Siouxland Magazine - Volume 5 Issue 3

TCM teaches us many ways to take heart medicine,
especially in its deeper themes that guide us in
connecting with oneself and each other. By playing the
music of the heart, we can find an adapted yet authentic
version of music as medicine.
For local sources of musical learning:
Ray’s Midbell Music
4230 S Lancelot Ln
Sioux City, IA 51106
Siouxland Magazine | BeComing /43
Together in the basement as Port Nocturnal each
counterpart contributes his own inner experience.
Pickens’ observations support the microcosmic storm
of electrical activity in his brain when he plays guitar,
especially improvisationally in a jam.
According to Anita Collins, doctor of Neuroscience
and Music Education, playing a musical instrument
creates many connections in the brain, including
centers for movement, sensation, emotion, audition,
and visualization. She says this develops the level
of connection across the left and right hemispheres
of the brain, strengthening the music player’s
ability to marry creativity with precision, planning
with improvisation, and language with emotion. By
tapping many different areas of the brain, playing
music becomes a way to connect the mind, body, and
heart. The brain is the center of the central nervous
system and communicates with every system of the
body, primarily through the bioelectrical activity
informing the rhythm of the heartbeat. Thus, learning
a musical instrument would not only be in harmony
with ancient heart medicine but also has support from
more Western styles of medicine.
Sioux City Conservatory of Music
1309 Pierce St
Sioux City, IA 51105
For a TED Talk on Music and
the Brain with Dr. Anita Collins:
TedxTalk - Anita Collins Music
https://www.anitacollins.com/tedxtalk
For an herbal consultation with
Kathy Jensen, seasonal cleanse
workshops or medicinal herbs:
Mind & Body Connection
1925 Geneva St.
Sioux City, IA 51104
Emily Larson, Licensed Massage Therapist, Private
Yoga Instructor, Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology
& Human Performance, Instructor of Anatomy and
Pathology for massage therapy students at the Bio Chi
Institute, and mother to Noah.
Photo Credit Emily Larson.
Pickens, Medema, and Rhymer unite in their basement
studio once a week, inside cushioned walls that
create a womb-like echo chamber, a macrocosm of
the heart’s warm, electrical, pulsing inner ventricles.
Medema creates a deep well of driving force bass
tones as he explores ancient Raga scales, representing
the walls of the heart, reverberating and constant.
Pickens rips streams of color and emotion dark and
deep, representing the flow of blood and energy as
crashing, tympanic skins reinforce each sound, giving
it clear meaning. Rhymer’s every strike represents
the heartbeat, supporting the hallucinogenic, bluesexploring,
grunge sound of the trio speaking their
own language. This collaboration even stands to
represent the different areas of the brain lighting up,
coming together as one storm and true expression of
the heart’s energy.