
Stories , Sounds, Workshops
Stories , Sounds, Workshops
Holistic , one on one lessons offered through Zoom or in person. Adult prices listed. Depending on the student's needs, lessons are multidisciplinary - incorporating yoga techniques, meditative visualization, dance, creative writing, voice, and character development to our guitar practice and study. These techniques are supplementary to your practice, supporting your authentic expression, and helping you relate to your guitar with as much honesty and liveliness as possible that day.
Drop In's are a good choice if you are just curious and starting to check out the instrument.
You may schedule them one at a time as you see fit.
4 lessons, once per week. These have a short term goal in mind. They are focused on a specific concept of your choice, such as learning the ins and outs of a chosen song. An initial half hour consultation is included.
12 lessons, once per week - A planned out, personalized semester, covering a range of concepts based upon your interests and experience. This may include physicality, scales, chords, rhythm, songs, improvisation, composition, and more. An initial half hour consultation is included.
Living Musically's 3 semester curriculum of ecopsycholgically- guided outdoor music workshops in development!
Music as Kinmaking focuses on the practice of musical improvisation and expression beyond our typical instruments. By using ecopsychological journaling, theater games, call and response explorations, singing, rhythm, and dance, we navigate through our human narratives, musically express with each other and the other- than -human life we share space with, and develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be musical, belong, be home, be processual, and be in kinship with Earth.
Neither performer nor audience can exist without each other. When we step into a venue, we agree to enter a different world together. We agree to create a different world together.
If we are aware of this, we can call upon the power of performance at any time to give us perspective, spark, and an imagination of what could be.
In this semester, each participant will have the opportunity to consciously experience the energy and space of being an audience member, and being a performer.
Please come back soon for more details. Or drop me a line to chat and find out more! Your input is so valuable, and your interest will help guide the direction of this workshop.
What is Living Musically?
A way to approach life in a musical manner. Learning music, and approaching our own musicality with the understanding that what we do in music has effects and implications that span and last far beyond the song we're playing. Music is powerful, natural, ecological, and can be available to all.
Music is all about relationship. Relationship between pitches (notes), between beats ( rhythm), between the musician and the instrument ( including the vocalist's lungs and the air), between all of this and the listener, whose brain identifies patterns that evoke emotions and move bodies, and between the vibrations and matter that come together to make sound.
A system of symbiotic ( living -with) and sympoietic (making-with) relationships, music is ecological, a microbiome within nested ecosystems. When we play music together or solo, we play relationships - that primal stuff that makes life possible.
Yet, for any relationship to flourish, we can't just play the notes on the page. We need to practice sensitivity in the form of listening, responding ( instead of reacting), using our physical senses to gather information, as well as using our sense of intuition. It is with this practice that we can really improvise and jam together - through a song, and through life!
Living Musically is an invitation for you to consciously practice making music, and practice being in relationship with your psychological self ( deep, diverse elements that make music so meaningful to us), your wider, communal selves ( the ecological beings and narratives that you coshape with), and your musical - relational self (responsive, response-able, sensitive, creative, open, with defined boundaries).
With this practice, we have the opportunity to joyously and cathartically play our favorite songs, as well as improvise and create new songs/stories. - To tune into patterns and connections all around us, relating with humans and other ecological beings in lively and sincere ways. - And to find a deeper sense of belonging within this beautiful, sensitive, intrawoven, musical planet.
Ecological Psychology is a study and practice of the interwovenness of all life. Aligned with native sciences in this way, Ecopscyhology operates with the understanding that we make one another who, what, and how we are. The water I drink becomes me. What I use to wash my body, and how I dispose of my trash, my waste, becomes the water. The energy I bring to the coffeehouse, or to my classroom, or to my family – alters the environment we share together. And, the energy I walk into, can alter me, and my energy.
The stories I grow up with – what is shared to me from and about my family, what I learn in school, how adults treat me and each other, how my friends treat me and each other, and what I see in movies and magazines (and now, social media) - all of this shapes my behavior, and shapes my ethos – even if I am unaware of that co-creation. In fact, perhaps especially if I am unaware.
In order to study this physical and behavioral interconnectedness, we spot patterns in the ecological world, as well as in complex and diverse myths, narratives, and world views. Uncovering these patterns helps us to understand the intricate workings and relationships of our social, psychological, and physical ecosystems.
Since we ARE ecological, the ecological world provides the processes and principles that also take place in our psychology. This is a gift when seeking to understand our feelings and behaviors.
In practice, we use metaphor and deep questioning to excavate human narratives, spot psychological patterns, attune our senses, and undergo a psychological involution of composting and new growth.
With guidance, this practice and study can lead us to become more grounded in knowing how we are home on Earth; how we are ecological.
In this practice, we become familiar, akin, with other beings, not only humans, but humans too. We become akin with processes, with change.
Ecopsychology is not to be confused with Eco Therapy, yet they are connected .To practice ecopsychology, it does help to get out and explore different environments, different creatures. This not only diversifies our lives in an experiential way, but also allows us to recognize our psychological ecosystems in deeper metaphorical ways. I grew up by the Hudson River, and live by one of its tributaries now. Perhaps this is partially why I identify a lot with rivers. I can study their behavior, and learn about my behavior. If I am flooded, I need warmth, the heat of the sun. If I am stuck, I can move my body, dance, invigorate a flow again. Or even clean a bit of my house - undoing an out of date dam.
Yet, for those environments and creatures we can't be in or next to, we can learn about them to understand how our behavior is related. The more we know about a different ecological being or process, the more our own lives and psychology make sense.
IMAGINATION
Once we understand more about how our physical and psychological world works, we can imagine with intention. This is part of my understanding of how ecosychology is so helpful.
Imagination is pivotal, in general, but also emphasized ecopsychology, in regards to narrative change. Our imagination tells or reveals a story, and guides our behavior, actions, and energy -- If given attention, our wildest dreams can also help us understand where our ethos and our intuition lie. With appreciation for the wisdom of imagination, We can work to imagine new stories into being. Stories of expression, universal prosperity, and love.
Your generosity is greatly appreciated! By donating, you are allowing financial aid for students, as well as furthering the development of ecopsychological and musical workshops and studies. Thank you for being a part of this effort to elevate our relationality, as we cultivate and explore our innate and unique musicality, curiosity, and ecological existence. Donations may be sent to @livingmusically on Venmo.
A lesson in writing lyrics to your own blues, and singing them too! On zoom or in person.
A lesson in writing and singing your blues, plus an ecopsychological questionnairre to help you understand ecopsychology, as well as understand and evolve your current relationship with music and/or performing. On zoom or in person.
All of the above, plus a song written and performed for you and about you and the uniqueness you bring to this world. Can be shared publicly or kept just for you to remember the beautiful reflections and expressions that you are.
I look forward to connecting and collaborating with you!
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