ailments but other aging related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, acute and chronic pain, psychological disorders as Down syndrome and autism, and people suffering from hypertension as well. Since music affects blood pressure so much. When someone listens to hard music normally blood pressure raises and if one listens soft and classical music blood pressure lowers down. Interestingly, in the research, all showed positive results.

Not only does music help those who are sick, it also does wonders to those who are well. For a student listening to music while preparing for examinations leads him to focus more. For a professional, when reaching home listening to music it can help them relax after a day of hectic activities. For a sportsman or athlete it can relieve fatigue after a hard day of physical and strenuous activities.

Apart from the scientific research, music is a kind of medicine that everyone needs. Thus, it may be for treating sadness and exalting one’s happiness. Take enough dosage of music now! It can be a way to improve your health.

Music and the Academe

Music in most schools has always been part of its curriculum. Be it in glee clubs, music clubs or school choir. But of course you do not sacrifice a bachelor’s degree later on that you might be pursuing to a short term course in music. However, with music you can add more information you learned from school.

Music is Science. It demands systematic approach to perfection. Like a human being we started out as a toddler then the scientific fact shows that drinking and eating the right food leads to a well being. Similarly, music is the same. A musician's scorecard is a chart where a graph shows frequencies, harmony, and intensities with its control in time.

Music is History. It usually reflects the writers past historical experiences. Often these may be sad and happy experiences from families, countries, friends and cultures. Or it may also be drawn inspiration from diaries and journals. These experiences is then organized in a medlic manner, form tune and now ready to be sung!

Music is Foreign Language. It can be translated to several languages like French, Chinese, German, or Spanish. Mostly, notations are definitely not English, but a highly developed kind of symbol for shorthand writing to represent ideas.

Music is Physical Education. To be able to perform and listen, music does not require much energy. This relaxes your muscle helping your body become physically and mentally fit. Music requires great coordination of fingers, lip, cheek, and arms. In addition, it requires extraordinary control of your stomach, pharynx, and chest since this responds to the sound we hear and interpret.

Music is Mathematics. To some, music is defined to as a tangible incarnation of numbers. Thus the musical notes form 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/8... As discovered by the ancient Greeks emerged from a vibrating object.

Music brings us fond memories as we go on to life. Academe is a place where we are mold to become a better person. Wherever life takes us, one thing will definitely remain within our individuality; it is the intelligence with the balance of music that makes it closely perfect.

Learn music and make yourself younger again!

Music Reaches Us

In a year, a multitude of uncontrollable things happen. The prices may shoot up sky high, many people die, and twice of that number are born. In terms of music, the British reports that homegrown talents reach sales at about 57 million in the world; in the Americas, they say that it is about a 150 million copies of record albums are sold in the past year. Why is this so? Maybe because the increase in the population is directly proportional to the amplification of music around the world.

Needless to say, the youth have been more interested and more particular in the kind of music that they want to listen to. They want something that they can relate to, one that speaks their minds, and one that contributes, if not define their identity. As one genre grows every bit of the day, a fan learns to love it and make it a part of their lives. Before they realize it, they had made the music part of themselves, more like a soundtrack to the movie of everyday, the one that we call life.

With the statistics mentioned above, who knows at what high that other artists reach in the UK? And in what record can we see the continuous increase in the record sales all over the world? It goes to show that more and more people are getting involved in the music industry. Countless fans go out of their way just to see their favorite artists perform, have them sign an autograph and strike a pose with their idols in the camera. This can also be seen in concerts, tours and most prominently, in the internet.

And with some, the internet has become the most practical way to tell the whole world how much they love their musical heroes. A majority of people surf the net to buy a CD, while some are able to reach the artists thru blogs, My Space, their Official Sites and others. The internet has also been a great help in terms of learning about your favorite artists. There’s VH1, MTV and All Music Guide, the one site that frequently appears in online stores that give reviews, talk about the artists in brief and the artists’ works as well. Having mentioned this, a site called wikimusicguide gives music fans all over the world the chance to talk and to write about their favorite artists. The site is not just made by just a few editors that do that because it is their work, but because they genuinely enjoy the music.

The elements in this world complement each other. The music industry in a way makes itself more available through the advancing technology, therefore reaching a larger part of the society. And who knows what we’ll achieve in a year’s time?

Music Makes Life Meaningful

At some point of our life, we normally come to a point where we soul search. After a few years in the corporate world, one would just look at things over and finds out something is missing. After a few years working as an athlete, one still would not feel complete. After putting much focus on being a family man still a father feels something is lacking. And one day while going to the church listening to musical choirs perform you found much impact the religious musicals being played has to your life. Much has been said that the spiritual aspect makes life complete. But also give credit to music in aiding that aspect in giving momentum to flow within the rhythm of life towards feeling complete.

