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    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
  • Published on

    178. My Body

    4:4 Accept Beauty Belonging Celebrate Empower Heal Love Mantra Ribbon Scale: Mixolydian Song Form: Unison With Separate Harmony Line Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:31
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:09
    Lyrics: 

    My body is fly
    My body is beautiful
    My body is bold
    My body is mine
    Picture
    Song: My Body
    Music by: Alexandra Sarton

    Notes: Singing this week brought me into my body in a joyful, appreciative way... our bodies, our existence are such miracles, and this song fully celebrates and owns this. For anyone who has ever felt ashamed of their body for any reason, this is a medicine song, a reclaiming, remembering song. Alexandra Sarton Love, who wrote it, has lived with alopecia since age 10, causing baldness. Maybe you're going through a medical treatment that makes it difficult to feel ownership of your own body? Maybe there's a relationship which leads to doubt about your body's beauty or validity? Maybe media or social gatherings has harmed your connection to your own body? Maybe you're a nursing mom? I don't know what you bring to this song... but I'm sooo glad you're bringing it!  Join me and you bring you, I'll bring me -- let's sing these words together!

    Songwriter Info: In 2011, Alexandra Love was inspired to assemble a 12-woman chorus to sing the harmonies she had written for her solo project, In Curses. She created a festival, The Festival of Light and Sound (April 2012), to debut this project and to bring Beautiful Chorus together for a one-time performance. The ladies practiced each week leading up to the album release. The festival was a huge success and after that night, Love decided to keep the project going. She booked tours for Beautiful Chorus around the country, hosted crystal singing bowl meditations w/ the ladies, lead vocal workshops and more. It was then that BC wrote + recorded songs, and have since become the most successful independent group of their kind. Fusing elements of electronic, choral, deep bass, hip hop and jazz, Beautiful Chorus is unlike any other. They have albums that span from wordless symphonies to full rhythmic songs, w/ sound healing frequencies and love-centered messages. They even have a wordless holiday album, a lullaby album, and a multitude of singable hymns and mantras. Beautiful Chorus is currently residing in Orlando, FL where they are developing a new live experience, hosting spiritual conversations, and preparing for their upcoming full album release, High Frequency Love Music, due out 7/26. Beautiful Chorus is currently made of Alexandra Love and four other members (Patty, Anisha, Yuki and Veronica).

    Sharing Info: When sharing in a money-making venture, like a workshop, class, or performance, please contact Beautiful Chorus for permission and rates.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:31
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:09

    Links:
    Beautiful Chorus website: https://www.beautifulchorus.com/ 
    Alexandra Love website: https://www.alexandra.love/

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Mixolydian, unison with optional harmony

    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:
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    Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.
    https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html
  • Published on

    171. Gratitude with Family Singers

    4:4 Be Grateful Be Present Mantra Scale: Mixolydian Song Form: Harmonized Wisdom
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:45
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:57

    Lyrics:

    In this moment, all I need to do
    is sink more deeply into gratitude.
    Picture
    Song: Gratitude
    Music by: Kate Munger

    Notes: Recording Kate Munger's song for you was SUCH a treat for me!!! 15 members of our extended family gathered in a living room, and sang together about sinking into gratitude.... mmmm-hmmmm!!! You'll hear 5-year-old Claire proclaiming she is right here, and then the beautiful gathered sound of Beth, Peter, Will, Elyse, Edward, Carolyn, Patrick, Ruth, Tom, Rebecca, Forrest, Kathi, Claire, Seth and me. One of the most beautiful things about the whole experience was that the song itself kept reminding me to be present -- to soak into the moment.

    Songwriter Info: Kate Munger has been passionate about community singing since she was 8 years old at Girl Scout Camp and has led community singing now for over 45 years. In 2000 she founded the first of now 200 Threshold Choirs around the world. Today at 74 she is retired from running the Threshold Choir and has returned to her passions of writing songs for medicinal use and singing at the bedsides of people who are dying, in coma and with folks who are incarcerated. She is a popular speaker among palliative care, choral singing and prison reform professionals and is a gracious, skillful musical host and choral director whose joy is reminding us that we are singing beings, bringing community singing back to "the community.” Kate knows that this work is deep and serious and she offers a fresh, lively, sometimes irreverent, always relevant perspective.

    Sharing Info: Kate encourages the sharing of this song and its message; any donation that is generous, affordable and personally significant would be most welcome.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:45
    Start time of reprise: 00:12:57

    Links:
    Kate welcomes emails to kateamunger@gmail.com

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, mixolydian, 3-part harmony

    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

    166. Breathe

    3 Layer 4:4 Accept Breathe Calm Change Holy Mantra Release Ribbon Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Layer Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:34
    Start time of reprise: 00:20:13

    Lyrics:

    Breathe, breathe, breathe in
    Breathe, breathe out

    Let it go, let it go, let it go
    Let it go, let it go

    Trust in what's coming
    Trust in your knowing
    It's deeper and wider and holy
    Picture
    Song: Breathe
    Music by: Batya Levine

    Notes: This was the song I needed to sing to help myself through the pre-election moment... building trust in myself to navigate whatever comes next, tap into the energy to work up to the last moment to effect the change I hope for. Batya Levine is an incredibly heart-sourced song composer, and they'll be releasing a new album in December... check out their website and get on the list to know when it appears -- it's sure to be wonderful, and "Breathe" will be on it -- and you'll know it!

    Songwriter Info: Batya Levine (they/them) uses song as a tool for cultivating healing and resilience in their work as a communal song leader, shaliach tzibur (Jewish prayer leader) and cultural organizer. Batya is a co-founder and Director of Programs at Let My People Sing!, and they compose original music made of Ashkenazi yearning, queer heart-medicine, and emunah (faith). Batya is releasing their second album, Yivarechecha, in December 2024 through Rising Song Records.

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

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:34
    Start time of reprise: 00:20:13

    Links:
    Batya's website: https://www.batyalevine.com

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, 3-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