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    114. All Motion Is Love

    3:4 Abundance Be Present Belonging Breathe Chant Cycles Flow Gentle Heal Heart Journey Joy Love Motion Ribbon Scale: Mixolydian Song Form: Unison Song Form: Unison With Separate Harmony Line
    Song: All Motion is Love
    Music:     Pam Blevins Hinkle
    Lyrics

    All motion is love, we follow the love we are given.
    All motion is love, we follow, we follow the love.
    Picture
    Notes: After singing this song, I keep questioning myself, "What if this is true???" If all motion is love, Patricia, what does that look like, right now? If I follow love, what does that even mean? Do I know what love looks like? I'm so often in unthinking motion — what happens when that motion becomes love? Pam Blevins Hinkle is not messing around here! In the next episode, we get to talk, and hear about how she got backed into community singing through a health crisis. The changes it has precipitated. What swung into motion, and how that's leading her now. Following love. Is this any part of your life? Mm-hmmm.

    Songwriter Info: Pam Blevins Hinkle–song leader, composer, arts administrator, tree-lover, and kazoo fanatic–has devoted her life to projects that blend creativity, community-building, and spirituality. With over 30 years experience leading community, college, and congregational choirs, she currently facilitates spontaneous group singing for conferences and events, co-leads SongSquad Indianapolis with her brother Adam, co-produces the annual Indy Winter Solstice Celebration, and more. Pam has received numerous awards including the Inspirational Woman Award from IUPUI and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Indy Arts Council. Since 2006, she has served as director of Spirit & Place, which sparks civic change through a one-of-kind, 11-day festival and through year-round initiatives that leverage the power of the arts, humanities, and religion to catalyze creativity and conversation.

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

    Links: 
    Song Squad Indianapolis Website: songsquadindy.com
    Indy Winter Solstice Celebration Website: indysolstice.com
    Pam's Website: pamblevinshinkle.com

    ​Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:04:09
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:45
    ​​
    Nuts & Bolts: 3:4 Mixolydian; unison chant with optional 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!​
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    105. Touch the Sky with Guest VoiceExchange

    3 Layer 4:4 Be Present Beauty Breathe Earth Grow Home Joy Light Open Safe Scale: Ionian (Major) Sky Song Form: Harmonized Songwriter Conversation Trees Trust
    Song: Touch the Sky
    Music: VoiceExchange
    Lyrics

    You are safe here, you are safe.
    No one will ask you why you need to touch the sky.
    Just touch the sky.     (3x)

    You are in the arms of the sky.
    ​No one ... you ... why ... you,
    you need to touch the sky,
    you need to touch the sky
    You need to touch sky, the sky.

     You are safe here, you are safe here,
    you are safe in the arm of the sky.
    No one will ask you why, oh no why.
    You'll touch the sky, just touch the sky.     (4x)
    Picture
    Notes: Songs can be career counselors, harmonizing means you don't have to memorize words, if you don't like to sing alone, then singing with others can unlock your voice, how to leave space for people, how to become a found family (food is involved) -- what other ideas might VoiceExchange have to share with you? This quintet of singers improvised their way through the pandemic -- learn how they honed their ability to play even when geographically distant (and hear an example at the very end, created on the fly with Zoom faces and Jacktrip sound). Improvisation can be a weird and wonderful world -- a chance to hear the unexpected. The song they shared is a tree speaking... and what a beautiful sense of embrace it creates.

    ​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:
    Paris mentions a Burl Ives recording, but we could only find a link for Patti Page’s version of "How Much is that Doggy in the Window?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJo9yJxd5M
    Julie Andrews: https://www.biography.com/actors/julie-andrews
    Joan Baez: https://www.biography.com/musicians/joan-baez
    David Crosby: https://davidcrosby.com/
    Martin Carthy: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/martin-carthy-mn0000367979
    "It’s a Small World After All" by Richard and Robert Sherman
    https://www.songfacts.com/facts/disneyland-childrens-sing-along-chorus/its-a-small-world
    "Diddle, Diddle Dumpling, My Son John" : https://allnurseryrhymes.com/diddle-dumpling/
    Freddie Mercury: https://www.biography.com/musicians/freddie-mercury
    Somatic Voicework: http://thevoiceworkshop.com/somatic-voicework/
    Bobby McFerrin Circlesinging: https://circlesongs.com/circlesong-school-2023/
    Tuvan throat singing: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210414-a-revival-of-indigenous-throat-singing
    All the Way In- Rhiannon: https://www.rhiannonmusic.com/all-the-way-in-home
    Motor, interlock definitions: http://songsofthemoment.com/category-rhiannon/
    Take My Hand: Episode 104 on A Breath of Song:     https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/104-take-my-hand
    Vocal River by Rhiannon: https://www.rhiannonmusic.com/vocal-river
    Zuza: https://singers.com/vocal-coach/Zuza-Goncalves/
    “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66354.Flow
    Tuck & Patti album 1988 Time After Time: https://www.discogs.com/release/10168223-Tuck-Patti-Time-After-Time
    Star City Circlesinging: https://www.meetup.com/Star-City-Circlesinging/
    Musica do Circulo Brazil: https://www.playgroundforthearts.com/musica-do-circulo
    Amado on Bandcamp: https://amadomusic.bandcamp.com/album/circlesinging-on-zoom
    "She’s So Unusual" by Cindy Lauper: https://www.allmusic.com/album/shes-so-unusual-mw0000194590
    "The Game" by Queen: https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-game-mw0000650663
    "Medicine Music" by Bobby McFerrin: https://www.allmusic.com/album/medicine-music-mw0000309576
    Prince: https://www.prince.com
    Eagles: https://eagles.com
    Sting: https://www.sting.com
    Billy Joel: https://www.billyjoel.com
    Alanis Morisette: https://alanis.com
    "Blue" by Joni Mitchell: https://jonimitchell.com/music/album.cfm?id=5
    "Abbey Road" by The Beatles: https://www.thebeatles.com/abbey-road
    Patrick Watson: https://patrickwatson.net
    Great interview with Martin Carthy: https://www.innerviews.org/inner/martin-carthy.html
    And here’s a link to Martin singing “The Trees they Do Grow High”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaKGeTmFqbE
    "Vocabularies" by Bobby McFerrin: https://bobbymcferrin.com/albums/vocabularies/
    VoiceExchange on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/circlesinging-dc/
    Jacktrip Software: https://www.jacktrip.com

