Friendship - A Breath of Song

Published on: September 20, 2023

118. Listen In

Song: Listen In
Music: Jennie Pearl

Lyrics:

Listen in

Here I am
this is my center
What is mine, What is mine?

We're learning how to reach for each other
may we reach
may we teach

Through the blurred lines,
The pain and confusion,
may we reach
may we teach

Notes: Trying something different here -- lots of space for you to experiment. Jennie Pearl's song was a technique to help her be more open to listening after she had hurt someone -- a way to change her own patterned response to what to do after realizing you've caused harm. I love this song for that chance to change a pattern by intensely listening -- both to myself and the person I've hurt. So I've recorded it with lots of time and space for you discover how it sits in you. If you find you want to rush through it, try singing a harmony, or creating a melody you need to hear to help you stay with it. Eventually, I harmonize it my way and mash everything together -- may feel good to you, or you might like an earlier, more spacious moment? Enjoy listening in...

Songwriter Info: Jennie Pearl (she/her) is a facilitator, singer, and bodyworker who leads from emotion and embodiment in liberation work. She is committed to bridging the gap between racial justice/gender justice and healing work. Alongside her team at Holistic Resistance and Transintimate, she offers a myriad of programming to cultivate ongoing relationships that dream up a more anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and liberatory future.

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

Links: Jennie's Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/Jennie-Pearl-1 -- if you are sharing the song on in a situation where you receive financial compensation, or if you have resources to support Jennie's work in the world, please consider sending support.
Holistic Resistance: https://www.holisticresistance.com/about -- get inspired by what Jennie and others are dreaming!
Reach for Life! Song Playlist: https://thebirdsings.com/reach/ -- with Listen In arranged by Lisa Littlebird

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:04:15
Start time of reprise: 00:18:47

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

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: July 26, 2023

111. Abundant Lughnasadh

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Song: Abundant Lughnasadh
Music: Flora Ware

Lyrics

As summer is waning
the harvests begin
we're breaking bread
with kith and kin

Abundance is ours
if we all share
living in harmony
showing we care

Lughnasadh... Lughnasadh... (repeated)

Notes: Abundance, gratitude -- words that can be so annoying when you're feeling scarcity and lack -- I think part of the reason for traditional festivals was to smush us together with other people who were celebrating so that we can't help but feel a bit of a lift, a bit of a reminder that oh, yes, there is plenitude in the world, and food tastes good, and even better with loved ones around us. I'm grateful to Flora Ware for her entire collection of chants for the year... grateful to you for singing with me -- to my mind, that makes us kith, and I'm so glad to celebrate abundance with kith and kin through this song.

Songwriter Info: Flora Ware is a Sacred Sound Priestess and founder of EarthSong Temple where she serves a global community through ceremony, singing circles, and earth magic. As a Vocal Coach, she helps spiritual entrepreneurs become confident speakers and get booked on podcasts and stages, so they can attract more clients and share their message with the world. In 1993, her mother brought 14-year-old Flora to a full moon women’s circle. She remembered she was a Celtic witch and has been on a spiritual path of devotion to the Divine Feminine ever since. She lives in Vernon, BC, Canada with her wife and young wizard-in-training.

Sharing Info: Please sing and share! Flora has a free lyric booklet for all her Wheel of the Year chants available to download from her website (very helpful when teaching a group).

Links:
Flora's Website: https://floraware.ca
Flora's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flora_ware/

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:09
Start time of reprise: 00:12:47

Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, Aeolian, unison with 3-part harmony 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!

Published on: June 28, 2023

108. Can I stand Here For You?

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Song: Can I Stand Here For You?
Music: Kate Munger

Lyrics

Can I stand here for you?
May I use my heart as a gate?
We may not need words.
We may not need songs.
We may only need our two hearts beating.

Notes: Kate wrote "Can I Stand Here For You" after watching an Oprah show about two injured women Iraq veterans. Juanita Wilson (who had lost her hand) saw Tammy Duckworth come in (she had lost one hand and both feet). Juanita had committed herself to “standing for” any injured female veteran. She asked Tammy "Can I stand here for you?" Then she washed Tammy's hair which still contained dust from Iraq. She used her one hand and asked an orderly to help her with his two hands. Tammy was comatose, in terrible pain and Juanita stood beside her bed for 5 days. Now Tammy is a tri-athlete and was Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for President Barack Obama, the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district. And was then elected to the Senate from the State of Illinois.

