Being IN Music

Circle of Sound

In Canada, we welcome this long holiday weekend: Victoria Day  is celebrated to commemorate Queen Victoria's birthday, which was officially observed as a holiday in 1845. It's a national holiday, now observed on the Monday preceding May 25th, marking the unofficial start of summer and often celebrated with outdoor activities and fireworks. It’s the weekend my family always planted the garden with annuals, herbs and vegetables. I now live in the city, and my balcony garden is comparatively tiny but I can still create a little summer oasis. 

This weekend, I plan to spend time outdoors and away from the screen to rest my eyes. As time goes on, I am forced to rely less and less on score reading. I can’t help but think about the irony of how predominantly visual post secondary music education is. I used to spend hours reading and writing music, analyzing scores and reading about music history. In my undergrad, learning repertoire by ear was discouraged, and so for me, it felt like starting over - I was so used to doing everything by ear that learning to read music, sight reading, was especially challenging for me. I believe my visual strain interfered with my ability to hear internally what I was supposed to sing. The visual strain also negatively impacted my postural alignment, resulting in stiffness and vocal tension. I sang from my brain, and had to eventually engage in mindfulness practices such as yoga and Alexander Technique to learn to sing with my whole body/mind/spirit. To this day reading music still requires a great deal of effort, and as the years go on, I find myself returning to relying more upon my ears and  kinesthetic musical intuition. This intuition has been deeply refined by musical literacy, and for that I am grateful. 

I teach rhythm, melody, harmony and form as well as singing through improvisational play and movement. It is magical to just be IN MUSIC DOING IT! That is being IN rhythm, IN melody, IN harmony and IN form. There is very little talking, we play first and then talk about it. 

For someone like me, who has chronic vision problems - it’s a perfect fit. I am also discovering how this complementary approach to teaching music opens pathways for many to find more ease developing listening, musicianship, literacy and the fine motor skills required to sing or play an instrument. There are also gross motor skills, which I perceive as a beautiful congruence between the state of the breath, body and musical utterance. 

For example, a student sings a wonderful swing tune, a Musical Theatre ballad, a joyful aria or an R&B song - all the notes are there but something is missing - I can only describe it as fluidity. Once I encourage the student to move with the music, their sound begins to open up and the phrases flow more. The body can flow in stillness too but there needs to be a full connection to the music BEFORE that can happen. It can’t just be cerebral. 

Over the last 14 years, I find myself developing a program of daily embodied musical practice for singers and instrumentalists that combines improvisation, movement, somatic awareness and creative play. It is both centering and inspiring, and I feel the benefits as much as my students. 

Much like yoga or Tai Chi, I believe that a holistic embodied musical practice of improvisation has the potential to enhance music learning and overall well being. Rather than compartmentalizing aspects of music learning, we have the opportunity to integrate and play with all of them at once. 

If we compare it to sports, improvisation is much like being given the chance to experiment with the skills you learn in an unpredictable environment. Surfing or playing a team sport requires the athlete to interact with the unexpected allowing skills to grow through on the spot reaction and decision making. 

If you are curious, join me for an online EuSing! Class or an improvisation class. 

For Inspiration: 

As I was cleaning out my office, I found this beautiful quote by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. My aunt wrote it out for me on a piece of paper. I was reminded of how moved I was by this thoughtful gesture. 

“It is the bounden duty of the talented to cultivate their talent to the highest degree, to be of as much use as possible to their fellow men. For every person’s worth is measured by how much he can help and serve his fellow men. Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind, and he who renders art accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of humanity.”

Zoltán Kodály Quote

Please note, there will be no newsletter next week as I will be IN music hosting a Music for People Improvisation retreat next weekend in Harrington Quebec. 

I wish you all a beautiful Victoria Day Weekend and to friends south of the border a wonderful Memorial Day weekend next weekend!