Sound Journeys & Music as Medicine

As few of you may know, I am trained as a music therapist. Also, I had a little bit of training (and besides that, a lot of expertise) in sound healing with tuning forks, singing bowls and didgeridoos. Lately, I’m more moving into improvised music, healing music, and ecstatic dance music. A few months ago I started to do weekly Sound Journeys on YouTube Live. But I want to talk about the healing powers of music. I have seen it happen with so many clients – how music brightens them up and giving them new strength to go through their day, their life. And last year music helped me as well in the battle against long COVID. I’m still not there, but thanks to music I’m getting to the good side of life and health again. I wrote a mantra, called “Morning Affirmation”. It’s available on all streaming platforms. I started to play live music again, together with my (then not yet) new girlfriend who invited me to join her Mantra Jam. And since we are together we are making music together. We already did a few Mantra Jams, a number of amazing performances, a Sound Journey, and started a tribe called Music as Medicine, a platform where the healing powers of music are emphasized. Yes, you read it right, a lot has happened since last winter (and it really was the winter of my life!). A lot has evolved and a lot of development has taken place in the meantime. Every musical activity has a “coat rack” now – a foundation. Healing. Music as Medicine. And yes, nowadays I am re-starting to take it to the streets as well, with handpan, didgeridoo and percussion. In the meantime, my book about streetperforming is being written as well. Every Tuesday there will be a Sound Journey. And the 16th of January there will be a real-life Mantra Jam in The Hague. Oh, and we started a brand new Ko-Fi page as well, check it out here!

My guitar

I haven’t read a lot about Taylors, but I bet there is already a lot written about them. I have been a fanboy of the brand for years and even owned a Taylor dreadnought before. Recently, my Eastman workhorse needed replacement and I went to the local guitar store to test some guitars. The Taylor 214CE met all my requirements: a non-dreadnought guitar with a cutaway, bright sound and easy playability. I never immerse myself in details like how much millimeters the neck is or even the types of wood it’s made of. If a guitar ‘clicks’ with me, I feel it and know that the guitar was made for me. That feeling I felt with this particular guitar. I play percussive fingerstyle, mostly in DADGAD-tuning, so the percussive sound of the body really does matter, and with this guitar responses are very good.

Of course, it’s a new instrument for my hands, so there’s a bit to discover and learn as well. The sound of the strings is bright and full, and the string sounds are very responsive, especially to right-hand slaps. The guitar came with Elixir strings that can even ring a bit too bright occasionally. Fortunately you can roll off the sometimes a bit harsh sounding high frequencies with the excellent Taylor Expression System, a built-in pickup that sounds amazing when plugged in. I bought an Eastman Rare Earth Blend, another pickup system with very good tonal qualities, to build into the Taylor, but the built-in system is so good that I haven’t done it yet.

An interesting experiment is to replace the original Elixir strings with a set of D’addario 012s (I believe they are the phosphor bronze’s) and see (and especially listen) what happens. The harshness of the bright tones disappeared but the response stayed. Great!

This guitar invites me to play more and discover the guitar itself to the core and create new music on it. And yes, that’s definitely worth the 1300 euros I spent on it. I chose to have it with a guitarcasebag. A what? A device that is a guitar case on the inside and a guitar bag on the outside, everything I always wanted – to be able to carry a case on my back. Awesome!

In short, I am very happy and content with the guitar. It’s my new workhorse from now on, with the Eastman as a spare guitar. Or, to say it more specifically, the Taylor is now my guitar for my own live performances, and the Eastman became my music therapy guitar – more on that topic later on. If I can give you advice on buying a new guitar: don’t watch 1000 YouTube-videos, and don’t buy it online. Go to your local shop, and if they don’t have what you need, go to another shop, to try and feel the guitar. You will just know what the right guitar is for you. If you already know what exact guitar you want – and it happens to be this one – or just want to ignore my advice, please take a look here.

Keep playing & doing what you love!

Facing fears – about streetperforming

While I was standing exactly one week ago on Dam Square, Amsterdam, I was enormously overwhelmed by the presence of so many people on one square. People from all over the world, gathered on a square in the middle of Amsterdam. There was also a balloon thingy going on (that appeared to be an act to raise consciousness for the people who have been held hostage in the war in Israel, all the respect and love for the people there). Here I am, again. With my full streetperforming equipment setup on my bike, hesitating to just set up and play, or rather not. Feeling nervous. Because Dam Square is something different, I felt it.

At one point I gathered my courage and started business. While setting up people were already becoming curious. I started playing and people showed interest, engagement, and love. During my second song I noticed something strange in my guitar sound. A distortion that shouldn’t be there, and a need to crank up the volume to be audible. Not good. The battery of the preamp had died, and I didn’t have a spare. There wasn’t a battery-shop around and I was alone. It was about to rain in maybe 30 minutes, so packing up and unpacking again wasn’t an option. I really had to stop, unfortunately. But, with a great feeling: I played for no less than seven minutes on that damn Square!

Today I learned two lessons. Facing my fears pays off! I’m already looking forward to the next time. While I know I will be pissing my pants then, I’ll do it anyway. Lesson two: always take a spare battery with me.