Peggo Hodes Blog, Thoughts on Voice, Singing, and More

Built by Hand

August 28, 2015 by Peggo Leave a Comment

Last week, I watched a Cape Dory 27 be launched into the Merrimack River by the Lowell Boat Shop. It was built by the hands of six

Paul is in the purple shirt with the yellow ball cap on the right.

high school apprentices. Weighing 600 pounds and 27′ long, the gleaming Dory was built in a shop with walls on three sides and a garage door to the street, one floor up from the water level. I said to Paul, “How are they going to get the boat out?”

When the time came, 20 people, including the 6 apprentices, 2 teachers and Paul, lifted the boat by hand and carried it out to the street. Someone stopped traffic as it was carried to the grassy rise beyond the building. Hand over hand, it was lowered down the hill onto the boat ramp. After several speeches, it was delivered into the Merrimack River.

Built, carried, and launched by hand, it was essentially made (with the help of modern electric saws) the way Cape Dories have been made at the Lowell Boat Shop since their first Dory in 1793.

Music is also a timeless craft made by hand. These late August days, I am deep into Songweaver mode – planning, listening, choosing, arranging, and singing music for our upcoming year. Watching the intensity of the teamwork involved in building this Cape Dory, I was struck by how similar the experience is to singing in a chorus. Each person does their part so that the whole is beautiful. 1 + 1 = 3, or even 11.

All six apprentices spoke passionately about how grateful they were to have had such a life-expanding experience. From total strangers at the beginning, they had learned how to be an effective team, creating something glorious along the way.

Songweavers is like that. On September 8 and 9, women will come with their neighbors, partners, daughters and mothers to sing together. We gather to experience harmony of spirit and sound. We gather for kinship and community. We gather to create, to contribute our energy to the whole, and to give voice to something beyond ourselves. In the process, we are all enlivened and filled with joy. We come home to our true nature and that makes us happy.

The first week of rehearsals is free. Come experience this communal connection for yourself. We gather at:

Concord Community Music School, 23 Wall St., Concord, NH

Sept. 8 @ 7-9:30pm

Sept. 9 @ 9:30-11:00am

You are welcome to come to one or both rehearsals. I look forward to seeing you then.

For more information, go to ccmusicschool.org. or email me.

Filed Under: life lessons, singing, Songweavers

Where did June Go?

June 29, 2015 by Peggo 1 Comment

June 29, 2015

Where did June go?

Daisy Rondo

June went to music – the music of flowers and of communities singing together.

I was away last week teaching at two conferences. A week in the garden changes everything. Sadly, the peonies have departed. As I sit on my deck to write, I look up to see the rondo of daisies playing in my garden. A rondo is a classical music form much like a theme and variations in which a melody is played, then returns several times after forays into other musical territory. Shiny white faces balance on their long, elegant stems, clustering like a chorus of eager singers. The sopranos begin the melody, followed by a reverie of green, leaves and buds waiting their turn. Altos enter next, colored by the tiny notes of amethyst scented geranium. Red roses herald the entrance of the tenors. Confident and cocky, they fling the tune over the lawn to the basses, who anchor both the piece and the peace. Hummingbirds dart the song back to the beginning to be repeated as long as leisure permits.

My garden music mirrored my week of singing, many themes and colors filling and vibrating my whole being. I began the week at The Northfield Conference, a multi-generational gathering of people who come to Northfield- Mt. Herman School to reclaim their essential selves from the busy fret of the world. I taught a Vibrant Voice workshop on using sound for spiritual and personal connection. I also sang each morning in the chapel for Sound Meditation. Singing in that sacred, resonant space was the highlight of my week. The acoustics are amazing.

One night, while drumming in a circle with a dozen people, I heard some women singing. I looked around the circle. There were only three young women and they were not singing. I got up from my chair and walked around listening. Afterwards, Kathy Lowe, who led the drumming, said, “Did you hear the singing?”

She said every year the spirits of the chapel sing with their drumming circle.

Turns out, I LOVE sound meditation.

Using tuning forks to align and center.

