Welcome to The Sound Garden - a place to share the spirit of music and song - to heal, inspire and energise. Most people at some point in their lives have had an 'epiphany' when listening to a piece of music or a song that has somehow struck a chord with them, and brought about a shift in consciousness and often leading to a release of emotion.
For me, music has been a constant source of comfort and inspiration - it has been my company and welcome friend, through many a dark night of the soul. And has been a joyous gift to share with others - being part of a group of people, where the music has shifted the atmosphere and dynamic - raising consciousness and bringing about unified or personal experience, is an amazing feeling.
The healing power of music enables people to explore and express emotions; develop the imagination; communicate feelings; bring about balance and lifts peoples spirits. It aids both personal and planetary growth.
Please bring your songs and music to the Garden and share in the power of their healing..........x
By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong, and everywhere there was song and celebration....we are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get ourselves, back to the garden...
Woodstock - Joni Mitchell (C)
Welcome Linda - it's good to have you here and for supporting the spirit of music and song. I love the quote you posted - I couldn't agree with you more! xx
Thank you for inviting me to The Sound Garden as I am always looking to hear new music. I clink onto Jane's site and enjoyed her positive musical message. -Diana
Thanks for the invite Francesca! This group is right up my alley. Music can be soooo healing!
Enigma- "Dream of the Dolphin"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNRolJjSJGY
Also, 2 of my other favorite "water" music videos...
Enigma- "Out From the Deep"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfTEusEJ93A
Enya- "The Killer Whales"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6H8x0evpTs
what a wonderful and inspiring group you have created. I look forward to take part in the sharing here.
"Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heales the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul."
Welcome Diana, Greg and Mayke! And welcome too Rachel, Jay, Atul, Indigo Star and Jennie - thank you for joining us here in The Garden. Take a seat and enjoy listening too and sharing the music.....x
And Linda, those links are beautiful ~ Enigma are very wonderful & I love the etheralism of Enya....I believe the both have a real wisdom in their music - it just seems to resonate with our essence doesn't it? x
Well, first of all, I'm still relatively new to Care2. I've been a member of other groups here -- yet I'm more of a reader than a poster. That leaves me in unknown territory. By that I mean:
1. I'm a musician. I appreciate music and the healing power of music; I'm inspired by jazz and its descendants.
2. And yet I'm afraid of joining this group and coming off as someone who's just doing self promotion. I mean, music is part of me, so if I joined and failed to mention it, I'd probably be doing the wrong thing; but if I came busting in and said, hey, listen to my incredible albums available for free listen and download online -- well, it sounds like I'm the spam man.
3. On the other hand, I like finding new music. Modern consumer music isn't inspiring in the least; I know that by sharing my interests and favorites with others, I could potentially find more music of interest.
4. As a compliment to 3, I'm aware of many free music sites on the internet with high quality music, generally licensed under Creative Commons -- giving listeners the freedom to copy and use the music as they see fit.
Recently, a student filmmaker at Syracuse University used one of my songs in his sophomore film. This was only possible because of the freedom I'd granted to use my music. I think that so many have inspired me on the road to my music it'd be unfair for me to choke the life out of my creations with the short leash of restrictive copyright.
Well, clearly, I can babble and ramble on, too. But if I'm somehow on the right track after all, let me know.
Hi Bruce ~ glad you want to join us here in The Sound Garden and that's great you are a musician.
The group is for people to share their love of music, song and chant; music that somehow touches people on a deeper level. It isn't about self-promotion, but if you do have something you have created to share with us, then that is wonderful.
Imagine it's like an open mic session - you can share with us either your own work or someone elses.....it's about supporting the Spirit of music and song, and of course the people who have created it. Although some of the material may be anonymous or have no known author.
Just relax, pull up a seat, chat and share with others - let us know some of your inspirations. You can begin a new discussion thread if you wish, so long as it comes from the heart, then there is nothing to concern yourself with.
"Do not think much, but love much and so do that which best stirs you to love..." St. Teresa De Avila
Welcome!
I am fairly new to the Care 2 Groups, though I have been doing their petitions for some time.
I was attracted to this site because of a quite new development in my musical life. It may sound a little off the wall to all of you, but I need a sounding board and hopefully someone else out there will have perhaps had a similar experience.
I have been singing all of my life and playing a few instruments as well (mostly folk, esp Celtic), and I have a strong interest in music used for healing. Occasionally a song will come from somewhere, not in any predictable way, and stylistically they have run the gamut from Celtic to Appalachian folk, blues and what-have-you. The theme varies quite a bit, but most are pretty spiritual in content.
