Vox Mundi Project

RECOMMENDED READINGS

SOUND & CONCIOUSNESS- HEALING MODALITIES :
VOCAL MEDITATION And CHANTING
By Silvia Nakkach, M.A.,M.M.T.

VOCAL MEDITATION

“Every tone is an event. A tone contains limitless possibilities.
Musical tones are conveyers of forces. Hearing music means hearing
an action of forces.”
Zuckerkandl

The practice of vocal meditation consists in singing with a drone (a continuous sound, which contains myriads of harmonics and overtone). The voice moves in a very slow pace allowing for a sensitive connection between feeling and the vitality within toning. It is like the experience of tuning an instrument, and it is based on the art of scales and raga singing. RAGA: is an ancient tonal arrangement of ascending and descending patterns and micro-tonal ornaments that evokes the color of the mind.

We explore “meending,” the space in between notes. In North Indian music, meend is the art of connecting notes. We visualize our voice as a string, and we approach each note as a complete piece of music in itself, sliding into and out of it. In Western music, meend is referred to as “portamento.” We also refer this practice as microtonal singing. The slow glissando, “buttery”, and wavering motion of the voice approaching one note from the other conveys deep emotion, giving rise to feelings that often are not associated with anything in particular. It helps to release the emotion that needed to be expressed.

“ Meend vivifies melodies, making them sanguine and glossy and velvety by turns,
saturating them with feeling. Even a small dose of this practice can significantly
change the way you listen to music, specially sung music, by opening up the deep
world that lies underneath the surface” . —
W. A. Mathieu, Harmonic Experience.

THE BIRTH POINT OF TONE. A focal point on the lower lip where the inner air meets the outer. According to indications of Rudolf Steiner the tone has its place of origin in the pineal gland. It is the combination of ear, pineal gland, and embouchure which creates the birth of tone. We can enhance the magic of tone with emotion, mood, and directing the awareness to breathing and sound.

THE POSTURE. The motion is minimal and perpetual, a focused and subtle movement of breath and deep muscles. The arms and hands become wings. We embody the bird in fly . The “presence” is relaxed, but alert, conscious of no distractions. The mind is focused on the reality of intoning tone.

THE PRACTICE: Call and response with a guide or with our own self.
Conscious repetition. Listening and sounding. Sounding and listening. Exploring texture. Pace. Time and duration. Exploring the connection between sound and awareness of tone. Departure from the drone, up and down. Returning to the drone. Resting in the drone. Be one with the drone, the sacred home of tone.

CHANTING.

birdsong brings relief
to my longing
I am just as ecstatic as they are,
but with nothing to say!
please, universal soul, practice
some song, or something, through me!
RUMI

Chanting is a form of vocal meditation based on simple melody lines which allow variations on rhythm, harmonies and expressions. It creates a contagious sense of unity, and well-being. Chanting is a devotional practice that had been preserved for centuries, and can be found in all cultures, sharing similar attributes.

To mention some examples; the Hebrew’s davennen, the kirtans and mantras from India, the Tibetan ritual prayers, the zhikrs from the Sufis, the Heart Sutras from the Zen Buddhism, and the African and Amazonian chants. Robert Gass defines chanting as “discovering spirit in sound”, understanding “discovering “ as awakening.

Musically chanting includes mantras, invocations, prayers, as well as the sustained vocalization of a sacred seed syllables such as AUM or OM. The rhythm is repetitive, with subtle alterations of tempo, pace, and pulse, according to the intensity of the collective experience. The sacred meaning of the words or syllables adds to the magnetic and ecstatic effect enhanced by the group sound, as well as the particular kind of ”intoning “, breathing in and out sound. In some occasions, the meaning of the chant is understood at a higher cognitive level, as a spiritual transmission, and it is translated simultaneously in the dimension of sound healing and spiritual resonance.

In chanting the voice connects with the transpersonal dimension of the self, facilitating non-ordinary states of consciousness. As a healing modality, chanting charges the brain cells, lowers the blood pressure, and balance the heart rhythm, inducing relaxation, and elevating the mood. The healing power of chanting resides also in its capacity to open us to go beyond our ego-boundaries to access transcendent states of consciousness and subtle manifestations of wholeness.

According to the French physician and ear specialist Dr. Alfred Tomatis, chanting is nothing less than our “royal route “ to the divine. It is also a kind of vocal art that we all can do well. Dr. Tomatis affirms that Gregorian chants are a fantastic food for the brain. All the monasteries that closed down are the ones where the monks didn’t chant. Greogorian chants contain all the frequencies of the voice spectrum, roughly from 70 cycles per second up to 9,000 cycles per second, but with a very different envelop curve from that of the normal speech. These timbres, rich in overtones, charge our brain, revitalizing our main functions and providing a benefit to whoever listens to it. Gregorian chants are an awakening of the field of expanded consciousness, inducing concentration and sharpening the capacity for self-awareness.

In a music therapy session or sound healing session, the introduction of chanting becomes a way to induce positive transference in the therapeutic relationship, and to generate a safe musical container. It is a preliminary practice, which has the ability to elevate the mood and to activate deep emotional connections and memories. The therapist can accompany her /himself ‘with a drone, any instrument, or a’capella. The steady and energetic pulse of the chant, can harmonize the timing of our thoughts, our movements, breathing cycle, regulating the nervous system, and inducing a sense of vitality and hope.

Chants are specially indicated to help to bridge the transition between life and death, with terminally ill patients.

The therapeutic value of using chanting in music therapy will depend upon the selected cross-ethnic repertoire, which will also can include chants that are improvised and created on the spot, these are relevant to the particular clinical technique; clinical chant improvisation.

“ Chanting is a significant and mysterious practice. It is the highest nectar, a
tonic that fully nourishes our inner being. Chanting opens the heart and makes loves
flow within us. It releases such intoxicating inner bliss and enthusiastic splendor,
that simply through the nectar it generates, we can enter the abode of the Self.”
Swami Muktananda