Why Songbird?
Songbird is special to me for personal and professional reasons. Spoiler alert - did you know that birds only sing when they feel safe? And hearing bird songs calms our own nervous system because that means there is no threat in the area. If you want to know more about this, skip down a few paragraphs :)
I've been singing for as long as I can remember. My mom always says that when I was a
little girl, she knew I was sleeping because she couldn't hear me singing anymore. I was always making up little snippets or changing lyrics to songs I already knew, and I would give concerts on our fireplace mantle.
When I was in grade school I started singing in choirs and joined band. In high-school, I started to find that singing on it's own wasn't enough for me anymore. I didn't really feel like those songs reflected my experience, so I started learning guitar and put my poems to music. This is when I truly unlocked my sense of self and discovered a new level of self-expression. I went through a lot of personal stuff in high-school and the first few years of college and on top of that, living in a fat body as a teen (I mean, at any age, but especially in your adolescence) is rough. I didn't feel like anyone really *got* me, and music, specifically songwriting, helped me express things I didn't feel like I could tell anyone. Then I went to my first music school and fell in love with Jazz. This is also when my songwriting stepped up because I learned more theory, and when to break those rules. I love rich and dense harmonic complexity,
So Songbird has stuck with me for many years; social media nicknames, emails, video game and chatroom handles (grew up in the 90s :P), and in 2023, I took the plunge and registered it as my business name. Being a music therapist, this choice to make the name music related is obvious. But I wanted something more than that because I am not just a music therapist (and music lover) , but I am also a clinical counsellor, so I wanted something that was also relevant in that area. If you're reading
but some of my best songs are "three chords and the truth" (country music songwriter Harlan Howard said this to describe country music, but I'm sure he'd allow the reference!).
this far, you also read the teaser at the beginning about birds singing when they feel safe. When they sense danger, they usually stay silent, and when the threat is gone, they begin to sing again. This is why we feel more relaxed when we hear them; evolution has tied our subconscious to this seemingly simple act. When our brain gets the signal that we are safe, it triggers our nervous system into the "rest and digest" zone, which means lower heart rate, deeper, steadier breaths, and less of the stress hormones and adrenaline in our bodies.
I don't know about you, but I can relate. I remember being in a really shitty relationship and one day my then boyfriend mentioned that I was humming and he'd never heard it before (hello - huuuuuuge flag!!). I remember telling him that I hadn't been for a long time but I had a habit of doing it all the time when I'm happy and not noticing. Flash forward to now and my partner and I notice I'm almost always humming away to myself. I didn't feel at ease in that previous relationship, but since then my life and relationships have grown and strengthened and I feel a sense of safety that I didn't before.
So listen, this isn't saying that you will break into song every time danger disappears from your life, but it's a subtle cue that you may notice from time to time. And if you do, I'd invite you to be curious and explore it :)