the Mycelium Choir

I’ve just returned from running a singing course in Bild-Werk Frauenau- on the German/Czech border, my 6th since 2001. It is a Centre for the Arts with a unique and wonderful atmosphere, where people from all over the world come to learn and experiment with different artistic mediums, with a particular expertise in glass techniques. Frauenau, a small town surrounded by the Bavarian forest and mountains, has for centuries been an area for glass production, similarly across the border in the Czech Republic. These days, what with cheap imports from Asia, hand blown glass manufacture is struggling, but Bild-Werk continues to offer creative courses in flat glass, glass engraving and blowing and other techniques, as well as in many other arts and crafts. My bi-annual singing course is now affectionately known as “die Candy singers”. 24 of us, ranging from complete beginners, to highly experienced singers, spent a wonderful week learning and exploring songs: Czech, gospel, even attempting a short song by Brahms. We had some interesting ongoing conversations between us about what actually goes on when we sing together, and how much it makes us feel happy and fulfilled. We came to the conclusion that modern life, with its emphasis on doing your own thing, being an individual, leaves many people with a deep down loneliness, an indefinable sense of not ‘Belonging’. But when we sing together, we feel complete, and a wonderful sense of wellbeing, of coming home. I am fascinated how singing builds contact, friendship, tolerance between people. We see each other as individuals, with our differing vulnerabilities and strengths, but we also develop a common bond through singing together. Somehow our differences mean less, our common humanity gains prominence. I believe we are working with forces that we don’t fully understand, that we feel and sense but scientists have just not discovered yet. When we sing together, we create an invisible vessel- a zone- between us, that you then automatically tap into, next time you sing with those same people. I have learnt through my interest in plants and food, about Mycelium- small white fungal threads that grow under the soil, connecting plants and trees to create a whole ecosystem. They support, indeed promote the health of the whole forest. The forest is weaker, more disease prone without them. I believe singing is the invisible Mycelium for human well-being. This is a Mycelium choir!

Sing on the isle of Eigg

Our singing holiday on the isle of Eigg launched an epic trip around Scotland and Ireland for Robin and me in a reckless camper van. Eigg lies off the coast of Scotland, an hour’s ferry trip from Mallaig. 85 people live there full time, and they claimed well earned fame 17 years ago by successfully buying out their own island from an absentee Dutch landlord. We met many islanders, including Donna the Piper, sharing stories, songs and hearing about the history. Our first trip was to Laig Bay, a glorious strip of white sandy beach, shrouded in a white lighted mist when we arrived. As we lay, soaking up the warmth of the misty sun, 2 cows nonchalantly strolled past us to the sea’s edge, and spent their whole day paddling, walking up and down the length of the beach. A while later, Michael called out Look! In front of us rose 2 enormous mountains: they appeared as if 500 yards away, but it was the island of Rhum, actually 5 miles away. We were in faery land. Gradually as the mist cleared, the whole panorama revealed itself. One of the aims of my singing holidays is to sing songs that originate from the place we stay in, connecting us more deeply to the people, landscape, the ancestral energy of the place. In preparation, I had researched a song collected 100 years ago from the northern township of Cleadale on Eigg, sung “to the slow rhythmic swing of the stacking of the hay”. Its melancholy feel didn’t seem to fit its use, make much sense, but as we learnt it, along with a singer who lived in Cleadale, we realized the characteristic upwards octave jump of the melody reflected the movement of the tossing up of the hay onto a high haystack. You needed the slow tempo to bend down, collect the next pitchfork of hay, before tossing up again. I love this - the line of the song was created through the action of the work. Only through the process of doing the action as we sung did we discover this.

Sounding It Out raise their voices at Bath Christmas Market

Last Friday, we sang under the arches in Abbey Green in Bath, part of the Bath Christmas Market, next to the mulled cider, jewelry, Christmas wreaths and every sort of gift. Our gathering audience particularly liked the well known carols, but we had some compliments for the village carols as well- just like Maddy Prior, someone said. The highlight for me was when a very little boy heard me announce that our next carol would be Silent Night "I know Silent Night!" he called out, from the shoulders of his dad. Next thing, he was down, standing in front with the choir, and he sang 4 verses, one in german. His parents videoed the whole show. Well, we may have set a future musician on his road in life...

