Why sound...my altar...my prayer

For me, although voice is my first instrument, sound is more than singing.
It is drumming and chiming and striking and stroking and plucking..

I sound because it is my spiritual practice.
I sound because it nourishes my soul and makes it glow.
I listen deeply to the known and the mystic and
I sound to give 'voice' to the sonic mysteries swirling through the cosmos.
Sounding gives me roots to ground and wings to soar.
Sound brings me back to harmony when I am out of tune.
Sound brings me balance.
It reaches out to all the places I have stretched myself and offers
an alchemical container where I can return to my peace in the chaos.
Life is my altar and my body is not a temple to sit with hard, structured
boundaries unused waiting for a moment of occasional spirit ritual.
My body is my instrument. Constantly tuning and adjusting to life's symphony.
I chant it. I dance it. I sing it. I make mad passionate love to it. I breathe it.

Sound is my song, it is my dance, it completes me.

Sonic Blissings, Anny

Time Flies, Sound Travels

Wow! Time Flies and Sounds Travels.....Earthdance was wonderful....it was surreal...I was just talking to a participant today and I was telling her that I honestly don't remember it. I was it a sort of in a bubble and everything that was happening around me. She said that often happens when we are the organizer of an event. Pictures will be up soon on the website and I'll brave the video edits, I promise.

Creatively I feel like I'm ready to burst into something new and I will have a new stage/pen name to bring with me. In fact it's a very old name, an old family name, the one my mom calls me, Anoushka. It carries with it some of that old gypsy ancestry we recently found. I've always felt somewhat alone in this journey and this makes me a little more connected. It's a nice sentiment. It brings a whole new energy to my creative presence and I'm looking forward to all the positive vibrations that will ripple out.

With more time on my hands, I'll be blogging more....Sonic Blissings, Anoushka

Circle Singing

Creating circles of sound is one of the most intuitive ways of making music. Circle singing is part of an oral tradition that dates back centuries to tribal gatherings where an elder would start with a sound or a phrase and inspire the whole community to join in. The rhythmic repetition of the sounds is what gives the songs their circular shape and chantlike structure making them uplifting and intoxicating, drawing the listener inside the music.

In my case the elder was vocal genius Bobby McFerrin and the experience was 5 days of sonic intoxication. Truth, beauty and love in a space where laughter filled the air like the scent of a nightblooming jasmine and tears flowed the river of joy and lament. Connections were made without words ever being spoken. We knew each other before we sat down at the same table for lunch. We sang for peace. We sang for freedom. We sang for creativity. We sang for grace. We sang for unity. We sang for love. And we sang in bliss. All qualities in the light of human spirit. And, yes, we glowed.

The key elements of Circle Singing are movement and listening. It is simply impossible to stand still while Circle Singing. Impossible! Listening, ah, blessed listening requires every ounce of effort you can muster up. You’ll need it. There will be a lot going on and you need to hear it all. Then as Miles Davis used to say, 'listen for what is not there' and you will find your part.

Circle singing is one of the simplest and most direct ways to build community. History shows us that singing in community is exceptionally powerful. You get people together in a room and get them singing and you instantly knock down all the walls – the creeds, the gender, age and race differences, the hierarchies, everything. You become one at that point, lifting your voices.

You release your mind and rely on body-based impulses that provide a perfect container into which ambiguous thoughts and feelings can be externalized and transformed using the symbolic language of sound. We tune into our ability to surrender control and trust with openness.

Circle Singing is about submitting to the music that is encoded in our bones, the music that comes directly from the spirit of life. It puts us in the moment, resonating with the life that surrounds us. Circle singing resonates into all parts of our life, in how you listen, blend, stand out find your groove or surrender to yourself.

“Singing without words makes one song a thousand songs because the people who hear it can bring their own stories into it.”
~ Bobby McFerrin

© 2007, Anny Fyreagle