I began each session with two tuning forks. Tuned to a perfect fifth, or the interval between [do] and [sol] in the scale, I would place the forks near each person’s ears, switching them twice. This allows the two hemispheres of the brain to vibrate in sync with each other. I then played one of my crystal bowls, inviting it to sing in this vaulted space. Soon, I would feel called to sing myself. I would hum or ooh softly until my voice felt steady. I sang while Spirit played me. Kathy Lowe, who had invited me to Northfield, added her warm, earthy tones to my flutier sounds. Two mornings, Steve Schuch, a friend and phenomenal violinist, added his strings to the sound, lifting us all higher still.

Here are several reactions from people who were meditating in this sound bath.

“That was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. Your voice with the bowls took me to another universe. And then Steve joined with the violin and took me further. My heart flew open. I cried the whole time.”

Listening to and feeling the vibrations of the citrine bowl.

‘I felt like I was floating. I literally felt like I was being called back home.”

“Your morning sound meditation has been a transformative experience for me.”

For me, too. I thought to myself, Oh, this is what I am supposed to do now.

I finished the week at Dartmouth College singing with 100 singers and choral conductors at the NH/VT ACDA Gather at the River Conference. I taught a Vibrant Voice workshop to 70 people, focusing on how to use the vibrations of sound to release a singer’s natural technique by connecting breath to heart to voice to spirit. We closed the conference with a concert, singing Duruflé’s exquisite ‘Requiem’ with organ. Along with the other conference ensembles, the women’s ensemble that I led sang a song by Kathy Lowe, “A Song Will Dawn on Me.” She came up to hear us, bringing this musical week full circle for me.

Singing wherever I am, singing with others, singing for others, singing with and for Spirit – these are the daisies of my life, not flashy or colorful, just stalwart and steady. When my WASPY, New England heritage would have me play the reserved introvert, singing takes me out of myself and connects me to others. I am deeply grateful for singing in my life.

Filed Under: chanting, life lessons, Listeniing, meditation, sacred sound, singing, the power of vibration, thoughts on voice, Toning, Vibrant Voice workshops

A New Opening

May 18, 2015 by Peggo Leave a Comment

A bell hanging in the breezeway sounds with the wind – a deep, metallic tone like a harbor bell rocking in the waves. The wind curls

A new opening

around the house, swooshing through the screens. Birds call across the field. Deborah, a voice student, and I stand in my living room with our eyes closed – listening, breathing, letting our breath loosen our joints. Then, we exhale with an audible sigh, adding our own vibrations to the soundscape. Deborah and I then toned through the following 15-20 minute exercise. When we finished, she said, “In the silence after we finished, I realized for the first time that I made an agreement when I was 3 that I could not be a solo singer. I could feel that agreement and how it has limited me my whole life.”

She paused. We both felt teary with the profound truth of that new awareness. Deborah continued, “Tomorrow I turn 60 and I can feel a new opening.”

The goal of this exercise is to open up the inner channels and energy centers so that the entire system can open to new possibilities. The exercise opened me up, too. In the afternoon, after our lesson, I felt energized, alive and eager to do what I needed to do – not weighed down by tasks, as I often am, but happy, eager, even excited about what I was doing. What is clear to me is that I need to teach voice as much as my students need to take lessons. The time vibrating and exploring together opens us both.

This is a powerful exercise. You can do all three parts at once or break them up. You can read it one part at a time, do that part, and then go on to the next part. Or you can record the directions and do it without having to read. There is no wrong way to do this. Just enjoy the vibrations, the expansive energy, and the opening of doors in your body, mind, and spirit.

Part I. Cleansing Breath

1- Standing or sitting, inhale from the earth up the legs and torso to the crown of the head. Exhale back down to the earth, letting the breath take everything that wants to let go – thoughts, stiffness, fatigue, tension. Inhale up to the crown and back to the earth 3 times. (3x)

2- Now switch. Inhale from the air (universe) through the crown down to the feet and exhale back up and out to the air. Let the breath take any stuck energy out of the body. Do this 3x.

3- Now do both at the same time. A bit trickier, the complexity gives the mind something to do. Inhale simultaneously up from the earth and down through the crown. Watch the energy streams pass somewhere mid-body. Do this 3x.

Doing it “right” is not the goal. The purpose is to flush the body with oxygen, clear the system of stuck energy, and connect the vibrations of the physical body to the vibrations of the larger system of which we are all a part.

