043: The Healing Power of Music - Musical Thoughts: A Journey Through Improvisation

This podcast episode speaks about music as a healing force in our lives. This has been recorded to celebrate the release of my new piano album, Musical Thoughts: A Journey Through Improvisation and the completion of 20 years of a musical journey.

Album is currently available on Bandcamp and music will be available soon for streaming on all major platforms like iTunes, Spotify, etc.

Transcript

Well hello and welcome back.

My name is Tudor Alexander and this is my podcast,

The Seven Transformations.

Happy Monday to you and welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I am actually very excited to and very relieved,

Very relaxed,

Very complete to share with you something that is super important to me,

Which is the release of my first piano album.

As most of you may know that I've been listening to the show for a while,

Especially when I published some of the improvisation and music that I played.

I've been playing piano for quite some time since I was a kid,

But I had a long break in there.

So I have just started playing piano about a year and a half ago and I started writing music again,

Composing,

You know,

Pop songs,

You know,

Classical music,

All kinds of stuff.

So I wanted to share a story with you today about this piano album.

It's available on Bandcamp.

You can go check it out.

Just look up my name.

It's Tudor Alexander.

The name of the album is called Musical Thoughts,

A Journey Through Improvisation.

So I took some of my favorite pieces that I composed over the last year and a half and I played them on a Steinway piano at the Mayo Clinic that I volunteer at.

And basically I put some really cool nature ambient sounds in the background.

Super brooding,

Relaxing,

Very cool music to just listen to.

And I'm just really excited to finish that project.

It's been in the works for I would say about 20 years.

And I say 20 years is because when I was a teenager,

That was my ideal dream is to have my own album of piano music.

So I was playing a lot back then and you know,

It's finally there.

It's finally happened.

So again,

It's on Bandcamp.

Look up my name,

Tudor Alexander,

Musical Thoughts,

A Journey Through Improvisation.

So you can check it out.

If you want the physical CD,

I've got some really cool artwork that I created on there.

It's not going to be up yet.

I'm still waiting on the CDs.

But if you do want one for the time being,

Today is going to be Monday the 28th.

So whenever you're listening to this,

It may already be up there if it's later,

Obviously.

But if you want this and you're listening to it today on Monday,

Just message me on my website and I will I will have it.

I'll sign a copy for you.

I'll mail it to you.

Just contact me on the website.

We'll figure it out somehow.

But I'm super excited to share this with you.

You can listen to it on Bandcamp.

And if you want a physical copy,

I'll have them up there within a week as well.

So anyway,

I wanted to share with you a story about today's episode is about the healing power of music,

You know,

And it's it's part of it celebrating this this release of this album,

Obviously,

That I want to share with you guys.

But it's also,

You know,

Music as a healing force in our lives.

So I'm going to share a story with you about music about this album about healing power of sound.

You know,

I was about four years old.

I actually don't remember the full story here.

But apparently,

This is how it goes.

I was sitting around playing with some toys on the floor and my aunt decided to put some giant like those old school headphones around my ears so that I could listen to some classical music for the first time.

I wanted to say it was something like Beethoven's fifth or you know,

Something like this where it's going to be a little more cliche for the story.

But you know,

It's it's been a while.

I honestly don't remember what particular piece of classical music it was.

But regardless,

Something happened.

I ended up standing still as soon as she put those headphones on.

I stopped everything that I was doing and blankly looked out into the universe,

Mystified by what was going on between my ears.

And I don't remember much about the experience.

But I do remember those giant headphones.

They were huge and soft cushions all around your ears.

You felt like you were,

You know,

Locked in like you like the seat bars of a roller coaster.

Once you put those on,

You were you were in an experience.

And so that's what happened to me when I was very young.

You know,

I kind of just got enveloped in this sound.

So I never got a chance to thank my aunt for her early contribution to my musical journey because she passed away when I was pretty young.

I was still an ungrateful teenager,

As they say.

And it took several years after that until I finally started to really get it and look back at the people in my life and truly see their positive impact.

You know,

If only we can turn back the time every now and then,

Right?

Well,

Thanks to my loving aunt,

I experienced an early immersion in classical music that set my life path to releasing this piano album many years later,

Almost 30 years later.

