Tags

  • Published on

    73. Love Flows In

    2:2 Be Present Calm Flow Heal Lullaby Release Rest Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Tend
    Song: Love Flows In
    Words & Music​: Roberta Kirn
    Lyrics
    Take a moment to quiet the mind,
    to settle down deep in the body.
    Love flows in, love flows in, love flows in.
    Like the waves, like the tide, like the everlasting spring,
    love flows in.
    Picture
    Notes: I love that after I sing this a few times, I begin to feel more fluid inside -- as though everything under my skin is softening into a tidal pulse of flow. It's a beautiful song to sing with a drone... the words "the mind", or the "in" from "flows in" join the drone note -- a way of subverting any annoying repeated note into becoming accompaniment for your singing. This podcast isn't about me producing a polished recording -- it's about you singing, you playing, and you having a new song that you can invite into your life... and knowing that hundreds of other people are singing this song, too. Maybe they're on the melody, or the harmony, or maybe they're experimenting like I did today? And when they finish singing, everyone may feel different than when they started to sing... a little more settled, a little more flow, a little more love?

    Songwriter Info: Roberta Kirn is a song leader, percussionist, and dancer who has been living, working, and raising a family on the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts since 1989. She is the founder of BeWellSing and The Song Exchange Project, through which she brings singing in community to as many people as she can. Inspired by the teaching of Dr Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Roberta has been leading community singing for over 25 years. She believes, and has experienced, that singing together brings us into deeper connection with ourselves and each other. Raising our voices, having a communal experience of rhythm, melody, and harmony is a deeply healing experience that can be shared across age, gender, race, class, and culture.

    Links: 
    Roberta's Website: https://www.bewellsing.com

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:35
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:13

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, Major, harmonized
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
  • Published on

    72. Unknown (Finding Home)

    2:2 Accept Be Present Change Flex Flow Grieve Hope Release Ribbon Scale: Dorian Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Layer Trust
    Song: Unknown (Finding Home)
    Words & Music​ by Anni Zylstra
    Lyrics

    ​Finding home
    in all that is unknown.
    Release
    ​what is gone.
    Picture
    Notes: This song, about settling into the unknown and experiencing that as home, is one that has been singing in my head throughout this last year of transition for me. The delight of letting my voice slide helps me physically experience the release, and the complex harmonies keep my sense of focus and unsettledness... as though I'm practicing finding that home in the middle of the unknown. I think this is a great song for becoming very aware of how your voice feels in your body as you sing, because you'll get used to the words fairly quickly -- and then you can shift the focus to the sensations as you sing. (A sneaky form of somatic meditation, but you don't need to notice that, unless you want to!)

    Songwriter Info: (Snitched directly from Anni's website) Anni Zylstra (she/they) is a folk singer, basketmaker, farmer, and weaver of community based in the traditional homelands of the Oceti Sakowin and Ho-chunk in SW so-called Wisconsin. She has been teaching, writing, and collecting new and old polyphonic songs in the aural tradition for a decade. In the spirit of folk, they believe that everyone can sing, and that using our voices to make beauty together is one of most pleasurable, accessible, and world building activities people can do together. Anni's facilitation is rooted in anticapitalist values, play, a queer nature-based lens, and more than a decade of classical musical training, ethnomusicology, and community leadership. They currently farm on the West Fork of the Kickapoo River, where they grow basket willow, perennial food crops, raise ducks, host events and classes folk education style, and lead Ember, a community choir that sings Balkan, Georgian, and polyphonic English music in La Farge, WI.

