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    21. Song Deep In Your Bones

    3 5 & 6 Mixed Meter Change Flex Gratitude & Trust Grief & Fear Heal Notice Release Ribbon Scale: Mixolydian Song Form: Unison Trust Water
    Song Song Deep In Your Bones
    Words & Music​ by Elise Witt
    ​© Non Si Sa Mai Music ASCAP
    Lyrics
    When you're feeling dry, there's water in the well. (4x)
    ​
    No rain from the sky, just a tear in your eye,
    all alone, far from home, you roam.
    Feeling tired, uninspired, like you're drifting away
    from your heart and the part you play.
    Picture

    Notes: I met creator Elise Witt online during the pandemic, when we were both in a course led by the extraordinary improviser Rhiannon… I was honored, because I already knew of Elise as a composer of unusual choral work that I had explored doing with my community chorus. In fact this piece was conceived as a choral piece, and Elise very generously let me excerpt a bit of it to be a pocket song. I love the way the rhythm wakes me up from an uninspired, tired place -- whenever I sing this, I almost always end up moving somehow. And now that I know Elise a little, I can see why -- her brain is the definition of fertile, and she exudes energy and joyfulness you can almost touch through her little Zoom rectangle. Elise says, "I believe that if we listen deeply, we can hear music in the wind, the water, the earth, and deep in our bones. And no matter how disconnected we get, that music is always there, when we are ready to return and listen."


    Songwriter Info: Elise’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in NC, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. The Elise Witt Choral Series features choral arrangements of her original compositions and she recently published All Singing, a songbook with 58 original songs including music notation, lyrics and chords, stories and photos. In addition to her global touring, Elise serves as Artist-in-Residence & Director of Music Programs at the Global Village Project, a non-profit, special purpose middle school for teenage refugee girls in Decatur Georgia.


    Links:

    www.EliseWitt.com -- Learn more about Elise on her website

    "Song Deep in Your Bones" as recorded by Malcolm Dalglish’s Ooolation Singers in rehearsal at Yosemite National Park

    Live performance by Trumansburg Community Chorus, directed by Alice Ploss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvDt89jsmzM&list=RDZvDt89jsmzM&start_radio=1

    Recorded on "We're All BORN SINGING" EMWorld Records 1012

    Available for SATB, SSAA, TTBB in the Elise Witt Choral Series

    ​Included in ALL SINGING: THE ELISE WITT SONGBOOK


    Song Learning Time Stamps:

    Start time of teaching: 00:02:38

    Start time of reprise: 00:12:47​


    Nuts & Bolts: Mixed Meter (5:8, 3:8, 3:4 or 6:8), Mixolydian mode, and in this teaching, unison.


    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.


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    9. Right Place, Right Time

    2:2 Accept Flex Gratitude & Trust Grow Open Praise & Wonder Protection & Presence Release Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Trust Water
    Song Right Place, Right Time
    Words & Music by Samara Jade
    Lyrics

    1. I believe that I’m in the right place at the right time
    This wave is crashing down and it’s the one for me to ride

    2. Crazy world, crazy times
    Gonna let go of what oughtta be
    And hang on for the ride
    ​
    3. Ebb and Flow
    Rising Falling

    Picture
    Notes Lisa Littlebird shared that Samara wrote this in the Big Sur, after her first surfing lesson, and said it was a personal cure for FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). During the pandemic, I heard it differently, and it became my go-to song for letting go of what I wanted to be happening, and just riding the crazy times.

    Click here to listen to (and sing along with?) Samara Jade and Acorn Kin singing Right Place, Right Time.

    Songwriter Info A modern folk troubadour, Samara is dedicated to the art of listening deeply and crafting soul-centered songs that are medicine for the moment. Inspired greatly by the wild wisdom of nature and the landscape of the human psyche, her songs ride the crest of the unknown and balance between shadows and light.
    Coming from a musical background as diverse as classical, jazz, folk, Broadway musical and progressive rock, Samara stitches together a unique tapestry of sounds with a quality of musicianship distinctly her own. As heart-opening as they are intellect-stimulating, A fan once coined the term "Philosopholk” to describe Samara’s tunes, and no one has ever described it better in a one-word nutshell.
    Samara lived in her van, Vincent VanGo, until very recently, and is committed to sharing her song-beings around like thousands of spiraling maple helicopter seeds - which is, not coincidentally, what a samara is.

