Pitch means to match a frequency or note…best done with the piano because this is the instrument that sounds most like the voice. You try to sing/tone/pitch the exact frequency of the note without going flat or sharp. Lead singing requires perfect pitch for the melody line. Harmony or backing vocals need to be extra good and strong on pitch…. or everyone will sound out of tune.

The scale and key is really the same thing…a singer’s key is the octave range or scale of notes that the song is being sung in and most suitable for that singer’s voice. You need to know the difference between the major and minor scales. Major scales have a bright, clear happy sound. Minor scales have a softer, sadder sound. Major and minor chords can be brought together in songs to add mood and colour etc. Once you have mastered pitch, it will be easier to move through variations in songs. Good vocal training should extend your range, making it easier to cross over into the different segmented vocal ranges and sing more in the style you like most.

Make sure you are happy with the instrument you use to help in learning how to match vocal pitch. Not everyone can match pitch easily with the piano. Some need strings, e.g., guitar, bass, or harp. The difficulty with matching the pitch of any instrument comes when the instrument is not in tune with your natural frequencies. Each person has a unique resonance and instrument tuning has been standardised into the frequency of A 440hz. This is actually higher than our natural frequencies (F being common) so we have to really listen hard to then match our voice to this pitch. If a singer has a problem with blocked sound memory, he/she won’t be able to hear the correct frequencies needed to vocally reproduce that sound. Remember, “We can only reproduce what we can hear”

Try mastering continuous octaves first, not just scales in keys from C to C. This will help you find your true voice and resonance. Most people get hung up on C to C. An octave is any 8-note scale/key. You need to have at least a good two octave range before you can start extending that range through vocal exercises and the art of breathing. Once you have at least two octaves of matching pitch, play around with intervals. Solfege is good for this exercise. E.g. do mi mi, mi so so, re fa fa, la ti ti. But also, don’t be afraid to get creative. Your own creativity and willingness to play around with exercises will help you gain dexterity, especially with regard to note distances — where matching pitch becomes an art of its own. Songs are not sung in scale-like exercises. Songs are comprised of different note intervals, which create melodies.

If you are really struggling with hitting a pitch straight off, you can slide to a note by using the higher or lower note to hit either. For example, c# to c, or, cь to c. However, it is not a good idea to do this so much that it becomes a habit. If it becomes a habit (because you are now reliant on it) it may have the opposite effect in song. You will become slightly off pitch because you will be scooping up to it.

Singing is supposed to be fun. If you over-think and intellectualize too much, you may only find yourself repeating habits that are keeping you from hitting the correct pitches. It will feel much harder than it is and leave you feeling hopeless.

There are many approaches when it comes to singing and learning how to master pitch. We’ve shared only a little in our series. Good singing requires lessons. To find the right teacher, you may have try two or three before connecting with one you understand. If seeking a teacher, it’ important to not be afraid to tell the teacher you don’t understand something. None of us are mind readers. There is no such thing as a stupid question. If you can’t get a grasp of things intellectually, ask yourself this, “How will I have that AH HA moment when it finally physically manifests?”

We hope we have helped you understand a little more about how to listen and match pitch. Every person is different, so it’s important to discuss whatever is troubling you with your instructor. If you don’t have one and want one, take a look at what VIDLA has to offer!

APPENDIX:
1) Listening – You can listen to other singers and their songs of course. However, if you have a pitch problem, this is not likely to help with your trouble hitting the pitches. A serious problem may require professional expertise such as hearing tests and/or The Tomatis Method, better vocal technique, and the art of learning how to breathe properly for song singing.

2) Hilary Canto’s “Toning for Singing Course” is available and accredited through VIDLA on Skype. For more information on how Hilary teaches go to her VIDLA page – www.vidla.org

Her TRUE VOICE COURSE® is available on mp3 to download from Box.net as a teaching guide for your voice where you can join with her and learn how to produce tones, breathe, listen, and pitch with step-by-step exercises to practise. The course includes written sheets. You can also find her videos on youtube demonstrating tones for singing.

3) Dena Murray teaches in- home and online beginners as well as professionals. She is particularly skilled at straightening out pitch problems. She has also uncovered a little known secret regarding the art of breathing for singers. This can be found in her last book of a 3-book series, “Vocal Strength and Power,” published by the Hal Leonard Corp. (2009). The other two books of the series include, “Vocal Technique: A Guide to Finding your Real Voice” (Hal Leonard Corp. 2002). This is a beginner’s book describes and teaches how it might be necessary to separate the voice in order to create properly placed head and chest registers before bridging (or blending) the voice to become one from the bottom to the top. Her second book of the series “Advanced Vocal Technique: Middle Voice, Placement & Styles” co-authored with Tita Hutchison (Hal Leonard Publishing 2007) focuses strictly on placement and a unique technical approach to bridging the passaggio.

