A Few Tips on Singing

A Few Tips on Dancing

Musicianship and the Dances

How Dances Come - Some Thoughts

A Few Tips on Singing

Singing in the dances with others helps us to develop a better relationship with our own voices. Singing is one of the greatest joys in life and is a way of expressing the depths of the spirit. If you are comfortable with singing already that's wonderful - share your harmony with us all. If, as is not uncommon, you feel inhibited about using your voice and perhaps you may even consider yourself "tone deaf" that is fine too - we still want you to share your harmony with us all. Gradually or even suddenly you will feel good about your singing voice. Try to forget that you were told that you couldn't sing and listen to yourself actually doing it. Try to feel the voice in the heart (all around the centre of the chest and in the back) so that the sound resonates in and emanates from this place. At the same time feel that the throat is relaxed; also the abdomen and the pelvic floor are relaxed. Keep the breathing relaxed and don't strain at all. Gradually connect with the source of the creative power in your voice and allow the sound to fill your whole body. Listen to the other voices and the instruments. Feel the sound and feel your own unique place in that sound.

A Few Tips on Dancing

Move with a relaxed body particularly in the hands and shoulders, hips and knees. Be in touch with your whole body. Keep the eyes open and be aware of how the whole circle is moving. Find your sense of rhythm and move in time with the pulse, the heartbeat of each dance. We all move together. It's OK to sit out for a dance if you feel you need to at any time. In the silence after each dance is an opportunity for us to assimilate the energy created during that particular dance. Enter the world of feeling and sensation. Return to awareness of the breath and notice the subtle changes in breath brought about by each dance. Trust your own feelings.

Musicianship and the Dances

Instrumental accompaniment is not essential to the dances and indeed some dances may work better without it; yet instruments such as guitar and drum can create the rhythmic and melodic foundation for a dance and help hold the different components of a dance together.

The guitar in the context of the dances is primarily a rhythm instrument. It also regulates and maintains the pitch of a melody and often also provides the melody which can be particularly useful when dancing 'on the breath'.

For the kind of playing that is required for the dances it's helpful to distinguish between the outer techniques of playing the instrument - the different rhythms, notes and scales, chords etc; and the inner techniques of attunement - concentration on the sacred phrase, playing from the feelings, listening, the breath, the heart, the energy of the circle. In practice there is often no such distinction but it can help to look at things in these terms.

If currently you don't play guitar don't worry it's not as difficult as you might think to learn. It's possible to use a simplified method of playing in a particular form of what is called 'open tuning' i.e. the strings of the guitar are tuned in a such a way as to sound in tune with each other when played together without having to use the left hand (assuming we are right handed) to finger any positions on the fret board.

If you can play guitar already you'll be able to spend most of your time perfecting attunment, though you will also need to learn the 'open tuning' in which the strings are tuned GGDGGD : low E string to up to G; A down to G; D stays the same; G stays the same; B down to G; E down to D. this tuning is based on the tuning of the tanpura, the Indian instrument which creates the drone sound which can always be heard behind Northern Indian classical music.

The initial benefit of open tuning is that much can be done without having to learn the chords essential for standard guitar tuning. But for many of the dances, developing skill in open tuning adds something both rhythmically and harmonically which just cannot be achieved in standard tuning so it is not just a soft option. Most tunes can be played in either open or standard tuning. There are some which can be only be played successfully in open and similarly some which can only be played in standard.

Reading music helps but is by no means essential as most of the tunes in the dances are fairly simple to 'hear.'

From the Inside Out

As the 'outer' techniques of guitar playing are available elsewhere, some sources of which are listed below, here we will concentrate on the 'inner' aspects of playing and some exercises are given to help you develop along these lines. These will be applicable to you no matter what stage you are at with your instrument.

To quote Murshid S.A.M. "A [guitar] player, for instance, in addition to becoming acquainted with all the complications and nuances of style, melody and rhythm, must also acquire the psychic power in the fingertips and the hands and also feel a close attunement to the instrument as if the instrument were to become part of one's very being so to speak."

He goes on. "A knowledge of the emotions is most valuable; and if they control and direct the emotions through the breath and thought they become able to convey life itself through their music. They benefit most by feeling the life within the heart; and they can also gain by some proper mystical training in singing and dancing. The ability to concentrate, the faculty of feeling and the knowledge of sound vibrations are all most valuable." (The metaphysics of sound. unpublished paper).

The sacred phrase is the driving force in one's playing and always remains at the forefront of one's concentration. Each phrase has its own particular rhythm. Through breathing and singing the sacred phrases let each one 'speak' to you through the heart. The rhythm and melodic phrasing one plays should closely reflect the rhythm of the sacred phrase. In so doing this helps dancers to feel the movements more strongly and adds to the overall unity of the dance.