Knowing the backstory behind some songs makes the songs even richer. As I'm thinking about how we can work toward easing loneliness, this example of two women connecting, then Kate allowing herself to be touched by the story, gives an example... and gives me a way to remember how to make the offering of standing by someone. Don't miss the chance to sing with Melanie DeMore once you've learned the song -- she sings lower, which may give you a chance to experiment with the high harmony if you found it too high in this podcast -- or maybe the melody will feel super comfortable in Melanie's range? Keep finding what feels good in your voice!

Songwriter Info: From Inverness CA, Kate Munger has devoted herself for over 40 years to creating non-hierarchical, collaborative models for spirited group singing, joyful community building, and deep fellowship through rounds and parts singing. Kate has written hundreds of singable, swinging, deep songs that remind us of our best inclinations and intentions, and are sung accompaniment to and medicine for our lives.

She has loved returning home to Inverness after 9 singing trips to Bali, 6 to Thailand (and the Elephant Sanctuary where singing to and with Elephants was the highlight), and one each to Russia and Spain in the past three decades. Just as the Pandemic arrived, Kate returned from a month in New Zealand with 13 singers where they offered their sung prayers to the community of Christchurch as they remembered the devastating earthquake of 2011 and healed from the horrific shooting at the Muslim Mosque in March 2019. She deeply believes that singers are the best ambassadors of peace on our planet; we show our neighbors our best selves when we travel in their land and appreciate their people, their culture, and their tragedies and show that appreciation through our singing.

In 2000 she founded the first of now 220 Threshold Choirs worldwide for choral singers who are called to sing at the bedsides of people who are dying, in a coma, newborns, children in hospital, and with folks who are grieving and who are incarcerated. In honoring its innovative mission, the Threshold Choir has re-imagined what true service can look like; healing the giver as it offers comfort, presence, and ease for the receiver. Now retired from running the business of the Threshold Choir, Kate lives, swims, works, and sings along the shores of Tomales Bay, for 16 years at the Lama Foundation in New Mexico and wherever she can.

Sharing Info: Please sing this with loved ones freely -- when sharing in a money-making venture, like a workshop, class, or performance, please contact Kate for permission and rates.

Links: A beautiful recording by Melanie DeMore, highly recommended by Kate: https://youtu.be/iDMFt9d5NaM
Threshold Choir: https://thresholdchoir.org/

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:28
Start time of reprise: 00:15:52

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: June 21, 2023

107. As A Seal Upon Thy Heart

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Song: As a Seal Upon Thy Heart
Music: Alison Burns
Text: from Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim) 8:6
שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים

Lyrics

Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm.
For love is strong, as strong as death

שִׂימֵ֨נִי כַֽחוֹתָ֜ם עַל־לִבֶּ֗ךָ כַּֽחוֹתָם֙ עַל־זְרוֹעֶ֔ךָ כִּֽי־עַזָּ֤ה כַמָּ֨וֶת֙ אַֽהֲבָ֔ה קָשָׁ֥ה כִשְׁא֖וֹל

Notes: Ali Burns gives us a beautiful two-part song that can also be a round... it feels like very exposed singing to me, and there's a way in which committing to what feels vulnerable in my voice, both high and low, also feels powerful and affirming. The ancient words resonate with longing for connection beyond death with those whom we love... and to me, are a reminder that can't force anyone into accepting love -- we can only offer.

Songwriter Info: Ali has built her reputation over the past 30 years as one of the UK’s prominent workshop leaders for community choirs. Many of her songs have found their way into the repertoire and hearts of singers across the UK, and increasingly, Canada, the USA and Australia. Her work is published by Faber, Sing Up! and Oxford University Press.