Dena teaches her accredited course (through VIDLA) online via SKYPE
For more information go to her VIDLA profile page, or visit her website a www.denamurray.com.

In part 1 we discussed listening in detail. Listening is so important to helping a singer who are struggling to reproduce vocal sounds on pitch. In order to free the listening capacity we recommend using silence as a tool to free the mind. It allows for more receptivity to sound. Meditation can also help with this…or just taking 10 minutes to shut out all noise and lie quietly, letting thoughts just come and go. Though, in reality, letting go of our thoughts is not an easy task. It does take practice, and there are lots of CD guided meditations available that can assist you with this process.

From silence – tones, overtones and humming are the best sounds we can make to clear our body’s sound memory, to improve listening and accurate pitching. The voice is the ultimate instrument! The most remarkable effect of tones and hums, with constant dedication and practice, is that they can heal and ‘energize’ the body; build resonance in the bones particularly the cranial bones in the head, as well as release blocks in cellular memory allowing the voice to flow freer. Sound actually bypasses the mind creating this release.

People in workshops with longstanding voice issues suddenly find issues go by the wayside when they come together in a room and tone and hum with one another. The added power of a group setting can be extremely powerful and beneficial. However for the modern vocalist, this work also has to be practiced alone daily. We cannot emphasize enough how important tones, overtones, and humming is in assisting with listening and pitching.

How you produce these tones is of critical importance for vocal care, pitch resonance, and breath control. They should be done at a level of loudness that doesn’t make you force your voice out. For those who want to add more weight, strength, power, breath support, and placement of the sound through the vocal tract also needs attention.

If you make a sound loudly, you will notice that the resonance is short-lasting and suddenly stops. Without using your usual force and attempting a softer approach, you will notice the resonance holds much longer. Both these techniques are used when singing. Tones should be practiced with pitching for clearing the sound memory in your body, mind, and to build more resonance in the vocal tract. This can only be done in your natural voice, your ‘real’ voice. Making the breath flow with the tone and using the correct mouth shape for the tones can make all the difference in how the voice and body responds to tone.

Tones translate to vowel sounds. They should be practiced at least 1 hour a day to get some clearing impact. Overtones are the harmonics produced over the fundamental (basic) tone being sung. They are best heard when you make a sound from EE to OOO and back to EE. The resonance from them will alter the cellular vibration of your body and alter your listening capacity. You can hear the ascending harmonics and the descending harmonics if you are in the right tone placement. If you are unsure, we suggest taping it. Once again, listen back with your own ears to see if you have matched the tone/s. The tape never lies.

Humming comes from the closure of the lips and sound pushing against that closure. To change what has been “locked in,” the tones must be able to resonate through the bone mechanism. This carries the resonance into the cells. In effect, this clears distorted vibration from the inside and frees our cellular memory to receive specific frequencies so that our voice can begin to reproduce them. (In the books, Cymatics – Dr Hans Jenny, Messages from Water – Dr Masaru Emoto, Fabien Mamman – The Role of Music in the 21st Century you can read more and see pictures on how our voice creates change )

So how do we produce these tones properly and articulate vowels in singing?

Formation of vowel sounds begins in the oral pharynx. This is the hole between the back of the tongue and the back wall of the throat. It’s part of the tube otherwise known as pharynx, the chief resonator. The pharynx is also known as the echo chamber and second mouth of the singer because of the potential power it can add to the voice with proper breath technique.

There are four known chambers of resonance: the laryngeal, oral, nasal, and upper. You will not be able to shape your vowels in the oral pharynx if you take in too much air. Taking in too much air, because your mind subconsciously tells you you’ll need it, then becomes an instinct. DO this over and over again and it becomes a sense memory. So no matter how hard you try to change it, your body will go to that old muscle sense memory. You will feel resistance in your body. It is now fighting you. What our mind has secretly been telling you is a lie.

Heaps of air to try to reach higher notes will only create too much pressure under the cords. This will prevent them from doing their job and creating proper pitch. Pitch is determined by the stretch of the cord from front to back. For every single note, the cords make a different size stretch ( though this cannot be seen with the naked eye).

Pitches are not produced with a blast and the reach of your air. The cords only need a small amount of air to stretch for the proper pitch and create sound. This being said, it’s very important to learn how to sing without holding your breath or you will end up squeezing and pushing it out. Squeezing holds the tone inside your body. Pushing will have you forcing up the air get sound out because there is no sound unless air passes by the cords.