    Links: 
    Heartland Harmony | Singing for Joy and Connection
    Here is a 45-minute interview with Annie, hosted by Kate Valentine of Singing Mama's choirs, all about song writing and sharing. Meet Annie Zylstra - Choir composer extraordinaire! - YouTube
    @zestinferna -- Anni on Instagram

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:15
    Start time of reprise: 00:13:24

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, Dorian, harmonized paired melodies
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
  • Published on

    70. As I Relax with guest Lyndsey Scott

    2:2 Be Present Celebrate Change Empower Flex Flow Generosity Grow Hope Open Release Scale: Minor Song Form: Layer Songwriter Conversation Trust
    Song: As I Relax
    Words & Music: Lyndsey Scott
    Lyrics
    ​As I relax, I know my needs are met, And I live my life in joyous anticipation
    This draws in what I most desire, So I can live my life in full-on participation

    I'm alive to the life in me; I'm alive to the Mystery; ready ready ready ready; Grow!

    I let it happen to me; I let it happen through me; I'm molting -- unfolding -- Open

    I can feel the future calling, drawing, dreaming, pulling me towards it.  I'm letting this Be
    Picture
    Notes: I've shared this song with my pocket song singers online group, meaning I was live-looping it... and the layers are intricate! The different lines interweave closely, creating a dense, beautiful texture. Lyndsey and I enjoy our conversation -- hear her talk about dropping root to choose what to do in the morning and set an intention, about how grief can be a healer, and wealth of teachers and mentors she draws on. Learn which voices still niggle at her, even with all the wisdom she has steeped herself in, and how she includes and cares for those parts, too. When we recorded this, I was in a particularly fragile place, feeling a little unmoored -- I felt better after this time spent talking and singing... more connected, more hopeful. As usual, I left with more questions than I started with... but it feels like a big door has opened and is welcoming me through. Following the links will keep me learning for a good long time!

    Songwriter Info: Lyndsey Scott is an artist-goofball-yintennae devoted to priestesSing the Heartland, (literal and figurative).  She weaves community singing to empower earth-based spiritual consciousness, and gathers soul circles that, through Song and sacred listening, decompose oppressive scripts that get in the way of freely living the Love we are. With jams that get you skipping easily between the sacred, sexy, and sssssilly : your inner child, exiled banshee, and wise elder are all very invited to the circle. 

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:06:40
    Start time of reprise: 01:14:35​​

    Links: Are you ready??? Lyndsey had so many resources to share, so this is the longest set of links yet!

    Let's start with links for Lyndsey and As I Relax:
    The song is free to share but Lyndsey always welcomes financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved.
    ​    Lyndsey's website: lyndseyscott.earth
    Everything Lyndsey! https://linktr.ee/lila.gaia
    We Belong Community of Song: https://www.facebook.com/webelongcommunityofsong
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lyndseyscott
    Lyndsey's album on Bandcamp: https://lyndseyscott.bandcamp.com/album/well-held

    And now links to things that came up during the conversation -- starting with some of the quotations.

    “He who sings, prays twice.” ― St. Augustine
    “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ― E. B. White
    “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman

    Orland Bishop: Orland Bishop (presswarehouse.com)
    adrienne maree brown: adrienne maree brown – 'The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.' – camus…documenting my liberation
    San Francisco mural by Susan O’Malley: SusanOMalley_Mural_2009-2048x1536.jpg (2048×1536) (rootdivision.org)
    ​Starhawk, “The Fifth Sacred Thing” The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk « Starhawk's Website
    Marianne Williamson: Marianne Williamson – #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author
    A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume: Foundation For Inner Peace: 8601421955508: Amazon.com: Books
    Shireen Amini: Shireen Amini Music Medicine and Shireen Amini
    Shelley Tochluk: Living in the Tension & Workshop Series (shellytochluk.com)
    Emerald Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/jm/podcast/how-trance-states-shape-the-world/id1465445746?i=1000512752303
    Chubby Cree: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbTonaZJL2d/
    Laurence Cole: Can’t Do It Wrong / My Life Is So Cuckoo — Laurence Cole
    Love Poems from God, translated by Daniel Ladinsky: Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West (Compass) - Stillness Speaks
    Grace Lee Boggs: Grace Lee Boggs - Wikipedia
    Malidoma Somé and grief ritual: Dr. Malidoma Somé, Phd. | The Legacy of Elder Malidoma Somé
    Sibomfu Somé and grief ritual: http://www.sobonfu.com/  Embracing Grief | Sobonfu Somé
    Enneagrams – here’s one summary set: Integrative Enneagram Solutions (integrative9.com)
    Aretha movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkKOIQwTiKE
    Characteristics of White Supremacy by Tema Okun: Microsoft Word - Okun - white sup culture.doc (whitesupremacyculture.info)
    Francis Weller/ five gates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBfagOEkMi4   Home (francisweller.net)
    Liz Rog/Center for Belonging:  https://www.centerforbelonging.earth/
    Earthkeeper Wisdom School: https://www.earthkeeperwisdomschool.com/
    Grief to Action: https://www.holisticresistance.com/grief
    Influential album: MC HAMMER - Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em - Amazon.com Music
    Lynn O'Brien: https://www.lynnobrien.love/
    Artist Lyndsey wishes more people listened to: Briony Greenhill. Album: https://www.brionygreenhill.com/crossing-the-ocean