I am also a healer though, and for the last 20+ years have worked with shamanic healing primarily, and also teach it. Recently I began doing Faery Doctoring, a type of healing based in working with the Fey. Since beginning this work, the Fey have required me to make songs for them in exchange for the healings.
Most of the songs are re-tellings of the shamanic healing journeys I make to the Fey for healing. Sometimes I must sing the song to the person who is receiving the healing. At other times I am required to go out to my garden and sing to the Fey. This was initially quite intimidating, because I am not used to creating music on demand. What has happened though is that they help me write the song while I am in the journey.
Well, that's my story. I have not recorded the songs, though I do have permission to share them with those who would be sympathetic. Some times I sing them for friends and family who would "get it".
I'd be interested in other stories of how music comes to people.
Blessings
Bekki
Hi! I just saw this group a few minutes ago, but I have been drawn to sound-healing for months now. I hope to learn a lot and invite some peeps.
Welcome Bekki & Annette - it's wonderful to have you both here. Please do share your experiences and songs with us.
I'm fascinated by the fey connection Bekki - I too am a healer and I always offer the gift of song to the nature spirits, when I ask them for guidance and advice. There is a circle of beech trees that I visit in the New Forest, in one of the more ancient woods. They are incredibly powerful and I am always humbled by their wisdom. I will always greet them with song or chant, as I enter in a spiral journey to their centre.
The tree spirits give me guidance and messages and ask me to 'tell' their knowledge in either story or song (I write chidren's short stories too).
I am also a singer-songwriter and my music comes from a higher place; my songs seem to find me. I have been involved with music all my life and used to sing in a folk duo with my sister alongside a storyteller, at arts and environment festivals.
The power of song and music to create an atmosphere and transform a space is the most profound feeling. I was at a party last weekend, where everyone was getting up to perform at an open mic. It was great fun & there was alot of energy and laughter. But I could sense the children present becoming very frantic and arguements were beginning to ensue.
I quietly got up on stage and began singing a cappella, a Joni Mitchell song. The whole place went quiet and there was an amazing warmth around. Afterwards, I had the children coming up to ask if I would sing a song with them. It was really touching. So we got out the percussion and inflatable 'pretend' guitars and had some fun.
I then had three other people ask me to sing with them - I believe that everyone has a voice and some people just need that extra boost to get them singing.
I think I'll start a faery/fey thread - please add to it your experiences Bekki. And also Annette, please share with us your thoughts and experiences of sound healing - it is such a fascinating area of healing.
Where there´s music, there´s me. So I clicked myself to this wonderful group.
Someone said " singing heals what laws can never put right " ...
I set my own lyrics to music.
Welcome Mongi - it's a pleasure to have your company & an honour that you chose The Sound Garden.
Sorry to be gone so long-- we've been in Hungary at the shamanic conference there, and it was almost impossible to do internet stuff since I don't speak Hungarian.
I want to respond to your post Francesca, because it resonated with me so much
.
I have always found that nature heals me, and I feel the energies of trees and plants and elemental spirits strongly. Several years ago a friend who brings us to England to teach occasionally took us to the New Forest on one of these teaching visits. I felt a profound connection with the trees (I had never connected to beech trees before). I found myself visiting those places again and again in my shamanic journeys, and when I began doing the Faery Doctoring it was clear why. I have several strong connections with the fey there.
There is also a birch grove with foxgloves and honeysuckle in the Forest that has been a powerful place for me as well.
I will try to post to the Fey thread; we are leaving town to teach a plant spirit workshop on Thursday, so if not this week, next week...
Does anyone in this group collect traditional songs? I am really interested in songs about the fey.
Bekki
Welcome to all new members! Wow, that's amazing ( thanks for inviting your friends Larry M.)
Please take a moment to introduce yourself here - we are a friendly group and enjoying finding out about new music and people.
Also, please feel free to add new topics but please first check that you have not doubled up on an already exisiting topic (Larry, could you put your World Music links in the 'World Music' thread?)
Welcome & I look forward to sharing with you all...Francesca
I would like to thank Larry for inviting me to this site. I am truly a music lover. Once I passed high school marching band and orchestra with my flute I just lived with musicians. I have been blessed with many of my friends that are musicians.
Having a domestic violence history (many years ago) I learned that music from my teen years(before the violence) lightened my spirit. When I am down, I have a few special songs that just lift me right up. I look forward to being a part of this group.
My healing took me to a reservation in Northern Nebraska, I found the prayer songs in the sweat lodge resonated so strongly with me that I could hear the ancestors singing with us. I knew the songs that I had never sung before and found peace.
it has been several years since I have been back in a sweat lodge but my prayer song now is a chant that is very special to me and I try to remember to chant daily, when I do, I know I can handle whatever comes up. Next month I will be going to a world wide convention with thousands chanting with me, of course you know they are all coming to chant with me! lol I will be honored to chant with them and hear all those voices in harmony.....
anyway, I look forward to meeting you all and wish you a good day!
