Practice Tracks
~A note on cultural appropriation~
•Recordings are for your ears only! Do not disseminate. For real. It's illegal.•
•And bare with me on some of these, they're quite imperfect. Sometimes its flat by the end of the recording, or my voice is straining. But I hope these rough cuts get the basic parts across!•
•If a track glitches, try refreshing the page.
To search:
1. Create a shortcut to his page on your desktop
2. Use the search function to find the song you're looking for. ctrl. + F or cmmd. + F
* This is a wonderful resource page of songs from Heartland Harmonies. Scroll down or search the page to find "We are the way"
* I taught the bass part on a different harmony on Monday 4.18 sorry! (Both work)
A quick and easy opener round meaning "Rejoice" or "rejoice in God". A great back-pocket song.
One of my favorite Mary Poppins-esque songs, bringing to mind images of some goofy old English blokes making their way to a gathering or pub across a lake. A very old drinking song, I originally learned it in 2017 when I took the Ferry across the Salish sea to attend Community Choir Leadership Training from magical Canadian song elves.
A mesmerizing and hypnotic round that reminds me of the feelings of spinning and spiraling.
Under the full moon light we dance
Spirits' dance we dance
joining hands we dance
joining souls rejoice
My new favorite round. I learned it from the choir leaders of the murmurations choir from New Orleans. Source unknown. I love the feeling of many vendors all singing about their wares!
Who Will buy my roses? Who will buy my posies? Who will buy my Lillies? Ladies, fair.
Taste and try before you buy fine ripe pears! x2
Clothes, clothes! Many old clothes for sale. Fine bear skins and rabbit skins. Many old clothes!
Catchy and quick teach! I encourage you to learn this round well enough to teach it widely. Based on Paulette Meyers' Original, Can work as three micro-parts or as a round, which I prefer.
Another of my pal Karly's magnificent three-parters, I learned this last summer from her at Song Village. It has a bittersweet redeeming quality I think.
For this breath, this sound, this holy, holy ground
for this wondrous living world,
give thanks, give thanks
I recently met Debbie Nargi-Brown at Song Village and she has a whole bunch of awesome, rhythmic songs. She teaches West African style drumming, and is an extremely embodied songleader. A force of nature. Here is her website. She has a few albums of music, much of which is singalong friendly. This song resonated with me as a kind of internal pep-talk, whenever I start to think in absolutes, imagining failing and giving up, wether about minor or major things in life. It takes faith and hope to move through these feelings.
Part One: This is a roadblock, not the end of the road. If I get knocked down, I get back up again.
Part Two: I don't know what you've been told, now is the time to take back control.
Part Three: Faith, Hope, to believe. Faith, Hope, to receive.
A super catchy song about the deeper connection we may cultivate with one another if we are brave enough to say what we feel! And about letting honesty guide us.
Part One: This bond of trust, it will hold you. You are safe there. Safe there.
Part Two: May the truth be the guide. May it shine bright. May the truth guide the light.
Part Three: The truth! Show me the way. Give me the courage to say...
Part Four: If I feel it, I will say it. If I feel it I'll Say it say it-Say it say it!
I have been hunting for this arrangement for about four years, and finally found it. A couple Winters ago I arranged it myself but wasn't satisfied with the outcome. Mine had more going on, but I like the simplicity here. Just to make things needlessly complicated, you can find my arrangement under the Winter 2020 archive. Tommy Sands is an American songwriter, though this song is Celtic influenced. Here is the Original. A sweet song about inclusion and welcome.
Let the circle be wide ‘round the fireside
And we’ll soon make room for you.
Let your heart fell no fear
For there’re no strangers here.
Just friends that you never knew.
Teaching Tracks
So Fun to sing! Another banger from Yeomans. The words speak for themselves. Contemporary UK composer. Space it out enough for the response to have some room around it. In a small group I'd just do lead, Soprano, Tenor. Enjoy!
Every voice shall sing, every light shall shine.
Shine on, shine on...
Halleluia! Shine on Yeah! Shine on
Teaching Tracks
Hot off the presses, Heather Pierson just wrote this song, about this Spring! A rousing chant that twitters about and then coalesces magnificently in a tight harmony. I love the concept of growing all our relationships as agriculture.
Plant the seeds of yourself, wherever you may go
and may the wind and water make you stronger as you grow.
And may the Earth bring flowers from the seeds that you sow.
And where there is need plant a seed!
Parts:
This song allows us to embody the spirit of gratitude. Sometimes it can be hard to strike the balance of humbleness and feeling worthy of the bounty of life. The words here recognize that there is a surrendering involved in accepting this bounty, and that there is surrendering inherent in gratitude. It came out of a workshop led by Suzie Ro Prater, in which a group together composes a song then and there, the Authors names are Sharon Galyer, Olivia Flenley, Jennie Fisk and Mel Deevy. There are two parts, a call, and an echo, with the Alto I and Tenors making the call, and all the other parts on the echo. Fun to sing once we get it!
Practice Tracks
I allow, I surrender. I feel so grateful to receive
A holistic reflection on our actions by Ubuntu choir director Tom Tyre. Slower is better on this one, and drones tuning on that opening note are also a wonderful addition!
The epic gospel chorus of a longer song, a powerful reminder to let go. And endlessly goosebump-inducing juicy harmonies!
We let the love wash over us
we let,
we let it be
We let the (Joy) Etc...
Teaching Tracks
These words are from a poem published in 1868 by Sarah Williams called The Old Astronomer. The original words are "Loved the stars too truly" though many people have learned the song as "fondly". There are many entry points for this round, which can be split up into eighths, sixteenths, etc. This is my favorite way to round it. Keep it slow, meld with the other singers. Note the off-beat on "...I Have" and the length of the pause at the end
Though my soul may set in darkness it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the start to fondly to be fearful of the night
fearful of the night
This Epic arrangement comes from German composer Meinhard Ansohn. Suggestion for small groups is to try the melody plus both Alto parts, which could be Octaved down for low voices. That makes a nice three-part!
Evening rise, spirit come
sun goes down when the day is done
mother earth awakens me
with the heartbeat of the sea
Teaching Tracks
This classic anthem from the Natural Voice Network of the UK hits the sweet spot for four-part harmonies. Singing this song is like dessert. An important reminder that we do infact have everything within ourselves that we need to meet the challenges and rewards of our days and lives.
We've got all the love
All that we need
to change our world, halleluia!
We've got all the love
all that we need
blesssed be.
Teaching Tracks
A lilting ,fun, and light 3-part round, based on Mozart. I found this song on an album by Barbara Swetina and the Findhorn singers.
A simple etheric chant/round. Good for night time around the fire.
Here is a classic Natural Voice Network move. Take a heartfelt singer/songwriter anthem, and arrange it for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. Take a look at the original, and you’ll get more out of the meaning here. It’s a song about the power of the Love within us to bear us through life’s difficulties. Who can’t relate to that?
This love will carry
this love will carry me
I know this love will carry me
love will carry me...
Teaching Tracks
This song resulted from the distillation of all the wisdom passed along from Suzie Ro's father, (also a songleader and songwriter) when he was on his deathbed. A wonderfully Eerie cauldron of song, It conveys the depths of which it speaks in poetry and sound. Here is the whole song.
Listen deeply, a flame in the center of the storm
She sings in silence, inside the ocean of my soul
Teaching Tracks
One of my mentors from BC composed this. He said, roughly, “There are so many songs that only use ‘Alleluia’, that I wanted to make a really special one, and only do it once. This is my alleluia”.