One of the dreams we all have as musicians is to make an impact on audiences, large or small. Sometimes, as I’ll show you, it comes in the more unusual places at the most unexpected times.
A mentor and friend of mine, JoAnn Ottley, has been leading me on a different kind of a journey—helping me to see that music can have a powerful impact in a whole new way…much more powerful than I just described. And helping me see that singers, all of them, are having a huge impact on audiences even when they don’t hear “the big applause.” The audience may not know “it” even happened, and the singers may not be aware they did it! So many singers are sitting at home depressed, not using their power, because many don’t even know they have it.
We want to perform in such a way that audiences are greatly moved—lives are changed as a result of the art to which we’ve just poured our souls. There is that moment of pause when the last note hangs in the air, a moment of anticipation before the applause begins, before a performer knows if “it” happened.
Did the audience “get it” this time? A concert or opera singer’s dream is that there will be a sudden maddening rush of applause, standing ovation, shouts of brava or bravo—tears, even. In that magical moment you know that all the years of preparation were worth it for that one performance.
People—audiences and performers—talk about these performances for years because they happen so rarely. It’s a great disappointment for performers to go through their whole lives and never feel that—not once. And yet I think most performers never get “the big one.” They go through their careers never feeling they really made an impact.
To understand what I’m talking about, you’d probably have to go back to the reason why you got into music and remember the first time music touched you—recall the feelings. I remember hearing an opera singer for the first time in a rather closed space. I thought the atoms and molecules inside my being were going to burst—I’d never heard sound like that before. It did something physically to me. I wonder if you had an experience like that. I felt something on a very physical level that almost made my dizzy. I wonder what your story is. Think back!
It’s probably not a new thought to you that the reward for all your years of training can be found in more than simple applause. Most of us have had experienced other people being grateful for what you do and the incredible feelings it generates.
But I’m talking about music having a much more powerful impact than that. I’m talking about the healing power of music. Music therapists have known about the healing power of music for a long time, but haven’t known how or why it works.
I wanted to experiment a bit on my own. I’d already had one incident years before singing “Ave Maria” to my grandmother with severe Alzheimer’s and having her grab me and lock onto my eyes in desperation as if from a far place for the whole song. It brought her back for the duration of the song.
Knowing music is powerful, I wanted to test what I’ve been reading. I have a nephew, Jason, who is severely autistic. No speech, no eye contact, wheelchair bound. Can do nothing for himself. His hands are curled up, and he lives in a world of his own.
Last Sunday I went to see him. His parents told me I should expect to stay about 10 minutes. The nurse brought him to me in a large waiting room with other patients sitting around. Jason is a beautiful red-headed young man with gorgeous fair skin, and his condition is heartbreaking. His head was on his chest, but he was awake. I gave him a hug and talked to him for a while, hoping that some part of him could understand who I was.
No response, of course. I tried to hold his hand, but it was curled tight. Self-consciously, but remembering all I’d been studying about the power of music to heal, I started to sing a children’s song to him, very quietly. Another couple in the room were trying desperately to communicate with an elderly man who was a very recent stroke victim, and I didn’t want to interrupt them.
The singing at first felt embarrassing, but soon I noticed that Jason’s hand was beginning to relax in mine a little, and he was letting me hold it. The stroke victim and his family stopped their anguished attempts at talking and were smiling and listening. The stroke victim looked relieved at not having to talk, so I switched to well-known hymns and began to sing louder. The man smiled. The family stopped trying to make him talk, which he couldn’t do, and just let feelings come. It seemed to me a wonderful warmth permeated the room.
I soon learned the healing power of the voice works better when you don’t sing with an “air-voice,” because as I started to sing louder, in a more trained voice, an amazing thing happened. Jason lifted up his head and got the biggest smile on his face! He started looking around as if he were surrounded by a group of friends I couldn’t see. He turned his head from side to side and grinned while I kept singing.
I patted his cheeks with my free hand. That lasted three minutes or so, and then his head went back down. I’d heard his family talk about him doing that before, but it was the first time I’d ever seen him alert, and it moved me. I kept singing, and by this time his whole hand had relaxed into mine.
But then the most amazing thing happened: Jason looked up right into my eyes with that beautiful smile. He looked at me with the most searching look I’ve ever seen in my life. I’d never heard of him doing this before! I got tears in my eyes, put both my hands on his face, talked to him and told him I loved him, but then just sang as earnestly as I could while touching him.
It felt like the singing was reaching him and pulling him out of that blank place where he goes. After about 30 seconds, his gaze fell and he was gone again. I kept singing, and soon a crowd of patients gathered. A boy with some speech ability came and asked for Christmas songs. He wanted “Jingle Bells,” so we launched into that.
This time, I tried being very silly with Jason as you would a little child, emphasizing the words with tickles and little pokes and got smiles out of him! He liked that one a lot, so we did it several times. I hadn’t heard about Jason showing that he liked anything, so this was new to me as well.
I sang for a full hour for him and other patients and had another episode of Jason looking at unseen friends and another with him locking on my eyes and smiling that big smile. It was very emotional for me. He was getting tired, so I kissed him goodbye, said goodbye to the other patients, and left profoundly moved.
It’s been a week, and I can’t wait to go back. I’m wondering what could happen if Jason has this kind of input on a regular basis. I aim to find out.
You know, I sang at the Met this year—rehearsed for weeks. And I sang in a nursing home last Sunday—no rehearsal—I just walked in off the street and started to sing. The best performance was at the nursing home. It was so wonderful to feel like my voice, my training, all those years (!) really made a difference.
If my voice singing simple songs without accompaniment had this effect on Jason who is terribly ill, what do you think is happening to audiences when you sing—applause or not, whether they are willing or not, whether you cracked that high note or not?
The research shows that atoms and molecules inside their bodies could very well be forming perfect, beautiful patterns as a result of the vibrations you are setting in motion. Think about it next time you open your mouth and use that gift you have, or the next time someone thanks you but has no words to express what they heard and felt. You caused something to happen inside them they can’t even comprehend.
The voice is a powerful instrument. Ancient myths about how the voice has been used are astounding. True or not, some of what I’ve been learning about is that people believe the voice has amazing power. Here are a few examples of the lore of voice:
An ancient myth that says creation was “sung” into existence.
Another ancient myth says the stones at Stonehenge were moved into place with the voice.
Tradition says Jericho’s walls were knocked down by the voice.
Groups appear to be doing healing by encircling the ill person and singing random pitches.
Sherry Edwards has been documented as healing serious illness by singing.
Beautiful music causes water to form the most beautiful crystals [http://www. hado.net]. Interesting because the human body is largely water.
Musical tones vibrating on a diaphragm cause sand to form itself into beautiful patterns and shapes. It’s called Cymatics, the study of wave phenomena.
Legitimate scientific research is currently being done on the effects of music on the physical world, especially the human mind and body. I’ve included in this issue an article that explains some of the work that is going on in this field. (See page 56.)
Your voice is a wonderful gift. I hope you can get out there where people live, and sing. The world needs you.
Do you have an experience you’d like to share? Write to CJ at cjw@classicalsinger.com or P.O. Box 95490 South Jordan UT 84059. We love to hear from you.
