Shine Up Your Voice This Autumn

 

Dear Katie  Shine Up Your Voice This Autumn   Shine Bright Like a Diamond We're beautiful like diamonds in the sky - Rihanna As Autumn leaves start to fall in the UK, many of us are feeling understandably anxious about the prospect of a long socially distant trek through to spring.  More than ever, it feels important to soak up nature's consolation for the loss of summer - the abundant harvest of flame coloured leaves on cool crisp days.  Like squirrels, we can trust our natural instinct to hunker down and gather resources for the time ahead (that doesn't include stockpiling loo roll!)  There are so many forms of self-care and creativity to help us rise and shine together - inspiring choir members in their 80s are up doing early morning yoga.  To help shine up your singing radiance here's... 3 Ways to Sing and Shine  1. Breathe Deep Breathe in the sweet air of limitless possibility, and make life as rich as you know it can be - Ralph Marston Our voice rides the waves of our breath and our breath is the foundation of life, so it's fundamental to breathe deep when singing.  This helps alleviate nerves, steadying our being so we can fly on the wings of song, swooping through melodies and enjoying the richness of each musical moment. You've been doing it from the moment you were born - so there's nowhere to go, nothing to do or be - you just come present to the magic of each breath. Right now put your hand on your belly, allow yourself to receive a deep breath, then let go, give, express. Cultivating this long soft belly breath gives us the foundation for singing - gently open into a hum, a sigh, a vowel, a phrase.   2.  Warm Up - Breathe, Move, Intend, Sing Allow some warm-up time each day to stimulate your creative flow. A pianist does keyboard exercises. A gymnast stretches. An artist needs to loosen up, too. It takes a few minutes to shift from the real world into a creative mode. - Nita Leland Singing is a whole body, whole being experience and a good warm up sets us up to sing by aligning our mind, body, spirit and voice in a creative, fun way.  My favourite daily warm ups include getting my mind and spirit tuned with meditation, intention and gratitude practices, getting moving with yoga, dancing, a walk /run in nature and getting my voice in gear with scales and vocal straw exercises. These help me feel relaxed, centred, energised, focussed and ready, not just to sing, but for life! Top to toe warm up - I made this video for members of my choirs with shorter session times in the time of covid - more videos and audios coming soon! 3.  Shine from within Let your light shine bright, believe in yourself, believe that you can rise - Khushaal Sharma One of the amazing benefits of singing is that it brings us into the present moment, quietening down the distracting voice of our inner critic.  Take the reins of your mind before singing,  focus it towards a positive intention and be your own cheerleader - find your own singing mantra: I can do it, I love singing, I sing and shine!    When singing for others set a clear intention to gift your listeners with love, happiness, joy, calm - whatever it is you want to beam out to them through song.  Your love, passion, purpose and the present moment experience of singing is far more powerful than fear and self-consciousness.  When you share your singing shine you make the world a lighter, brighter place! I am cheering you on!  Go get em Tiger! Warmly inviting you to Shine Up Your Singing this Autumn Singers Salon - Being the Song - starting Nov 4th - for those wanting to explore solo singing in a safe supportive small group Creative Coaching - bespoke 121 coaching for those looking to claim the joy, power and magic of their voices for singing, presentation and creative projects. Choirs - heartwarming community singing in a hybrid of on /offline options More about all of that below or head over to my website Thank you for shining your light and staying connected, I really appreciate you staying tuned! Be well, be safe, breathe deep, sing loudly  Lots of love, virtual hugs and good singing vibes info@therosewindow.org

Creating Singing Magic in Lockdown

 

Dear Friend Creating Singing Magic in Lockdown   Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There’s not some trick involved with it. It’s pure and it’s real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things – Tom Petty This challenging year has demonstrated the magic of singing can reach across the barriers and virtual obstacles of lockdown. Even in these painful months where my choirs have not been able to fully hear, sing and hug one another, magic has nonetheless been taking place. We've learned to beam our voices out across virtual cyberspace via Zoom and to become unwitting virtual video rockstars. So here's a few special lockdown singing magic highlights. Photo: The Rookery, Streatham - chalk drawings by local school children.

You Raise Me Up Performed by Chris Samuel, Ali Orbaum, Wendy Sergeant & Katie Rose

Sing for Water Virtual Event If there is magic on this planet it is contained in water —Loren Eiseley Water This year, our annual mass choral fundraiser went online, supported singers from around the country singing and fundraising in innovative ways in virtual reality.  Our virtual event had many incredibly moving moments including Dennis Lupenga from WaterAid Malawi sharing the transformation that happens when clean water comes to a village, ending the perilous journeys to unsafe water sources and bringing health and happiness. Huge Thanks to all the conductors, choir leaders and singers who took part - we really appreciate  everyone's amazing singing and heroic fundraising efforts during these difficult times.  Thames Festival Team will be creating a highlights video to share with friends and family by 27th September.

Keep Haulin' - ManSong

ManSong Keep Haulin' During Lockdown Courage is the magic that makes dreams a reality - Richter Abend Much magic has been happening with my male voice choir ManSong, who were only in their second term of singing together when lockdown happened and have bravely kept the boat afloat on Zoom. To celebrate our first birthday and a risk assessed return to singing in person this term, we have released a lockdown video fundraiser.   I am super proud of everyone and so grateful to our in house director Adam Woods & crew. Thanks to Andy Cadie for letting us use his wonderful song Keep Haulin' which has become our catchphrase for singing our way through these strange times together. This video is fundraising to save our wonderful venue Landmark Arts Centre, whose dedicated team have supported us every step of the way.  We hope you enjoy it and if inspired make a donation

The Big People Sunday Sing It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us. -J.K. Rowling Thank you so much to everyone who joined me on Sundays during intense lockdown from March-August. We had enormous fun singing and wearing silly hats and it really helped keep spirits up during lockdown.  Donations from these sessions and from other generous members of my choral community raised £442.50 for St George's Hospital Charity.

Crystal Palace Festival.. and more... Know your magic, trust your magic, use your magic and know that you are a manifestation of life’s magic. — Rasheed Ogunlaru Three Big Sparkly Cheers for the imaginative Festival Team who set up a film studio in Upper Norwood Library Hub  to create two full days of livestreamed magic in August.  I was really honoured to lead a Festival SingAlong with Dominic Stichbury - our first experience of Choir Leader TV! :) Here's the video if you missed it (Photo credit: Pawel Gawronski) Shout out to Eleanor Rastall for inviting me on the  Library Lunch Daily Show both at the beginning of lockdown and more recently, I'm getting used to singing to people I can't see but can definitely feel out there in the virtual airwaves. Thanks so much to everyone who tuned in. Of course, virtual reality can never replace the magic of real singing with real people in real spaces with real hugs, tea and biscuits. However we are adapting, changing, creating magic within the constrictions of the craziness, and even though everything is still very uncertain, I trust that singing magic will continue to happen on and offline. If you'd like to experience some singing magic, do get in touch  - I'd love to hear from you! Thank you so much for staying tuned. Be well, be safe, breathe deep, sing loudly  Lots of love, virtual hugs and good singing vibes