Tags

  • Published on

    175. One Foot/Lead with Love with guest Melanie DeMore

    2:2 3 Layer Determination Hope Journey Love Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Call & Response Song Form: Verse & Chorus Songwriter Conversation Uptempo
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:56
    Start time of reprise: 01:12:05
    Lyrics:

    Chorus: 
    You gotta put one foot in front of the other,
    and lead with love, put
    one foot in front of the other, and lead with love.
    (2x)

    Verses (call and echo)
    1. Don't give up hope,
    you're not alone!
    Don't you give up --
    keep moving on.

    2. Lift up your eyes,
    don't you despair!
    Look up ahead;
    the path is there.

    3. I know you're scared
    and I'm scared, too!
    But here I am
    right next to you.
    Picture
    Song: One Foot/Lead with Love
    Music by: Melanie DeMore

    Notes: Melanie DeMore both entrances and intimidates people -- she is direct, funny, a fabulous story-teller, and fierce and broad in her love. I have to apologize to listeners for the sound quality of this interview -- we had some microphone glitches on both sides that means despite the best sound studio wizardry I could come up with, there's some distortion, and it's not the usual quality of sound. But the quality of content -- where it counts -- is top-notch. Melanie shares One Foot/Lead with Love, including the story of what sparked its creation. She talks about her family, and how the wisdom and experiences of her parents shaped the way she approaches people who hold different world views. We talk about coyotes, kids, accolades, how she takes care of herself on tour as a "4-star, card-carrying introvert". She sends us out with a charge: “Here’s what you need to do, people out there: keep your head up. Keep your heart wide open. Remember to breathe, and keep doing the work. Sing on.”

    Songwriter Info: Melanie DeMore is a 3 time Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director, and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together. In her presentations, DeMore beautifully brings her participants together through her music and commentary. DeMore facilitates vocal and stick-pounding workshops for professional choirs, and community groups as well as directing numerous choral organizations across the U.S, Canada, and beyond. She is a featured presenter of SpeakOut!-The Institute for Social and Cultural Change, the Master Teaching Artist for Music at UC Berkeley/CalPerformances; works with everyone from Baptists to Buddhists, and was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated ensemble Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. She is Music Director for Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks and will be touring with the company to South Africa. She is a charter member of Threshold Choir founded by Kate Munger, a mentor to the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. In her own words: "A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you."

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

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:56
    Start time of reprise: 01:12:05

    Links:
    Lady of Peace – written by Melanie for her mom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Clq6DHpNA 
    Threshold Choir: https://thresholdchoir.org/ 
    Children’s Music Network: https://childrensmusic.org/ 
    Bessie Jones: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1BUnRZrkCS0NoTiXefkW6U 
    Ella Jenkins: https://ellajenkins.com/ 
    Oakland Youth Chorus: https://www.oigc.org/oyc 
    Obeah Opera (South African/Toronto) – about Tituba: https://obeahopera.com/ 
    All One Tribe collective album: https://open.spotify.com/album/1EEVSonqRIjEB0DapNIRs8 
    Melanie's GoFundMe for a home in Taos, NM: https://gofund.me/6be198cb 
    Taos pueblo – Tewa people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tewa 
    Bebe & Cece Winans – gospel singers: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3WNUkxJcJeliFx9KXWXMgs 
    John Lewis: https://civilrightstrail.com/experience/rep-john-lewis/ 
    Margaret Nes - visual artist: https://www.ventanafineart.com/margaret-nes 
    Something Moving by Mary Watkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3RTzI4-j64 
    Whirimako Black: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dzCFvKwiJQ4w9ViwLzs49 
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.demore/ 
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/butchyg3/ 
    Melanie's email: melaniedemore(at)earthlink.net

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, major, call & echo, chorus & verse, 3-part harmony on chorus

    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
  • Published on

    174. Standing Stone

    3 Layer Calm Friendship Grieve Love Mantra Safe Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:49
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:30
    Lyrics

    I will be your standing stone.
    I will stand by you.
    Picture
    Song: Standing Stone
    Music by: Melanie DeMore

    Notes: Melanie DeMore is a powerful community shaper and healer who brings warmth and creative delight to her work with people of all stripes. Standing Stone was my introduction to her songs, and like many people, I have a personal history with it. In 2019, I became a long-term sub in a middle school & high school for a beloved choral teacher who had left to tend to her dying sister. The kids were grieving and suspicious. I brought this song to them so we could make a video to send their teacher to support her. The recognition of their capacity to be a source of strength was a game changer; this song unified us. In next week's episode, Melanie talks about what supports her, what she learned from her family, and more. I hope you can join us.

    Songwriter Info: Melanie DeMore is a 3-time Grammy-nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director, and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together. In her presentations, DeMore beautifully brings her participants together through her music and commentary. DeMore facilitates vocal and stick-pounding workshops for professional choirs, and community groups as well as directing numerous choral organizations across the U.S, Canada, and beyond. She is a featured presenter of SpeakOut!-The Institute for Social and Cultural Change, the Master Teaching Artist for Music at UC Berkeley/CalPerformances; works with everyone from Baptists to Buddhists, and was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated ensemble Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. She is Music Director for Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks and will be touring with the company to South Africa. She is a charter member of Threshold Choir founded by Kate Munger, a mentor to the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. In her own words: “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you.”

