Humming As Sonic Art

I’m going to try to make notes on each workshop so that the information can be here and available for us all. Hopefully y’all can make comments and add to anything I may have forgotten.

Since there was a relatively small group (8) we started our regular humming exercise by sitting back-to-back in pairs. This allows each person to feel the respiratory activity of the other, but not much in terms of vibration among women. There was a bit more feeling with the males, who have lower notes that resonate more in the rib cage and spine.
Next we sang a familiar song (for each of us) as slowly as possible coupled with a slow walk. This was very beautiful and kept everyone in a blissful state. I noticed that hearing other people’s notes and words gave me different impressions about my own song. Also, balance lies very much in the domain of the ear, and walking slowly is quite a challenge for me!
Immediately after that was a completely free improv that went on for a good while.
After that, in a circle we played a game of determining the opposite of a sound given by each person, one after each other. Interesting, ear-opening responses!
We were in such an improvisational, uninhibited mood that when I brought out a piece of conventional music notation with an old english canon called “follow me,” that things began to get wonderfully out of hand! We all began making fun of the words with so much humour and interaction that it soon broke into movement and pure unadulterated hysteria. I’ve rarely laughed so hard!!
After a while it calmed down into actual singing, then a good rehearsal of the javanese monkeychant. Instead of swearing, but with the same level of declamation we all yelled, “Fun almighty!!”