Singing with the very old

Over the last year and a half I have been invited into Mavern House Nursing Home in Melksham to develop a community choir- a choir that everyone connected to Mavern House can join. This includes residents, staff, and families. Also, several of my regular singers have generously given of their time to come along to swell the sound and spread confidence. It has been a very rewarding experience. We have heard from the families of some residents that they look forward all week to the sessions. There has been notable change in behaviour for some as well: more outgoing, lively and obviously really engaged. One of the regular members of Mavern Melodies (as they have named themselves), sadly passed away recently. The rest of us, 35 singers in all, came to sing Danny Boy at the service. We sang with heart and soul, and it touched us all. Singing is now embedding itself into the life at Mavern House. I have been told that some members of staff are now singing a special song to residents at their death bed. And the managers are investing in the sustainability of this work by sending 2 staff members on my Community Choirs Teachers Training in January.

Heard a fascinating fact last week: did you know that all bees' buzz at different frequencies? For instance, the buzz of the bumble bee resonates at 400 Kh, which has a particularly dramatic effect on the pollen sacks of plants from the Belladonna family - tomatoes, aubergines and the like. It tickles the fancy of the pollen sacks so much that they explode, resulting in pollen being scattered all over the bumblebee's body, a very effective way of fertilizing other plants. So with this in mind, what is happening when we sing together? Can we find particular resonances which can affect pollution for instance? If you are an expert on resonance, please let me know!

Flamenco and more

I've been staying with a friend in South West Spain, flamenco country. The landscape is uncompromisingly hot and arid . In some of the beautiful parks in the towns there grow date palms, aloe vera, washingtonias, as well as a vast, gangling giant of a tree, a Ficus from Australia. Its hollow sounding roots extend out at head height, shaded by its enormous asymmetric branches, a tree that shelters and hosts innumerable species, including us below. In David Abram’s new book 'Becoming Animal' he describes us human beings as part of the interconnected web of nature. Often scientists isolate one part in order to understand it, but ultimately everything is connected to everything else. And then I ponder the superb flamenco performance we heard and saw one night . We were enchanted within the dancer’s passionate performance: the speedy and earthy rhythms of her feet, contrasting with the elegance of her fingers and the swooping and bending of her body. I felt I was experiencing a whole ecosystem in one, it was not just one art form, it was a system of art forms, and they mirrored the wider surrounding. They directly related to the passionate and harsh landscape from which it has grown. Maybe, as well as our bodies, culture evolves out of landscape too?

Walking the Cornwall coast path last week, happened up on a plaque on a barn in Cadgwith that mentioned singing.This led me to visiting the pub on the Friday evening, and boy was it the highlight of my holiday. Suddenly the pub was singing, led by several men, fishermen mostly. We had stumbled upon the real thing- a community singing for their own pleasure. We were welcomed to join in- traditional songs, some well known, some specifically Cornish. It felt like the beautiful rich bass voices led the songs, people joined in with harmonies, and interestingly, no-one clapped at the end. This was being IN the singing, not performing, there was no audience.

Sustainable farming project in El Salvador- needs our support

If you care about supporting subsistence farmers in a developing country to help themselves, to build sustainable farming practices, to build resilience to the effects of climate change, please go to this site: http://www.indiegogo.com/viva-permacultura?a=772826 Check out the short video, and contribute to their Crowd Funding campaign. I know Karen personally. She has devoted 12 years of her life to building up this inspirational project. Please, give what you can: 2 weeks worth of cups of coffee from Costa/Starbucks would be £30. Candy

SKYE singing holiday April 2011

Well, we all got there, mostly on the world famous scenic train journey from Glasgow to Mallaig, to gather in Armadale, on the Sleat peninsula in the south of Skye. We booked the Ardvasar community Hall for the week, both to sing in, also to gather, eat and hang out each evening. We were staying in some well appointed lodges up on the hill on the Clan Donald estate, overlooking the sound of Sleat, across to Knoydart.

We were a group of 25, from ages 15 all the way up to late sixties. Some had lots of singing experience, some had none. Michael was our wonderful cook for the week, cooking us superb 3 course meals each evening. We sang our hearts out every morning, took off for walks or car journeys in the afternoon to explore the spectacular scenery, returning early evening to eat, sing, and entertain ourselves.

