Harp Music is Perfect for Hospice!
The music encircles you... it's better than medicine! I think the doctors are catching on. It creates a breakthrough for my mind, body, and spirit.
~Hospice Patient S. T., 10/20/15~
Harp Music for Hospice:
- Creates a calming environment in homes and hospitals for patients, families, visitors, caregivers, just about everyone within earshot, including animals. Please see my page on Harp for Dogs
- Allows patients and families to focus on something hopeful and soothing to distract them from worry, pain and suffering
- Nurtures people in times of physical and/or emotional pain
- Vibrates and penetrates at a cellular level to facilitate healing, transitioning, and/or achieving peace
- Provides non-intervention care for hospital and hospice patients in transition
- Improves physiological effects, such as relaxed muscle tension, increased oxygenation, slower heart rate, lowered blood pressure, etc.
As two of the Providence Hospice Nurses who refer me tell their patients, families, and caregivers: the number 1 reason to have the harpist come is that the music acts like a massage, a tranquilizer, and is non-intervention therapy. The vibrational energy of the harp strings goes directly into the cellular matter and allows for relaxation and is therefore a therapeutic treatment.
Here in the Rogue Valley of Oregon, I currently play harp for Providence Hospice and private inquiries and have been doing so since Fall, 2013. In playing harp for hospice, I have witnessed how favorably those in the room, from patient to family, from visitors to caregivers, respond to live harp music, as I consciously “orchestrate” it to suit the needs of the listeners. During this unusual time, I primarily offer my services via Zoom.
Since 1988, I have played harp for thousands of special events, particularly weddings and their associated activities. One thing playing background for weddings taught me was how to “score” the music to provide the perfect feeling at the right time – something that serves me well in Hospice Harp playing.
While on Maui, from 2010-2012 I volunteered at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Pacific Cancer Ward, and played monthly for those in the reception area as well as those in the chemotherapy chairs – so much angst removed by the singing plucked strings. The radiation doctors would take turns coming into the reception area to soak in the music for 2 to 3 minutes before their duties called them back. They would always express gratitude and you could see the music had drenched them with calm for those few moments.
With these years of experience playing this phenomenal instrument, considered to be the oldest of the stringed instruments, I have been able to observe and actively participate in the effects the music that comes forth from the strings and wood or carbon fiber has on people.
Below are some important points about the therapeutic use of the harp for healing, calming, and more. I also have a page dedicated to the healing qualities and tradition of the harp.
The Healing Tradition of the Harp:
The harp has been revered as a healing instrument for thousands of years and by many cultures.
The characteristics that make the harp unique for healing include:
(Excerpted from the Spring ’96 Harp Therapy Journal)
- The instrument’s archetypal significance as an ancient, spiritual healing instrument.
- Its wide pitch range which can vibrate the entire body.
- Its varied and soothing palette of tone colors.
- The ethereal effect created through the harp’s unique glissando technique.
- The tension-then-release associated with the emotional expression of plucking its strings, as Pythagoras suggested when he saw the strings as symbols of the nervous system.
Laurie Riley, founder of the Music for Healing and Transition Program, said in the Winter ’98-99 Harp Therapy Journal, “The harp, with its many strings, consistently generates a profound response in the listener. … There are many effective instruments, but the harp seems to be the epitome of a healing instrument.”
Fabien Maman, French composer and musician, says in the Summer ’98 Harp Therapy Journal, “When natural acoustic instruments are played, their sound resonates with the corresponding element and organ in the body. Stringed instruments, for example, correspond to the energy of the heart, small intestine, pericardium, and Triple Warmer meridians. The fundamental note played on an acoustic instrument nurtures the physical body, while the overtones resonate in the subtle bodies…. The plucked harp strings spread the sound — it surrounds the listener. The harp vibrates through the wood and the listener. It is a very feminine instrument and touches the heart… Other stringed instruments are more directional and restricted in their range.”
I Play Harp for Hospice
I Play Harp for Dogs!
If you have a dog for which you’d like hospice harp played, see more about this here.
What wonderful work you’re doing! I wish I lived closer! I am in Canada between Ottawa and Montreal. I am a Scots Gaelic singer and would love to do hospice work! I am also a student of the harp but have a long way to go before I am ready to do hospice work with the harp. I would love to talk to you about your work. Would that be possible?
Certainly! How would you like to do so? It would be my pleasure! 🙂