Making Rounds at Song Circle

Singing has been an important part of Dancing Rabbit culture as long as I've been here. Since I arrived in 2000, we've joined hands before group meals for announcements, a moment of silence, and finally a song, usually chosen by the cook (or more recently by the person who sets up the tables and chairs). Some of these "circle-up" songs have become old standards ("The Earth's been good to me" and "Simple Gifts" come to mind), some are only sung once (did we ever try "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" by U2 again?), and the depth of meaning has run the gamut from near-zero to more serious gratitude-for-the-food numbers.

We've had community sing-alongs over the years as well, though their popularity has varied quite a bit, depending on how many singers and guitar players are around who want to sing and play, and, maybe most importantly, ones who know the same songs and/or are willing and able to teach them. Our sing-alongs generally feature songs from the Rise Up Singing songbook (words and chords to about 1200 songs-fantastic, and you should get a copy if you don't already have one), and sometimes popular songs that folks know well enough to sing without a songbook.

Then within a few years several guitarists left DR, and sing-alongs became more infrequent, less well-attended, and, to me at least, less satisfying. My partner and I no longer eat with a food co-op, and due to illness I often miss Tuesday night potluck and Friday night community dinners, so I was feeling a serious lack of singing with others and that source of meaningful community bonding time. I knew I wanted and needed to feel harmony and connection much more often in my life, and after less-than-successful attempts to make sing-alongs happen, I decided to find or make something that might better fit my needs.

I hoped that the "something" might address an issue I had with sing-alongs, stemming from an experience where I suddenly noticed how utterly fixated I was on the printed words to a song that I've known by heart since I was about seven years old! ("Country Roads" by John Denver, in case you're wondering.) I looked around and it seemed that indeed most of us were staring down at our songbooks, reading the words rather than feeling them, singing automatically rather than feeling the connection that happens when people sing together. It also seemed that we were more likely to slow down as we sang, often sounding like a dirge even on happy songs, when focusing on the printed word.

Somewhere along the way, I mentioned some of these musings to Alyssa, who said that she, too, had been wanting more singing in her life. So we did a little brainstorm and decided to start a Dancing Rabbit song circle. Partly to make it welcoming to all, partly to make it feasible without a guitar player, and partly just because we wanted a regular, open-to-everyone, voices-only, no songbooks-style event.

It began last fall, and has been held almost every week since. We create the circle together, so each one is different: some have lots of chanting or rounds, some are more bluesy or campy or funny or (most often) an assortment of all kinds of songs. Sometimes there are lots of very experienced singers and fancy harmonies and rounds, sometimes it's mostly basic melodies and simpler singing, but they're all great in different ways. It has been a fantastic experience for me, and, based on attendance, enthusiasm, and the number of people who said at our annual retreat that song circle was one of the best things that happened last year, it's been so for other folks as well.

At our song circle everyone is welcome, no experience required. Whoever is feeling inspired starts us off with a song, and then, going around the circle, each person in turn chooses a song for the group to sing (sometimes asking someone else to start it), teaches a new song, or passes. This way everyone gets a chance to sing their favorites, without all of us extroverts hogging all of the airtime. It also takes the pressure off those of us who feel a need to fill empty spaces with sound, when sometimes what the group needs is to hold silence, while the next person is deciding what their choice will be.

I want to be clear that I am not trying to bash sing-alongs: I love them and hope they happen more often, but they are fundamentally different from song circle. Most song circle songs are learned over time, orally and aurally rather than by sight, and I think I learn them more intensely, or more deeply that way. They are often fairly simple, with few words, or someone who knows all the words to a longer song might teach us the chorus, and sing the verses alone until others learn them. And as song circle regulars get to know one another better, we build appreciation, trust, and understanding between us.

One powerful thing I've seen at song circle is people who've been told their whole lives that they "can't sing", or who are very nervous about singing in front of others, gradually become strong confident singers. Watching their transformation during these months has been a real gift, and the confidence and connection found in circle seems to spread into other parts of our lives as well. I think that by witnessing aspects of one another at song circle that don't show up in our everyday interactions, as a group we are becoming more able to appreciate each other just as we are.

Part of our vision in creating song circle was that it might help shift DR toward being more of a singing culture, which to me means a more open and connected culture, and I think that it's happening. Songs originally learned at song circle are making their way out into the wider community: some are now circle-up songs, and folks who've never been to song circle can be heard humming some of the catchier tunes. It's a good thing, and as Cat Stevens sings: "If you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to be free, be free…" Singing together in circle helps establish group harmony that carries well beyond the last note sung.

March Hare Spring 2009 Issue 59

May Day		Rounds at Song Circle
I ♥ Dancing Rabbit		Childbirth at DR
Notable Quotables		YABRS Charter

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