Tags

  • Published on

    229. We Will Not Stand Down

    3 Layer 4:4 Boundaries Chant Determination Empower Hope Justice Love Power & Change Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Strength
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:44
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:29
    Lyrics:

    We will not stand down
    we will not go home
    our love will move us on
    in love we're not alone

    I do not need permission to be brave
    ​
    I can do it scared
    I will do it scared​
    Picture
    ​Song: We Will Not Stand Down
    Music by: Grace Oedel

    Notes: This song came directly out of protective action, as Grace was asking herself how to develop a chant into a song -- it's got a groove, it's alive, and it's adaptable. Sing it with only a few words, or add some lyrics. Get people moving on the parts they resonate with and help them hear the collective pulse that underlies it all. Add what feels good in your body and voice -- and next week, join Grace and me for a wide-ranging conversation that asks questions about how can we keep showing up with and for each other for the long haul? How can we use rage as a fuel that doesn't burn us out, but helps us to not stand down, to not go home, to do what scares us because love is underneath that rage, moving us on!

    Songwriter Info: Grace is a doula for change and an enthusiast for collective action. She's an ordained rabbi who organizes with the L'Chaim Collective and serves as the executive director of NOFA-VT, building power for a just and delicious future. She sits on the boards of Rights and Democracy, Milk with Dignity, National Family Farm Coalition, National Sustainable Ag Coalition, the Better Selves Fellowship, and is an affiliate for the Institute for Agroecology. She leads a monthly community sing for resistance and hope that is a real banger, is a fan of desserts, and is mama to three little ones. 

    Sharing Info: The song is free to share in oral tradition groups - use it anywhere it can be helpful! - but please contact Grace for recording and/or performing permission.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:44
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:29

    Links:
    Grace's Substack: https://graceoedel.substack.com/ 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, 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

    205. Set It Right Again with guest Ana Hernández

    4:4 Change Determination Future Hope Justice Power & Change Ribbon Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Call & Response Songwriter Conversation
    Lyrics:

    Call: There’s a great trouble in the land 
    Resp: We’re gonna set it right again 
    (3x)
    All: We’re gonna set it right, set it right again. 

    More verses to zip in:
    Trouble’s been brewing too many years
    We need clean water and healthy food
    People need housing, we’ve a right to thrive
    Mass deportations tearing families apart
    We are the ones who can change the world
    We need education to build a just world
    Families need childcare, they don’t need to go broke
    We need fair wages, rich folk need to be taxed!
    Add more verses to suit your actions.
    Picture
    Song: Set It Right Again
    ​Music by: Ana Hernández

    Notes: Ana Hernández has been in the music business for quite a while, finding ways to follow the sounds she loves, to express her activist wishes, to ease her anxiety, to remember wise words... and she writes powerful, moving community songs to do all these things! Her book, the Sacred Art of Chant, was a game changer for me when I discovered it in 2019 for the way it named how singing with repetition changed my body. It was a huge honor to be in conversation with her, and then play with harmonies as we sang together (no, I didn't get ALL of them "right"! 😊 But I was having a great time!!!) "Set It Right Again" is a song to take into protests, and Ana advises listening to the speeches to adjust the lyrics to fit... newsletter subscribers will see the flowers and the little black book that get described.

    Songwriter Info: Ana Hernández is a composer, recording artist, retreat leader, and activist song leader creating and collecting tunes to build living and just communities through skillful action. A theomusicologist with NYS Poor People’s Campaign, Ana is also the author of The Sacred Art of Chant: Preparing to Practice (Skylight Paths/Turner Publishing).

    Sharing Info: The song is free to share in public resistance actions and oral tradition groups. Please contact Ana for recording, streaming, or performing permission. 

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:34 and 00:06:39
    Start time of reprise: 01:11:55

    Links:
    Ana's website: https://anahernandez.org
    Ana's Patreon: www.patreon.com/anahernandez 
    Listen on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/in/artist/ana-hernandez/214582777 
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0NGPpe3jeQqHFeFArIqYEH 
    SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/anahermusic 
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-p9kisJu1ISLW7w6Wy2lVA 
    Poor People’s Campaign: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/committee/new-york/ 
    Sojourner Truth: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth 
    Ghandi’s mantra Om Sri Rama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanama 
    Aham Prema: you are divine love: https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/9462/aham-prema 
    Raimon Panikkar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raimon_Panikkar 
    Malka Heifitz Tussman:  https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotations/view/33350/spiritual-quotation
    Marcia Falk The Book of Blessings: https://www.marciafalk.com/blessings.html 
    Hold My Hope: https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/teach_me_to_be_love
    Open My Heart: https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/open_my_heart
    Louis Armstrong: https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/biography/ 
    Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain: https://www.milesdavis.com/albums/sketches-of-spain/ 
    Cantus Firmus in Monteverdi Magnificat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajAq0Yd-s4 
    St. Columba: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columba 
    Ranunculus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus 
    Alice Parker: “My belief is that a page of music conveys about five percent of the information needed to perform it.” https://giamusic.com/resource/the-anatomy-of-melody-book-g6765 
    Augsburg Fortress Publishers: https://www.augsburgfortresspublishers.org/ 
    Banquet of Love album: https://anahernandez.org/album/banquet-of-love/ 
    Mame: Ethel Merman play: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mame_(musical) 
    Sending You Light album: https://anahernandez.org/album/sending-you-light/ 
    Melanie DeMore: https://www.abreathofsong.com/apps/search?q=melanie+demore 
    Caravan of Empathy: https://ruralmigrantministry.org/save-new-yorks-rural-economy-a-journey-of-empathy-caravan/ 
    Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Tenderland Suite: https://www.aaroncopland.com/works/appalachian-spring/
    https://www.aaroncopland.com/works/the-tender-land/
    Amina Alaoui from Morocco – Alcantara: https://open.spotify.com/album/1EDReLi3Q3luXIHcUgR0k7 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, blues minor, call and response

