Chords For The Soul
by Joan Osterwalker

As the ethereal music floated through the air, eyes turned dreamy and faint smiles formed on the softened faces.

The soothing sounds emanating from a Celtic harp, played by Lisa Lynne, transported listeners to a calmer place at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.

Lynne has seen the powerful effects of harps on people. The Los Angeles resident told her audience that she has enthralled bikers and heavy-metal fans with the timbre of her instrument. "Then I know for sure I was on to something," Lynne said between songs.

Hailed as an ancient method of healing, the harp is poised to play a greater role in the recovery of patients at Eisenhower. This week, the hospital launched the Healing Harps program, which aims to get patients involved in playing the harp.

"I really believe in the value of music therapy," said Jeanette Debonne, departmental director of Eisenhower's Arts in Healthcare, which oversees Healing Harps. "The results we've seen from patients are just astonishing." The harp's unique timbre relaxes patients and relieves their anxiety, pain, nausea, depression and other symptoms, and allow the body to heal itslef more rapidly, Debonne said.

Lynne, the first musician in residence at City of Hope, a national cancer center in Duarte, began the program with her performance.

Visitors stopped in their tracks and curios patients looked over the railings on two floors above. After playing a few songs, Lynne showed some hospital employees how to strum a harp. Rhiannon Howell, director of volunteer services, gingerly plunked the red and blue strings - notes C and F - and practiced a glissando, sling her hands across all the strings. She soon put down her "lap" harp and grabbed a 5-foot Celtic harp, which has more space between the strings. "Wrong note," said Howell, as she contorted her face. But it's impossible to make a bad sound on the harp.

Nurse Jane Weems sat next to Howell, laughing as she tried to follow Lynne's quick instructions. "This is totally different from the piano," Weems, 54, said balancing a small harp on her lap. "It's very fun." She said she has witnessed how patients respond to harp music. "They're less agitated, there's less pain medication expended," Weems said.

Eisenhower introduced harp therapy three years ago. Four harpists, including Debonne, rotate throughout he hospital, playing at patients' bedsides and before and after they have surgery.

On evaluation forms, serenaded patients made such comments as "It was almost worth the surgery to have been soothed by this beautiful music," according to Debonne.

Hospital staff also reported a more fluid and productive workday when harp music filed the air.

Patterned after the acclaimed Hands-on-Harps program at City of Hope, Healing Harps will allow patients to check out harps in the same way as a library book.

Professional harpists on staff will offer basic lessons to patients with a musical background or interest in playing in a more structured environment.

The harps appears to be a quick study. Lynne's charges learned "Frere Jacques" and "Greensleeves" in their first session.

Jean Hopkins, a cancer survivor and part-time hospital worker, said she doesn't read music but feels it. She put down her lap harp and listened to the others. "It just makes me turn my mind off," she said.

Reach Joan Osterwalker at (760) 837-4466 or Josterwalder@pe.com