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

 

the power of vocables

10/5/2014

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You may have noticed that much of circle singing happens with vocables instead of real words. Why? Here's one perspective...

Some of you may know about my journey through becoming a ritual singer in two different spiritual traditions over the last 15 years before I started leading vocal improv. The songs compelled me, the rituals have offered me many gifts, and my integrated structure in music allows me to fly! My own journey of spirit shook me and took me in another direction, and the need for the structure of words and rigid ritual forms begun to fall away like snake skin.

I begun to long for a new expression, one that was always new, and my inner prayer, my calling out, became devoid of understandable language. Aaaahhhh...

I just started with the sounds and let my mouth go, all the while staying connected with what wanted to be expressed. It traveled deeper and wider than any words I could say! I realized that my brain did not have to work to create known language and could open to the language of beyond, the sweetness of the sounds, and the ever new creation.
 
I invite you to the exciting experience of finding and expressing the sounds that are wanting to come alive in you!
 
Sing with you soon,
 
Renee
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  • WELCOME!
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  • WELCOME!