Narrowing the River

Just returned from a glorious weekend of singing with Nick Page at Rowe Camp & Conference Center. I felt so open, so able to express love and light when I left. And my body vibrated! What a wonderful way to spend my 47th birthday and Easter.

One of the best things about Nick's workshop (titled "There's So Much More Than Music Going On" and oh my was there) was how much respect and attention he paid to the cultural context for all of the music we sang. I admit I was a bit concerned when I saw in the workshop description that we would be singing music from the African American gospel and spiritual traditions, from Brazil, South Africa, India. Usually that is a recipe for a big ole heaping helping of appropriation. But Nick named his teachers--Alice Parker, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Joseph Shabalala--and always carefully told the story and gave the cultural context for all the music we sang. I learned so much, and gained so much respect for Nick and for his talent and his heart. I finally, finally found someone who sings and teaches "world music" in a way that honors the source of the music.

Nick taught us to "narrow the river" of our creative efforts so that the power can roll through. Wide rivers are slow, narrow rivers flow and roll. So when I want to sing or write or do anything at all creative, I can start out with a simple, narrow focus.

Check out Nick Page's webpage here.

And the Rowe Camp & Conference Center here.

Singing is so physical. And accessible to every person of every size. We sang to God, to love, to our hearts, to the earth, to one another. We prayed, laughed, danced. I came away certain that I need a regular community singing experience in my life.

I have tried choral singing before, several times. But I never can hold my "line" when singing in harmony, unless I already know the melody really well. Nick talked about how we stop learning about singing at the moment in our development when someone tells us we can't sing. For me, that was in 2nd grade when the choir teacher lined us all up and had us sing a song and walked along putting his ear down to each of our little mouths and either nodding or shaking his head no about who got to be in the choir. He shook his head no at me, so I knew I was a bad singer and stopped trying to learn to sing.

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I didn't actually stop singing, but I didn't try to sing in a choir again until I was in my 40s. And now I need to learn what 2nd graders learn. Which is fine! I am grateful to Nick for helping me to realize that so I know where to start.

There's a Sacred Harp group here in New Haven that I keep putting on my calendar and keep not going to. But here's to going, and narrowing the river to quicken the flow of the creativity, and keeping up the process of tuning my body to vibrate with love like Nick tuned us this weekend.