Episode 146

Begin Again

Art by Patty Piotrowski

Hello Singer of Wellness!

All italicized words from "Begin Again" by Jean Farmer

I get so frustrated when I'm not able to put into practice those things I've been learning how to do. When I jump to fix rather than slow to listen. When I don't use someone's preferred pronouns, mis-speaking. When I feel judged and found wanting and I know that it's me doing the dooming, following an unkind, unhelpful pattern. "You should know better by now!" I scold myself. (Yes, 'shoulding' on myself. Also something I sh*d know better than to do! Aargh!!!)

I begin again, with my breath

This song of Jean Farmer's reminds me to come back. 

Joining earth, earth and spirit.

Back to my breath and my body -- my fundamental belonging to the earth. 

I return again, to my breath.

And then my frustration is simply part of the practice, part of the whole, part of being alive. There's a tender release.

Walking home, the unknown path.

I find myself willing again to try, willing to risk, willing to trust the path. Willing to begin again like spring green. Aahhhh. 

🌱🌷☘️ 𝄆 🎵🎵🎵𝄇 ☘️ 🌷🌱

This particular episode is unusual in that Jean gave me permission to try whatever harmonies I pleased... so I give you four different versions of the same song! Unison, echoed, a descant and a harmony above & below (with a different harmonic sound than the echo or descant). I wonder which you'll like? Or maybe you'll explore six other kinds of harmony?

It's my hope that you'll take the songs that matter to you and literally incorporate them. Genevieve wrote this when she subscribed this week: 

"I love to sing and have no training. Run into "trouble" when the range of notes is too "wide". eg Mark's Song goes too high for me; and if I 'just sing lower', it goes too low for my voice. I hope there's a podcast addressing that and the options we have! Thank you!!!"  

I bet Genevieve is not the only one experiencing this block to incorporation, so here's my response (lightly edited for this platform.) I'm guessing range discomfort is what started humans harmonizing in the early times... and they noticed how beautiful stacked sounds can be.

Hi Genevieve, 

That's a fantastic observation, and a really frustrating thing to run into! I can think of three options:

1. Extend your range. If you can sing more comfortably both lower and higher, you won't be frustrated as often. A basic technique to help with that are sirens and slides, like the explorations we do at the beginning of each podcast. It really helps if you can do this every day for a few minutes, letting your voice slide higher and lower as smoothly as it will. Vocal coaching can help (it's not just for 'professionals').

2. Choose to sing the song in a different key. Stop the music if you're singing along and shift to a new, more comfortable place in your voice to sing by yourself. You may have to shift several times to find a place where the song is neither too low, nor too high.

3. Sing a harmony rather than the melody. If the melody sits too low in your voice, sing notes that sound sweet, but are higher up. If the melody is too high, find the notes that sound sweet which are lower. Often harmonies stay on the same note longer than the melodies do... sometimes it works to sing one of the melody notes that is comfortable, and just stay on it while the melody goes down or up. You can listen for what sounds good to you.

And when it's frustrating, when nothing sounds right or feels right? May I suggest a return to the breath? (Are you listening, Patricia?) 😊  Give yourself the grace to begin again with a gentle hum, the willingness to be here, loving your own voice as it is in this moment, giving you all it's got. That's my ongoing practice... beginning again, again.

I'm reading all your names... and good glory gracious, there are 669 of you today!!! Reading all the names every week may not be sustainable for me much longer?! But it is for now, and you will always be one of the people who launched this library of song. 

I am deeply, widely, sky-highly grateful for you. Your time listening, your voice singing, comments, donations, your engagement.... all these things nourish me, shore up my capacity.

As we start the Ribbons of Song, I'm hoping I'll get to meet you in another way -- maybe see your face at a ribbon sing?  Can you save Sunday, July 7th, 4 pm ET on your calendar right now? There are A Breath of Song subscribers on every continent; we who are moved by song, we who use song with intention to help navigate life -- we belong to each other, and it is good to recognize the webbing that criss-crosses the planet.

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