    Next week, Episode #10 will feature an extended conversation with Samara in which she shares her song, "I Trust My Roots", with us.
    You can also find her in all these places:

    On Patreon: www.patreon.com/samarajade
    On Bandcamp: https://samarajade.bandcamp.com/
    On her website: www.samarajademusic.com
    On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samarajademusic
    On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WildPamplemousse/videos

    Nuts and Bolts 3-Layer song in 2:2, Ionian (major).

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:49
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:55
    ​
    ​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

    3. Woyaya

    6:8 Accept Calm Empower Flex Gathering & Welcome Grief & Fear Journey Power & Change Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized
    Song Woyaya
    Music Sol Amarifio
    Words Sol Amarifio (title in the Ga language of Ghana)
    ​Composed in 1971
    Lyrics
    We are going, heaven knows where we are going, but we know within.
    And we will get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will.
    It will be hard, we know, and the road will be muddy and rough,
    But we'll get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will.
    Wɔyaya, Wɔyaya, Wɔyaya, Wɔyaya.
    Picture
    Notes You'll hear me playing with different patterns and rhythms under this song... some of which work well right off, and some of which are more... umm... experimental! But we're all about exploring and growing and changing here -- and one of the downfalls of the highly polished recordings we are immersed in is that we forget that in real life, as we sing by ourselves or with each other, some of our experiments sound great, and some turn out to not be ones we want to continue -- heaven knows where we are going! But we'll get there...

    Songwriter info: Sol Amarifio was the Ghanian drummer of the band Osibisa. The band members were African and Caribbean musicians living in London: Teddy Osei, Sol Amarfio, Mac Tontoh, Spartacus R (Roy Bedeau) Wendell Richardson, Robert Bailey, Loughty Lasisi Amao. 
    This song is under copyright, so recordings or performances for profit are subject to copyright restrictions -- please sing freely at home and with family!

    Links: 
    Here's Osibisa with the original.
    Anaïs Mitchell and Kate Stables collaborated on a beautiful cover of this. 

    Nuts and Bolts: Harmonized, in 6:8, Ionian mode (major).

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:10
    Start time of reprise: 00:16:18

    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

    2. Put Your Roots Down

    4:4 Be Grateful Empower Gathering & Welcome Heal Notice Power & Change Protection & Presence Ribbon Scale: Aeolian (minor) Scale: Dorian Song Form: Harmonized
    Song: Put Your Roots Down
    ​Music & Words: Molly Hartwell
    Composed in: unknown
    Lyrics
    Put your roots down, 
    put your feet on the ground,
    can you hear what she says
    when you listen?

    'Cause the sound of river
    as it moves across the stones is the
    same sound as the blood in your body
    as it moves across your bones.

    Are you listening?
    Picture
    Notes: This is a grounding song that's popular in the community singing movement, and in August 2021, I learned from Heather Houston that she had just learned it is a Molly Hartwell original. As a white, European American cis female in my 50s, raised to value formal education, let me tell you, my brain is littered with words like, evaluate, compare, weigh, measure, process, careful…. For me, it can be a real challenge to get out of my head and into my body! But, oh the difference when I do… the connection, the power, the sense of being enough. I love the way this song reminds me of the soles of my feet and to sense the blood rushing through my body. Trillions of cells working together so I move and breathe… and I can just watch and feel all that with amazement.

    Links:   
    Here's the Thrive Choir singing it;
    I learned it in person from Lisa Littlebird, a vital, generous songleader whose course, Flight School, helped me expand my musical world in 2019.
    And here's an update in September 2021: Molly Hartwell shared her own original version in Heather Houston's song library (which is a magical internet spot to learn fabulous songs!).
    Molly also generously gave permission for songleaders to continue sharing the song however it came to them, since the song took on a life of its own after she created it!

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:35
    Start time of reprise: 00:13:04

    Nuts and Bolts: It’s harmonized, in 4:4, Aeolian & Dorian modes (minor with shifting harmonies....)
    ​
    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!