When at times we are down and at a lost we turn on at our television set to catch the latest news around with the short video footage about people suffering usually accompanied with music are seen and heard. After a while we realized that we should be fine, my situation is far of that one shown on television. The footage and music then comes deep through within us and amazingly felt how it touches one's life. Again, with the aid of music, it helps us get through and ride within the rhythm of life making it more meaningful.

Practically, almost every meaningful lifetime event is marked by musical accompaniment. Music sets the tone for wedding, graduation, funerals, and anniversaries. For a couple walking down the aisle, the tan...tan...tan...tan beat is as important, that's the wedding music that sets the tone for people to focus on them, on their marriage, on their once in a lifetime happening. This of course is apart from the more important mass celebrated by the priest who still is accompanied by religious musical songs. It is music again that aids to a more meaningful wedding ceremony.

It is a fact in life that we only have one high school and university graduation. That makes it very memorable. But one accompaniment that we usually foresee is that music plays an important role in this memento. The most exciting part undoubtedly is of course when you pass the stage to get your diploma. But what part of the event that really goes on to your nerves is the time you sing your farewell to your alma mater where again music is played.

Get into music and make life more meaningful!

Music

Can anyone imagine this world without music? I certainly can! It is a world that is flat, meaning like food when it is bland. Uninteresting, unappealing and simply boring, and if there is music in the moon, I am sure everyone else “will fly to the moon and play among the stars,” as the song goes.

Music is anything and everything to the living and thinking of God’s creation. It makes us cry, it makes us laugh, just like in the movies. A good movie is nothing without its soundtrack or musical scoring. There were movies that were long forgotten but their music lives forever.

Music is like coffee. It perks one up in the morning. At night, it calms one down after a hard day’s grind. A nightcap will not be complete without one’s favorite classics.

Music nourishes the soul. It helps keep those creative juices flowing. Imagine how many
masterpieces have taken form from the inspiration of music.

Music is like vitamins. It keeps the adrenalin pumping. It keeps one company when jogging and when doing one’s aerobics.

Music heals, just as laughter and positive attitude do. Most doctors’ clinics have piped-in music to distract the patients from discomfort and pain.

Music can be restful, like the tranquil effect of a spa, the chirping of birds and the scent of flowers and aroma of herbs.

Music can be someone’s glory. Musical icons and idols had known success like no other thru their music.

Music is someone’s art. Great composers and musicians of exceptional talents are most revered in the field of music. Their musical legacy lived long after their time.

Music is about great arias, compositions that have crossed the bounds of culture. It is universal that knows no color and creed.

Music is lifting oneself to God in prayer. It is an expression of one’s faith, love and fidelity.

This is endless, but Abba will sum it up “I ask in all honesty what would life be …. Thank you for the music for giving it to me!”

CultureShock in the WikiWikiWeb

A wiki is a kind of website which has a concept of “open editing” that permits visitors to freely create, remove or else change and edit Web page content with the use of any available browser. It is an efficient and effective collaborative authoring tool that provides total ease of interaction and operation.

I was surfing the Wiki and my interest was growing by leaps and bounces, when I followed the ThreadMode of the WikiWord - CultureShock. It began with the definition, in-depth explanation and classic examples of culture shock.

I knew what it was to experience culture shock, first hand. That was when I was, at one time, a foreign exchange student in the US of A. Some culture shock experiences were embarrassing and unsettling but others can be learning windows from where I saw a new and exciting world. This new world may not necessarily be better or worse than mine, but at that point it was definitely different. I believe, then and until now, that the difference added value to both worlds.

At the Wiki, the CultureShock by the Wikizens were amusing without being offensive. More important for me was not so much the entertainment value that the Wikizens, perhaps, unconsciously injected into their WikiText, but the added knowledge that the experience they cited brought forward.

I felt that people from every culture mean well. Be it in a greeting, a kiss, a hug, a gaze, a spoken word, and a handshake the instinct was always to extend a gesture of welcome, good will, sincerity, and pleasantness. How the meaning was lost in translation and transmission was the diminishing factor in what would have been an ideal equation.

Through the Wiki, Wikizens are able to create a platform or a plank where they share the meaning of gestures and words in their language, in their culture, and in the life they have been accustomed to. Everyone else are outsiders looking in, gaining insights of a culture initially strange and shocking.

With this new understanding comes acceptance of the foreign, tolerance for the different, and appreciation of the diverse.