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    213. Breath By Breath

    3:4 Accept Be Present Breathe Calm Flow Grieve Heart Mantra Release Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:22
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:51
    Lyrics:

    Part 1:
    I will allow my heart to be broken
    I will allow this river to flow
    I will allow my soul to be opened
    Breath by breath, steady and slow
    Breath by breath, steady and slow

    Part 2:
    Breath by breath, I grieve you
    Breath by breath, I'll know
    You will always be here
    And I can let you go
    Yes, I will let you go
    Picture
    Song: Breath By Breath
    Music by: Juliana Murphy

    Notes: There is so much joy and delight in the holiday seasons -- and there can also be so much grief and loss. The air is thick with the smells of sugar and memories, we are in contact (or not) with folk with whom we carry long histories, and sometimes it's really hard to show up as we are now. I love this song of Juliana's for the full acceptance of grief: "I will allow my heart to be broken." And I love the way that very allowing unsticks feelings, so they become a river flowing, a soul opening... and I love the way she gives a concrete way to do all this: "breath by breath, steady and slow." This song helps me be wiser about allowing my full self to include my grief -- and reminds me that breath by breath, that grief can be a gentle, soul-opening presence. 

    Songwriter Info: Juliana Murphy (she/they) comes to the circle with a lifelong love of singing and a library of original and collected songs that connect us to ourselves, nature, and the cycles and rhythms of being a human on this planet. She brings a deep desire to sing a more beautiful, inclusive, loving, sustainable, and delightful world into being. Juliana is co-founder of the Monsoon Seed Choir and Chrysalis Choir, co-tends the Tucson Community Song Circle, is a graduate of the Littlebird Songleader Flight School for community songleading and is a member of the Ubuntu Choirs Network.

    Sharing Info: Juliana says: "This song being carries potent medicine for moving grief. It is most supportive when sung within a container of care, both individually and in community. If you plan to perform or record it with the intent to sell, please contact me for permission."

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:22
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:51

    Links:
    Website: https://www.julianamurphy.com/
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/julianamurphy
    Community Singing Offerings: https://www.tucsonsongcircle.com/
    SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jumutx 

    Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, major, 2-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
  • Published on

    206. Breathe Easy

    3:4 Breathe Calm Mantra Release Rest Song Form: Harmonized Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:34
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:16

    ​Lyrics:

    Breathe easy, let it all go
    Rest your body, trust your soul
    To guide your way and keep you whole
    Breathe easy let go
    Picture
    Song: Breathe Easy
    Music by: Karly Loveling

    Notes: When I heard this song of Karly's, I couldn't wait to tease apart the harmonies -- and I find I sing it to myself at odd moments -- its kind, gentle advice lets me release into my own wisdom. What's funny is I came to record it in a bit of a rush, after a rather stressful day and knowing I'd be travelling in the morning, so I really had to get it done... and the breath of song did its thing. As I taught it, my heart eased, my breath deepened, I reconnected to my own wholeness -- and by the end of the episode, I was loathe to stop! I'll be curious to know if your body responds the same way?

    Songwriter Info: Karly Loveling is a seasoned songleader, songwriter, and permissionary of heartfelt expression. For over two decades, she has been guiding voices and hearts through community singing, classes, and workshops in Eugene, Oregon and beyond.
    Karly’s journey in Oregon began with a formative chapter at Lost Valley Educational Center, where she immersed herself in personal growth workshops and forged lasting connections. With a background in dance and a degree in the field, she co-founded Coalessence Dance, an ecstatic dance community that continues to thrive, with Becca Perry in 2006.
    Karly’s love for community singing deepened through her many years at Singing Alive, where she led song circles and found inspiration among fellow songleaders from the gathering’s inception through 2023. In 2013, she founded the Hummingbirds Girls Choir, whose joyful harmonies became a beloved feature at the Eugene Saturday Market, Holiday Market, and the Oregon Country Fair.
    In 2015, Karly launched Singing Heart, a community singing group, which inspired her to complete the Community Choir Leadership Training in British Columbia the following year. Singing Heart is proud to be part of the Ubuntu Choirs Network, affirming the principle that everyone can sing and that singing builds connection.
    Karly’s often playful, layered, and meaningful original songs are sung by songleaders from Appalachia to Ireland. She currently offers in-person and online classes, leads retreats, and shares her work at community singing gatherings across the country.

    Sharing Info: This song is free to sing, but Karly always welcomes and appreciates financial and networking support.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:34
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:16

    Links:
    Karly's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/KarlyLoveling
    Karly's Bandcamp: https://karlyloveling.bandcamp.com/music
    Singing Heart Harmonies: https://singingheartharmonies.com/
    Karly's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karlyloveling

    Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, melody & 2 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

    198. Loosen

    6:8 Breathe Calm Heal Holy Mantra Pain Release Rest Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Layer Song Form: Round
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:12
    Start time of reprise: 00:16:10
    Lyrics:

    Loosen, loosen, baby
    You don’t have to carry
    The weight of the world in your muscles and bones
    Let go, let go, let go

    Holy breath, and holy name
    Will you ease, will you ease this pain
    Oh holy breath, and holy name, will you ease this pain?
    Picture
    Song: Loosen
    Music by: Aly Halpert

    Notes: Written in 2017, this song by Aly Halpert catapulted its way around songleader circles, shared friend to friend, sung in cars and buses, after dinners, on walks, between dances, around fires, beside rivers and on beaches. I learned it in 2019, and it has accompanied me since through the pandemic, an intense year of many deep losses, over to Europe twice, in groups, with single friends, and alone. Some songs are like sunscreen in summer, a warm coat for winter. You may already know this one; please enjoy singing it with me. It may be new to you -- may it spread wider, carrying its healing, kind reminder to loosen.