If you take in too much air, fill up the tank, what do you think might happen? The cords will have to pull further apart than needed for that particular pitch and you will end up falling flat. Remember this: the higher the note, the shorter the stretch of cord, and the smaller of an opening between them. The lower the note, the longer and looser the stretch of cord and the wider of an opening between them. Keeping that in mind, from low to high, the cords must be able to control the flow of air and compress it properly for pitch. They can’t do that if you are overdoing it with your air.

There is an art to learning how use your air properly and before getting into the art of singing songs, you’ve got to learn how to do this so you don’t risk injury to the mechanism. If you don’t learn proper breath technique, you may continue to lose pitch. Managing tone and breath is the foundation for good pitching. It trains your whole body to produce sound correctly. If the listening ability is clear, the sound reproduction from the voice box with correct airflow, and resonance, will give you “absolute pitch.” There should be no more barriers to hitting the pitches.

Please bear in mind that there is no quick magic fix here. None of us can learn how to do all of this in one lesson. It takes the knowledge and guidance of a teacher, and your continued practice.

Part 3 Continues

In addition, there is a difference between the act of hearing, and listening. True listening requires emotional, psychological, and social barriers removed/ healed from the way we’ve been trained to listen (or not listen) to our own sound by outside influences. Created by this training, or conditioning, is what is known as sound memory. Hearing is the structural mechanism of the ear. Listening opens you to the frequencies in the ear, nerve, organ, and bone structure. It is like the difference between casual looking and active seeing.

From the moment the foetal ear starts developing, we are bombarded with sound. Our whole cellular makeup is sound vibration. If we have heard sounds that we dislike, are painful to the ear, and/or have learned to block a sound(s) out for any reason…we will no longer be able to hear the frequency of these sounds properly.

Since our cells have developed sound memory, this is where our memory decides whether or not to hear the sound coming into vibration. This damping is manifested physiologically by a relaxation of the tiny muscles of the middle ear. The net result is a diminuation of our ability to hear specific frequency ranges corresponding to the sounds we essentially lock out. This is a survival mechanism that we tend to use unconsciously.

Pitch and tone is also inhibited by the conscious thought that you have to take in heaps of air and blow it out just to hit higher notes — or to have it sound powerful. Going after pitch this way, and repetitively, will only create problems, and not just with pitch, but possible injury to the mechanism. You might also find this method physically exhausting. Getting too tired will also have you trying to force out the sound.

So why should we concentrate on listening when trying to learn how to sing better? Answer: You cannot reproduce a vocal sound accurately unless you can hear it properly. This is why we need to learn, or even re-learn, how to listen. We often think we hear something right but it’s actually clouded by our old sound memory. That memory will affect the learning process of listening to sound and pitch accurately.

In addition, the music/video/marketing industry is so wrapped up with sound and visual imagery together that looking and listening at the same time can confuse our senses. Looking becomes a distraction. If you want to concentrate on good singing we suggest you cut out visual stimulus whilst you really take in the sounds and try to reproduce them. One suggestion would be to try to match the pitch by literally trying to merge with that pitch so as to become one tone, one voice. You should literally try to merge with the pitch until you and that pitch become one tone, one voice.

Something that often helps many is to strike the string of an instrument like a guitar or bass and see if you can match it in resonant vibrations. Tape it and see if you can hear that you have matched or if you hear two different tones. If you hear two different tones, the next step would be to try and pluck out the tone you are actually singing on versus the one you are playing. Once you have identified the pitch you are actually singing on versus the one you need to be singing, you can literally see with your own eyes whether that pitch is higher or lower than the one you were trying to capture.

If you still can’t match it, you might try humming it. Tape this again. Listen using your own ears to discern if there is a difference in tones. Keep this up until you can open your mouth with an AH sound and match the pitch. Recording yourself as you practice is key to this learning process.

Our bodies and voices are our instrument. Your voice needs care and learning how to tune it just like any other instrument. We hope you’ll understand that going into silence every so often can work wonders. It will allow you to open your mind and re-open your capacity to receive. Sometimes you just need to take a break and stop what you are doing, especially if you are getting frustrated. At that point, you will no longer be able to concentrate. We suggest walking away and having a seat somewhere else. Take a rest, a deep breath, and listen to the silence. During this time, things have a way of bypassing the brain to the voice. The silence allows you to hear your own body’s sounds.

After taking some silent time for yourself, you may find that you are now hearing the sounds of your own voice and hitting the pitches dead-on, or at least close. Once you get used to doing things this way, your awareness and sensitivity to pitch and frequency will increase and change. You will begin learning how to reproduce pitches accurately because you will have been practising changing from old sound memory to new.

Part 2 continues

The guide for good toning:-
 Make the sound carefully and gently
 Do not strain or project the voice
 Allow yourself to be guided by your intuition – don’t think about it!
 The Vibratory sensation should be allowed to go where it is needed
 Don’t place it anywhere or try to hold it back
 The sound you make will be your natural voice, don’t try and pitch the sound
 If the sound seems odd, broken in some way, don’t worry about it, you will be clearing something.
 The tones will become smoother, sweeter and more ringing with practise.