May the blessings be
Jen
Welcome Larry & Jen (Jen, if you'd like to start a thread for your Sweat Lodge Chants that would be great. - I'd love to know more).
Welcome Christine & thank you for sharing your story; music is definately a great medicine...x
HI Everyone.Thanks so much for the invitation Larry. I'm so glad to be here and hope I can bring some joy for your ears. Light and peace,Samantha.
Welcome Windy and all new members...it's a pleasure to have you here.
And thank you to everyone who supports this group - it has been up and running now for 6 months and it's a joy to share with each of you, the wonderful inspiration and universal language of music and song.
Francesca
Im new here im from Bangalore, India. glad i found such a nice group so soon. In fact, its not been an hour since i registered at care2.com!! I just love being here! Im a psychedelic trance lover and love nature too. hope i can do my thing to protect mother nature.
Peace.Love.Unity.Respect.
Welcome Happy Hippie & thank you for choosing to join us in The Sound Garden - it is a real pleasure to have you here. Please take a look around, share something inspiring or just chill out & chat with others...
I hope you enjoy the experience x
Francesca 
Welcome Bonita & Jacolin - it's great to have you here in the Garden with us....pull up a seat and enjoy the music!
Francesca
Thank you Francesca for the invitation to this lovely group. No one can live without music - you can reach higher states of consciousness through music. I don't play any instrument but I listen to music all the time. Hugs to you, ~Mary
My name is zenwindchime, I am from South Africa, now living in Portugal.
Music is one of the most important things in my life, always has been. I used to play both violin and piano - but now I just listen. I cannot imagine my world without music in it.
Welcome Joanne, Hans, Andrea, Kashan, Kaeth and Tom! Thank you for choosing to join us here. Please feel free to introduce yourselves ~ the group actively encourages you to share your thoughts, inspirations, and love of music and song as healing expressions...
Francesca
i thank you for alowing me to join your group. ill have some songs for you latter.
Hello glad to be here and will do some cruzing around. Thanks Hans for the invite.
Thank you for the invitation Hans, Love music. Have a grand-daughter who plays the violin and grand son the the cello.
Hugs~Brenda
I am very glad to have received an invitation to this group. Thank you, Hans!
I very much believe in the power of music and the power of the vibration of sound.
Wow, lovely to have so many new members ~ welcome one and all! Thank you Hans for inviting your friends; you're a star. I was also wondering if you'd like start a thread, dedicated to the Earth Concerts? I would love to know more.
thanks everyone for being here ~ please enjoy the links, mingle with other members and share your inspirations...take a look at the threads in the archives too, as there may be something else there for you.
for the invite - i have been thinking for many years of writing a dissertion on the impact of amplifying the western scale on the environment - this might spur me to do it
Thank you Francesca for hosting and thank you Hans for the invite. Music soothes the soul. I always wished I could sing or play...Then I realised that some of us must just appreciate the ones that do! I'm a child of the '60's/'70's but can "dig" the current sounds too!
Francesca, Thanks for such a poignant group! Hubby & I were born (& month?) year of Rock'n'Roll ~ 1951. I got my first real record player at age 2 and had many adults sharing music with me, including music from the 1940s & into the 1950s - when I began also chosing my own. The Beatles landed on my 13th birthday - the most perfect into teenage "growth".From the '60s through the '80s I went to so many concerts that I am not certain just who all I have seen play live. With our 5 kids, I allowed my music appreciation to expand with them - and we all share ALL "our" music with our (nearly) 11 grandchildren. We've always had musicians and bands in our families - all my life & it continues on. Music is medicinal for the soul~~~ The TOP major influences, for my own soul, are ERIC CLAPTON, CARLOS SANTANA, JOHN LENNON. PEACE, Kathleen R ~The Angel Power Emporium, Inc~
Thank you for the invitation to join, Hans. Music is so important to me and such a good companion. Looking forward to participating in this group.
Thank you Hans for the invite and Francesca for having a great place to visit. I love music when I'm down and preferrably the peaceful kind. It just seems to draw out any stress I have picked up in the course of the day and, Lord forgive me, any negativity I may have toward someone who upset me. The music really washes it away and makes me feel so spiritually cleansed. I am excited to be here!
Thank you Hans for the invite to this calming group. I will try and visit here as much as I can. We all get so "grouped out" wanting to accept our friends group invitations. I believe I have reached a point where I belong to so many groups that I find I have no time to participate in most after reading and noting news and signing petitions that I believe in, as well as having a life. I need to assess my wants and needs and cut back to what is doable. This may be the 1st step in that process of looking "inside" and reaching a place of work but in a relaxed and intimate way. Here's hoping.