And you know,

Because of her,

It was it was a huge influence in my life that that early that early influence,

As well as the support of my parents,

Really put me on a track to have music in my life.

And it's healed me in many ways.

I believe that her decision to do that out of love,

You know,

She didn't have to do that.

Ultimately,

She she could have just been another adult walking around the house,

Just kind of watching me every now and then so I don't choke or anything like that.

But she decided to share her classical music with a kid,

You know,

And she didn't have to do that.

And for many reasons,

We would probably think that a kid wouldn't even care about classical music or take the headphones off.

But she did that.

And it changed my life.

You know,

I started taking piano lessons as a result when I was around nine and started writing my own music very early on.

So by the time I was in high school and college,

I was in a band with my best friends playing and recording music and it became a huge part of my life and my identity.

My aunt healed my spirit at a young age by opening it to the creative power of music.

And something clicked for me when she put those headphones on.

It took me many years and experiences to understand and articulate it as well as discover its true purpose in my life as a medium of spreading the same healing to others that I received as a toddler.

None of that would have any story value,

Of course,

With some complications.

In college,

I started ballroom dancing.

And as all of us in the band began to pursue our individual life paths,

It seemed that once a budding flower of music that had flourished between us began to wilt and disappear.

Some of us got married,

Started a business or began competing and trying to make it as a dance teacher.

Obviously,

That was me.

Looking back on it,

I am surprised at how something so significant and rewarding could be tossed under the rug so quietly.

Yet isn't that the case with many people's passions today?

How easily we throw away things that we really care about,

How we bury them under more reasonable activities like making money or having to be responsible or whatever else.

In my case,

I was lucky that I traded my one passion for another.

But regardless,

Music and piano took a backseat in my life for over a decade from that point.

Until one day in the spring of 2017,

I found myself eating at my parents' house with a little extra time to burn.

It was the usual Sunday afternoon and after eating some great food,

I went in the den and played a little bit on our Yamaha P22 Oak stand-up piano.

This was par for the course on Sundays.

Go eat,

Fool around on the piano and half-ass remember a few pieces I composed when I was younger and then head back home and get a little reminder of the good old days of jamming out.

This time was a little different though.

I started to really get into it,

To really play again.

Something,

Somewhere deep got a little spark and it was as if the years of not practicing were suddenly overwritten by inspiration.

What am I doing with my life,

I thought,

Realizing that I had ignored a huge part of my life and happiness all these years.

Something snapped in me that day and I was motivated for action.

I hadn't played and written music for over a decade and my excuse was always that I was just too busy.

How could I have given up on music,

On my skill and on my passion?

It was one of the most rewarding ways to create and bond with my friends and I had somehow forgotten about it with everything else going on in my life.

I rushed home and went on Amazon immediately to buy two microphone stands,

A mixer,

Some good mics to start recording and all that good stuff.

Life only moves forward and the things you don't do today will end up being the regrets of tomorrow.

I missed playing music and missed was an understatement.

Music made me feel alive.

I was on top of the world whenever I played.

Free to be myself,

Free to express every range of emotion,

To unleash my creative power into the physical world and create something useful,

Beautiful through sound.

It was a healing experience every time and it was time to bring it back into my life.

In the next week I paid for my piano to get tuned and moved into my condo,

Creating a mini recording studio in the second bedroom and the beginnings of what would eventually be living a life of my passions.

You know,

With this podcast and everything else that I do,

I am very grateful to have a little place of my home that I can enter and feel like it's my own little hub,

My own creative central,

My home,

My cave in a sense.

All you need to do to find yourself and your passion is to take action on what you want in the present moment and the path will reveal itself organically.

Sometimes we have a clear picture of the future and sometimes that picture becomes clearer as we walk.

Paths can come in all shapes and sizes and directions but they all must be walked in the end.

As soon as I started taking action on what was important to me,

Things began to open up exponentially.

That beautiful flower that was once a bloom got its vibrancy back and in ways that I couldn't even have imagined when I was younger.

Sometimes taking a break from something,

Even if it's a 10 year break,

Can do well for its overall direction and purpose in your life.

Over the course of the last year I played furiously,

Writing and posting my pieces to YouTube for people to listen and enjoy.