I teach Toning for Singing using Sanskrit sounds and vowel sounds – check out my VIDLA profile and skype course at www.vidla.org.
You can also find my videos on youtube, and I’m on Facebook, Linked In and Twitter.

As you can see Aloe is an essential source of nutrition not just another health supplement. I want you to think for a moment about plants and humans – how many of you garden or tend houseplants? Think about what your plants need to be healthy – Sunlight, water, nutrients from the soil, love, oxygen, correct temperature.
Now think about what your body needs?
Sunlight, water, nutrients from the earth, love, oxygen, correct temperature
With Aloe you are as close to feeding your body naturally more than any other food. We are like plants biological, chemical and energy beings. When we look after ourselves we flourish, when we are neglected or neglect ourselves we wither and die. We live in a cycle of growth and death just as plants do, we can flower and reach our full potential, or we can neglect ourselves and never flower. Aloe is a soul food not just another supplement.
That’s why it may help balance blood pressure, blood sugar, heart health & cholesterol, digestion and colon problems, joints & muscles, the immune system, skin complaints, the lungs and asthma and many more conditions.
This brings me to why I have chosen Forever Living Products for my Aloe Vera. There are many Aloe products out there and why should this one be any better?
I have used the best companies in my nutritional treatment as they have proven time and again to produce the best quality supplements. However my work is not based just on giving out supplements. In fact I keep supplements to a minimum, but I may recommend ones that cost a bit more. The reason being they do the job as I expect them to and in the shorter time. The body shouldn’t really need to take a supplement for a prolonged time. From time to time I will recommend something in the health shops and stores depending on what is required and what concentration is needed.
If you are taking Aloe Vera, you are unlikely to need a strong concentration of other vitamins or minerals, so the ones you can buy in the health store will top up if you think you need them. However with Aloe, it works while you are taking it and when you stop you may find some symptoms return. Dr Peter Atherton ( Advisory Board of FLP) says this is because it is a suppressant. I would say that it depends on the rest of your lifestyle and diet, because I have seen it have long lasting effect and it has helped me. I stopped it for a long time and have now returned to it for a while. Due to my own diet and lifestyle, I don’t expect to keep taking it. However in chronic long term conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteo arthritis and other conditions it may be necessary to make it a part of your daily life. Every individual responds differently, and it will be what works for you.
I have watched Forever Living Products as it has grown over the last 30 years and can wholly recommend the quality of their products and say hand on heart they are 100% natural and the leaders in Aloe Vera production worldwide. The integrity of the company and their commitment to natural health is outstanding. They were established in 1978 and now operate in 145 countries. The UK company was formed in 1992. Forever and its affiliates have become the largest grower, manufacturer and distributor of aloe vera and bee products in the world.
They do not use herbicides or pesticides and have the only patented stabilisation process to ensure that the aloe vera is essentially identical to the inner leaf gel. They are not dependent on any other supplier and can guarantee the quality of their product 100%.
Many Aloe products do not contain enough Aloe to make a difference and do not have the quality control and purity of the FLP Aloe Vera. I used to take and recommend another make but I will say from a personal view that the FLP Aloe Vera is a superior product. The cost of taking the best is worth it to my health, and as I said I speak from battling with my own health issues as well as treating over 60 clients.
That quality guarantee also extends to the consumer. No other health product company will give you a 60 day money back guarantee with no questions asked!
Forever extends the same quality to its bee products, producing the finest in the world. They not only have their own Aloe growers, they have their own bee farms too. Their production provides work and assists communities worldwide.
In addition if you would like an opportunity to develop your own business with FLP and help others, they are a wonderful, caring, ethical and superb company for developing your own personal dreams and goals with. Believe me you have nothing to lose, you’re recommending the best products to help people with their health!
There is a wide range of products for you to choose from.
Take a look at my FLP website – www.hilarycanto.myflpbiz.com
Love and blessings
Hilary

It has taken me a long journey to finally stand in my own vibration of knowing I am here to deal with more of the negative side and bring a deeper understanding of that amongst our world of light. Understanding that in order to bring in light, I have to go to the darkness for the answers. This means that to bring in sound healing we may often delve into dark places to free light. I have trained in and practised vibrational medicine incorporating nutrition, flower essences, light/colour energy and sound healing, and music and singing. I have come to a point in my unique path of understanding that I have a challenging role for myself and others in bringing through an understanding of the balance required with darkness and negativity when we carry the light to others. It has taken courage for me to finally write this amongst the sound and healing community.