Part II. Chakra Weave

In this part we expand the breath focus into a chakra weave. Turn your visual imagination on high. Watch the film of the following directions roll through your body and mind.

1- Inhale up the legs from the earth.

Exhale red energy out the tailbone or first chakra.

Watch the red energy curve up toward the low belly and change to orange.

2- Inhale orange front to back through the second chakra, (1-2″ below the belly button. Watch the orange energy curl up the spine turning yellow.

3- Exhale yellow from back to front through the third chakra, at the solar plexus. Watch the yellow energy curl up to the heart turning green.

4- Inhale green through the heart front to back. Watch the green energy curl up the back to the neck and turn blue.

5- Exhale blue out the front of the throat. Watch the blue energy curl up to the third eye and turn violet.

6- Inhale violet through the third eye, the point between and just above the eyebrows. Watch the violet energy flow into the head and turn white.

7- Exhale white light out the crown of the head and fountain down around the body back to the earth.

8- Take one normal breath in and out. Repeat from step one two more times.

Part III Chakra Toning

Continue by sounding each chakra 3x, starting with a low note in your range and moving up a pitch for each higher chakra. Do not worry about the specific notes. Just let each note be higher than the one before. Here is the sequence.

1- First or Root Chakra (tailbone) – Visualize red and tone a low note in your range on a groan-like vowel [uhn] 3x.

2- Second Chakra, the Sacral Center (1-2″ below the belly button) – Visualize orange. Sound a note slightly above the first note on the vowel [ooh] 3x.

3- Third Chakra, the Solar Plexus – Visualize yellow. Tone a note above the last note on the vowel [oh] 3x.

4- Heart Chakra – Visualize green or pink, whichever resonates for you. Sound a note slightly higher than the last on the vowel [ah] 3x.

5- Throat Chakra – Visualize blue. Sound a slightly higher note on the vowel [I] (as in me, myself and I) 3x. You will notice that [I] is comprised of two vowel sounds – [ah] and [ee]. Roll through both vowels in a way that feels good to you.

6- Third Eye (slightly above and between the eyebrows) – Visualize violet. Tone a note above the last note on the vowel [ay] 3x.

7- Crown Chakra (visualize the top of your head opening) – Visualize white. Sound a note higher than the last one on the vowel [ee] 3x.

8- Now sit or stand still, breathe normally, and notice the quality of the energy in your body. Revel in the wonder.

Filed Under: awareness, Breath, Listeniing, nature, singing for health, sound, the power of vibration, Toning, vocal exercises

How Can I Keep From Singing?

April 16, 2015 by Peggo Leave a Comment

This Saturday, April 18 at 7:00 pm, will be my fourth concert directing Songweavers, my amazing women’s chorus. Well over a hundred

Songweaver Concert last year.

women show up every week, sometimes twice a week, to sing, make music together and be in the company of like-minded women who love what we create together. What we create is so much more than music. Music is the vehicle. Community is the result. We come every week for the sustenance of both.

Musically, the women have learned and memorized sixteen songs, all by ear – from me and from a practice CD that I record. They learn by repetition. The concert is our annual opportunity to get our brains to put all the details in the proper order, to focus, and to expand our pre-conceived limits – both individually and for the chorus as a whole.

I am thrilled by how much better the women are singing than last year. The goal is not perfection. It is learning, growing and stretching, starting from each woman’s experience level. The chorus is big with a wide range of musical skills. They are tolerant, helpful and supportive of each other. They are full of great suggestions. Diversity is welcome.

Recently, a Songweaver lost her son. Seventeen women came together on the first sunny Sunday this spring to sing at the memorial service. They drove from as close as ten minutes and from as far as ninety minutes away in order to support our Songweaver “sister.” She was deeply touched. We were, too.

In the weeks leading up to this concert, I have watched the women make time to practice, listen to their CDs, and memorize the words and their parts. They are working hard. Their commitment is heart-warming. The concert is not the over-riding goal. The process of singing and growing together are the on-going goals. Songweavers is all about the journey. We laugh. We learn. We love. The concert wraps up our musical year with a big colorful bow and gives us a public way to celebrate – by singing and sharing.

