Spontaneous Song a Day

30 Days of Songtaneous

Posted by Sarah M. Greer on Oct 15 2024 | Songtaneous, Spontaneous Song a Day

Last month (September), I revisited my 30 Days of Songtaneous Songs project.

It’s becoming an annual tradition to use this improv practice to find musical flow, generate new ideas, and explore/enjoy my instrument.

I did my first 30 Days right here on the Songtaneous blog while I was taking a year-long vocal improv course. I was looking for a way to work on my improvising skills so I created the following practice: Each day for a month, I record an improvised 3-minute solo with no edits and share it. When I started that meant recording and writing a daily blog post here; these days it means posting to social media (and then sharing here on the blog 😉).

I get to record as many 3-minute songs in a day as I want and I allow myself two takes of any idea — in case something really is trying to come through, and I can’t quite find it or there’s an interruption of some kind (car alarms, planes, people, etc.). The last step is to choose an improvisation I like and post online.

This is the third year I’ve shared this project via social media, but, as some of you know, I usually do it in November. However, I did 30 Days in September this year because I have been writing and developing a solo show as part of a theater/performance fellowship called Naked Stages alongside three other artists at Pillsbury House + Theater in South Minneapolis.

Over a 7-month period of mentorship, workshops, and one-on-one work with our chosen directors, I and my fellow artists (see what I did there? 😉) are creating 30- to 40-minute solo works that we’ll perform on stage over two weekends in November.

I’ll share more about the work I’ve been doing to find and create my show, but I can tell you that I used the September 30 Days project to help inspire some new songs for it.🙂🎶

For now, please SAVE THE DATES! Our shows run six nights – November 14-16 and 21-23. You can learn more about all of the shows on the Pillsbury House + Theater web site. It’s also where you can buy tickets and Pillsbury is again offering, pay what you can pricing.

Listen to 30 Days of Songtaneous 2024

I posted 30 Days to YouTube for the first time this year.

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Day 30 – 30 Days of Songtaneous

Posted by Sarah M. Greer on Nov 30 2021 | Sarah Sings, Songtaneous, Spontaneous Song a Day

Here we are at the end of November and at the end of my current improvising project.

For each day in November, I sang/recorded at least one 3-minute improvisation. I allowed myself two takes of any idea and but I posted the selected song with no edits and shared compilations of the weeks here on this blog. (Watch week 1, week 2 and week 3.)

The songs from the final 9 days were varied and more than one the song I posted was the only song I created for the day. With three weeks practice, it seemed the music came more easily, or perhaps I simply trusted my instincts more. I still had to negotiate the camera (the first time I did this project, I only posted audio), but filming the videos added an artistic element and challenged me to interact with the surrounding space in ways I hadn’t in the previous 30 days project. In fact, the songs from last Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday and today were all created away from home.

Sunday’s song happened while visiting the “Say Their Names” art installation. The installation is near George Floyd Square in South Mpls and hosts representative headstones for numerous Black people killed by police throughout the United States. My singer friend Mankwe from the Give Get Sistet held space there weekly from July to October and I participated in many of those sessions (Music with the Ancestors).

I was (am) also considering the myth and erasure driving the Thanksgiving holiday and feeling challenged by celebrating a holiday and occasion that many of my Indigenous/Native friends finding galling and painful. In the spirit of mourning and remembering, I once again visited this “cemetery” in south Mpls. The sun was setting and the beautiful willow still held some leaves. I recorded a song to post and then lingered to speak the names. I finished as the sun was setting.

It was then that I realized that this particular 30-day singing project was part of a continuing search for how to create and develop my own rituals and ceremonies for healing. Sending you light and songs as you practice and/or locate your own.??

Say Their Names Cemetery, art installation in South Minneapolis.

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