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

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:49
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:30

    Links:
    Help Melanie find a place to call her own in Taos, New Mexico: https://gofund.me/6be198cb
    A great interview with Melanie about being a vocal activist: https://chorusamerica.org/article/%25E2%2580%259Ci-use-my-voice-weapon-mass-connection%25E2%2580%259D-interview-melanie-demore

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, 3-part

    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
  • Published on

    172. Don't Go Putting the World on Your Shoulders

    2:2 Friendship Hope Love Rest Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Verse & Chorus Tend Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:42
    Start time of reprise: 00:13:29
    Lyrics:

    1. Don't go putting the world on your shoulders (3x)
    You don't have to do this alone.

     Chorus:
     Alone (alone), alone (alone),
    You don't have to do this alone.
    Alone (alone), alone (alone),
    You don't have to do this alone.

    2. Come with me and we'll do this together...
    3. I'll cook dinner and you wash the dishes...
    4. Take a nap and come back tomorrow...
    Picture
    Song: Don't Go Putting the World on Your Shoulders
    Music by: Will Lawrence and Erin Bridges

    Notes: December in the north is such a great time for me to dig a little deeper -- finding mini-rests, sometimes even by taking an extra breath before I go do the next thing. I love that this song reminds me to lean on other people, too... to widen my base, to remember my connections. The irony of recording this (alone, in my basement!) was not lost on me!!! So I hope you sing extra vigorously along with me, and share this song widely -- I have been loving singing it with my Flow Singers this month, and we are really feeling that "take a nap" verse, I tell you!

    Songwriter Info: William Lawrence is an organizer and social movement strategist from Lansing, Michigan. He was a co-founder of Sunrise Movement. He is currently the Coordinator of the MI Rent Is Too Damn High coalition, fighting for rent control, tenants rights and social housing in the Great Lakes State. Erin Bridges was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where she now lives with her dog and queer family in a big turquoise house. Like many southerners, she grew up with a love for shared meals, music sung in fellowship, pies made from the garden, and a close relationship to earth. Erin's work is rooted in building a world where everyone can access these simple pleasures. In 2017, she co-founded Sunrise, a youth movement that launched the Green New Deal, and more recently launched Hollerin' Up, aiming to fund people-powered teams for the long haul.

    Sharing Info: Erin and Will are happy for this song to be shared far and wide, attributed to the two of them!

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:42
    Start time of reprise: 00:13:29

    Links:
    Sunrise Movement: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/about/
    Sunrise Movement songbook: https://drive.google.com/file/d/120wccqh6jdV-Cb1gCZgxtuE7ELnYPUXL/view?usp=sharing which includes a beautiful acknowledgment of the complexity of oral songsharing without appropriation

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, major, verse & chorus

    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
  • Published on

    168. The Net

    12:8 Boundaries Change Flex Flow Mantra Motion Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Layer Trust Water
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:08
    Start time of reprise: 00:20:00
    Lyrics:
    (inspired by Sri Nisargadatta)

    The net that I thought
    was holding me,
    it is full of holes, full of holes.
    The net that I thought
    was holding me,
    it is full of holes!
    The net that I thought
    was holding me tight –
    it is not a big barrier,
    I can get by it.
    The net that I thought
    was holding me,
    it is Full. Of. Holes.

    There is a ground of truth
    beyond the net!
    (a gazillion times)

    Like the water,
    I’m falling free.     (4x)
    Picture
    Song: The Net
    Music by: Patricia Norton

    Notes: The Hindu teacher, Sri Nisargadatta, said, "The real world is beyond our thoughts and ideas; we see it through the net of our desires... To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes." I began singing this song to myself in the summer of '24, reminding me that what I thought was an immutable barrier might actually be a net of holes, and if I found fluidity, I could slip right by it. As events unfolded, the song grew and took on layers of meaning for me. What if the net were my safety net, and I felt myself slipping through? Can I be at peace with recognizing that there is no safety, no guarantee -- but there is a truth grounded beyond all of my desires, and like water, I can fall down through to that. Patty gave us a beautiful visual of the freedom in that fall... this song has been a great resource to me.

    Songwriter Info: Patricia is excited to be developing an in-person community program called Flow Singing in Burlington, Vermont. You can find more details about that at the Juneberry Music site. Patricia believes in singing as a resource for vibrant well-being, experiencing wholeness, courage, connection and joy along with brokenness, fear, loneliness, and despair... the whole messy catastrophe. She lives with her long-time beloved husband, Tom, in a small townhouse close to their daughter's family (the better to play with their granddaughter!) Patricia reads widely, and also spends time exploring the natural world on these Abenaki lands, knitting, and reluctantly strength-training.