On our last evening, we had a excellent evening sharing our songs, and cabaret acts, enjoying the talents within the group: a hilarious skit by Ani and Amie, our teenage singers, some numbers by our newly formed band, Betsy's USA dances, and Lizzie, performer and wordsmith, wrote the poem below. And we were blessed with 2 impromptu guests from France and Algeria- a student couple were walking and camping on Skye, heard the music, and were invited in to spend the evening with us, eating haggis and neeps, and joining in the singing. They spent the evening grinning from ear to ear.

Candy bedecked in hues of heather,

Conducted our choir whatever the weather

With songs from distant lands and times

Some in gaelic and some with rhymes.

Enthusing our group with her skills and grace

Harmonies flooded each voice and face

Robin with his ‘rovin’’ watchful eye

Took care of us all the island of Skye.

Michael a wizard of bread and dinner

Made us a feast, each night a winner.

For everything that you’ve done for us

Accept our gift of a rousing chorus

March 2011 Newsletter

I feel honoured that I have been invited to run another Soul Soundings, this time in Wells Cathedral on Wednesday 27th April, 7.30-9.30pm.

This is a unique opportunity: we will have the entire space to ourselves, to explore the resonance of this ancient and sacred building with the human voice, connecting us to each other, to spirit and to the building itself. We will move around the building, experiment with different tones, use echoes, drones and free singing, as well as learn some simple songs. This event is open to all, from experienced musicians to beginners, and we will learn music by ear.

If you are interested in coming, tickets are £12 adults, £5 children, available from Wells Cathedral Shop, or via paypal on the Workshops/Events page. All profits will go to Barenboim-Said Foundation, which promotes coexistence and interaction amongst cultures through music, and the spirit of peace, dialogue and reconciliation.

Testimonials from Bath Abbey Soul Soundings June 2009:

“Both for me and two other people who are completely new to this type of singing it was a revelation of the power and beauty of music, the human voice and singing. It was a perfect event which we will not forget.”

Recently Sounding It Out supported a very worthwhile charity called Peace Direct by travelling to London to sing in Paddington Station, to raise their profile and spread their hopeful message. They are celebrating International Women's Day with this inspiring video. Please do have a look and pass it on. www.peacedirect.org/justonewoman

And finally, do have a look at the Guardian newspaper, Travel section, on Saturday March 19th. There will be an in-depth article about a singing/walking holiday I recently facilitated for the Rambler Countrywide Holidays in Matlock Bath. We were privileged to have a journalist and photographer sing and walk with us for 2 days.

Here are some more photos of our time on Bardsey island, off north Wales, sent by Jayne from USA.
Is Claudia sounding the pan for dinner, drying it off, or summoning the spirits of the place?

Bardsey Adventure Holiday Sept 2010

Highlights: Singing to the seals down on the beach. They preferred some songs to others!
In the stillness of one balmy evening, we stood outside and sang "Shine on Me" to the lighthouse. Some people were moved to tears. At sunset, we had seen the outline of the Wicklow mountains 50 miles across the Irish Sea- just magical.
On our last evening, we invited everyone on the island to come and hear us sing the songs we had learnt all week, in the old school house. We probably attracted 50% of the island's visitors- about 10 people, including another choir leader from Shropshire.

Members of Sounding It Out went to a Choirs Meet in Sedburgh on 11-13 June. We met up with choirs from Slovenia, Lancaster and Northumberland. We had a wonderful 2 days, singing together, eating, laughing, walking and getting to know each other. The Slovenian choir did not speak any English, and we certainly did not speak Slovenian. We nevertheless got on fine, it almost did not matter. As Shelagh said - we can't exchange a word together, but we still feel a bond because we've sung together.
The Slovenian choir is made up of 7 members of the same family- 3 sisters, 2 husbands, 1 daughter and 1 neice. They sing their traditional Slovenian folksongs. When they came to teach us a song, they found that they could not teach 1 part without the others singing at the same time. I interpreted this that singing for them came from such a natural place, that they had never analysed what they were doing, hence could not separate one part from another. So different from our culture, where those of us teaching choirs have to build up our knowledge of songs from others, books and CDs. Very few families in UK have their own repertoire of passed down songs.

Singing Towards Change with Students

My friend and colleague Martin Sandbrook has been teaching a module at the University of Bath Spa, about Sustainability in Business, exploring deep ecology, and how our ways of thinking have to change in order for us to address the environmental crisis. He asked me to come in on their final session to do some singing with the students. We wanted them to experience singing as a tool for reconnection- both to each other, but also to our struggling planet and environment. Their feedback from the session amazed us both – see quotes below. It’s as if his ongoing work throughout the year came to a final “a ha!” moment with the singing. They really GOT IT.