    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

    170. Over/Under with guest Lyndsey Scott

    4:4 Darkness Determination Freedom Grieve Journey Justice Love Ribbon Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Call & Response Song Form: Unison With Separate Harmony Line Songwriter Conversation Web
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:15
    Start time of reprise: 01:06:15
    Lyrics:

    Over / under
    All the way through
    Over / under
    Back to you
    Over / under
    All the way down
    Over / under
    Lost then found

    I am the love that doesn't leave
    We do this til we free us!
    Feel thru the dark is how we see
    We do this til we free us!
    We are remembering how to grieve
    We do this til we free us!
    You are a part of my family
    We do this til we free us!
    Picture
    Song: Over/Under
    Music by: Lyndsey Scott

    Notes: Lyndsey Scott talks about her radical trust in life, how she perceives energy, the playfulness and generosity of cyclical wisdom. She shares the origin story of this song, Over/Under, and wisdom from her co-creator, Anthony R. Rhodd about gratitude. We were recording the Thursday after the US elections -- as I listen to the focus on how to find resources and energy, I realize how depleted I felt in the moment of recording. And yet talking with Lyndsey buoyed me -- the deep attunement that she practices shines through our conversation -- I feel like I can really feel the truth of "I am the love that doesn't leave..."

    Songwriter Info: Lyndsey Scott is a multimedia artist, songleader, songwriter, and ritualist committed to exploring community singing as a technology of belonging and a strategy for mutual liberation. She currently co-facilitates the yearlong cohort of emergent earth-based ceremonial study with Earthkeeper Wisdom School (Hartsburg, MO), leads song for politicized somatics practitioners in Embodying Racial Justice’s yearlong program, Opening to Freedom (Millerton, NY), and teaches "Community Singing as Collective Power" at the University of Iowa School of Music's Grant Wood Fellow.

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

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:15
    Start time of reprise: 01:06:15

    Links:
    Lyndsey's website: https://www.lyndseyscott.earth/
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lila.gaia/ 
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lyndseyscott 
    We Do This 'Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1664-we-do-this-til-we-free-us 
    What It Takes to Heal by Prentice Hemphill: https://prentishemphill.com/book
    The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/250673/the-wild-edge-of-sorrow-by-francis-weller/ 
    Song Carrier Toolkit by Liz Rog: https://www.centerforbelonging.earth/store/p/song-carrier-toolkit 
    Earthkeeper Wisdom School: https://www.earthkeeperwisdomschool.org/ 
    Rebeccah Bennett, Root Teacher, The InPower Institute: https://inpowerinstitute.com/ 
    The Milk-Eyed Mender by Joanna Newsom: https://joannanewsom.bandcamp.com/album/the-milk-eyed-mender 
    Meredith Monk: https://www.meredithmonk.org/ 
    Emma Koeppel: https://soundcloud.com/emma-koeppel 
    Anthony R. Rhodd: https://substack.com/@anthonyrrhodd 
    Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe): https://www.patmccabe.net/ 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, unison or harmonized, call & response section

    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

    150. The Change with guest Mary Cohen

    6:8 Change Determination Dreams Empower Future Hope Justice Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Round Songwriter Conversation
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:45
    Start time of reprise: 01:07:58

    ​Lyrics:

    Who, who do we
    want to become?
    We want to be the change
    that we want to see,
    to see in the world.
    Who--oo, ooooo.

    (based on Gandhi's quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world.")
    Picture
    Song: The Change
    Music by: Mary L. Cohen

    ​Notes: “My dad played the copper fish mold.” — aren’t you curious now? Listen in as Mary Cohen and I explore family music, personal structures for improvisation, creating connections between incarcerated and not-incarcerated people, and more… We wander a bit through grief and disconnection and finding what is, in a conversation that’s real and messy and touches on fear and joy, building a caring community for ourselves, our neighbors, the global world… living with regret and streaming grace to the person we were when we made a mistake; restoring connection. It’s a glimpse of the rich variety of resources Mary draws on as she shapes her life… I hope to add some into mine.