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, Minor; 4 layers, one echoed/harmonized
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
  • Published on

    68. Share the Journey

    4:4 Accept Be Present Change Dawn Empower Friendship Gather Grieve Hope Journey Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Trust
    Song: Share the Journey
    Words & Music: Katie Sontag
    Lyrics
    As the dark fades away, here it comes, a brand-new, new day.
    As it leaves, we watch it go, all we learned, all we need to know.
    I believe we will survive. I believe this is our time.
    ​I believe we are alive to share the journey, to share the journey.
    Picture
    Notes: For most of these episodes, I pick the song many months in advance, because what with artwork & permissions, not to mention my own anxiety levels(!), it helps to have things lined up before.... which sometimes means I haven't listened to the song much until I'm ready to record. Then I wonder -- will I still love it? Will I still want to learn and spend time with it, or was it a temporary infatuation? I can tell you unequivocally, I loved coming back to this song! Katie Sontag's "Share the Journey" felt like reconnecting with a wise, deeply beloved friend who loves me back.., you know that feeling of mutual warmth and trust that you can relax into, and at the same time feel empowered and energized by? Ahhhh.

    Songwriter Info: Katie Sontag writes songs that are honest and vulnerable for her own healing and transformation and seeks to inspire the same in others. Based in Eugene, OR, but working on touring the world, Katie's songs will touch your heart and leave you feeling better then when you came. Listening to her music has been described as receiving "a big hug". She is also the lead vocalist and songwriter for her band, "Katie Sontag and the Love Notes" and half of the duo, "smalltime". She is a group song leader and aspiring choral director. Her songs have been adapted for choirs in Portland, Boulder, Austin, and Big Sur.

    ​Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:52
    Start time of reprise: 00:20:39

    Links: 
    Website: katiesontag.com
    email for contact: katharine.sontag@gmail.com
    Patreon: patreon.com/katiesontag
    Facebook: facebook.com/katiesontagmusickatiesontag.com
    Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/katiesontag
    Bandcamp:     https://katiesontag.bandcamp.com/
    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KatieSontag
    Spotify    : https://open.spotify.com/artist/17B4xx4loeNl48GXD6oyBB?si=9p7YgO6FQQ6s-WjBS1VhOg&nd=1

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Major, 3-part harmony
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
  • Published on

    64. Mourning Dove

    4:4 Be Grateful Be Present Calm Grieve Notice Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Unison Trust
    Song: Mourning Dove
    Words & Music​ by Wendy Luella Perkins,
    ©2020 Wendy Luella Perkins
    Lyrics
    i awoke to the coos of a mourning dove
    a mourning dove
    a mourning dove
    and her sad, sweet song drifted down from above
    drifted down from above
    drifted down from above​
    Picture
    Notes: This poignant song by Wendy Luella Perkins comes from early on in the pandemic -- a time of fear and grieving -- yet also, in the early mornings, the streets were so unusually quiet in the cities that birdsong was clearly audible.  You'll be able to hear the echo of a dove call in the melody, which I teach with extra care so you can feel comfortable and relaxed singing it. This song helps me notice what I'm hearing around me -- and when I notice the sounds around me, I drop into the present micro-second, where all is well. In the next episode, there's a songwriter conversation with Wendy Luella, which includes not one, not two, but four songs that can be personal assistants as we heal, adapt, and grow.

