David Key Music: Sound Therapy

David Key is a sound therapist, National Board Certified therapeutic musician, and shamanic practitioner. With a Masters degree in Music Education, he has decades of experience as an instructor, introducing students of all ages to the gifts of music and sound. Through his personal discovery of therapeutic instruments, and training with global sound therapists, David brings a broad knowledge of music, therapeutic sound, and clear instruction to his sound therapy offerings.

In his Workshops, David introduces participants to the different healing benefits of sound. In his popular Sound Immersions, he uses voice, drum, wind instruments, singing bowls, gongs, chimes, and other therapeutic sounds to create a deep, transportive version of a sound bath.

David provides intuitive, shamanic Private Sound Therapy Sessions for individual clients, using the vibrations of frame drum, rattle, and voice.

new Workshop Offerings!

Sacred Sound: Rattle and Drum

Sacred Sound: Bowl and Gong

check back for future offerings

Visit my workshops page for details

Sound Immersion Offerings

My next in-person Sound Immersion at terra sol sanctuary, Wilmington, NC, is
Sunday, November 13, 2:30-3:30 pm.
Please join the sound circle for this immersive vibrational experience.
Sound Immersions are held monthly at terra sol through the end of the year, last date
December 11.

Visit my Sound Immersions page for info and links to preregister for upcoming Sound Immersions.

watch this video for a brief introduction to the science and sound of therapeutic music. view here or Visit the Therapeutic Musicians of coastal carolina youtube channel for this video and more

I offer private Sound Therapy sessions for those who would like a more individualized therapeutic experience. In these sessions, I use rattle, frame drum, and voice as primary shamanic sound tools. Unlike a Sound Immersion, sounds I use in a private session might have a greater variety of intensity, and I will often use an interactive approach to help release blockages and clear negative patterns. Through guided imagery, intuitive perception, and purposeful therapeutic sound, these sessions can facilitate awareness and clearing at the physical, mental, and emotional levels.
Click HERE for more info and a contact form to complete for a free consultation.

Some men collect cars....
New instruments I have added to my sound collection in the photo above.

1. At the top: My friend, Ave, had gifted me some wonderful False Blue Indigo seed pods a few years ago. They were starting to split and fall apart, so I placed them in these two basket woven rattle/shaker shells, adding a deer hide leather bottom to one to enhance the sound possibilities.

2. Bottom left: I had been wanting a synthetic hide drum that would not be affected by weather and still have wonderful energy and a great sound. I purchased this Remo frame drum with a black synthetic hide, and made my own beater stick from a branch of a cedar tree I had planted in my yard some 16 years ago.

3. Bottom right: I haven't been able to find a wind chime of obsidian needles that I like for my sound therapy work, so I made my own, again using cedar from the same tree, with a combination of materials to suspend the wind chime and the needles. A lovely, gentle sound like ice softly cracking on a river.

A video introducing some of the instruments I use in sound immersions and with my private sound therapy sessions

Two videos of me playing a beautiful African Rosewood Flute in C, made for me by Casey Burns (you can also hear this flute at the beginning of Ocean Healing). It is an instrument I am still developing a relationship with for my work as a therapeutic musician. I asked for a simple system flute (no keywork), lower than the traditional one in D, for a deeper sound. With all of my therapeutic sound and therapeutic music instruments, I sometimes create sounds and music in the moment, just for myself.

The first video captures one of those moments. Think of it as "improvised sound therapy." The second video is a meditative, less rhythmic version of "Both Sides Now."

The linked video below is an improvised flute "song" on my Native American style Buffalo flute. This flute was made for me by JP Gomez, Heartsong Flutes, Sedona, AZ, in 2001. I asked for the Medicine of the White Buffalo for the totem carving, as well as the choice of white cedar for the flute. I also requested 2 bands of pipestone at the bottom end, in honor of the Earth Mother, and as a connection to the root chakra, and 2 bands of turquoise near the top to represent Father Sky and the 5th chakra of expression. The total number of stone bands is 4, a sacred number. I offer these sounds in a sacred way as a prayer for the Earth Mother and all beings.

Elk hide rattle

The photo below shows me with a rattle I created some 25 years ago. It is an important sound tool in my group and private sessions, and can help recipients shift from the chatter of "Monkey Mind" to a quieter place of listening and feeling. Use quality headphones or speakers to listen to this brief recording of this Elk hide rattle. Take a few deep breaths prior to listening, noticing how you feel, then allow the various simultaneous sounds of the rattle to shift you from a place of thinking to a place of feeling. Allow your listening to broaden, and notice how you feel when done, as you take a few breaths again.

audio recording of this rattle

A sound offering to help us feel our Wild Power
and find our Grounded Center, recorded live in my home.
This is my own composition, inspired by horse, followed by some wild improvised vocables

HORSE DRUMMING SONG
As I run, I breathe.
With each breath, I burn.
With my sweat, I grieve.
With my strength, I return.

I am the Hawk in flight, I'm the Dolphin on Earth.
I'm burning Sunfire bright, I'm drumming from birth.
I am the Hawk in flight, I'm the Dolphin on Earth.
I'm burning Sunfire bright, I'm drumming from birth,
I'm drumming on the Earth.

In the Circle, we breathe.
With each breath, we burn.
With our tears, we grieve.
With our strength, we return.

I am the Hawk in flight, I'm the Dolphin on Earth.
I'm burning Sunfire bright, I'm drumming from birth.
I am the Hawk in flight, I'm the Dolphin on Earth.
I'm burning Sunfire bright, I'm drumming from birth,
I'm drumming on the Earth.

Moments From a sound immersion at braithe center

Music and sound have been used for healing in all cultures, for thousands of years. Those working with sound as a healing modality know that we respond at the cellular level to sound itself. The healing ability of the parasympathetic nervous system is engaged with intention-filled positive vibration. The number of scientific studies dealing with sound and the brain continues to grow. Many of those studies reinforce the understanding of sound therapists that our brains "entrain" to beats and frequencies, allowing sound to shift our brainwave state.

During a waking state, our brains vibrate at a frequency in the range of 14-30 Hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. When we sleep, our brains vibrate between .5 and 4 Hz. The brain's relaxed, healing states are Alpha (8-13 Hz), and Theta (4-8 Hz), which can be induced through the physical law of entrainment. When a rhythm or frequency is introduced, the brain will respond, vibrating at the same frequency. Your brain "gets in step" with that frequency, and there is a shift in brainwave state. A sound therapist uses this automatic response to facilitate these deeper states of awareness and relaxation.

David Key, M. Mus., is a Sound Therapist and a Certified Clinical Musician (CCM), accredited by the National Standards Board for Therapeutic Musicians. He facilitates group workshops and sound immersions, and offers private sound therapy sessions. As a CCM, David provides therapeutic music bedside for hospice patients and residents of memory care and assisted living facilities.

Intention Breath Vibration
When we use intention and breath to create vibration,
we access the deep healing potential of sound and music.

David Key Music
17 Indigo Court
Hampstead, NC 28443
910.200.2820

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