Bass-playin' Brice

On the third day, our instrumentalists joined us.

Brice (pronounced Breese), a small, soft-spoken and very, very sweet bass player sat on a stool to play his bass, which towered over him.

For all his sweetness, he was a beast on the bass. He began to study the bass at age 18 (I couldn’t even guess how old, or young, he is now?) and also told us how he took a fiberglass bass into the Cameroon Rainforest and lived and made music with the aboriginal people there. (When asked if he had a teacher there, he replied “I had a friend.” *smile*)

His wife and toddler son visited us often throughout the week.

On Brice’s first (or was it second) day with us, we broke into smaller groups — mine had 5 of us in it — and got to create duets with him. Here is an excerpt of the piece I created with him. (You can hear some of the “accompaniment” provided by the city — and nearby construction workers — in it. *smile*)

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Gunga with some of his instruments

Gunga is a percussionist who has lived in Amsterdam for over a decade, but still speaks with a thick Scottish brogue. Rhiannon labeled him the “trickster,” and he certainly put us through our paces.

Take the exercise where I had to harmonize with him as he played whistling tubes as an example. Gunga played them beautifully and with much more subtlety than you might imagine would be possible. He displayed incredible musicality while playing all these instruments he has constructed mainly from children’s toys and what we might consider “non-musical” items.

As the week progressed, he joined us often and became more and more tender with our group and vice versa. (I even got a smooch on the cheek during our final concert Friday. *smile*)

On our fourth day (Wednesday), my small group (the same 5 singers) worked on duets with Gunga. Here is a snippet from that duet.

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Both Gunga and Brice (and our dance instructors, too) were incredibly generous in the time they gave to us. They came for extra sessions and added so much to the rest of our week. I really enjoyed improvising with them and now I am thinking about how I might work with instrumentalists in my own projects.

“Gather quickly
Out of darkness
All the songs you know
And throw them at the sun
Before they melt
Like snow”
— Bouquet by Langston Hughes

“Bring me all of your dreams, you dreamers,
bring me all your heart melodies
that I may wrap them in a blue cloud cloth
away from the rough fingers of the world.”
— from The Dream Keeper by Langston Hughes

One of the differences in this third week of singing was that we worked with more guests and did more singing in public. We also spent more time working with movement.

Mati Elias

On Monday, our first guest — Mati — joined us to do movement work. I admit to feeling apprehensive about this. Before we arrived, Rhiannon asked us to think about how we experience our bodies in performance? Umm … okay?

(As you might have guessed, this is something I had never thought about. *wry grin* So I felt pretty sure that I was going to struggle with connecting my voice and my body.)

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But, as is usually the case during these weeks, things that might be challenging in other contexts or environments “just were.” A large part of it I’m sure is the trust the group built over the course of the year. After all, it is much easier to be vulnerable and to try new things when you’re not worried about your classmates judging you. (And I never was. *smile*)

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Once I let go of the idea that there was a way I was “supposed” to move, everything just kind of worked. Now, I am not saying that I turned into an expert, but I did find ways that the movement helped me find more in what I was singing.

A lot of the time as singers, we get kind of stuck (physically) in one place, in front of our microphone or in our little corner of the stage. Staying in one spot or position is a made-up rule – we can break the rules when it makes (musical/artistic) sense to do so. (I’m actually exploring these rules in the Fringe show in which I’m currently performing.)

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Mati really put us through our paces (I took a looonnnng  bath that night *grin*) but it was interesting and enlightening to sing after doing so much movement with my body. For me, it really grounded my singing.

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Martine van den Dool

On Thursday, we worked with Martine. A long-time friend and collaborator of Rhiannon’s, Martine is a dancer who has studied modern dance and improvisation, as well as singing. She brought movement “games” and exercises to the group designed to help us sense the the space that we were in and to notice who else and what else was happening in the space.

Martine challenged us to work to perceive what the audience might see in our movement. She also helped us to use larger and more kinds of movements (particularly important to me, since I don’t always feel comfortable moving. *smile*) I liked that she required that we work through the exercises “without drama,” meaning that even when we were felt we were making mistakes, we didn’t need to get upset, anxious or excited about them.

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With both Mati and Martine, getting to watch others and practice my own movement reinforced how powerful movement is. Even errant or unconscious movement. To the audience, movement communicates something.

I also find I am more and more curious about and connected to this idea of the voice as an organic instrument. The movement sessions were great chances to think about using my entire body to sing, not just my larynx and lungs.

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Both Mati and Martine joined us in our final performance. (I’m hoping to get video soon. *smile*)