The Greeks believed the world came from “Χάσς” (Chaos) – a gap – referring to a primordial state before creation which is in darkness. Science knows the universe is made up of 90% dark matter but doesn’t know what it is. We know that sound creates chaos in cells before it reorganises into perfect balance. We also know that sound carries the light due to the different density of frequencies and we know that no two human voices are exactly the same vibratory pattern. When we teach and give sound, and/or when we receive sound, we should be aware that chaos may be created inside cells that may lead a person into darkness within themselves and not necessarily move them immediately into light. We know thought carries vibration and so we say that providing we use the right “intent” with the sound we give, the person will receive what they need. The flaw in this is that intent is mind controlled and our minds play with our hearts and for our hearts to be pure in their love and light, the mind has to be out of the way. Intent can be manipulated by will. This can be the will to help, the will to heal, and the will to show that we can help people. That is not a bad thing, but it still carries an element of will and in order to allow a person’s journey completely through divine love requires surrender and humility to accepting there may also be darkness in this healing journey. The person may not be in the right place to just transform or release what the healer thinks needs to be released. The chaos, the darkness has to be acknowledged, accepted and loved.

I work with voice and in voice we believe we bring divine love with our healing tones; I believe we do that too. However I also know that many more aspects of a person’s vibration will affect them when sound is brought into their system. Light, colour, food, essences, homoeopathy, vaccines, drugs, alcohol, aromatherapy oils, perfumes, the movement of chi and prana, are all affected in a person’s cell physiology when we start to create chaos in their cellular vibration. What appears to be harmless can become harmful if we are not carrying awareness.

My personal journey with sound has been dual edged. I have also seen my experiences mirrored in other people too. It is quite hard for me to stand up and perform as a singer or be considered an expert author or any particular title and label, because I don’t have an ego that needs that, I am just who I am. I love to sing and for me that is all, no need to perform and be idolised, no desire to be famous. I just love singing and being the song. I started as a child, and then I stopped for many years, returning to sound and voice through sound healing. I had so much joy in rediscovering my voice, just as we see all our clients do. I then had a vibratory reaction and developed Fibromyalgia which I carried for 7 years and finally healed from it 14 months ago. An overdose of sound took me there. I did too much and the resulting chaos in my cells took me into suppression. For several years I then turned away from sound and any healing. I had also been working in practice at a clinic for two years very successfully helping many others with sound. I lost my energy, I lost my passion and I sank into some very deep depressions. Always known to be a happy person generally and positive, this was a Hilary many didn’t recognise including myself. I started to find healing sound irritating and couldn’t listen to it or receive it. I couldn’t cope with environmental vibration, shops, lights, electrical currents etc. All the things our clients come to us with and where many people now live in a state of avoidance of what they consider is harmful vibration to them. After withdrawing from the healing world and spending some time in Greece where chaos is still very much alive ha ha! My body began to restore, release and rebalance. I connected with life again and believe me Greece is chemically and environmentally challenging as well as noisy! I went into the darkness many times to get my answers. I have seen others in workshops without passion, caught up in thinking that being in light is calm and tranquil and having power, passion and purpose is somehow alien. That happened with me, losing my sense of humour, losing my joy, trying to make sense of all the wonderful, positive, blissful moments we enjoy but somehow feeling empty of passion and life.

We do make healing shifts and you are probably saying that was just my healing journey, maybe you are right, maybe you are wrong, it certainly was and is my journey, and one I am making to bring through the truth of darkness. We all help people make shifts in their vibration and experience blissful moments and healing miracles. However let us start to learn and accept the dark vibrations as our teachers. The power in the silent screams and cries, the power of the inner voice trapped inside that brings strength, resolve and transforms. Understand that too much light can cause suppression and intensify darkness. Anything swinging the pendulum beyond centre creates imbalance. Too much sun burns and dries, too much rain floods and devastates. Night and day work in a harmonious cycle, both are necessary for all vibratory life on our planet.

