SAT MAY 26th 2-3.30pm £10 (£8 in advance)
THE HAPPY CELL 122 Davigdor Rd Hove BN3 1RE 01273 229855
Next to Wickes DIY- free parking available
SUN JULY 15th 2-3.30pm £10 (£8 in advance)
HANOVER COMMUNITY CENTRE
Southover St Brighton BN2 9UD 01273 694873
So what’s it about?
The Freesounding voice and drum workshop is a space to be present & connect with your self and others in sound, experiencing and discovering your voice and your natural rhythm. Anyone can enjoy and benefit from this and you don’t need to have any experience in music, just be willing to be open. It’s energising, transforming, empowering and fun!
We will focus on our breath and our body, stretching and loosening, opening the voice with toning. Using natural movement we will sound and stretch out in vocal play with percussion to express and release, then raise the energy with drumming, celebrating shared rhythm.
It’s not so important what your voice sounds like but rather the intention….and you don’t need to be an expert drummer; the rhythms will be simple and accesible to all – it’s about the process of sharing, being in the sound moment, putting our thinking mind to one side.
Toning vowel sounds is a wonderful way to connect with others and has a profound effect on our breathing, oxygenating and stimulating our whole body, relaxing muscles and restoring health to the body mind and spirit. Toning is also a powerful way to harmonise and restore balance and flow to the chakra energy system. ‘Chakra’ is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or vortex and refers to seven main energy centres located along the central channel of our body from the base of the spine. Each chakra corresponds to specific glands, organs and facets of our being.
(For more information about sound and chakras please see the list of resources at the bottom of this page).
Vocal play is this context is about experimenting vocally in response to the sounds of percussion – we can express different sides of our self, using the whole range of our voice and our body; we can stretch out, release tension, make sounds expressively and playfully, learning to let go of our judgements and not take our self too seriously. This part of the workshop usually produces a lot of laughter!
Drumming. As we move towards the drums, we relax into simple rhythms, sharing, connecting as a group with call and response, vocal improvising, having musical conversations – each time this part is a little different -so we see what happens!
Drumming and vocalising together is a powerful way of transforming & harmonising our energy and opening the heart – we can learn from indigenous nature-based cultures, who have always used voice and drum as way of celebrating, coming together, healing body, mind and spirit.
“the power of the breath, heartbeat and vocal sound is the conscious link between body, spirit and soul” Don Campbell
“The drum reverberates throughout our multi-dimensional being, an ancient call to bring us back to ourselves….and with that a creative, passionate and vibrant life” Lyle Povah – drum circle facilitator
For more information on toning/chakras see books/articles/CDs by The College of Sound Healing & Simon Heather, Kay Gardener, James d’Angelo, Jill Purce, Chloe Goodchild, Jonathan Goldman, Caroline Shola Arewa and many more.