    Sharing Info: The song is free to share in the oral tradition; please contribute to A Breath of Song as a fair exchange if you are earning money at an event using this song.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:08
    Start time of reprise: 00:20:00

    Links:
    Patricia's website: https://www.juneberrymusic.com

    Nuts & Bolts: 12:8, major, 3-part with harmonies

    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
  • Published on

    165. Heaven Above, Earth Below with guest Becky Graber

    4:4 Beauty Earth Heal Heart Journey Light Prayer Scale: Ionian (Major) Sky Song Form: Verse And Layer Songwriter Conversation Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:04:58
    Start time of reprise: 01:15:20
    Lyrics:

    ​Heaven above, Earth below,
    And I the path between,
    Making my way through fields of ever rolling green,
    Making my way through fields of ever rolling green.

    Heaven above, Earth below,
    And in between am I,
    Finding a path with heart and spirit, earth and sky,
    Finding a path with heart and spirit, earth and sky.

    Ah dah dah, ah dah dah, ah dah dah dah.
    Ah dah dah, ah dah dah, ah dah dah, Ah.

    Heaven above, Earth below,
    And I the two reveal,
    Shining through me the light of Spirit that can heal,
    Shining through me the light of Spirit that can heal.

    Heaven above, Earth below,
    And I the path between.
    Picture
    Song: Heaven Above, Earth Below
    Music by: Becky Graber

    Notes: Becky Graber let her unconscious speak during our conversation, and when I asked what she knows about herself right now, she said, "I am a breath of air on the earth" -- and then laughed a little in surprise and delight. The song she teaches also came from delighted awareness of the place of the body between heaven and earth -- plus a little tai-chi. Becky and I share a wonderfully rambly conversation about shedding old identities and making space, wanting to allow things to bloom rather than push them, and threshold times. We also take a lot of time with this three verse song, including playing with harmonies. You'll hear me making mistakes as I learn and play with harmonies -- but hopefully you won't notice it too much, because you'll be singing right along, too! The goal of this podcast is to encourage you to keep stepping into the power and beauty of your own voice, something Becky Graber has many years of experience at helping people do...

    Songwriter Info: Becky Graber has lived her life professionally centered around music and storytelling, teaching and performing, and a heart-drive towards healing and coming to centered generosity. She is the founder and director of the Brattleboro (VT) Women's Chorus.

    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: 00:04:58
    Start time of reprise: 01:15:20

    Links:
    Becky's website: www.beckygraber.com
    Brattleboro Women's Chorus website: www.brattleborowomenschorus.org 
    Psychospiritual paths like psychosynthesis – Roberto Assagioli: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosynthesis 
    The Diamond Approach – H.M. Almaas: https://www.diamondapproach.org/ 
    Helen Yeomans: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/156-we-got-all-the-love
    Natural Voices Network: https://www.naturalvoice.net/ 
    Lisa Littlebird’s library: https://thebirdsings.com/song-library/ 
    Velma Frye: https://www.velmafryemusic.com/ 
    Song “Take Heart, Take Part, with lyrics “Participation is gonna save the human race” – Pete Seeger quote set by Becky Reardon: https://beckyreardonmusic.com/product/take-heart-take-part/
    “Spes” by Mia Makaroff – Latin & Sami: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKeikhsVynM 
    Gaia Music Collective in NYC: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/gaia-music-collective-44369305153 
    Choir! Choir! Choir!: https://choirchoirchoir.com/
    Gareth Malone with “The Choir” on BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008y125 
    Ry Cooder “Jazz” album with red cover and black letters: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Z6RuwMcmDMgBJsZ01Ouhf 
    Buena Vista Social Club: https://www.buenavistasocialclub.com/ 
    Bobby McFerrin: https://bobbymcferrin.com/ 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Major (Ionian), 3 verses

    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
  • Published on

    164. Fly Away

    4:4 Change Earth Heart Light Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:00
    Start time of reprise: 00:16:44

    ​Lyrics:

    I feel the cold closing in,
    I see the colors light up the sky,
    I feel the part of my heart
    that's here with you.

    I want-a fly away, away,
    I want-a fly away from here.

    Give me something I can believe in     (3x)
    here on this Earth.

    Let the light shine.     (2x)
    Picture
    Song: Fly Away
    Music by: Becky Graber

    Notes: Becky Graber really captured that feeling I get sometimes when I'm so uncomfortable, I want to simply fly away... when you are seeking something that feels trustworthy, and it feels elusive. I taught this in an unusual way for A Breath of Song, using solfege to identify the very different ranges of each of the four parts... you may find that useful, or not -- let go of anything doesn't serve you! Next week, Becky and I get to dig into a conversation with both of us here in my basement workspace... newsletter subscribers will see the pairsie (what do you really call a selfie with two?) As a songleader who started a chorus that has felt like mutual nourishment for almost 30 years, Becky has a perspective on group singing that is unique, and I really enjoyed exploring this experience with her.

    Songwriter Info: Becky Graber has lived her life professionally centered around music and storytelling, teaching and performing, and a heart-drive towards healing and coming to centered generosity. She is the founder and director of the Brattleboro (VT) Women's Chorus.

    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: 00:03:00
    Start time of reprise: 00:16:44

    Links:
    Becky's website: www.beckygraber.com
    Brattleboro Women's Chorus website: www.brattleborowomenschorus.org 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Major (Ionian), 4 part layer

    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