Notes

Notes are reminders, cues, pieces of information to be recalled, requests, instructions, messages, secret messages, messages of love…

They come in the form of handwritten sentences scrawled on random pieces of paper or in notebooks. We write them on post-its, bright colorful reminders that flash out at us from our desks or fridge doors. 

We receive many notes in electronic form: emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or Messenger. They are sometimes in short form - TY, C U Soon, LOL. Sometimes they are just emojis. 

We respond to them - somewhere in the ethers billions of notes float aimlessly. 

Back and forth we text without a sound except for the repeated “dings” or “pings”  from our smart phones. Sometimes the messages become shorter and shorter, sometimes we engage in several text conversations at the same time.  

I miss the warmth of a human voice, the improvisation of a conversation with its digressions and asides, laughs, exclamations and physical responses. 

Music notes are reminders, transcriptions of a composition. They are black oval, each with a stem, the stem may even have a flag. Notes can also be hollow ovals with a stem, or hollow ovals without a stem, the longest held note. The note’s appearance determines its duration. 

They fill the page, sometimes loads of them beamed together neatly organized within the confines of a musical staff. 

Students are sometimes intimidated by them. At first reading them is like deciphering a code. 

Sometimes there are too many of them. Feeling overwhelmed, we put the sheet down and leave it for another time. 

When I begin an improvisation, the notes disappear. 

Musical notes become live utterances emerging from intention. They are expressions in sound.

A note exists in the silence that comes before its utterance and in the silence that follows. 

At the workshop in North Carolina, we improvised on the Japanese concept of Ma. 

Ma - refers to the “gap” or “space” between - it emphasizes the importance of negative space, silences and pauses in creating meaning and balance. It is a fundamental principle in Japanese culture, seen in art, architecture and daily life. Empty spaces and pauses are not just voids, they are as essential as the objects or sounds themselves. They are an integral part of the whole.

Begin an improvisation with one note

Play a single note and leave lots of space before and after it. 

Repeat that note - leave lots of space before and after it.

Continue to repeat in this manner - how can you develop that repeated utterance?  

Play a sequence of four short phrases and leave LOTS of space between each phrase. 

Let this be the beginning - follow intuition and allow the rest of a piece to emerge. 

EuSing! Our First Open Mic! 

I added a new element to my online EuSing! Vocal Improv Classes: an open mic at the end of each month. This last Tuesday, I hosted the first open mic - and I am still blown away by the experience. It was about singing from the heart. Every person brought their own unique human experience to their song. It was all about sharing. Some people improvised, some shared a song they wrote, some shared a song they love. Words cannot explain the direct connection one feels when someone sings to you. 

It was all about being your authentic self in sound. 

Here is a meditation I created and shared the week before the open mic:

More Than a Pretty Sound

Why do I sing?

I have so much more to offer than a “pretty sound” 

I have a lot to say

And that is why I want to play

To give voice

To my feelings

I have the choice

To share my truth 

To give 

To soothe 

To offer a smile

A memory

A laugh

My voice reflects my story

My dreams

My frustrations

My hopes

Some good 

Some bad

Some happy

Some sad

Authentic

Sometimes tight

Sometimes light

Sometimes in tune

And sometimes not

Like each day

Ever changing

It’s all there rich and round

I am so much more than a pretty sound