Growth in Music

Today we began with music listening and sharing. I asked the group members what they would like from the music today, they answered "peaceful". I shared a song of peace and we engaged in listening while following along to the lyrics. I then invited group members to share a song that was meaningful for them. One group member shared a song of meaning, together we listened and discussed our thoughts on the piece. The group then requested a shift, from peaceful to energetic. We put on a celebratory dance song that had us all tapping our feet and moving in time to the music. We used this energy we obtained from the music and began to make our own musical improvisations. Group members were invited to select an instrument and instructed to choose a number between 1-4. Using four beats, each group member played their instrument on the chosen beat. We laughed as we all tried to keep track of where our number was in the musical pattern. We levelled this up to two numbers, and eventually to 8 counts of music. We listened as the patterns shifted and evolved as group members added more and more beats to their playing. After this musical warm up, we created improvised music on the theme of celebration and joy. We then played together with an emphasis on growth, starting soft as a group and then growing together until our music was strong and present in the space. Group members shared that they liked the way this musical growth sounded. Everybody switched instruments and we played together one last time on the theme of growth in music.