Sharing Info: You can hear and buy a copy of the song for £5 from www.aliburns.co.uk
Please visit her online shop for information about permissions: https://aliburns.co.uk/shop/licensing/song-licence/

Links:
Ali's Website: www.aliburns.co.uk

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:08
Start time of reprise: 00:14:38

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4 major, 2-part layer, round optional

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: May 24, 2023

104. Take My Hand

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Song: Take My Hand
Music: VoiceExchange

Lyrics

Doomba doomba deh deh doomba
Deh-deh doomba beh beh doomba
Deh-deh doomba beh beh doomba
Deh-deh deh doomba
Doomba doobeh doombah

Are you lost?
Do you feel lost and broken?
Let us walk and find a way together, find a way home.

Take my hand. Take my hand.
Take my hand. Let us walk.

Take my hand. Take my hand.
Take my hand.

Notes: What does it mean to hold out a hand to someone, to offer to accompany them? How does it feel to find a way home, through the lost and brokenness? How do five people living in different places manage to write a song together in a pandemic? All important questions for this episode! This is maybe one of the most intricate songs, where you'll be challenged to tease out a part... and it's also a very sweet song, with a superbly satisfying bass line, a lovely, harmonized invitation, a haunting, harmonized question, and a beautiful reassuring affirmation. Next episode is a first for A Breath of Song -- a six-way conversation about collaboration and bringing one's individual voice to a group -- hope you can join us all!

Songwriter Info: VoiceExchange initially formed as a practice group following a 2012 Bobby McFerrin Circlesongs workshop. As singers from disparate musical influences, they came together, connecting through a shared passion for vocal improvisation, and formed a unique a cappella group that blends diverse vocal styles into spontaneous harmonious arrangements. During the challenges of the pandemic VoiceExchange began a series of sequentially recorded collaborations for leading online circles. This resulted in a library of recordings, among them, Touch the Sky and Take My Hand. VoiceExchange members are Amado Ohland, Beth Lyons, Dina Torok, Joy Truskowski and Paris Kern. They can be found leading Circlesinging events in Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts & Vermont as well as offering online and in-person workshops and providing spontaneous music to churches, temples and other community gatherings.

Amado Ohland began his semi-professional career as a jazz and blues vocalist shortly after graduating University of Maryland at College Park with a bachelor's in music composition and theory. He attended his first Circlesongs workshop in 2011, and has been leading circlesinging events since 2013 in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, and western Virginia. He has recently received a master's degree in music from Radford University. For his doctoral dissertation he is working on a participatory ethnography of circlesinging worldwide and a song cycle of pieces based on circlesinging techniques.

Born into a musical family, Beth Lyons actually can’t remember a ‘before’ time when singing-in-community wasn’t a part of her life. She currently performs improvised musicals with iMusical, the house musical improv team for Washington Improv Theater, performs and leads Circles with VoiceExchange, and leads online immersive Song Dive workshops and a Monday morning online choir named Coffee Choir. You can learn more about her offerings and sign up for her “Heads Up” notification/invite list at www.RiverChoir.org.

Dina Torok has sung in and been musical director for various a cappella groups from college through adulthood. She was a professional film and television session singer, performed in various pop/rock bands in Los Angeles, and recorded an original solo album and a piano/vocal album of show tunes. Dina found VoiceExchange and circle singing in 2015 and has been a grateful member ever since.

Joy Truskowski is a singer-songwriter and community songleader. She has performed as a solo artist in the Roanoke, VA area for 13 years. You can find her original songs on Bandcamp under the name “Joy Tru”. She started Star City Circlesinging in 2019 and has been leading circles with other co-leaders in Roanoke ever since. During the beginning of the pandemic she started contributing to VoiceExchange’s online circles. She fell in love with all of them, and they all asked her to marry them. She said, “I can’t marry you, but I’ll join your group!” And that was a fair compromise. So she officially joined in the summer of 2021.

Paris Kern started performing traditional folk music at coffeehouses and concerts when she was 16 years old. She studied classical vocal performance in college, but her heart was always in the world of pure traditional folk traditions. In 2011, for reasons unknown to her, she was internally compelled to attend Bobby McFerrin’s CIrclesongs workshop. Feeling like a fish out of water, surrounded by mostly Jazz musicians, she nonetheless was hooked by the magic of Circlesongs and the sensation that her heart was being sung back to her. She has been leading circles in Washington DC, and Baltimore and is now starting circles in Southern Vermont.