It was as if I had never stopped playing the piano.

In a few months I had dozens of pieces published and my creativity was on fire.

As more of my friends and clients began to listen to my music,

I got rewarding feedback that started to guide me in a particular direction with what I would play.

Many of them said my music made them think,

Relax or just use their imagination.

For some it was even a good sleep aid,

Concentration booster or generally a relief of stress from a hard day of work.

I began realizing that my music wasn't just for me.

It could heal others and help them in a meaningful way.

As the year passed and I saturated my channel with pieces,

It was time to get to the organizational aspect of the creative cycle.

I felt that I needed to trim all of the ideas into a leaner playlist that I could memorize and showcase in the future because I missed playing live.

At this time I also wanted to apply myself in more contributory outlets and with a little research,

Two opportunities presented themselves that would guide and inspire the completion of the project I am celebrating today with you.

Within a year after I started playing again,

I began using my music and skills in a more healing direction,

Creating a music class at Florence Crittenden for at-risk girls and volunteering at the Mayo Cancer Clinic in Phoenix as a regular piano player on Tuesdays for the patients and staff.

These experiences were very valuable to me and playing the Steinway Model L at the Mayo has become an honor and a tradition in my life.

The many transformational stories that have come with it have made this new direction of music so much more purposeful and clear.

One story in particular comes to my mind and I wanted to share it here with you because it touched me and reminded me of my own.

One day I was toward the end of my set,

An elderly lady approached me and I could tell she was touched by the music I was playing.

She thanked me and the next thing I knew we were going through her life story and how she had a beautiful piano in her house but had shied away from playing it because certain events in her life had made her give up on it.

I told her that I could relate and that this was a sign from the universe that she needed to start playing again.

It was never too late to learn anything in my book.

You are only as old as you believe and life is too short to give up on something that you want to do.

After a few more interchanges she thanked me again and said maybe it was indeed time to try to learn the piano again.

After all she had a client in her business that she knew for years now and was a very successful piano teacher.

There you go I said,

No excuses now.

The message was obvious.

The lady and I parted ways and I could see that she got a little teary eyed.

I played another piece or two and then finished my set.

That lady needed to be healed by my music,

I thought on the way to the car.

I'm not insinuating any special powers on my part but I do believe that in that moment I was the vehicle for this person's healing because there was a particular part of her life she had neglected and that the experiences of me playing the piano and talking with her facilitated a transformation in her spirit that opened up action that was not there before.

Music started it,

Conversation actualized it and in that microcosm of an experience I really got how healing music could be.

I thought about music in my life and how many transformative experiences I had because of it.

From the first time I put those headphones on through playing and composing music as a teenager and young adult to learning to dance and do shows to different kinds of music and expressing myself to going to festivals and huge experiences to now playing again and creating the experience for others with piano.

Music had played a vital role in my life as a way to let go,

Express,

Become vulnerable,

Visualize the future and what I want,

Meditate,

Empower myself and ultimately heal.

It was a channel for healing,

A medium for change and meaningful experiences.

Zoom forward through a few months of practice,

Organizing myself,

Playing and a little frustration and my set at the Mayo turned into an album idea that integrated both my new stuff as well as pieces that I had composed when I was very young.

My teenage dream of having my own piano album had become a reality again.

The break of 10 years had given me a repose for other things to happen as well as the ability to rediscover and recreate a meaningful direction with something very important in my life.

These pieces represented deep emotion,

My very spirit converted into sound.

I decided to paint them with ambient noises of nature so that the mood and experience would be complete.

I called it musical thoughts,

A journey through improvisation.

For me healing is not some woo woo thing but it is the completion of something.

A stomach is healed when it is full,

When its purpose as a container for food has been fulfilled.

When that lady had filled herself with the possibility of music being alive in her life again,

She experienced healing.

When a toddler listens to music and it speaks to the timeless all knowing part of his or her spirit,

It is a healing.

We are all healers and we all need healing.

Music is the universal medium of information that we communicate our most profound experiences and emotions.

It encodes these things in a way that language and meaning cannot.

And sharing our music with others is one of the most primal and valuable experiences we can create.