As I journeyed through the outer world, my inner voice was always strong. On the days when I couldn’t sing or tone or had no inclination too, the inner voice lifted me through the darkness. The passion of my inner voice began to fuel the return of my energy and I returned as I am now to sing and teach again but from a very different perspective. So many people want to sing that it is not just a healing route, but a natural way of being. People want to express their hearts vibration, their joy & passion, pain & sorrow, anger & frustration. I have gone deeply into the heart and maybe we should remember that the heart is encased inside us, protected in darkness. The heart of earth is in darkness and the heart of the universe is in darkness. Our minds need light which is why our organs for light are held in our brain, but our brains are in darkness. When we “enlighten” we speak of our minds because our hearts already carry the light of love inside us. We free it from the prison of our minds. This is where the success of sound really shows itself, in bypassing the mind, in coming out from the heart and into the heart. The heart holds our rhythmic vibration and our unique frequency pattern. We express it through our voice. The voice is also the voice of the musician who plays an outer instrument, the voice expressed through his instrument be it violin, drums/percussion, harp, piano, guitar, tamboura etc. The human voice as instrument is unique in its vibration, but we also have unique musicians, artists, poets etc. Each one expresses their hearts voice.
Therefore darkness and light co-exist in transformative and healing power. Dark can bring light, light can bring dark. I find a lot of creativity in my darkest moments and many stars of stage and screen have been known to be depressives in their personal lives yet bring light, hope and fun to their audiences. We can be most in touch with God in dark moments because we are stripped of anything else, vulnerable, exposed, naked in our despair, connected to the nothingness. I first went through this in 1998 and again during the Fibromyalgia and again this Christmas. I finally surrendered to bringing this message through. My journey was to show both sides of sound, I found my voice again and to bring this insight to others. I know many of you will challenge this and I look forward to your comments.

Balance between the light and dark is essential, without sorrow we do not know joy, without fear we do not know love, without pain we do not know freedom. The dualities and polarities of our vibratory existence take us through the cosmogony of life. As sound healers we need to embrace the healing power of ALL sound and music, whatever style, genre, or how it is delivered. If we do not , we are denying the creator of that sound or piece of music and the universal input and healing that has come from the creator through the vehicle expressing it. Just because we don’t like it and we have done research to show it can be harmful, doesn’t mean that it might be the right “chaos” for the creator and the receiver. Our sound vibration is ours, another person’s is theirs. We enter their soundscape when we practise sound healing and their vibration enters ours. We turn duality into unity when we meet and when we embrace the dark and the light equally.

When you get a chance – walk out into a peaceful place in the darkest night alone, and listen.
Listen to the sound in the darkness, its vibration is beautiful and very different to the sounds you receive in the daylight.

Love & blessings Hilary

Article written for Sound Travels 23.01.2011

In traditional Celtic times the solstice is a time for welcoming the light. The shortest day of the year, marking the return of daylight hours. It is also energetically seen as a time to celebrate this and go within, into the darkness and to be still, to allow what has gone to regenerate into the seeds of the future. To lie dormant for a while and then begin to sprout forth when the spring returns.

What I find at this time of year is a clarity and perception so much sharper than in the summer months. The light has a more ethereal quality about it, the skies carry more mauves, pinks, turquoises as well the sunsets and sunrises having healing gold’s and oranges, rather than the intensity of colour it has in the summer. The snow protects and nourishes the earth as it melts. Whilst it covers the ground it gives us a sense of stillness that we don’t have at other times of the year. The birdsong is around much earlier this year and the colours are vibrant heralding the new to come.

The snow has had its downsides only because in our modern lifestyle we try to go against this time of stillness. We want everything to continue in our lives instead of honouring this time to be still. The Vibrational shifts we are experiencing are here to teach us, to try to make us see the impact of what we have been doing and the necessity to stop, take stock, go within, be still and at the same time move forward. It sharpens our creativity by allowing the time to shift in silence.

The impact on everyone has been profound in the UK with the weather. Chaos has arisen and the economic and political climate is reeling from dealing with this, simply because they are so removed from it, that it doesn’t seem “normal”. They have been pushing us into a depressive vibrational rate because they cannot cope with it and the abnormality of modern life suddenly has to be challenged and changed. Austere measures to bring us back into connectedness. The government represents the vibration of the time.

We cannot actually be still and we cannot actually have complete silence, because in the stillness and in the silence there is a vibration, a movement, a sound we cannot hear. Our sound psyche is affected by inside and outside. In traditional teaching, we can change our outer world through our inner world, but we can change an inner world through our outer world too. I understand vibration now in many different ways; most profound moments come in dark, negative vibration just as much as being in light and positive vibration. The snow, the winter, the austerity actually feed the sound psyche with nourishment you cannot get at other times of the year.

article written for www.soundtravels.co.uk

The truth is that we really don’t know, but the human desire to seek, explore and question allows personal growth whilst we seek an answer. However, what if the answer is love and nothing tangible? What if the answer is that in order to reach our fullest potential all we have to do is acknowledge the Divine Love within us, live it and be it? Does that seem silly, nonsensical, and even too simple? Being Divine Love is the most difficult challenge we have.

The inner and outer journey I have taken through many aspects of life, brought me back to the voice of our soul, the voice of the heart and Divine Love. I came to realise that if we stopped consciously seeking, accepted being in the moment, in the now, relating to life and each other from the now, we move to that point we are trying to understand about ourselves. We connect with the universal oneness or God which allows us to see why we are here, who we are, and our purpose. Life has to exchange and interchange as it does to make us whole. We awaken our humanity, love each other and our planet and understand that we are the very fabric of life and the universe. Our earth is perfect and each of us is perfect. When we love we see this.