Martin, I and others are aiming to further this work together in business settings. Contact me if you are interested.

"Singing is truly linked to the prosperity of the inner soul and its well being, throughout my whole university career that session well and truly took me out of my comfort zone, and I can say with 100% conviction that I am glad that I did. Life is so fragile and we have to remember that sometimes the most basic of actions such as taking a few minutes out to sing, or meditate or something similar can be invaluable to our well being."

"To conclude this review, I will discuss the moment when my worldview changed, this was the moment when I went from dispair to belief. It was through the final session of the sustainabiltiy module with Candy Verney that I felt really had the most impact on my future direction and the way that I now view the world.

The final part of Candy's session was on singing, and its role within a society. It was this part of the session that will never be forgotten because of the constrained thoughts and feelings that it managed to release inside me. When Candy discussed why western society, who have a high standard of living in terms of resource consumption, suffer from more depression related illnesses than some of the poorest countries, which Candy put down to, among other things, the freedom of expression of sound, in terms of singing. This was something I felt very sceptical towards, as singing to me, as a member of western society is something that I met with anxiety, as it has been repressed within me. However once I felt I had overcome my anxiety, I really started to embrace the session and as I looked around my fellow peers, who like me had started the session looking anxious, I noticed that they were all smiling. This really brought home the power of sound, and as I stood within the class I began to think, maybe we can change. My previous thoughts of its too late and we can do nothing to change, seemed at that moment to be quashed, this was the 'extraordinary event' I had read about in Senge, et al (2003), the moment my worldview changed.

My 'extraordinary event' was triggered when I looked around the room, as I was reminded of the key characteristics of mankind's survival on planet earth, the ability to adapt and change to the environment we find ourselves in. We as a group had overcome the social boundaries we had created by embracing the power of song to join us in unison. It was this that gave me hope as I now believed that to a degree the beliefs of society can be changed, therefore a sutainable future can be achieved. I acknowledge it will not be ab easy process, it may take time and like the group that Candy managed to get singing, people will change at different rates. I now haveidentified my role as an example to others, I will be the one who starts singing first, so that others will hopefully follow.

St Rita Choir visit Sounding It Out

Members of Sounding It Out hosted a return visit of the St Rita Choir from Berlin last weekend. We first of all went on a walk around the resonant places of Bradford on Avon- St Mary Tory, the Saxon Church and the Tithe Barn, singing as we went. Then all 38 of us ended up in the Dandylion pub to have a delicious lunch, thanks to Shirley and Steve.
We attracted around 150 people at our joint concert on Sunday evening in Freshford village Hall. I think the highlight for me was the informal singing after the event, and of course dancing to the sounds of the Rough Street Jug Band!

Sounding It Out sings at Bath International Music Festival

If you are going to Party in the City- the Opening of the Bath Festival on Friday 28th May , then come and hear us sing at the Building of Bath Museum, Countess of Huntingdon Chapel, on the Paragon at 6.30pm.

Sunday 30th May in the Spiegeltent, 3pm, on the recreation ground, in Bath. Sounding It Out will also be singing in this amazing 1930s german Mirror marquee, as part of the Fringe Festival. See you there!

Sounding It Out hosts St Rita choir from east Berlin

Sounding It Out went to Berlin last July, hosted by the St Rita Choir. We had a terrific time, and now it's the St Rita return visit. If you want to hear both choirs, come to an informal concert on Sunday 23 May at Freshford Village Hall, near Bath at 5.30pm. We will sing separately and together, then have a pot luck supper (bring food to share), gloriously entertained by the Rough Street Jug Band. Then probably followed by some spontaneous singing and fun.

Over the Sea to Skye- singing Holiday April 2010

The sun shone for seven glorious days in Skye - can you believe it- for our party of 23 singers, ranging in age from three to seventy. We climbed up mountains, pottered on beaches, went on an epic boat trip to Curuisk, played hilarious games in the pub in the evenings, and of course sang- a repertoire of songs including from the Hebrides, a Scots lullaby, Swing down Chariot via Northern Harmony, and a Yorkshire lowering song, aka lullaby. Michael cooked us outstanding 3 course meals each evening. We had a wonderful time together, and built our little community over the week.