    VoiceExchange's quiet Website: https://voiceexchange.org
    Email: info@voiceexchange.org
    VoiceExchange on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VoiceExchangeMusic?mibextid=LQQJ4d
    VoiceExchange on Instagram: https://instagram.com/voiceexchange?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
    VoiceExchange's Email: info@voiceexchange.org

    Amado's Website: https://amadomusic.com/
    Paris's Website: https://www.pariskern.com
    Joy's Website: http://www.joytru.com
    Beth's choir Website: https://www.riverchoir.org

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:10
    Start time of reprise: 01:14:25
    Improvisation at 1:18:55
    ​​
    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Major, 3-part harmony, 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

    95. Joy To Your Heart with guests Cathy Baker and Dick Jackson

    4:4 Celebrate Empower Friendship Generosity Heart Hope Joy Light Love Open Play Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Zipper Songwriter Conversation
    Song: Joy To Your Heart
    Music & Words: Cathy Baker and Dick Jackson
    ​Lyrics

    I want to bring joy to your heart,
    I want to bring joy to your (+) heart.
    I want to bring joy to your heart,
    Joy, joy, joy!

    Joy! Joy! Joy!
    Let me bring you some Joy! Joy! Joy!
    *I want to pour it on ya* Joy! Joy! Joy!
    Let me share my Joy! Joy! Joy!

    (this to your that, this to your that...)
    Examples:
    wind-sail or hugs-heart
    blue-sky or soup-bowl
    *line is changed to suit the bold-faced pair*
    Picture
    ​Notes: Lately, I've been reading closely the lengthy gratitude lists that follow any achievement, struck by the glories created in collaboration. Cathy Baker and Dick Jackson are both work and life partners... so I had many questions for them about collaboration. How do you nurture trust, how do you communicate through disagreement? They took over the reins of the large and thriving Getttin' Higher Choir from beloved coleaders Siobhan Robinsong and Denis Donnelly -- such changes are often fraught with disappointments and unhappiness -- yet they seemed to me to have negotiated the transition with grace and generosity. Cathy describes "A whole lot of good will and an understanding of what ultimately really matters here… that we each feel completely heard," and according to Dick, “A little bit of meditation practice can go a long way.” Hear, too, about their thoughts about imposter syndrome (hint: it's real!), "only the freshest" choral arrangements, the difference between "performer" and "facilitator of people singing in harmony," and more... including Cathy's exuberant, warm-hearted wish, partially inspired by large bus windshield wipers -- "I want to bring joy to your heart!"

    ​Songwriter Info: Cathy was once the shy middle kid of 5 siblings where singing as a family was just part of everyday life. She always loved singing, especially around campfires, on road trips, wilderness trips or anywhere outside. Always seeking harmony, she got over much of her performance shyness by bringing groups of friends together to sing. She now directs the Gettin' Higher Choir with her life partner, Dick Jackson, and she is on the leadership team for both The Ubuntu Choirs Network and the Community Choir Leadership Training (CCLT) program in Victoria, BC. Cathy is active in her local Unitarian Universalist community where Dick is the Musical Director. Together, Cathy and Dick provide musical leadership for Canadian UU camps and Canadian national UU services. They both welcome the opportunity to bring members of the Gettin' Higher Choir to "Sing When Asked To" community events. Dick was fortunate to have singing in the home with his Mom from an early age, and kept involved with singing, school band and organ, later with percussion, piano and a few stints in opera chorus. A keen observer of his excellent music leaders over the years, he is grateful to be able to make this a shared joyful vocation with Cathy.​

    Sharing Info: The song is free to share but Cathy always welcome financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved. Do let Cathy know where this song has travelled. Have fun...may it bring JOY to your heart!

    Links:
    Gettin’ Higher Choir: ​​http://www.gettinhigherchoir.ca/index.php
    Gettin’ Higher Choir YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thegettinhigherchoir8002
    Community Choir Leadership Training Program: http://www.communitychoirleadership.com/
    Ubuntu Choir Network: http://www.ubuntuchoirs.net/index.php
    Pat Wictor: https://patwictor.com/
    Cee Cee’s Climb by Pat Wictor, performed by Brother Sun https://youtu.be/fkTVK2Yg-JI
    Dick’s album that’s affected him strongly: Joe Jackson “A Big World”
    Dick suggestion for an artist:Joe Jackson: http://joejackson.com/
    Cathy’s album that’s affected her strongly: Peter Paul & Mary: Peter, Paul & Mommy
    Cathy’s suggestion for an artist: Connie Kaldor: https://www.conniekaldor.com/
    Patti Page: Mocking Bird Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7zrMzVNYwo
    God Sees the Little Sparrow Fall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnN1Cu7RZ-Q
    A sound Cathy feels strongly about – Pacific Chorus Frogs: https://acousticatlas.org/item/2433

    Nuts & Bolts: ​4:4, Major, zipper song

    ​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!