We are in the centre of great human evolutionary change right now and the answer we seek is right there inside our heart. It is time for us to wake up and acknowledge the intelligence and love of the heart.

In my E- book “Voice of The Universal Heart”, I talk primarily about the voice, the heart, vibrational medicine and Divine Love. Here is an extract from the e-book:-

“I believe the heart is the place where we hold the highest energy of love and that love is not an e-motion. It is our natural vibrational and energetic state. When we say we are experiencing a sense of bliss, we are usually in a timeless state of love. We feel at peace. We are happy and we feel at one with everything and everyone. We can move into a state of Divine Love using meditation techniques, vocal tones, or listening to meditation music. It is possible to be very active in our imagination to shift our mind consciousness through visualisation. However, the final surrender is when the heart combines with mind consciousness to take us into the state of love. We do this by training our mind to be still and asking the heart to speak to us. Then, when we are finally quiet enough to hear the voice of our heart, it will speak and the sound will flow up to the mind, allowing the inner sound to travel through the entire energy system to connect with the highest energy of Divine Love.  This vibrational conduit between the heart and the universe/God allows the energy of love to be received and to regenerate the subtle bodies and whole energy field connected with the heart.”

“The heart’s true vibration is love and harmony the body’s natural state. When we are in love, we can feel the energy in our heart leap and connect to the person we love. We see the world and everything in it in a very different way and do not experience time. Time stands still for lovers and their hearts connect wherever they are, even if they are thousands of miles apart. A parent also experiences this heart connection with a child and will usually sacrifice themselves in some way for the love of their child. When we experience love in this way, we act from our soul, with joy, compassion, forgiveness and we heal. It is no coincidence that the best selling records are love songs!”

Our destiny is to become love. The issues we are desperately trying to correct within ourselves and on earth are the very consequence of our separation caused by mind interference alone. We have alienated the heart in our quest for logical answers in the name of progress. We have failed to understand that in our desire for better, we have not recognised the balanced perfection of nature, our own mind and heart have become unbalanced with earth. This is however, our evolution. It is the process of becoming and learning who we are. Our actions determine our future, we create, we destroy and we recreate. We can change our planetary way of living, we can heal, have peace, and put an end to poverty, war and violence, simply by learning to love at the highest level of acceptance and divine love. Accepting we are all here to serve each other and are connected as one universal vibration through love.

We have come a long way with logic; we have quantum physics, understand energy better, and are learning to honour our biology, genes and ancestral influence. Now we must accept that the earth is perfect and it is human beings who have made it imperfect. The better world we seek, the spiritual person we wish to become is already here. When we open our eyes, our ears, our hearts, our voices and act as the loving human beings we truly are, we see that the world we live in, can be recreated. A better, sustainable, loving global community can honour and learn from each other. Every person has value on this earth, every plant, animal and mineral. All jobs are necessary for the functioning of community and society. The Janitor is as important as the Chief Executive and that should never be forgotten. The West is no better than the East, the North no better than the South. There are differences between cultures and each need to learn to love and understand the other. The search for the meaning of life is simple – become love.

In my work with the voice and heart, when the heart is freed, the mind comes into balance and both function synergistically for the greater good of the individual and the whole. Communities connect, support, care, assist each other, respect one another and the planet we live on and allow each other to be who they are. When we love and co-create with love we can change the damage we have done, and restore ourselves and the earth to its natural harmony.

It is easy to talk philosophically about the meaning of life, but actions speak louder than words. Now is the time to accept each others role and understand we are gifts for one another. We should not judge what we think is right or wrong in a person; each of us carries what we see in another. We have a part to play to rise above, lead the way and show that when we become the being of love we are, we attain the power of Divine Love within us. The voice is unique; the purpose of each individual is unique. We can work with the voice to free the heart, become the being of love we truly are and follow our destiny.

The term Reflux is what happens when you feel some indigestion behind the breastbone, maybe some heat/heartburn and when you eat your food an acid taste comes back into your mouth after swallowing and some food and fluid comes up making you feel sick. You feel uncomfortable and bloated usually too.

The medical term is Oesophagitis. However what I think most of you experience is due to late night/early hours eating or grabbing fast foods and drink with stress in your lifestyle.

Reflux is caused by the substance called Hydrochloric Acid which is a key chemical for digestion and absorption in the stomach which works with other digestive enzymes. For many suffering from reflux the HCl is usually low and digestion is therefore poor. The food intake then takes a long time to digest and your body can not absorb the nutrients properly.

