BAY AREA VOCAL IMPROVISATION & COMMUNITY MUSIC
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What Shall We Do Without Us?

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May 2017

​I read on the internet to gather some of this info. I love my iphone, I enjoy facebook, and I work on my computer a lot of the time. Now some of my music is scanned into my computer and youtube is a good ol’ friend. Yah, all this technology is super helpful with
my process as a musician fo sho!
 
But I don’t have to tell you that we are crazy knee deep into technology in a way that sometimes keeps us from connections with others. The level of entertainment, curiosity fulfillment, and time wasting available online is beyond measurable. The gift of this for me is that I massively value sitting in front of a friend eating a meal or sharing a cup of tea. I am happy when I am in a dance class and I get to laugh and connect with others. When I am in nature being with the silence and natural sounds, I feel my cup is full. And I am elated when I get to be in a circle singing with others!
 
No mater what has happened that day, that week, I get a massive recharge. My endorphins start to dance and the happy thang comes over me. Because I am getting to look in your eyes, feel the spirit of your song, or dance and laugh with you.
 
So, checking out your connections on facebook is fun, but have you thought about the neural connections you are reinforcing in your brain when you are making music?
 
“It’s really hard to come up with an experience similar to that” as an education intervention, said Gottfried Schlaug, the director of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. Not only does it require attention and coordination of multiple senses, but it often triggers emotions, involves cooperation with other people, and provides immediate feedback to the student on progress, he said. Music, on its own, has also been shown to trigger the reward area of the brain, he noted. [1]
 
So, my dears…it appears that coming together to do activities with other humans is becoming one of the basic needs for nervous system regulation and perhaps the survival of our relationships.
 
Stay with us, we are here…
 
Art by Kenneth Patchen

[1] Published in Print: Education Week
November 25, 2013
Studies Highlight Brain Benefits From Music Training
Vol. 33, Issue 13, Page 6

 

eat, sleep, sing...

8/16/2018

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Greetings,
 
The days since the solstice are beginning to grow shorter, calling up an anticipation in me for the feeling of Fall, the season I was born in. I seem to have touched my craving for it quite early this season, with a longing for a cocoon, for quiet, and stillness.
 
In the Jewish calendar, it “appears” to be Fall, because the New Year is around the corner. For me, this is a time of preparation for chanting the Kol Nidre, an Aramaic legal proclamation chanted before sunset on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), asking Source
(God/Goddess/Spirit/your higher self, as you wish…) to annul all oaths made innocently or under duress in the last year and in the coming year, depending on the tradition. The holy-day is an opportunity to come to at-one-ment with yourself and others.
 
This year, I am exploring the possibility of singing it to an improvised melody, which I have not done before.
 
Given that I have lost interest in so much of what I “have done before”, it makes sense to me that a re-creation into that which did not exist before is afoot.
 
It is always a good exercise to find new ways to be with our regular structures, and yet, my spirit longs for entry into the total unknown. In some ways, I am afraid of this. In some ways I am so compelled, I cannot hold back.
 
The basics nourish so that we can fly without them for a while. Knowing they are there allows for a higher reach. We are aware of the importance of basic sustenance such as food, water, sleep, etc…though many among us do not have the privilege of always counting on these to be there, something that saddens me so.
 
Beyond these, there are lists of human needs that most people, even those of us lucky enough to have our basic needs met, do not consider. From the perspective of “Fundamental Human Needs and Human-Scale Development”, the work of Professor Manfred Max-Neef and other contributors,
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_human_needs8
 
singing would fall under the category of “Creation”.
I would agree and add that singing is a “Synergistic Satisfier”: A need that satisfies a given need, while simultaneously contributing to the satisfaction of other needs, such as subsistence, participation, leisure, identity, and freedom.
 
Life without singing for me is unimaginable. Just being includes singing, breathing, connection, eating, sleeping as the fundamental basics, and how these are done can be familiar or improvised each day. If you can, add a little singing sauce to your activities, its hella tasty!
 
Happy Everything!
 

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  • UPCOMING EVENTS
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