Me and My Piano

My ever faithful keyboard

I have, with the help of a dear friend, just lugged my 40 lb keyboard up 4 flights of winding, slippery and ever-so-slightly slanted stairs. It has been 2 years since I have had my faithful piano by my constant side. During my  18 month sojourn in Provence, i left my baby sitting in the cellar of a friend.  With the move back to Paris, I of course decided to resurrect my 10-year-old keyboard. It is a Roland ep-97 digital piano, an 88-note weighted action keyboard, and she has served me well. I bought it in England before I moved to France in 2003 and I carried it over on Eurostar ALL BY MYSELF. When I moved here in the spring of 2003 – the was the spring before the famous heat wave – I found a room on the 7th floor of an apartment building in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, not far from the métro Sèvres-Babylon. How did I get my baby up the stairs? I carried it, one floor at a time to my very own room. I cannot call it an apartment because it only measured 97 sq. ft., but it was mine. The toilet was on the landing, and the cheap plastic shower was in a corner opposite my bed. The rest of the space was taken up by my keyboard, an electric ring for cooking, a VERY small table and a stool. But the space was mine and I played my piano every chance I had. I even had a couple of students who braved the 7 flights of stairs – the servants entrance – to have their voice lessons. (The climb was like a warm-up I guess!)  You see the 7th arrondissement is kinda upper class, and those tiny rooms at the top were for the servants, the  chambres de bonnes. Those spaces were normally only accessible by the back staircase. There was indeed an elevator in the building, but it didn’t go to the 7th floor and there was no access to that staircase by any means other than the ground floor. That was then, this is now, only 4 floor flights, I had help, and the apartment is a bit bigger. Progress?

Typical apartment building in the 7th

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I felt I needed a new blog design, so I went on the hunt for something. I think I like this one. Let me know what you think.

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My mantra is “Life is Beautiful.” Sometimes I spend days singing it, dancing it, breathing it. And it is during those moments when I feel most safe, and happy to share this most wonderful, magical, magnificent, ever surprising life.
But occasionally , for all sorts of reasons I find myself, throwing myself into the valley. Sometimes for no concrete reason, just a nagging pain that starts in the heart and percolates throughout the body. Not good, huh? Not good, huh?
Looking at the photos from my residency in Querceto, Italy last year with José, I still find myself astounded by its magic. In the face of such breathtaking should we not be happy, or at the least admit that it is our natural state. Sometimes the events of our life can convince us otherwise, but don’t let it be so.

“I wish I knew,
I wish that I could tell you
Why the stars sometimes
Refuse to Shine.
Why the Stars hide
Behind a clouded sky,
I Wish I could tell you,
And yet…”

A monotone-colored demand.

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And while we are giving this Valentine’s Day, spare a bit for Molly and the other students. This is beautiful. I cried when I saw it, not out of sadness, put pure joy and love for these kids. There is hope for us.
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Happy Valentine’s Day to all. We deserve it.

A Matter of Consequence

Being a Bird in flight has decided advantages – a view of all and sundry, a mastery of the ever-changing winds, freedom to be in so many different places. A bird in flight, a satellite, a spacecraft of sorts in constant movement. This eclectic fowl, however, though free to fly, runs the danger of being just an observer of life, engaged in everywhere while being nowhere.

I have often fallen into the category of the observer bird,  feet far above ground, wings spread wide.  But I have discovered over the years that sometimes it is necessary to decide to do, to be specific, otherwise no one, not even you, will know what you want.  I have learned that it is necessary to START the process, to walk the road, and who knows who you might meet on your way. Sometimes luck and chances turn up in mysterious places, and if you are not there to greet them because you’re out flying…

Il faut mettre le train sur les rails

Remember to put your train on your tracks, otherwise you go nowhere.

Letting Be

What Happens when you just allow?
When you let be, be?
Neither pushing nor pulling,
But on every breath whispering
“Let Go.”
What happens when you allow the
Surprise that awaits a regard,
Without expectation?
Who speaks to you when you listen?
What song does the Wind carry?
What picture do the Flowers paint for you?
What dance of Bird and Beast
Reveals itself in that space that
Breathes?

Beauty’s Space

Yesterday I took a walk, not into town, but through the woods that surrond my home. I wasn’t searching for anything particular, nor hoping for any great revelation. It was enough just being there. In that space which is open, without expectation, a peace can descend, a peace that expects nothing but experiences everything.  In that space beauty reveals herself. She has always been there, waiting for you to notice her, to accept her.  If you allow her into your heart she will help you fly.

Workshopping

I have recently spent five days running voice workshops as part of an African arts festival in Lourmarin, my little village in Provence. I must say, l love workshops. whether I’m working with complete beginners or the more experienced, I get a thrill from the act of transmission. It is often difficult but always rewarding.
My work is a journey of discovery, of the body and its innate rhythms (that heart beat and pulse we all have for instance), of the voice and its potential. I ask that my students not feel intimidated by the idea of the “beautiful voice.” Rather I asked them to take risks, to search and uncover the possibilities, the colors of the voice. Sure, different styles have particular aesthetic requirements, but one aspect of my work is to empower the singer, to give her the knowledge and the tools to make her own aesthetic decisions. So that means body work, vibration work, rhythmic work, aural work and, importantly, an understanding of resonance. And after all that, there is still chords and improvisation. The work and pace changes with the level of the participants, but it is really fun and challenging.
Sometimes the work we do releases negative energy or bad memories and tears start to flow. But as I’ve said before, the voice heals, music heals, makes you feel good. It’s magic!

Why I Sing – Light and Shade

A singer can be prophet, healer, historian, poet, shaman, lover, mystic. The human voice is the most poignant and flexible of instruments. Intricate and seductive it is the means by which we not only communicate our ideas, needs, feelings, it is used to soothe, as a mother soothes her baby in lullaby, to heal, to invoke the gods in toning and chanting, to arouse a lover, it is used as a cry to battle and cry of mourning, to welcome an infant into the world and to send a departed soul home. It is everyday life, the transporter of our profoundest dreams. The voice of life and death, birth and departing.