As you put more food or drink into the stomach, it cannot cope and begins to stack up half digested food into the oesophagus (gullet) and the acid that is trying to break the food down causes a taste that comes back up into the mouth with some food. Rushing around or rushing your eating will cause this and gulping food. If you are overweight it will be a problem as there is too much pressure on the digestive organs from the extra weight. Hot foods, spicy foods, rich sauce foods, cheese, cream, fast foods and snacks etc and stimulant drinks like hot coffee, hot tea, alcohol, fizzy drinks etc  make it worse.

WHAT YOU CAN DO?

ü       Eat a well balanced diet

ü       Cut out junk foods, rich foods, coffee and stimulant drinks.

ü       Try to eat at sensible times -  not late night/early morning. Your liver gets stressed if you eat at that time as well, so you are not doing yourself any favours!

ü       Chew your food more before you swallow it, Saliva starts the digestive process – slow down your eating!

ü       Don’t swill food down with drink – any drink including water – it makes it harder to digest food. Drink water half an hour before eating if possible as that way it readies your stomach for food and curbs the appetite a little.

ü       Rest and relax as stress makes it worse.

ü       Antacids can provide relief but don’t really solve the problem.

ü       Slippery Elm powder taken in water can help soothe.

ü       Inner Leaf Aloe Vera in water soothes inflammation in the digestive system.

ü       Ground flaxseeds soaked in water overnight, releases the mucilage and this soothes the digestive tract also.

ü       Ensure you are ‘eliminating’ properly (going for a good toilet sit daily!) A full small and large intestine won’t let your stomach contents move out easily either. The intestine is also a key absorption site for nutrients…if you’ve got that stacked up you will increase toxicity in your system.

ü       Under guidance you could take a HCL & Pepsin supplement – it has contraindications in gastric conditions so you need professional guidance.

So I hope that helps you understand Reflux better! Ask me for my Idiots Guide sheet, try some new ways with your diet and see how you go!

ACID/ALKALINE – pH  (pH scale below)

This is key nutritional stuff and I will just clear up a few facts on this for those who are unsure about it.

Like plants we are biological organisms and have to maintain a stable pH environment (Homeostasis). The body will try to maintain this at all costs. Sadly the world we have created for ourselves has now begun to cause such distress to our biological organism that we are trying to adapt. Quite frankly we are a mutagenic species at the moment. Adapting to what our minds have created and the pollution of our world is what is causing so much more highly refined immune disorders and breakdowns of the body from higher acidity.

When we talk of pH balance/acidity/alkalinity…we are talking about the ratio of acid and alkaline status in the blood (normally 7.36 – 7.41 pH) and tissue fluids where the electrolytes function. In a healthy body slight alkalinity is held constant by the balance of dissolved carbon dioxide (acid) and sodium bicarbonate (alkali). This balance is partly regulated by the kidneys, from which acid OR alkaline urine is secreted to correct any excess in either direction. In a healthy body Urine is more acidic (Urine pH 6.5 or above) than the blood pH level for this reason.

The pH is also partly regulated by the lungs from which excessive carbon dioxide is eliminated by deeper breathing. Heavy breathing after exertion is a reflex response to the formation of acid in working muscle. (Lactic acid). The type of acid does not matter!

Removing carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) by the lungs…compensates for an excess of Lactic acid in muscle…or an excess of any other acid in the body - If……… the body is healthy!

All three mechanisms work together to maintain Homeostasis – the acid alkaline balance.

The higher acidity in the body develops from eating too much highly refined processed foods and chemical additives and preservatives in our food……….. and dehydration.

It can also come from a failure to eliminate carbon dioxide because the lungs and/or muscles for breathing are impaired. OR

The kidneys are not functioning well OR

Diarrhoea where the tissue salts – bicarbonate of sodium – are lost through the intestine leaving a more acidic condition in the intestine. OR

Diabetes OR

Malnutrition – many today are malnourished…. not because of starvation but because of wrong foods and failure to get adequate nutrition. OR

Poisoning by chemical interference from pharmaceutical drugs such as aspirin, social drugs, cigarettes, paints, sprays, aerosols, perfumes etc.

Severe acidity or severe alkalinity is dangerous and needs medical attention.

You can see the body does a damn good job against all odds in today’s world!

So next time you are talking about this subject…..take a good look at your diet and lifestyle and see how you can help your body maintain it’s slightly alkaline homeostatic environment!

A healthy body is not a total absence of illness…but a body that can deal with what is thrown at it and overcome it! We all have genetic inheritances in our health and we all have to live in this modern world!

A balanced diet helps us keep healthy, along with exercise, relaxation and doing what we love best! Singing for me!

Enjoy your food!

Love Hilary

Chart reference – Thibodeau & Patton Anatomy & Physiology 3^rd Edition