The weekend after Somerset Folk Harp Festival 2024 (live), during the Zoom sessions, I had the pleasure of listening to Tomoko Sugawara's workshop, in which she taught us a few of her favorite melodies from Japan. One of the tunes was Sakura, which many CTMs learn from Christina Tourin*. It is such a joy to be able to be a part of harp groups from all around the globe, sharing their beautiful music and customs. We have these opportunities through groups like IHTP, sharing with Therapeutic Musicians in communities all around the world, and conferences like Somerset, where we can learn from extraordinary folk harp teachers from every corner of the globe. As Clinical Musicians, we take the the tunes we learn from these rich learning experiences to the bedside, hoping to bring comfort to others.

Playing the beautiful Japanese tunes with Tomoko reminded me of learning Sakura, and other tunes with Tina --  and the other day,  Arirang came up in a discussion.  Arirang is another tune, like Sakura Sakura and Moon Represents My Heart, all gorgeous traditional tunes of varied cultures taught to us by Tina, and mentioned in my book, The HOME Recordings: Strategies for Therapeutic Musicians, in the chapter about cross-cultural improvisation. Here is an excerpt:

In our discussions, I talked about another Korean traditional tune that I have played for years.  This was a tune, from the 60's I think, and I think I learned it in my Early Childhood Ed days, and "kiddie lit" (children's literature) with Dr. Francelia Butler. It's a tune that, translated to English, means "Spring in my Hometown." The tune pairs nicely with Arirang, and you can improvise similarly, based on the same chord structure and pentatonic notes. It also starts on the fifth degree of the scale, and avoids the seventh. If you play a double-strung harp, this tune is a great choice to play, taking advantage of the many sweet techniques available. I played these two tunes together at the hospital for a family of an elderly CMO (comfort measures only) hospice patient last Friday, and the daughter whisper-sung the words. It took me a moment to realize that she was singing the words to this song, not Arirang, in Korean.

So, I decided to share this with others, embracing imperfection: This music memo was created using Shure's Motiv audio recording program on an iPhone 14 Pro with a Shure MV88+ microphone, playing a Marini Bass Double Strung harp, in a style appropriate for the bedside. For CMCP students, this is an example of smooth, non-rhythmic therapeutic music, in a major mode (ionian), held around 60 bpm, appropriate for pain or hospice. Email me if you want my notes for how to play it.

Enjoy!

*PSST, Christina Tourin's sheet music, for her award-winning CD of the same name, Healing Music for Harp III: Geodepédie - Hidden Light, is now available here.