This video shows you how to play the most common A minor seventh chord shape on your guitar (commonly abbreviated as Am7). It also includes a few adaptations to hopefully make guitar playing more accessible to a wider range of musicians. Enjoy your playing time!

This video shows you how to play the most common C major chord shape on your guitar (commonly abbreviated as simply a C chord). It also includes a few adaptations to hopefully make guitar playing more accessible to a wider range of musicians. Have fun!

The legendary singer Tony Bennett has been living with Alzheimer's in recent years. Last night I watched an incredible piece on "60 Minutes" about Tony as he prepared to play his final shows at Radio City Music Hall. 

Music is an unparalleled activator for Tony. Being a performer and true professional is so hard-wired into his brain that it is a sight to behold when the curtain rises and he is on stage, in his element. 

What's more is Tony is not relying on replicating notes verbatim from sheet music. As a Jazz singer, he is adding nuance, variation, and improvisation in every performance. Tony's neurologist Dr. Gayatri Devi states, "Even though he doesn't know what the day might be or where his apartment is, he still can sing the whole repertoire of the American songbook and move people."  

When asked how music stimulates the brain, Dr. Devi responds, "music engages multiple parts of the brain. There's the auditory cortex for hearing. There's the part of the brain that deals with movement and dance. There's the visual system that gets engaged, so it's kind of like a whole brain activator."  

I've included the entire segment above. There's a moment on stage with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga that really moved me, but I won't spoil it.

Harmony Integrative Therapy has an extended family. Key people who have inspired us and help make the world a better place. For our first spotlight on the community, we're sending a special shout out to Austin Morford of Morfbeats.

Austin is a skilled designer, builder, and engraver of innovative instruments for Morfbeats alongside his brother Adam. It's not often you come across a family who is creating new instruments, building them from scratch, and inspiring unparalleled levels of creativity in the music realm. In this video you can hear Austin creating a hypnotic rhythm with Morfbeats' High Octave Gamelan Strips and Low Mid Octave Block Bells. It's a thing of beauty to witness.

Aside from the credentials mentioned above, Austin is a composer, ultra talented musician, and all around great person. His designs are a dream come true for the music therapy world: beautiful sounding, hand crafted instruments that can be arranged in a plethora of adaptive, accessible set ups. For example, his Chromatic Gamelan Strips can be arranged in the same shape of a piano octave, or you can reduce the number of pieces at your heart's desire. Try out just having two tones to bounce off of. Need a specific scale? Eliminate a few strips and you have the notes of the pentatonic scale. Or, throw the constraints of music theory and tonal harmony out the window completely, make a custom arrangement, cease to analyze, and just follow the muse. It's endless fun.

Here at Harmony Integrative, we feature a full Chromatic Gamelan Strip set in our library for utilization during music therapy sessions. Thank you Austin for doing all that you do, and for helping us provide the highest quality therapeutic services possible.

https://www.morfbeats.com/

This video shows you how to play the most common E minor chord shape on your guitar (common abbreviations: Em, em, Emin). It also includes 2 adaptations to hopefully make guitar playing more accessible to a wider range of musicians. Have fun!

There are more videos being added to our YouTube channel weekly.