    Songwriter Info: Wendy Luella Perkins has been singing and making up songs since she was a very young child. When she was three years old, her older brother, Tim, took her to school as his Show+Tell item saying “this is my sister Wendy Lu, listen to her sing!” She's been going strong ever since. As a singer-songwriter, Unitarian Universalist community minister, and founder, in 2002 of Soulful Singing (singing meditation for all) Wendy Luella leverages the power of song to build authentic, healing and joyful communities.

    A prolific writer of folk songs and meditative chants and supportive guide who helps others to create their own songs, Wendy Luella's greatest joy is to bring friends and strangers together in the transformational circle of song. Wendy Luella has produced three CDs of original music, which you can find on her website. As a response to pandemic restrictions, and recognizing the need to keep on singing in community, especially in difficult times, Wendy Luella transitioned Soulful Singing to online sessions in March 2020. Soulful Singers from all over have been gathering online EVERY SINGLE DAY since then and once a week on THURSDAY evenings.
    ​
    Everyone is welcome to join Soulful Singing via Zoom. Singing daily over the last 875+ days with wonderful folks from Kingston and around the world has encouraged Wendy Luella to share her original songs more broadly in what she calls her “Song Liberation Project” (The SLiP). She has written hundreds of songs and with The SLiP is sharing them one by one on TikTok. Wendy Luella grew up in rural Nova Scotia, and has lived in Kingston Ontario for over 25 years with her sweetheart and fellow musician, Charlie Walker. She loves waking early, walking daily, eating communally, crafting publicly, sharing deeply, gardening bountifully, laughing abundantly and of course, singing soulfully!

    Links: 
    Wendy Luella's website: https://www.wendyluellaperkins.com
    andtiktok page: https://www.tiktok.com/@wendyluellaperkins
    To email Wendy Luella: info@wendyluellaperkins.com

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4; Ionian (major), unison, harmonized

    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
  • Published on

    63. Awaken Me

    4:4 Be Present Celebrate Grow Notice Open Scale: Mixolydian Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Layer Song Form: Verse & Chorus
    Song: Awaken Me
    Words & Music​ by Abigail Spinner McBride
    Lyrics
    1. Open my eyes to the miracles around me,
    wake me up, wake me up.
    (2x)
    2. Shake me from my sleep and stir me from my dreaming.
    wake me up, wake me up.
    (2x)
    ​
    Chorus: Awaken me. (4x)
    Picture
    Notes: Abigail Spinner McBride has one of those stories -- a choir director once told her, "Don't sing, honey, because no one wants to hear your voice." This year she was chosen as Best Female Vocalist of the Year 2022 at the International Pagan Music Awards. I love me a story that says that though we may have had messages like that in the past -- interactions that shut us down either with dismissal or by sky-high expectations -- those messages say nothing real about us or our potential. Our excitement can be to wake to our own voices, come out of a dream state and notice what is actually real, around us, right now. I love this song for its high energy of opening and possibility.

    Songwriter Info: Abigail Spinner McBride has been creating pagan chants in the Earth-Spirit community since the late 1980s and is deeply involved in transformation and transmutation work through drumming, chanting, fire circles, and magic. She is a High Priestess of the Family of Fire, a musician, dancer, and massage therapist, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:08
    Start time of reprise: 00:13:45​

    Links: 
    Fire of Creation album (with Awaken Me) on Apple Music (2007)
    ​Abigail's facebook page (you don't have to be a Facebook member to look at this)
    The Vegas Vortex: a website of the transformational fire work that Abigail offers

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4; Mixolydian, 2-layer song with harmonies, verse & chorus

    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!