Sharing Info: VoiceExchange would love to know if you plan to teach or perform Touch the Sky or another of their songs; drop them a line at info@VoiceExchange.org. And if teaching/performing their song is a profitable business for you, please share a bit of the profit with them via their donation link at https://voiceexchange.org.

Links:
VoiceExchange's Email: info@voiceexchange.org
VoiceExchange's Website: https://voiceexchange.org
VoiceExchange on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/circlesinging-dc/

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:08
Start time of reprise: 00:15:50

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Major, 4-layers with 2 layers 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: April 26, 2023

100. Bridging Hearts Song with guest Lisa G. Littlebird

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Song: Bridging Hearts Song
Music: Lisa G. Littlebird

Lyrics

Both our needs have gotta get met here.
Both our needs -- *we're part of a team (*it's part of a plan)
So let's tend the fear, and find the bigger picture.

I care about you. (I care about you!)
You care about me. (You care about me!)
This is what it feels like in family.
I care about you. (I care about you!)
You care about me. (You care about me!)
Help us find our love in this ecology.

Notes: I could think of no better way to honor the 100th episode of this podcast than to talk with Lisa G. Littlebird, my first mentor in the community songleading movement. We explore how she uses the power of songs for different purposes, including the one she shares during our conversation which helps bridge hearts during difficult situations. We talk about songs as sorcery to shift energy, and how exquisite it is to create a spell-song. How to find right-size in relationship with each other; how we woo each other into community and song, and "accompany each other in our walk toward liberation." The "inescapable confronting tenderness of inner listener" in relation to our own voices, "the power of the voice to unblock channels of energy." How responding to racial injustice grows out of relationship, not as a short-term response... "I'm not looking for your attention for a week, I'm looking for your love for a lifetime." What it means to have an open heart in both yes and no, when to harmonize with normative culture, and when to align with one's own truth even if it steps outside of the "normal." Grab something to drink or nosh on, take us on a walk or a drive, and let's talk about song and community! You'll hear me making up harmonies on the spot as Lisa and I are singing (she couldn't hear me, so it was all good! ?)

Songwriter Info: Lisa G. Littlebird facilitates group singing as a transformational personal practice, healing art, and to foster healthy communities. She is the creator of Littlebird Flight School, a community song leader training program with more than 400 graduates worldwide. She also founded the 160-member Wholehearted Chorus in Big Sur & Monterey, CA and has been on the faculty at Esalen Institute for 15 years.

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

Links:
Chumash people: https://www.sbnature.org/collections-research/anthropology/chumash-life/
Ram Dass quote: “if you feel like you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family”
https://www.gaia.com/article/who-is-ram-dass-the-wonderful-magical-be-here-now-guru
Songleader Flight School: https://thebirdsings.com/songleader-training/
Lisa's Website: https://thebirdsings.com/
Song-a-day project: https://thebirdsings.com/OLD/song-a-day.html
Oprah Magazine, Jan 2019 “Sing, Sing a Song” Article:
https://www.magzter.com/stories/Lifestyle/The-Oprah-Magazine/Sing-Sing-a-Song
Denver Women’s Chorus: https://denverchoruses.org/dwc/
Esalen Institute: https://www.esalen.org/
Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell: https://www.ymbarnwell.com/bio
Sweet Honey in the Rock: https://sweethoneyintherock.org/
Laurence Cole: http://www.laurencecole.com/
Peter Gabriel: “Passion” https://petergabriel.com/release/passion/
Nightsong album: https://thebirdsings.com/nightsong/
Lisa's song library: https://thebirdsings.com/song-library/
Lisa's Patreon: patreon.com/thebirdsings

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Aeolian, unison with a little call and response

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!

Tags

118. Listen In

111. Abundant Lughnasadh

108. Can I stand Here For You?

107. As A Seal Upon Thy Heart

104. Take My Hand

100. Bridging Hearts Song with guest Lisa G. Littlebird