Crafting Medicine Melodies: Your Voice as an Authentic Channel of Song, Lineage, and Presence (1)

You are the instrument of the song. The song is singing you. 

Dates: 6 week series; November 17-December 29th (no class December 1st)

Time: Mondays 6:30 - 8:30pm

Location: Munson Memorial Library 1046 S East Street Amherst MA

Note: It is highly recommended to attend all 6 sessions of this series.

We will be welcoming newcomers on Monday Nov 17th for the first part of the series, and then again on December 15th for the second part of the series. If you cannot attend all sessions, please let us know in the comments on the registration form.

In this 6 week series, we will learn how to let ourselves be the instrument for the songs that bubble up inside of us, that are asking to be shared – those wordless melodies that can be balms, salve on a dark night (or sunny morning!) of the soul.

In the first part of the series, we will learn how to let a melody “move-in” and make a home in our bodies – setting it to rhythm through careful listening and repetition.

In the second part of the series, we’ll embark on a creative song-crafting process by taking a deep dive into our own cultural heritage - you’ll undo the seams and explore the inner architecture and mechanics of a folk song that speaks to you, and adapt it for your own tongue – your own language, your own body’s way of knowing this song, your own meaning. A reverent container of deep listening, honoring, and reflecting will be waiting for us at the finish -- in which we’ll share the new life we breathed into song.

Essentially, we will be learning about the song traditions of wordless chants, non-lexical songs, and vocables; creating our own medicine melodies and sharing them with each other. Then we'll be reflecting on our ancestry and looking at folk songs from our own cultural lineages and learning how to adapt and translate them for our own voice + style + personal meaning. We'll have lots of chances to sing together, play with instruments, and create and bring life to song.

We’ll explore: 

• Channeling melodies, wordless vocables, and cultural traditions that carry these forms (primarily investigating Jewish niggun)

• Adapting songs that call to you to your voice, your style

• Folk songs and multilingual songs from many lineages 

• Simple melodies and percussive accompaniments - for your voice, your style

Goals:

• Walk away with a song you’ve adapted/translated to sing for yourself and friends around fires, ceremonies, and sacred spaces.

• Receive and learn techniques for improvising your own medicine melodies to bring you comfort and joy.

Please Note:

• This series is cumulative and will have some 'homework' assigned in between sessions to inspire your musical creations. The 'homework' is enjoyable -- and is not required, but we think you will like it and encourage you to consider doing it :)

• Please bring a notebook, pen, water, something soft to sit on (cushions, pillows, etc), and a mug for tea. We will have chairs available, but cushions are a welcome addition.

• This series is open to anyone who is interested in learning about crafting medicine melodies; no prior experience is required. You do not have to be a singer; you do not have to know anything about music! All that is required is an open, curious mind and heart. This series is offered for free, with optional donations for the instructor. There is no pressure to donate, we want you to come and enjoy the offering!

Alice Feldman (Alisochka) is co-owner of Resonance Hot Yoga + Massage in Amherst, co-director of JetLAG Festival, and a singer-songwriter who practices offering music as medicine. She channels songs with deep spiritual meaning from traditions around the world and transmits them in English and Russian (her native languages) as well as many others. Her style is to create transadaptations (to borrow the term from the inimitable Daniel Kahn) of songs that heal our hearts and lift our souls, what some call medicine songs. She shares her original songs acapella, or often accompanied by shruthi box, drums, kashakas, and other strange and magical traditional instruments. Apprenticing under her step-father Psoy Korolenko, Alice draws upon over a decade of experience as a cultural event producer, ceremonial musician, and singer-songwriter working primarily at the intersection of Russian, Eastern European, and Jewish folk song.