Music therapy

One year ago in Tucson, a gunman killed six people and wounded thirteen at the Safeway plaza on Oracle and Ina. Among the wounded was congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Mistakenly declared dead in initial news reports after she took a bullet to the head, she has made amazing progress in her recovery. A contributing factor: music therapy.

Giffords still struggles to speak in sentences, but she has much less trouble singing. An important part of her therapy now involves singing songs she knew before the shooting.

The ability to speak is mainly controlled by two areas on the left side of the brain. But when we sing or listen to music, wide swaths of both sides of the brain become active. Doctors have learned putting words to melody stimulates memory and helps a damaged brain recover the ability to process language.

"And the idea is that can maybe be used as a proxy or as an alternative," said Dr. Michael Lemole, who was Giffords' neurosurgeon. "Just take away the music part and all of a sudden now you're stringing words together in a sentence.

Music, for me, has always been a powerful, magical force in itself. I don't love it because of its potential medicinal effects. I love it because it's music.

Still, the idea that singing can help people remember how to speak makes sense to me. Very simple phrases have a lot more emotional impact when they're set to music in just the right way. Singing marries thought and emotion. Songs help us feel what we're thinking and understand what we're feeling.

Everybody needs music therapy once in a while.

A bad day in Tucson

I heard the news about Giffords and the other victims around noon. By the time various media were reporting that she wasn't dead after all, I had to pull myself away from the Google searches and Facebook updates. Rehearsal awaited.

The TV was on at Ron's house. We watched a little bit of the press conference as we set up. Not a lot that we hadn't heard already. The one bit of data I hadn't known before was that the shooting took place at the Safeway on Oracle, just north of Ina. I used to shop there all the time.

Ron turned the set off. I wished he hadn't done that, but wasn't sure why. They were repeating the same information at this point. If anything new surfaced, I could hear about it in a few hours. And after a bunch of rehearsals canceled due to illnesses and holidays, we really needed to play.

So, we played.

I asked Ron to turn the TV back on when we were done. Funny, that need to stay connected. It wasn't like I was going to rush out and DO something when I learned if Giffords was still alive, or the killer's name, or the exact death toll.