The Benefits of CircleSongs

In August 2011, about 150 people from around the world came together in New York, amidst the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Some of us traveled for days to get there. Some were delayed by the weather. Some of us had waited for years to have the opportunity to experience what we were about the experience. All of us left that experience changed by the magic we encountered.

What brought us to the quiet, rural town of Rhinebeck was none-other than Grammy Award-Winning artist Bobby McFerrin. He, along with five of his hand-picked faculty from around the United States, were there to teach us about CircleSongs, a process he developed of improvisational community singing.

McFerrin was one of the people late in getting there due to the weather, which delayed the start of our full experience by nearly a day. But someone from his PR firm was on hand to get things started with a mass CircleSong. It was clear from the beginning that we were about to experience something magical. One person at a time, all strangers to me, got into the middle of the circle and led the group in an improvised song, inviting those of us forming the circle to participate. We were nervous and excited, watching and listening to each other closely. And when the first round was over, there wasn’t a smile-less face in the room. We knew we were there for a profound reason.

From that point on, we came together in community, whether walking around the beautiful campus, eating at the cafeteria-style dining hall, or forming our own little song circles at the little café or atop the highest point of the campus in the meditation hall. The experience of singing together led to so much more than we could have imagined.

Once I returned home, my soul was on fire as I continued to listen to recordings of what we created together and we shared videos, pictures, and stories from our experiences on our Facebook group. It took me a couple months to be able to articulate what I experienced in New York and what benefits I had gained that I wished to pass along to others who would participate in my CircleSong group in my local community.

CircleSongs provide rich opportunities to:

1. Express yourself creatively. If ever there was an opportunity to be creative, CircleSongs provides it. Everything created in a CircleSong is in-the-moment, improvised, and spontaneous. You are only limited by your imagination.
2. Break down social barriers (language, culture, etc.) . Out of 150 people who attended the New York training with me, most were from the United States. But we also had people from France, Belgium, Canada, Brazil, Germany, India, Denmark, Norway, etc. And one of our teachers was even born and raised in Lebanon. There’s something about music that cuts through barriers. In CircleSongs, we sing musical phrases without words. We sing sounds. Some are universal sounds. Some are more related to culture. But there is room for any and every sound. And the sounds someone from a different place and culture makes affects other sounds. It is a true blend of human experience.
3. Strengthen connection to yourself. Even though you sing with others in community during CircleSongs, you are still on your own. Left there to listen to others and the conductor in the middle of the circle, feel the music, and deal with any inner voice that begins talking to you during the process.
4. Foster cooperation, teamwork, and community. It is difficult to create a cohesive improvised song without working together. There’s a phenomenon that happens in the circle, which most musicians call “the pocket” or “the groove,” when everyone is in synch. You can feel that moment happen. Everyone is singing together, listening to each other, working toward the same thing….true creative expression. When you’re in the pocket, you know that everyone there serves a unique purpose. Everyone is needed. Everyone is contributing to the beautiful song that is being created.
5. Support yourself and others in creative, uninhibited expression. Support is a cornerstone of the CircleSong process. We must listen to each other. The conductor in the middle of the circle creates one musical phrase after another and assigns it to different parts of the circle. He/she creates one phrase and passes it along, then must listen to what comes up next in the improvised songwriting. As a conductor of these circles, I can tell you that everyone in that room contributes to what music comes out of my mouth. The music is inspired by everyone there – their energy, their musicality, their very being.
6. Promote self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Even people who profess they are not singers or are not creative leave a CircleSong experience with a different perspective. Where they claimed they could not sing, they have now sung. Where they claimed they were not creative, they helped to create something. When we accomplish something we are hesitant to even try, it inevitably raises our confidence. Even those of us who identify ourselves as singers and as creative leave a CircleSong boosted. CircleSongs are about creating. And in that process there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. At the end, we typically smile. Some laugh. Some clap. There has been something profound that has been accomplished. And everyone feels it.

The best way to get a sense of all the benefits from CircleSongs is to experience it for yourself. I invite you to join me for CircleSongs Phoenix, which I will be leading beginning January 9, 2013, in the Phoenix, AZ metro area. For further information about CircleSongs and to listen to samples of CircleSongs I led while studying in New York, please visit http://www.krylyn.com/circlesongs. To register for an upcoming CircleSong Phoenix group go to http://circlesongs.eventbrite.com.