Music is a powerful tool for reaching people and building connections. The internet is another powerful tool for reaching people and building connections. By combining the two, we are able to spread songs that inspire peace around the world.

In 2003, we released the How Weird Street Faire CD Vol. 1 with ten inspiring songs. These songs are now available as free downloads in high quality MP3 format.

Three new songs are now available for download! If you are interested in contributing your music to this project, please contact music(at)howweird.org

Music and Healing

In addition to its ability to communicate deeply and bring people together, music has many healing qualities. Most cultures around the world have recognized the importance of music and sound as a healing power. In the ancient civilizations of India, Africa, Europe, the Orient, and among the Aboriginal and Native Americans, the practice of using sound to heal and achieve balance has been used for thousands of years. Music is not only entertainment, music is medicine for the body and soul.

Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated the health benefits of music: it can lower blood pressure and heart and respiratory rates, reduce cardiac complications, increase the immune response, and increase our capacity to learn. At the California State University in Fresno, studies showed that migraine patients who have started and continue to listen regularly to their favorite music have one-sixth as many headaches. Premature babies at UCLA in Los Angeles and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta gained weight faster and used oxygen more efficiently when music was played for them daily, compared with babies in control groups without music. When used by surgical patients, music reduced the need for anesthesia and pain relievers. Many hospitals and medical institutions are now recognizing the benefits of music, and are providing music therapy as a service to their patients.

"Music is processed in more regions of the brain than we ever imagined," says Josef Rauschecker, a Georgetown University researcher who studies the auditory processes of the brain. "Music is a great example of how different parts of the brain can act together. Music can have a profound, even physical, effect on the brain."

We, ourselves, may be composed of music. A U.S. geneticist, Dr. Ohno, assigned a musical note to each of the 6 amino acids that make up the DNA code. He then looked at the sound patterns formed by the DNA in various living things. Dr. Ohno found that rather than random sounds, these notes actually formed patterns that created melodies. In one experiment, he transcribed the ìnotesî of the DNA of a specific type of cancer. The melody, he reported, had an uncanny resemblance to a musical piece written by Chopin in the 17th century ñ Chopinís Funeral March.

If we look at current theories on quantum physics, we see additional evidence that supports the ability of sound to support and enhance healing. All particles including atoms, electrons, and subatomic particles are energy in a state of oscillation. Sound is a vibration, and any sound generator will cause other particles to act as resonators, picking up the sound from the source. This change in the vibration of subatomic particles resonating to music can impact how larger structures such as atoms and cells are structured. If healing can take place on an atomic or cellular level, it can conceivably heal the entire human being, cell by cell.

We believe that music also has the ability to heal on a global level. We hope that by spreading the vibrations of music that inspires peace, we can help to heal the world from war and destruction.