This year’s title is “How Can I Keep From Singing?” Obviously, we can’t. We sing because it makes us happy. We sing to belong, to hope, to grieve, to share and to listen. We sing to protest, praise, inspire, transition. We sing for support in times of struggle, for consolation in times of loss and to communicate who we are and what we believe. We sing to find ourselves and our place in the universe. We sing to commemorate the joys and sorrows of life. We sing for friendship, camaraderie and love.

As Meridel Le Sueur wrote in the poem for our opening song;

Happy Songweavers at last year’s concert.

Good mothers, go into the world –

Go into the world and blossom.

As long as there’s singing, there’s hope.

Songweavers in Concert: How Can I Keep From Singing

April 18, 2015, 7:00 pm

South Congregational Church

27 Pleasant St., Concord, NH

For tickets, call 603-228-1196 or www.ccmusicschool.org

Filed Under: life lessons, Listeniing, performance, thoughts on voice

Amazing Grace

March 25, 2015 by Peggo 2 Comments

Ariana and I singing at The Listening Room in Nashua. Photo by Kevin Mason.

I just had a Mother milestone. I was aware of it before I came down to Nashville. On Sunday, March 8, I sang back-up to my daughter at her first solo gig. There was a small appreciative audience at the Listening Room, who had no idea how momentous this was.

Ariana and her brother, Max, grew up with music in the house, from my classical vocal music to the family rock and roll my husband and I began writing when the kids were born. On the cover of our first record (and it was a record), Ariana is a 2-month old baby-sitting in my lap. That was 29 years ago.

In radio interviews, Ariana talks about spending week-ends with Max at our Peggosus gigs, carrying mic stands and selling our record, tapes, and eventually CDs. Now she is writing her own songs, playing guitar, tending bar, living the alternative life of a singer-songwriter, and happy to be pursuing her dream.

When Ariana was in junior high, I gave her a few voice lessons. We soon discovered that the mother-daughter dynamic in lessons was not going to work. Ariana began lessons with Ellen Nordstrom at Concord Community Music School, where I was then voice department chair. Ellen was upbeat and savvy. She had Ariana singing all kinds of songs, stretching her musical self-concept.

In college, Ariana majored in musical theater and sang back-up on a couple of my CDs. A friend once asked me, “Who’s singing back-up? Is that you?”

“No, that’s Ariana.” Our voices are so similar, it’s hard to tell us apart. When Ariana asked me if I could come to Nashville to sing with her at her Sunday brunch gig, I said, “Yes!”

Ariana and I singing Amazing Grace.

Being in Nashville for an 11:00 am gig meant getting up at 3:30, flying at 6:00, and singing through arrangements in the car as she drove us to The Listening Room. We sat on stools side-by-side on the dark stage for a quick sound check.

Our first song was “Amazing Grace.” And it was amazing. We sang the first verse in seamless unison. When I moved up to a descant for the second verse, I felt a moment of sheer joy at the beauty of our voices together. “Don’t miss this moment,” I thought. “It will be over way too soon.”

That was a week ago. The two-hour gig passed in timeless time. I just wanted to keep singing together. There will be other times.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.

Filed Under: awareness, life lessons, Listeniing, performance, singing, singing with children, thoughts on voice

Just Joy

March 5, 2015 by Peggo 1 Comment

Kent and I at the Bach’s Lunch Concert

“Peel me a grape, crush me some ice,

Skin me a peach, save the fuzz for my pillow.”

I sang those opening words (and more in that sassy vein) at a recent concert in honor of Valentine’s Day. Kent Allyn, a masterful musician, and I have been performing a concert of love songs every year for nearly twenty years. I love planning the music and rehearsing with Kent. We take our time, exploring arrangements and enjoying the time making music together. I love our walks on the beach after rehearsals at Kent’s seacoast home. I even love memorizing the lyrics, writing the words on index cards, which I pull out of my purse at stoplights and lulls in the day.

I love the whole process of preparing these concerts, but I do not like how nervous they make me at performance time. For some reason, this particular concert has given me more performance anxiety than I enjoy. A couple of years ago, I decided to figure out how to have as good a time performing these songs as I do rehearsing them. I was tired of missing out on the fun – from the first day picking songs to the last note sung in concert.

