Humming a tune while washing the dishes. Tapping out a rhythm on the steering wheel. Wanting to hear a certain kind of song to suit our mood. Emotional surges and absent minded creative moments.
What happens when a space is made for conscious improvisation, grounded in the body and carried by the voice? Magic! We are moved by the preciousness of our own music, our own stories, perhaps for the first time.
The Singing Soul: Improvisational A Cappella, led by David Hatfield, returns to Creston from March 25-27. The Singing Soul is spontaneous, in-the-moment singing, the unveiling of our very uniqueness in melody, harmony and rhythm — our stories, in words and beyond them.
In 14 years of leading the Singing Soul, Hatfield has engaged thousands of folks of all ages, background and experience to explore and maybe discover their voice for the first time. Vocal musicians have found it helps strengthen their abilities while others come for personal development, inspiration and fun. By turns edgy, hilarious, challenging and deeply moving, each moment is an original composition that is unrehearsed, precious, and irreplaceable.
It’s also profoundly fun! There are no wrong notes and there’s nothing to memorize, just breathe and sing. Improvisation itself is a master teacher, a life skill, an antenna that reveals how each moment holds a hundred possibilities, and how to access them in realizing our creative intuition.
The Singing Soul is for those who are ready to let go of “getting it right” and are ready to embrace letting it just happen. Unrehearsed singing evokes the genuine and soulful voice. You’ll strengthen your abilities as a vocal musician in creating melodies and harmonies, laying down vocal percussion grooves and bass lines, and gelling with others in creating freewheeling counterpoint that just begs a soloist — then becoming that too!
Sessions begin with physical and vocal warm-ups. A variety of clearly outlined structures are offered for the full group, small groups, duets and soloing, each of which generates different experiences and outcomes. Sessions are punctuated with pauses to process learnings together.
Maureen Cameron and Shirley Cameron are bringing Hatfield to Creston to offer this experiential workshop as a weekend of fun and inspiration. Hatfield has taught the Singing Soul internationally since 1996. For more information, visit www.davidhatfield.ca.
Tickets area available at Black Bear Books. The early bird registration is $100 before March 11, and $125 after. Sessions include an evening introduction at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church on March 25, and daylong sessions at the Snoring Sasquatch on March 26 and 27.