So today I am happy to share the healing power of music with you through the completion of my first piano album,

Musical Thoughts,

A Journey Through Improvisation.

So there you go guys,

Thank you so much for letting me share a little bit about this album and what it means to me.

On the album if you go and check it,

The first track is a 6 minute message for me about the project,

What does it mean to me and all that kind of stuff.

It's a huge deal,

I have played music for the better part of my entire life and to finally bring something physical into the world is super cool.

So I'm really happy to be able to share that with you.

I hope you enjoy it regardless of whether you buy it or not.

Enjoy it,

Share it with your friends,

It's great for relaxing,

Great for thinking.

I hope that if you're suffering that it helps to relieve whatever you're suffering.

I've had a lot of people tell me that they are feeling relaxed and much better when they listen to it.

So I'm glad to be able to contribute that to others.

You know,

Regardless like I said of what happens with it,

I'm just happy to have it out there and share it with you.

So thank you so much.

Remember the healing power of music.

You know,

Music helps you to visualize the future.

If you're feeling stuck,

Get a playlist going and start to paint those future pictures.

All the greatest ideas I ever had or motivational boost was because I just shut my eyes,

Put some good music on and pump myself up.

And it has a very powerful effect on your emotions,

On the body,

On your imagination.

It is an amazing thing.

What would we do without music?

So always incorporate it in your life as a tool as well as something that you enjoy because it is very powerful.

So thank you so much for listening,

For supporting the show and I'll see you guys on Friday.

Have a great and awesome week ahead.

Reviews

Nice message.

Awesome!! Loved all of this , your piano playing is something to be proud of, and will be part of my life from now on! Thank you with the most gratitude and blessings I can send.🙏🙏🎶

A nice experience to see and employ in my days thoughts

Congratulations! I am so happy for you and your playing is beautiful. I, too, am on a similar journey :-)

Thank you, it is beautifully played.

I can completely relate to this story. It reminds me of how passionate I once was about dance. And how my movement touched people in a special way. It was healing for me too. Sometimes I really miss dance. Also, your music is so beautiful. I’m so glad you listened to your heart’s call. Thank you for sharing this 🙏.

Thank you, thank you, Thank you!!! Namaste.

Omgosh your music is amazing!! I love 💕 classical music but not piano music as much (Chopin). Yours is very different in that it really moved me. I had a little cry during this talk because I had abandoned my art making probably for the same reason that woman had. But it’s past, my studio is being re-claimed and my drawing table is in there beckoning me. I’m 63- and haven’t done my art since 1994. It’s time. Past time.
Thank you Tudor for this wonderful podcast. I will be buying your new album as well. Where can I buy and download it?
Thank you again,
Namaste 🙏🏼 💝🎵🎶🐾🌺🌸🏁🎹🎼

I was raised with musicians in my life. My uncle, father, and grandfather would get together and have jam sessions and we would eat. Music calms me down. I was learning the keyboard and was getting good.

Tudor ! You took me back to the beautiful and joyful time of my childhood, when I first stepped into the wonder world of listening and playing music ... I’m here, deeply touched moved and inspired by your story with tears in my eyes, feeling blessed for being in LOVE with music ...
“The aim and final end of all music should be non other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul”
~Johan Sebastian Bach.
... and today with your story and music, you took me to the space of that “final end of all music” to the glory of my heaven inside. Thank you 🙏🏼💚

Thank you! I’ve been hovering around the joy of returning to my piano for several months. As I was listening to you, covered in chills with tears in my eyes, I realized for certain that it’s time for me to go “home” again.

I listened twice. Something beautiful happened. As a kid I thaught myself to play at our organ . My parents gave my a beautiful keyboard when I lived on my own. I stimulate our three children to play music and our house is full of instruments. And then I heart your words: you are never too old. And I felt the magic and I felt what I have to do. Thank you so much. Esther.

Thank You for sharing!!!. Very inspairing for me!!!.

Your story and journey is so inspiring to me! Especially as a classical pianist myself, you can not believe how easily I forget the healing power my music playing and improvising has (not only for me but for the people around me as well...) Thank you for your story, thank you for your music and your healing! Cant

I loved this, Tudor. Thank you for sharing.

Very enlightening. Enjoyed the music history that had much effect on your creativity.