Let me tell you about myself: Part 1
This blog is part one of a series about highlights of Natalie's background and the moments that were most influential and transformational in sound and spirit.
Early influences
As a young child, I had frequent earaches and significant hearing loss in both ears, which led to ear surgery and the experience of going from hearing as if underwater to hearing clearly. This early experience truly made music a “whole body” response. I wonder whether this early experience might have a part to play in why I am so sensitive to sounds and vibrations, a hypersensitivity that has turned out to be a big benefit in my sound healing practice.
Although I don’t remember my father, who died when I was seven-and-a-half months old, my mom has told me that when I was a baby I had colic, and the only thing that would soothe me was my dad holding me, slowly dancing me around to music or singing to me. He was apparently a very good clarinetist. My mom had musical experience on both classical guitar and piano and played recorder regularly with an ensemble that met at our house. My brother studied piano seriously.
I was exposed to so much great music growing up! Not only the records—classical, folk, world music, and oldies—but because we lived in Iowa City, with Hancher Auditorium and Clapp Recital Hall so close on campus, Mom must have taken us to hundreds of concerts. I was going to all kinds of performances—operas, chamber music, the symphony—at a very young age. This was really a big influence on me.
I must have been 7 or 8 years old when I saw Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg perform Mendelssohn’s E-minor violin concerto at Hancher. I had never seen anyone perform with such a range of facial expressions, such emotion, agony, and bliss at times. I was in awe! I remember being riveted by performances by the Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson.
I am so grateful for the diverse music and opportunities I was exposed to. If I was ever bored during one of these performances, I would use the concert program as a sketch pad and would doodle what that the music sounded like. Often, I would get home, turn on classical radio, stand on a box or suitcase and pretend that I was conducting a symphony.
We also attended all kinds of performances by local bands, at the Mill or other Iowa City venues. When I was young, we saw Black Sheep perform on the Ped Mall with Carlis Faurot on electric violin. That was the first time I had ever seen an electric violin and heard someone using effects and making all these different sounds come out of the instrument. That was really inspiring. Of course, this led to my own experimentation with amplifying the violin, playing electric violin and using pedals for all sorts of effects. And years later, I collaborated with Carlis! We did a duo show with a band backing us.
Early music education
I began violin lessons at the age of four at Preucil School of Music in Iowa City. It was obvious pretty quickly that I had a natural talent and good ear. Often, I would come home from lessons, sit down at the piano, and play what I had just learned on the violin. I’ve been told that in a sea of young violinists, I would be the one swaying to and fro, caught up by the music, as others around me stood planted in place, sawing away. That early emotional connection to the violin led to my main mode of expression. The violin has certainly been a strong voice for me, a foundation for confidence (I was extremely and sometimes cripplingly shy), but also a method of meditation and working through difficult times.
When I did end up taking piano lessons, I was very interested in improvising and composition. Although I became more proficient on the piano, I felt thwarted after a couple of years of lessons because I wanted to develop my own musical ideas rather than learning the traditional repertoire. My main focus has always been violin, but because of my early curiosity and later focus on music education, I’ve learned also how to play the accordion as well as other string instruments: viola, cello, bass, guitar, and mandolin. I’ve had training on the orchestral wind instruments and percussion, also play a bit banjo, and even the sitar.
I attended Preucil School for violin lessons, music theory, orchestra, small ensembles, and was able to travel to Europe and the UK at a young age because of the orchestra tours. I attended Preucil until I graduated from high school. The commitment became greater as I grew older and more advanced. In the beginning there were weekly lessons and group sessions, rehearsals for performances and public appearances, and recitals. In addition, I was also extremely active in the orchestra programs in my elementary, junior high, and high schools. I was a 4-year All-State Orchestra member and became concertmaster of my high school orchestra. Practice time was a huge commitment, but looking back on it, I am grateful for every moment and experience. I truly cannot imagine my life without the violin, it is such a part of my identity and personal expression.
As a young musician, I was very stubborn and hard to discipline. I wanted to be running around, doing four-year-old things! But the discipline of the Suzuki method did take hold and was not only very good for my own worth ethic growing up but has also been particularly helpful in my musical career. With Suzuki training, you begin with playing by ear, call and response, and by following a teacher’s modeling. Only after you’ve developed the ability to play by ear, to listen and repeat, do you start reading sheet music. My ability to listen and play has meant that I am not dependent on the notes on the page, which has helped me immensely as a performer and improvisor. And the ability to listen has become a huge benefit as a sound healing practitioner and for deep listening meditation.
My mother remembers why violin and the Suzuki method seemed right for me: “I knew you responded to music and that your natural learning style was intuitive, so the Suzuki method made sense. Maybe, somewhere in the back of my mind, I imagined you and your brother playing together one day, you on the violin and him on the piano.” Which indeed we did! Over the years at holiday gatherings and sometimes we would play duets at each other’s recitals. My brother even traveled from the West Coast, where he was in graduate school, to perform with me at my senior recital at University of Iowa.
-Natalie Brown