Emile

Showing Tag: "song" (Show all posts)

DailySing - 166 (7.15.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, July 16, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Thinking about using words on the fly, as rap, as spoken word, as sung lyrics.

Tonight's experiment went rather well. I decided to riff on  the idea of asking for help with a funky backbeat and bass line as a foundation. The lyrics were then interwoven as accents and counterpoint.

I played with a percussion section, followed by soloing with long tones, and finally focusing on content and meaning of my lyrics. The words from the heart work best...!

This was a solicitation done in song form, and a...
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DailySing - 158 (7.7.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Saturday, July 7, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Early morning sing to greet the day.

Just open yourself up to the day, the sun, the breeze, the rising heat, the dappled shadows cast by the trees, the bird song.

Open yourself up to every detail you become aware of as you sit in nature in the early morning, then sing each one.

Lift your voice to the heat of the sun, let your melody follow the feel of the wind, and any other early morning inspiration.

Finally, notice how it makes you feel inside your body, your mind and about the day.

To listen to...
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DailySing - 149 (6.28.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, June 29, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I tripped and fell into tonight's groove. It's one that bounces around inside my psyche and comes to the surface from time to time.

The cool thing about it coming up when I started to sing was that, with a semi-known groove, I had more freedom to experiment and play with the tempo, the rhythms, harmonies, and even some counterpoint.

Sudden departures from a theme can be attributed to my use of free will. I'm so used to feeling where the song wants to go that I rarely use my will to control outc...
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DailySing - 144 (6.23.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, June 24, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight, I experienced a true journey through my musical landscape. A part of me was the detached observer, yet I was still able to focus completely on what I was doing.

It was thrilling to watch ideas morph and grow through repetition. Each time through, the part I was singing would change in service to the song, sometimes getting more complex, but most often getting simpler and clearer.

There was a VP (vocal percussion) section where I was able to visit 4/4, 6/8, and jump from beatboxing to V...

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DailySing - 139 (6.18.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
A funky beat is what came out tonight. As usual, I was thinking about the bass and the rest is history. Many a song or chant has begun with a slammin' bass riff.

As I listen to this, I am struck by how little is needed to make sounds, and by how much is needed to make the "right" sounds. This doesn't happen, unless there is some intense concentration involved.
I can feel and hear the wall that I'm hitting, when I concentrate.

You gotta know your scales... PERIOD!!!

 It's also time to start playin...

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DailySing - 75 (4.15.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, April 16, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I found tonight that one of the reasons I like doing the DailySing in the car is that I can really let go. Maybe one of these days I'll explore c-r-a-z-y and "go off", encased in my relatively soundproof silver box on wheels.

Again, I started with one basic riff, stayed with it, played with it, went away on multiple solos and came back to it each time, explored inserting vocal percussion into the melody and other parts of the jam. At one point, I adapted the Happy Birthday song to it and sang ...
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DailySing - 62 (4.2.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I survived April Fool's Day. Actually it was a great day! I learned Vinx's Tell My Feet, and Maggie and I taught it to the choir. We all had a blast!!!

Tonight, when I did my DailySing I found myself enjoying a free form improv, when about halfway through I started noodling with Tell My Feet, which I then improvised around. My inner musical landscape was very happy and positive as I explored making it my own for our upcoming concert. I suspect that these positive feelings are in part an extens...
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DailySing - 59 (3.30.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Saturday, March 31, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Today, I learned of the death of dear friend, beloved singer and fellow improviser Anne Potter. I will miss her sharp wit, quick mind and wicked sense of humour. When we improvised together, I always felt like we went to similar creative places for our inspiration, and I thought of her as my "creatin' cousin". I love her a lot and was thrown for a loop as the news of her death trickled through my body. I remembered an unflinching explorer pushing me to stay outside my comfort zone, who stayed...
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DailySing - 56 (3.27.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, March 28, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight I decided to try something different. Instead of just improvising, I sang Roberta Flack's well known ballad, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. I've never sung that song before and didn't now how to approach it, so I paired everything down to the bare essentials. I could hear wavering, and sliding and catching in my voice as I got acclimated to the song.

I used my daughter's Echo-Mic, and it's sound qualities to play different rhythms while I sang. It added another dimension for me a...
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DailySing - 53 (3.24.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, March 25, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
When I opened my mouth to sing this evening, an old song just came out, so I went with it. I normally play guitar with this song, and found myself singing the guitar part along with the melody, since it's all a cappella. It's been so long that it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride remembering where the key was, which lyrics were used, how to make the different parts fit together as I bounced back and forth with my voice. I improvised a lot toward the end, as I was exploring untried possibiliti...
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DailySing - 43 (3.14.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, March 15, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
What a gift we humans have in our capacity for creativity and imagination. I've been listening to tonight's playback and feel humbled and amazed at the continuous flow. A balance was struck tonight, as far as keeping a listener's ear is concerned. In spite of a few rough spots, where I started to think too much and was immediately rewarded with pitch issues, my attention never wandered  and I found myself engaged "as listener" for the entire 15 mns. This means, I'M NOT BORING!!!