Reframing performance anxiety is a process. This February felt the best so far. I know how to perform – how to present a song, how to express my feelings through the music, how to manage my extra adrenaline and how to share my joy in the music. But performance often assumes a separation between the performer and the audience and between the performer and the song performed. It has also carried a load of self-inflicted expectations – to sing well, remember the words and the arrangement, be present, be happy, and, oh yes, relax, too.

Who could relax with all that perfectionist chatter going on? I wanted to drop the persona of a “good performer” and just sing the songs with my friends (aka- the audience) present with me. Bill Fletcher, a composer friend of mine, once said to me, “You’re the only one who doesn’t know that every note out of your mouth is beautiful. Just sing the damn song.” I relied on that sage advice once again for this concert.

My intention was to treat the concert like one of our rehearsals. Rehearsals are playtime in the hallowed halls of music. I feel looser in my body. I’m exploring, not worrying, so my voice and breath are free and unrestrained. There is no expectation of perfection and no performance, no persona, just Kent, the music and me.

All of my anxiety in these concerts has been wrapped up in giving a great performance, which has kept me separate from the songs and the audience. In that separation, the mind can run amok. This time there was no separation between the song and me. Kent and I were hanging out with our friends, sharing some cool songs, having a blast. My only goal was to be fully present to each moment, each word, each sound. In that presence, the heart flows freely through the songs. No separation. No persona. No holding back. Just joy.

Filed Under: awareness, Breath, life lessons, Listeniing, performance anxiety, sound, thoughts on voice

Sitting Still

February 22, 2015 by Peggo Leave a Comment

I am sitting still on Richardson’s Beach in Hilo, Hawaii. Between each sentence – at each dash –

Surf crashing on the black lava rocks of Richardson’s Beach in Hilo, Hawaii

I look up – and watch the Pacific crash and fold into the shore. – Beyond the ocean is the curve of the Hilo bay front. – Rising steeply up from the rollicking ocean is Mauna Kea, about 14,000 feet high. Measured from the seabed, it is 25,000 feet high, one of the tallest mountains in the world. Today, it is thinly veiled in vog, the volcanic haze blowing up from Kilauea, the active volcano south of Hilo. – In the decade since I have been coming to visit my cousin Tracey, in Hawaii, I have seen Mauna Kea only a handful of times from Richardson’s Beach. It is usually shrouded in clouds. Today, there are visible patches of snow at the very top.

It is wild here. – The lifeguards have posted yellow signs warning of big surf and dangerous currents. – It is mesmerizing – watching wave after wave – crash on the black lava rocks, shooting white spray – high into the air. This is meditation – sitting still – sinking into the wildness of the moment, of no time,- looking up in time to see a series of huge waves curl and foam – inhaling – exhaling – singing exuberantly to shore.

Charles Lindbergh spoke about “the wisdom of the wild.” – I revel in the wildness here, where the elements of nature – earth, fire, wind and water – are constantly creating and changing the land. Being still enough to inhale that elemental wildness stops my mind. –

Mauna Kea seen from Richardson’s Beach

Tracey drags me into the ocean, my first time swimming since last August. We walk a narrow black sand path through the black rocks toward deeper waters. Here the waves are mere echoes of their crashing, blustery selves – bumping us along the surface. Abruptly, the ocean turns turquoise over white sand. I can see to the bottom.

I tread water – listening to the sounds of wildness – thundering waves, the energy of the incoming tide surging forcefully toward us, rhythmic and random, the wind blowing the palm fronds and Abezia trees, which rustle and creak in response. – There is nothing to do except watch and listen. – I am restored.

Filed Under: Breath, Listeniing, meditation, nature, sound

Spiral Inward in Winter

January 30, 2015 by Peggo Leave a Comment

It is snowing again – lightly, like a whisper. No wind. No worry. Gentle as a blessing. A quiet

A Knobbed Whelk (the pinkish one) and a Channeled Whelk (the grayish one) in my garden.

