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       Singing for Well Being

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An unusual email resource to tend and befriend you and our community as episodes are released. Artwork by Patty Piotrowski, Patricia's musing, and extras -- questions, occasional transcriptions, links to more community singing resources --- yummmmmmmmm!

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8/6/2025 2 Comments

199. The Turtle Remembers

« PreviousNext »
Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:14
Start time of reprise: 00:15:09

Lyrics:

The Turtle remembers a dream in December,
Alone with God.
Alone with songs of the whales, returning, returning.
Picture
Song: The Turtle Remembers
Music by: Becky Reardon

Notes: Becky Reardon's songwriting drew me toward community singing when I was still in a choral paradigm -- and this round is a stunning example of combining a haunting melody with words that help me remember the ancient self that moves within. Happily, I didn't sing it alone for this episode -- I'm joined by friends and neighbors, Karen Chickering, Molly Moerdyk, and you may recognize Rebecca Csuy from earlier episodes?! We take our time with the round, leaving space for you to sing a line alone for a bit if you'd like -- or sing with any of us! Next week, in our conversation, Becky talks to me about singing with others and the communities that's built -- and we get a little peek into cartoonist Charles Schultz's life, too -- because people are connected in all kinds of wild ways! (A wee blooper at the end -- what happens when you start a round and no one else comes in?)

Songwriter Info: Becky Reardon's voice is familiar to the millions of people who hear her sing on the Charlie Brown/Peanuts TV specials. She is a composer whose songs and rounds are widely sung by community and university choirs, song circles, and singing classes. Sometimes jazzy and fun-loving, sometimes trance-inducing and deeply spiritual, her music always conveys her passion for the natural world and the cycles of life. 

Sharing Info: The song is free to share in oral tradition groups, but please contact Becky for recording and/or performing permission.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:14
Start time of reprise: 00:15:09

Links:
Becky's website: www.beckyreardonmusic.com 
Abbey Lincoln's song Down Here Below: https://youtu.be/S4jvYELMUZc?feature=shared 

Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, harmonic minor, round

Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:  https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share

Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.  https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html
2 Comments

2/26/2025 2 Comments

180. Pearl in the Dark with guest Sarina Partridge

« PreviousNext »
Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:05:34
Start time of reprise: 01:30:39
​Lyrics:

Part 1:
I'm gonna dive deep, a little deeper
Into the grit and the mud and the muck
that I don't wanna see
'Cause I think there's a seed,
there's a teacher
There's a pearl in the dark shining!


Part 2:
I will lean into this darkness, this darkness
A seed is shining,
there's a pearl in the dark shining!


Part 3:
Ooooh, shining like a pearl
Ooooh, new leaves unfurl
Ooooh, a new way is possible -
there's a pearl in the dark shining!

Picture
Song: Pearl in the Dark
Music by: Sarina Partridge

Notes: Here's something to boost your "joy-ometer", as Sarina refers to it! We dive into infiltrating the health system with singing, stories we tell to make sense of the world, geysers of weird choices, singing to support community goals, cosmic bowling alley bumpers and more... and all that after learning a fresh song of Sarina's that helps us dive into the grit and the mud and the muck (when we choose to!)

Songwriter Info: Sarina Partridge is a musician, song-leader and educator in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She feels most alive when learning, creating and sharing songs, and enjoys singing with a wide variety of music projects - Eastern European and Yiddish song, old-time music, community song-leading... and everything in between. Sarina has traveled around the world to study with master folk singers, and has toured with the traveling ensemble Northern Harmony abroad and in the USA.  She has a passion for connecting people with their own creativity and with community, and uses singing to help folks develop a sense of wonder for this wild world around us. Let’s sing!
Sarina performs and teaches with several music projects/ensembles (Heartwood, Nanilo) and as a solo artist and educator; teaches at music camps (Village Harmony, Songroots, Folklore Village); and leads regular community sings and workshops in and around Minneapolis.

Sharing Info: When sharing in a money-making venture, like a workshop, class, or performance, please contact Sarina for permission and rates.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:05:34
Start time of reprise: 01:30:39

Links:
Sarina's website: SarinaPartridge.com
Sarina's Patreon: patreon.com/sarinapartridge
Sarina's Bandcamp: sarinapartridge.bandcamp.com
Heartwood's UK tour in March: https://www.heartwoodtrio.com/upcoming 
SongWeavers retreat: https://www.singwaldorf.org/songweavers 
Village Harmony: https://www.villageharmony.org/ 
ABS episode with Kate Valentine: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/130-ride-the-storm-with-guest-kate-valentine 
Mariah Carey: https://mariahcarey.com/
Bad Posture Club: https://badpostureclub.net/ 

Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, major, 3 layer

Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:
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Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.
https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html
2 Comments