There's a cert...
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DailySing - 36 (3.7.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, March 8, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's DailySing was really different from yesterday's singing session. Whereas yesterday was about exploring what I could do with established songs, tonight's journey is about staying present while opening up to channel whatever sounds come through. While rhythm seems to remain almost constant in my creations, it too is taken around the percussive block for a different perspective.
 
Creating on the spot, while fun, is not as easy as we make it look. The amount of musical sensitivity is pal...
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DailySing - 34 (3.5.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Why is the listening especially sweet tonight? What makes the same music move me one night, and bore me the next? Why does one person's unrefined delivery bring us to tears, while the trained vocalist can sound like a machine? 
It feels to me like a spirit versus brain question. If I feel it and channel the feeling and the intent into my words, no matter what they are, the emotion will come through to the listener. When I sing Spirit, when I am the song, when my intent is one with my sonic vib...
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DailySing - 25 (2.25.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, February 26, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
A lullaby from Zimbabwe was my launching place tonight. I don't know why, but it's the first thing that came out of my mouth. I've been training myself to go with whatever comes out at any given time, whether I like it or not. When I went blank and sang, the song Si, Si Si came out. Once that was explored, I kept myself blank and open. It's always educational and entertaining to listen to the playback. Some of the coolest stuff, I don't even remember singing, which is a little trippy. Listeni...
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DailySing - 22 (2.22.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, February 23, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Wow...! 
Listening is a 7 layer cake that you slowly explore
Listening is a palpably varied and delicate tool
Listening moves me to tears, moves me to ecstacy
listening brings me back to myself
Listening makes me aware of the thick and heavy presence of mastery
Listening brings clarity and light to my inner landscape
Listening helps me guide my mojo (!)
Listening feeds my spirit
I did something different tonight in my singing. I sang a Victor Wooten song that I know, Heaven Is Where The Heart Is, and ...
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DailySing - 20 (2.20.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, February 21, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
As I listen to what I just sang, I have to admit to a certain amount of playfulness in what I do. At certain points in my listening, I broke out into a big smile, and once I even laughed out loud. Come to think of it, I laughed out loud and was grinning most of the time during the creation of tonight's improvisation. My listening was easier and deeper, though the ease seemed to belie the depth to a small degree. Rhythm is a huge part of what I do. In the future, I'll see if I can be lyrical w...
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DailySing - 9 (2.9.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, February 10, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I'm amazed at the many places inside us that music comes from. Laughter, sadness, that pain in our heart, the euphoria bursting forth from our throat, the heat in our loins, it's all energies from different places within us. I was fired up from Men's group and brought that fire to tonight's song play. I once again left my body and came back to it (or woke up) singing. This time, I was aware of the fact that I experienced time dilation while being "away". In two separate instances, I remember ...
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DailySing - 4 (2.4.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, February 5, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
It's fascinating to watch myself while experiencing my Self simultaneously. When I'm singing my soul song, I experience the many layers of my reality as an onion. There are also layers within layers, and I felt them tonight as I fell into stream of consciousness in French, while seemingly aware. I was aware of myself singing, yet was deep in an adjacent layer where I could feel the energy and feelings behind the words without knowing or censoring them until after they were sung.
I wonder why I...
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If you can talk, you can sing


Emile Hassan Dyer I believe that singing is our birthright, and that it is good for our brains, bodies, and spirit. Singing releases oxytocin in the brain, and many studies have shown a correlation of oxytocin with human bonding, increases in trust, feelings of calmness and security, as well as reductions in anxiety. In other words, SINGING IS GOOD FOR YOU! I get high making up music on the spot. I get high(er) when I can do it with several people at once. There's nothing like riding the crest of a creative wave, linked harmonically and rhythmically, supporting, leading, following, creating, coaxing, cajoling, p-l-a-y-i-n-g... THAT'S MY BLISS! Singing for 15 minutes a day means trusting yourself. It means clearing your mind, opening up and discovering what sounds can come out through you, if you allow it. To listen to each of my daily sings, click on the "songs" link on the left in the grey field above the most recent post or on the link at the end of each post.

Categories

My DailySing practice is inspired by Will Hewett's Sing15 practice.

You can learn more about Sing15 at www.willhewett.com.

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"creative wave"percussive lyrical vocal solos melody "richard bona "sing out loud 'vp guy" riffs sounds patterns 4/4 4/4 feel 4/4 time 6/8 6/8 bell 6/8 feel 6/8 time a cappella a cappella thang abandon accented beat accents act of singing actors adaptability addendums aeolian african vocal delivery afro blue afro funk afro-cuban air flow alive ambient apex approach arc arc of the improv architecture arrange arrangements arranging art artless aspect of music atmosphere attacked the singing audience backbeat background hum balance ballad ballad-like bass bass line bass lines bass llne be the sound beat beatbox beatboxing beats berimbaus berzerker bird song birthday birthing the melodies blog blues bluesy body percussion body rhythms bp brain brassy bre bridge bridges burst carlinhos brown catchy tune cd channel chant chants choices choir chops chorus clapping claps clarity classical clave climactic crescendo codification of play cohesion color compose compositions concert conduit 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