    Songwriter Info: Mary L. Cohen, Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa, is lead author of Music-Making in U.S. Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices (2022). She co-founded the International Music and Justice Network: IMAJIN Caring Communities, a group of researchers from 18 countries who study music-making in prisons, and you are welcome to join by contacting Mary to get on the group email list (mary-cohen@uiowa.edu). From 2009 to 2020 she led the Oakdale Community Choir with incarcerated and non-incarcerated participants where participants have written over 150 songs, and the Oakdale Choir performed over 75 of these songs, available with the Creative Commons License. To continue working toward the choir’s goals of building communities of caring through singing and songwriting, she founded the Inside Outside Songwriting Collaboration Project where partnerships between incarcerated and non-incarcerated songwriters create original songs, build relationships, and learn about transformative and generative justice. She has been a keynote for conferences in Germany, Canada, and Portugal, interviewed by the BBC3 Music Matters, and has over 40 publications in journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. She leads weekly music groups inside the Juvenile Detention Center of Linn County.
    ​
    Sharing Info:     The song is free to share, and Mary welcomes networking support and invites you to further your education and activism regarding environmental justice, restorative/transformative/generative justice, and simply acting with kindness to all you encounter.
    ​
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:45
    Start time of reprise: 01:07:58

    Links:  ​
    Nuts & Bolts: 6:8, minor, round

    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.  https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share

    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!  https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html
  • Published on

    138. My thoughts make a difference

    3 Layer 4:4 Change Determination Empower Heal Hope Justice Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Layer
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:07
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:50
    Lyrics:

    My thoughts make a difference
    My feelings make a difference
    My words make a difference
    My healing makes a difference

    I will not shy away from the struggle in my soul
    I will waste no time, for this day is growing old

    What can I do for this broken world?
    Picture
    Song: My Thoughts Make A Difference
    Music by: Chandler Yorkhall

    ​Notes: The energy and determination that this song funnels into me can be formidable. It steps from naming that our individual thoughts, feelings, words, and healing matters; next stop is a determination to pay attention to the struggle, because time is short; and then the question -- what can I do for this broken world? It's a vital progression and gathering of force. I sing it at two very different tempos (well, the second, faster one I don't QUITE manage, but, you know, I'll get better at it!) One of the things that stopped me from singing for a long time was feeling like I wasn't good enough, even to sing to myself, because I didn't sound like the albums I had. That's why I leave mistakes in this podcast -- I'm reclaiming my right to not be perfect, and the playfulness and energy that comes from that... and I hope hearing me mess up frees space for you, too.

    Songwriter Info: Chandler grew up singing with his family and can’t remember a time when singing wasn’t part of his daily life. He has been writing, leading, and getting inspired by songs since he was a teen, and songs have saved his sanity more times than he can remember. He is so pleased to be able to share his joy through sharing his songs. Chandler lives in Minneapolis with his wife and 4 children, who also love to sing! He's never really settled on a parenting “philosophy” per se, until his two teen daughters returned from their first Village Harmony camp, singing lustily in praise of everything good. At that point he said to himself, “Well, if my children leave my home knowing how to sing, I guess I’ll have done them, and the world, a great service.”

    Sharing Info:     Yes - The song is free to share in oral tradition groups, but please contact Chandler for recording, performing, or publication permission.
    ​
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:07
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:50

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Aeolian, 3 layer

    Join the A Breath of Song Mailing list
    (https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share)  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
    (https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html) (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
  • Published on

    128. Prayer for Peace

    2:2 Breathe Change Determination Empower Fire Future Harmony Heart Justice Love Peace Prayer Scale: Minor Song Form: Call & Response Song Form: Harmonized Wisdom
    Song: Prayer for Peace
    Music: Gitanjali Jain
    Lyrics:

    In this world that's ripped apart,
    there's a calling in my heart.
    Prayers for justice,
    prayers for peace.
    May we all have love and ease. 

    In this world,
    in my heart;
    there is peace.
    There is love.
    Picture
    Notes: Gitanjali Jain pours heartbreak, tension, anger, confusion all into this prayer for peace, which has some of the scrunchiest harmonies we've ever done on A Breath of Song. And although you could call these stacked harmonies, I decided to call them melodies -- because it's not clear to me that there's a single melodic voice -- to me it is the voice of many combined. Feel the frustration of the sounds hitting against each other; all those wishes we carry for peace, love and ease. Then notice how you feel after you've sung it... is there connection to Gitu, to me, to others feeling all the complexity of our beloved world?

    Songwriter Info: Gitanjali Jain is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in music and theater. Born in Mexico City to her Mexican mother and East Indian father, she has focused a significant part of her work on the study of her ancestry and lineage. Other formative experiences include seven years in Hawai’i, where she worked as an aerialist, actor, and dancer in the award-winning production 'Ulalena.

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

    Links:
    Gitanjali on Bandcamp: https://alicuanta.bandcamp.com/

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:35
    Start time of reprise: 00:17:08

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, mostly harmonic minor, harmonized call & response

    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list (https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share) 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 https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!