contrast to the whipped-up insistence of the blizzard a few days ago, which blew more than a foot of snow around my house. Five miles away, a friend got only six inches. It was a temperamental storm, circling back to dump more snow, riding the whims of the wind.
Watching the weather maps, I could see the storm spiral around itself, another example of nature’s perfect proportions, like a whelk or the coiled petals of a rose, only in the form of moving chaos. Everyone stayed home during the storm. Everything closed down. Paul and I made a fire and reveled in a free day.
Winter is the time of going within – within our homes and within our selves. Like spiraling clouds, we spiral down to our inner core. We watch. We wait. We listen.
On that heavenly snow day, I listened to a new CD, “Psychedelic Prayers,” by Kimba Arem. Arem composed music to accompany a poetic translation of the Tao Te Ching, which is a Chinese spiritual text from the 6th century BCE, written by Lao Tse. Arem writes, “The intention of this offering of psychedelic poetry and sacred sounds is to provide a healing experience to guide your way home.” Here are some excerpts from the prayers.

I am unraveling into the primordial beginning,
the serpent coil of living things,
coiling back beyond mind,
life from spiral void.
…
Do nothing.
Return to Source.
The wood carvings await within each uncut branch.
…
Sound wave. Here (hear) you are heart – life – scarlet drum.
Can you float through the universe of your body and not lose
your way?
…
So now, grab hold tightly.
So now, let go lightly.
For God’s sake, feel good.
…
Love grows.

(original prayers written by Dr. Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.
updated by Brigittel Mars)

Filed Under: life lessons, Listeniing, nature, prayer, sound

View From the Couch

December 29, 2014 by Peggo 1 Comment

My Guardian Angel

View From the Couch

I spent Christmas week lying on my back- moving from bed to floor to couch, my heating pad in tow. I had plenty of time to think. Here are some conclusions, which I will carry with me into the new year.

1. Years go by much too quickly.
2. Time to lie around and do nothing is invaluable and restorative.
3. Singing is a great transcender of pain.
4. Expectations are a trap.
5. Hanging out with family without expectations is supportive and comforting.
6. Love is all there is.

May your new year be filled with singing and an open heart.

Filed Under: awareness, life lessons, singing, singing for health, thoughts on voice

The Wild Beyond

December 2, 2014 by Peggo 1 Comment

The cover of Max’s new album.

THE WILD BEYOND

My son, Max, has just released his first album. In fact, it is a real record album, like the old days. Albums have made a come-back. And yes, that is Max’s eye staring at you from the cover. You can also find it in CD and mp3, (available on Itunes) depending on your technological savvy. The music is AMAZING! One critic said, “Overall, this debut outing for The Wild Beyond is a powerful rock ‘n roll record to take us into the 21st century! The Wild Beyond will fuel a new generation of rockers who will be able to fill the overgrown amphitheatre with enough blare to make even the most jaded ear bleed. High caliber, hypnotic drone/psych rock for the ultimate zone-out. – Highly recommended.” (Tony from The Dedicated Rocker Society/All Access Magazine.)

Here is what Max wrote about his musical process:

Reflex Driver began to take its current shape during the editing and mixing phase. I scrapped the mid-song jam we recorded as a band and began cutting and pasting choice moments from the session warm ups. I overdubbed several million layers of guitar. Kevin Corcoran slathered on the keys until we had two choirs, two orchestras, seven pianists, a pipe organ and some industrial padding all aimed at making this thing sound stupidly overblown. After all, it’s a song about masculinity as an illness. I think my favorite thematic element in the arrangement is the vocal harmony lifted from “She’s So Heavy.” Which is appropriate, I think, given the subject matter.

I tried to make each individual track overblown in its own way before mix down. The kick sound, for example, is made of five elements: the original recordings of Charles Goold playing the drum (recorded at close and far distances), a sampled kick, a triggered sine wave, and the triggered sine wave running through a distortion pedal. The sine-triggered-by-kick is a familiar hip-hop low-end method. It sounded like sh*t on Charles’ kick, because of the nuance in his playing. But I did it anyway, because Reflex Drivers only care about themselves. While forcing the sh*tty and synthetic low end through a distortion pedal and into the mix, it occurred to me that Reflex Drivers probably shouldn’t produce records. Reflex Drivers are a big problem in general and I didn’t want to be a Reflex Driver. I just wanted to go home. But I was already at home. There was no place to go.

Rock is not dead! Go to http://thewildbeyondmusic.com/ to listen to some cuts and to order a copy for the rockers in your world.

Filed Under: awareness, performance, singing

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