The essence is on feeling, actual physical and energetic sensation, synchronisation of what the instrument plays with the movements of the dance and phrasing of the melody.

Experiment on yourself first. How does your body react to what you play? Is your body in harmony, in tune with what you are playing? How does what you play make you feel? Practice moving to the rhythm of the guitar and feeling its effects in your own body. Begin by simply side-stepping to the left and right as you play a 4/4 rhythm. Continue for some time. Really feel.

Try walking as you play . As the feet connect with the earth let this determine the accent of your rhythm. Try different rhythms. 3/4 and 4/4.

Choose a dance like the Kalama and 'dance' as you play the rhythm. Sing if possible. If not have the sacred phrase on the breath. The first things to watch are the feet and more importantly the heart. Then try matching the rhythm of the guitar with heart-centred movments and concentrations for example in Estarferallah or Abwoon d'bwashemaya. At first let this be an exercise in rhythm only and then gradually introduce melodic playing. After these initial experiments take any dance and 'dance' it as you play. Some are easier than others.

When one's own body moves in harmony with one's playing it's likely that what one plays will enable others to do the same.

Learn to listen - with the ears, the whole body and the subtle senses.

There are many exercises in "The Listening Book" by Allaudin Mathieu which is highly recommended.

Let your breath be aligned with your playing. Breathe a sun breath and notice any effect on the sound you produce. Try a moon breath. In time go through the elements and planets.

Play from the heart. Feel the sacred phrase. Sense the connection to the Oneness beyond oneself. Feel the connection between the heart and the fingers.

Obviously these things take time to assimilate and ultimately there is no limit to how far one can take them. Eventually with practice you'll be able to incorpoate these elements into you playing.

In the Dance Circle

If you are supporting a dance leader watch them closely and listen intently. Be prepared to give them the first note of a melody. Take your direction from them regarding tempo.

Be aware of the circle and how it moves, the flow of energy that particular dances create and of your place in the circle. Don't get in the leader's way.

There is a 'circularity' in the connection between the dancers, their movements and their singing, and the instruments which is continuously flowing. Initially one may be helping to set the rhythm and tone of a dance though as the alchemical process develops one also responds to the particular subtleties and nuances created at any particular time by the singing and movements of the dancers and one's playing changes accordingly. The responses come through the heart and for me the guitar is the bridge.

The circle of energy - the continuous flow, the swirling, tuning into this allowing it to flow through one's being into one's fingers and come through the instrument, the instrument is part of the loop.

An important point to remember. One's sense of rhythm, of keeping time. If one stands still or sits while playing for a dance it can be more difficult to stay with the required tempo - one can speed up quite easily; less freqeuntly slow down; sometimes lose the beat etc. If one moves as one plays particularly if one does the movements of the dance these things are less likely.

Watch the feet of the leader. Be aware of the leader and watch and listen for directions either verbal or not. There needs to be good rapport between the musician and the leader.

As the musician you are the servant.

How dances come - Some thoughts

Dances come slowly and intermitently in my experience. There is no formula that I detect or at least can call to order and dances so far have come in different ways. Perhaps the one common thing though is that at some point I have made an inner decision or commitment to work on a particular sacred phrase either with or without a melody. After this things seem to happen subconsciously for some time as the process of internalising the phrase takes place though I do spend time singing, walking or breathing phrases usually at intervals and whe the inspiration takes me.

Of the dances that have come through me, some of the phrases and melodies I have known very well for some time; others I take the time to get to know better. Some dances have come in 'vision' while I have been in a meditative state. The Radhe Bol dance came during an illness when I was kind of delirious - sick in bed for a day. Another dance came when I was ill also. They don't always come first time or all at once - there are generally rounds of working with a phrase. I have a good sense if they work on the level of consciousness and then I embody and actually dance them for a while on my own. Usually there are few if any changes made after this stage. Less frequently dances have come while I have been walking or singing.

Then there is the delicate stage of having a group actually dance the dance. It seems to take some time for a new dance to "work" - for the movements to become solidified and embodied. And this can often be a challenge and it can be easy to give up at this point. Generally after a few times of leading the dance then it's solid. I find I am reticent about introducing these new dances and the test of whether the dance is good is how people respond in the dance and how the energy flows.

Sometimes the dances do not come and I have a couple of things, at least, that I have been working on without success for several years. Also what comes may not be in alignment with preconceived ideas. This happened with a Hari Krishna dance. I had the feeling that I wanted more for the mantra and could never get it. Whereas the dance was well received by dancers and now I also feel it works well.