This post was modified from its original form on 27 Mar, 10:13
Thankyou Hans for inviting me to this beautiful group, yes, and az Francesca mentioned, letz here bout the Earth Dance hehe, Boris and myself, quite a few bands we can muster together and big drumming group, plus 3 DJ'S, are keen to have an Earth Dance festival down here in the Spirit land downunder on the east coast of NSW 
Hey Francesca 
Hans turned me on to your music recently when we were talking about Earth Dance ~ what a lovely warm space you have, illuminating consciousness for all 
Music is holy, art is sacred, and creativity is power...'OTEP'
As we chant our physical bodies into fine attunement, the people living on Mother Earth, and the living Earth itself will find peace
Blessings to All, tony4whales 
THIS group I'm gonna LOVE. Thank you, Hans! I'll be lurking about! Peace, Ree
Hi all,
I'm new to this forum but I'm a little unsure of what kind of music you are discussing. I love Joni Mitchel and most folk music - a lot of which has been called 'world music' for some reason with an 'us and the world' egocentricity. The thing is that I love all music if it's written with the love of music in mind and I'm not influenced by fads, trends or fashions.
Im a composer myself: "March of the Innocent" is a sample of what I do (for those who have Real Player).
This post was modified from its original form on 31 Mar, 14:32
The above link doesn't work and I can't edit it - Care2 should look at that. The link was truncated and so that is that.
This post was modified from its original form on 31 Mar, 14:39
Here is another music lover. My name is Paula C. I am going to college online and it gets rough at times. Music can soothe my frazzled nerves, pick me up when I feel down and relax me when I go to bed. And of course rock me when I just want to dance. Thank you, my friend Hans, and of course Francesca, for having such a great group.
Thanks Johann for inviting me to this wonderful group! I love music and songs, and would like to learn from everyone on this site.
Thank you, Hans, for the invitation. I'll take a stroll and look to see what I can find and visit from here! Blessings, L.L.
Welcome to all the new members this week ~ it's a pleasure to meet you. Please take a look at the various threads and posts, share your thoughts and enjoy the healing power of the music here...x
Hello each of you! I just found that group by looking at you profile Francesca. I cannot live without music. I am listening more classical and opera than rock n roll ... I like Blues, Jazz, composers, great poets...I am listening to SILENCE Too. I will be back later! Marie xx
Welcome and thank you Marie ~ sometimes 'silence' is the best healing sound or non-sound....that's an interesting thought; is silence completely silent? x
If more people would push the invite friends button this group could grow further since i dont have many other friends than Hans L. has its no use if i push the button! But all the others should do so! Especially because this is the most beautiful group in Care2!
Just go to invite friends! And than invite all friends!
One more nice song for all the people who love people who care2!
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=hEiCdOJ...
Like BONO! Many Fans dont know this one
Tha
I am really touched Johann ~ thank you for being here and for showing such great support for this group. I truly believe that music can heal and unite people x
A warm welcome to all new members - we look forward to sharing inspirations and thoughts with you x
Fran
Hi W.E. - thank you and I hope you enjoy being here; The Sound Garden is indeed a sacred place to share positive and peaceful vibes...x
A warm welcome to all our new and recent members ~ thanks for being here and I hope you enjoy all the wonderful posts & please feel free to share your inspirations and thoughts x
Thanks CH - good to have you here
I also want to apologise to all, for not having posted to the group the past month - life has taken over and been very, very hectic. But I will be adding new posts soon...x
Francesca
Welcome Elizabeth and Rebecca! Please take a look around the 'Garden and feel free to share your thoughts and inspirations......
A warm welcome to Susie ~ good to have you here with us and look forward to sharing with you.
Welcome Joanne and Elizabeth - good to have you here and please feel free to share your inspirations with us x
This post was modified from its original form on 17 Dec, 4:56
And a warm welcome to Aislinn and Marion ~ great to have you here too...
This post was modified from its original form on 18 Dec, 0:59
Welcome Fala, Maria & Naren ~ please feel free to chat and share your thoughts & inspirations.
And a happy new year to everyone ~ may 2009 bring much happiness and good health & may the power of music unite people, the world over.
Francesca
lovely to be here, looking forward to exploring more when I get some more megs. Thankyou for your warm welcome Francesca and yes I love trees as well as music. 
A girl after my own heart....nature & music are my two main passions
A warm welcome to Bella also - I hope you enjoy exploring 'The Garden' & sharing your inspirations too.