9/18/2024 0 Comments

161. Good Friend

« PreviousNext »
Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:47
Start time of reprise: 00:16:25

​Lyrics:

Oh the wind, it is a song
​that harbours through the winter,
Oh the sail, it is a door
that bids the song to enter,

And let us sail the sea, good friend,
And let us sing together,
The singer lasts a season long,
While the song, it lasts forever.
Picture
Song: Good Friend
Music by: Jan Harmon

Notes: Both harbor and freedom, connection and release, seasons and timelessness. Jan Harmon's song, written in 1985, has generous space for harmonies, and impels us singers forward, as though we were the sail catching the wind. I love the feeling of holding and letting go as I sing this song -- it helps me grieve, helps rejoice, helps me open, helps me curl up... I wonder what you will experience as you sing it with me?

Songwriter Info: Jan Harmon (1940-1993) was a published poet, a writer of short stories and biographical non-fiction, as well as a prolific composer of choral music, topical songs, ballads, rounds, musicals, and instrumental pieces. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan and lived in many places from southern California to Maine.

Sharing Info: When sharing in a money-making venture, like a workshop, class, or performance, please contact Scott at Harmon Publishing for permission and rates: https://harmonpublishing.com/contact.php

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:47
Start time of reprise: 00:16:25

Links:
Song info on the Harmon Publishing website (including a sheet music PDF): https://www.harmonpublishing.com/jan/music/library/good-friend

Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, minor, round

Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:
https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share

Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.
https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html
0 Comments

2/14/2024 2 Comments

135. What Would it Take with Guest Meg O'Dell Chittenden

« PreviousNext »
Song: What Would It Take
Music:
Meg O'Dell Chittenden
Lyrics:

What would it take to let yourself
Fall, fall in love with life completely
What is the place that softly calls you
Home, home, back to yourself so ease-fully

All of these days are made of what we sow
Gather in and then let go
Beneath these waves of joy and grief and woe
The sea moves deep and slow


Picture
Notes: Meg tells us where she goes "to integrate, to reorient around what matters most to me, and connect with the world around me and that sense of source within myself." We talk about "the good, the beautiful, and the true," and she doesn't shy away from the awkward questions I have about those words in today's world. Meg and her two children, Clancy and Celia, teach us "What Would It Take?" with its intertwining harmonies, and then later we talk about the experience of singing in harmonies and how it connects to boundarys and group awareness. Meg says, “My pathway with the voice…is about repeatedly coming back into connection with myself…and the possibility of joy.”

Songwriter Info: Meg loves helping people access their innate capacity for healing, connection, and joy. She is a somatic coach, supporting individuals and couples in growth, transformation, and healing. Because she's always found the voice, and especially singing in harmony with others, to be a particularly powerful pathway for connection with ourselves and the world around us, she delights in serving as a music teacher, song leader, and vocal mentor. She hosts an annual adult and family singing retreat on the coast of Maine called SongWeavers. In addition, Meg is an Adjunct Professor for Antioch University's Graduate Program for Waldorf Teachers and for the Center for Anthroposophy's Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program. Her sources of inspiration include the small, misty mountain that overlooks her home and singing with her children, Clancy and Celia.

Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share but Meg always welcome financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved.

Links: People of the Dawnland, Wabanaki confederacy and Penobscot people: https://matlt.org/wabanaki-people-of-the-dawnland/
Spell Songs: The Lost Words: https://www.thelostwords.org/spell-songs/
The Spell Songs: Blessing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUBBF99UNkQ
Blue Hill Mountain: https://bluehillheritagetrust.org/blue-hill-mountain/
SongWeavers of Maine: https://www.singwaldorf.org
Antioch University, Masters for Waldorf Teachers: https://www.antioch.edu/academics/education/waldorf-education-med/
Heidi Wilson: https://heidiannwilson.com/
Sarina Partridge: https://sarinapartridge.com/
Nicholas Williams: https://www.kehlerwilliams.com/about
Bennett Konesni: https://www.duckbackfarm.com/
Bagaduce Music lending Library: https://www.bagaducemusic.org/
Waldorf Education: https://www.waldorfeducation.org/waldorf-education
Meg’s Somatic Coaching: https://www.singwaldorf.org/work-with-meg
Tinder Hearth pizza restaurant: https://www.tinderhearth.com/
Joni Mitchell - Blue: https://jonimitchell.com/music/album.cfm?id=5
Kongero- Swedish Folk'appella group: https://kongero.se/

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:45
Start time of song after teaching: 00:34:56

Start time of reprise: 01:16:40

Nuts & Bolts: 6:8, minor, 3-part harmony

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2 Comments

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All original art by Patty Piotrowski,
pocket song singer
Logo by Patricia Norton,
aided and abetted by Hannah Gross
All text content (except quotes)
created by Patricia Norton
​©2024 Juneberry Music, LLC

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