    Songwriter Info: Aly Halpert (she/her) is a queer Jewish musician, educator, and activist living on Lenni Lenape land in Philadelphia, PA, USA. A singer, pianist, drummer, and guitar player, Aly writes songs for building community and visioning different worlds. Aly leads music and prayer for Jewish community, including Let My People Sing, Kol Tzedek Synagogue, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, and Hadar's Rising Song Institute. Her songs have been sung in national gatherings, song circles, and quiet moments of personal prayer, and have moved people all over the world. Her first full-band album Loosen was released in April 2022 with Rising Song Records. Aly believes deeply in the power of music to awaken us to the loss and hope we carry, expand our sense of possibility, and connect us to each other and our collective strength.

    Sharing Info: The song is free to share in oral tradition groups. Aly welcomes financial and/or networking support, she would like to be contacted re: recording/performing permissions, and she appreciates donations when used by organizations with means.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:12
    Start time of reprise: 00:16:10

    Links:
    Aly's website: https://www.alyhalpert.com
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/alyhalpertmusic
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alhalpal 
    Loosen with Aly on Bandcamp (great opportunity to support her directly!): https://alyhalpert.bandcamp.com/album/loosen

    Nuts & Bolts: 6:8, minor, 2 layers, optional harmony, optional round

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

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  • Published on

    191. Another World

    4:4 Breathe Calm Change Dreams Future Hope Listen Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Round Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:04:25
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:00

    ​Lyrics:

    Another world 
    is not only possible,
    she is on her way...
    on a quiet day,
    I can hear her breathing.     

    --Arundhati Roy, excerpted from My Seditious Heart, p.204
    Picture
    Song: Another World
    Music by: Patricia Norton
    Lyrics by: Arundhati Roy

    Notes: Hearing these words in 2020 for the first time felt like a gift of possibility. I love the deeper listening they invite. It took five years before they found a melody in my head -- and the reminder of the quote in its entirety, which is, "Another world is not only possible, she's on her way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing." Listening. That's the invitation of this melody, which stacks up into a complicated chord when sung as a round.

    Songwriter Info: You can find out more about me in general here: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/about-patricia.html 
    Or the whole team that puts this podcast out here: https://www.abreathofsong.com/about.html 

    Sharing Info: Please share freely, and consider contributing to the A Breath of Song gratitude jar in reciprocity -- or write a review, leave a comment!

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:04:25
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:00

    Links:
    Flow Singing: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/flow-singing.html
    All of what I'm up to: https://www.juneberrymusic.com
    Kindred Voices Retreat: https://kindredvoicesretreat.com 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, 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
  • Published on

    187. Where Am I Going To?

    3 Layer 4:4 Breathe Flow Journey Motion Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Song Form: Round Uptempo Water
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:19
    Start time of reprise: 00:11:40

    ​Lyrics:

    Where am I going to, what am I walking toward?

    I'm gonna breathe

    Into the flow, flow, flowing.
    Picture
    Song: Where Am I Going To?
    Music by: Patricia Norton

    Notes: I heard adrienne maree brown describe humans as "bags of water" -- humans on average are around 60% water.... like a delta, or the land around a pond or river with its banks, or a bathtub and its water pipes -- we are a way of shaping water -- we are, literally, a flow. This song was born in motion, the kind of walking where the rhythm of your steps and breath becomes the soundscape, and you can release everything else, dropping into the flow.

    Songwriter Info: Patricia loves to walk fast from one spring wildflower to the next -- averages out to a stroll! 

    Sharing Info: Please share freely, and let people know about A Breath of Song when you do.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:19
    Start time of reprise: 00:11:40

    Links:
    Flow Singing: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/flow-singing.html 
    All of what I'm up to: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/ 
    Kindred Voices Retreat: https://kindredvoicesretreat.com 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, round or 3 layers

    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

    183. The Strength Within

    4:4 Be Present Breathe Calm Mantra Notice Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Strength Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:53
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:26
    Lyrics:

    Lowest part:
    Breathe in, breathe out

    Lower part:
    I know that I'm strong enough
    I know I'm strong

    Higher part:
    I feel the strength within
    I feel the strength within

    Highest part:
    Find space within
    Find breath within
    Picture
    Song: The Strength Within
    Music by: Jody Vyner

    Notes: Jody Vyner gives us a song for feeling strength, space, and breath within... and we spend 10 minutes in meditation with it, as I add parts in and out and you find what's right for you today -- stay on one part while the sound changes around you? Shift to new parts as they come? What helps you tap into your own inner strength? I'm a highly distractable meditator, but I can let myself sit inside this song and its harmonies, and when I come out the other side, it feels like the waters have cleared (most days, anyway!)

    Songwriter Info: Jody Vyner works as a psychotherapist and runs Singing Roots - therapeutic singing circles in and around Sussex, UK. Combining her love of singing and song writing with her deep knowledge and experience of psychotherapy, there is always a therapeutic element to her gatherings which can be leant into for a deeply nurturing experience. Her circles are about turning up just as you are and giving yourself the chance to really check in and connect with yourself and be held by the words and the harmonies shared.
    Jody has done many other things in this lifetime; taught French, worked with asylum seekers and refugees, trained as a doula, in antenatal teaching and support, story-telling and face painting! It is her belief that the more experiences and skills she can gather along the way, the more richness and range she can bring to her work. 

    Sharing Info: Jody says: "It is wonderful to know how these songs travel. If you would like to share it in your own choirs/singing groups please contact me at jody@singingroots.uk for information on how to purchase the song and parts."

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:53
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:26

    Links:
    Singing Roots website: www.singingroots.uk 
    Singing Roots Bandcamp: www.singingroots.bandcamp.com 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, 4 parts with first part in 3 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