natural musicians & storytelling
“welcome to our circle, thirsty travellers
drink of our water, join our song
bring all your loved ones, we are grateful
that you have chosen to come along
we will travel through the forest
gathering harvests we can share
meet with me again in the evening
we’ll feast on the stories that we bear”
welcoming song - sol doran
our ‘natural musicians and storytelling workshop’ saw a group of adults - facilitators from our kin team, other local ‘forest school’ practitioners and teachers from pre-schools as well as parents/carers - gather in a sun-filled woods to story-tell, play and create sound together. we were led on this exploration by chris holland, a ‘storyteller, nature connection facilitator, didgeridoo player… and leading inspiration in the field of nature connection and creative outdoor learning in the uk’. chris guided us through multiple musical, embodied and sensory experiences, sung songs and told stories with us.
we got a sense of what it would have been like for our early ancestors sharing stories and music in community around the fire, just creating rhythm from what was readily available around us; sticks, stones, the inspiration of the birds, a flower or the rain and the percussive capacity of our own bodies. in exploring sound-making in this way, chris made music accessible for everyone and importantly those of us who have been told by parents or teachers that we are not musical. the arts today have become institutionalised and for the few whereas once upon a time they were for the many; folk art is for everyone - it doesn’t have to be good. you do not have to be “an artist.”
music features a lot in our sessions because children have an innate capacity to understand rhythm, pitch, intonation. they absorb the frequency, emotion and mood contained within song and speech long before they understand meaning of the words themselves. the voice, spoken or sung, is essentially musical notes to them. this process is so important for the development and wellbeing of young children. our kinship have shared that their babies' first words were songs from our sessions. our hope is to nurture children through song & story and also empower adults to take what we learn in sessions home with them to share again with their children.
as we make sound with our voice, air travels through the mouth to the larynx and then vibrates the vocal folds. singing and voicework can steady and deepen the breath, moving it further down the body and into the belly which calms the nervous system. we are all walking-talking-singing human ‘wind instruments’. the pleasure of story-telling & music-making is for everyone.
gratitude to chris making the trip down to london and for the inspiration he brought to us.
