Taproot Teacher Training is always so magical from start to finish. This is my 8th year, as a presenter, and I am always amazed of the magic that happens.

WEDNESDAY- SUNDAY, August 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

On Wednesday, I woke up at 4:30am, with the full moon still glowing, so I could hit the road with Lindsay at 6am.

We drove 750 miles north, through the Georgia mountains, the Tennessee mountains, the Kentucky blue grasses, across the Ohio farmland to a beautiful campground called Camp Asbury, outside Cleveland, Ohio.

It took us all day, 12 hours, to get there, at 7 pm with the setting sun.

Getting there a day early, before the event, was nice, we got to spend some time with our Taproot Team family: Jean Miller of Art of Homeschooling, Barbara of Waldorf Without Walls, Rebecca, Amber, Joe, Sarah, Dominique, Christy and Karen. 

THURSDAY, August 3

 Our morning was busy with us all getting everything ready. Then noon came around, people starting driving up, Jean and...

New Joyful Community Excitement!

Check out our Meetup! I never knew March could be so festive with green being our main theme!

I am loving this festive time together with our new community, Music Makers!

This month, we are learning St. Patrick's Day is Coming, a song I wrote with my 10 year old student, Maya, during our ukulele lesson.

What a fun way to enjoy each month with a festive song that we can all sing and play together.

It's so wonderful that we can take what we learned in our Meetup and practice it all month.

We are meeting back next Thursday, March 9, at 2pm ET so you can play me what you practiced and I can give you some feedback.

And I am learning so much from my members, too!

Like I heard my first limerick, spoken by Hanna, our 9 year old Music Maker, she said,

"There once was a mid March day,

Where people would gather and say:

'St. Patrick's Day is here,

Let's wear green and give cheer.'

And then they partied the evening away."

What a fun way to expand our...

Here is the replay of our December Group Lesson for the new Living Music Community and I invite you to join us every first Thursday of the month.

Mark January, 5, 2023 at 2pm ET/ 11am PT onto your calendar.

Also, I need your suggestions, What songs or ideas do you have about our next time we meet? 

We don't have to work on a song either, I am open to your musical questions too!

Just email me at [email protected] 

I would love to hear your suggestions.

A new Community portal is coming soon to my website, I am so excited!

It is in beta testing now, but I will let you know more about it when it is ready.

I can't wait to finally have a place to hang out with you all the time!

We can share our music ideas and learn from each other and become great friends.

Welcome to our 3rd community meeting, here you will learn a family song that our family enjoyed during October and November, called The Pumpkin Pie Song.

Come along and learn to sing it, and pick your instrument part, ranging from beginning to advanced.

I will teach you the notes and the chords.

Click Here for the lesson plan.

Learn a simple 3 note melody that fits you and your level and favorite instrument

• vocals
• pennywhistle
• recorder
• ukulele
• piano

Learn only 3 chords for

• guitar
• ukulele
• baritone ukulele
• piano.

Years ago, I found The Pumpkin Pie Song in the book Festivals Family and Food: Guide to Seasonal Celebration by Diana Carey and Judy Large.

I first began learning it on pennywhistle. I added chords to it, and arranged it myself. I have never heard it played any where, so I just had to be creative when trying it all out. 

I thought it would be great arrange it with added guitar chords and with this simplified pennywhistle melody...

Check out our very first meeting!?!?!

I had no idea what we were going to discover or what this new community wanted, so let the journey begin!

We had a wonderful time together of sharing about our music journey. 

Join us next time.

We meet the first Thursday of each new month at 2pm Eastern Time. Please mark your calendars.

I was telling Angie how our meeting went because she wasn’t able to make it, I said, me personally, I was overwhelmed with the love that I felt. We had 3 kids join, and they are so pure and full of this amazing love that is so different and sweet, I long for this kind of love in our adult world for each other. I guess that is at the heart of what we do, as moms to be that space for them to freely love. What a blessing to be a mom!!!

 My husband bought me a new guitar, and it sounds so good!!!!  I got to share my new song that I wrote about the trees here in Georgia, called Into the World.

 It's a Martin 000-28 Eric Clapton Acoustic...

A Dream Set Free 

Saturday Evening

Thank you for letting me share this wonderful experience with you!

I hope you enjoyed this series about songwriting.

Now for the performance!

It was Saturday, at twilight, at Taproot, I couldn't ask for a better place or audience of friends.

Looking out at everyone's faces was the best. I am so glad that I can finally look out and see love instead of fear.

For so many years, I used to stand in front of audiences so scared of what they where thinking about me.

It was so hard to look out at people and not be scared, scared that I would make mistakes, or look bad, or get upset with how they were reacting to my most vulnerable self.

I am super sensitive, I was that little girl who was always way too shy to speak. It was painfully hard for me to talk to people, even as a teen.

So for me to be able to finally stand in front of an audience and share my music that lives in me and in the heart of my friends, was just so transforming.

To be...

A Dream Set Free 

Saturday Afternoon

Let your dreams become reality!

On this day, August 8, I witnessed a dream of mine, set free ~ writing a song with friends.

I was surrounded by love, beauty, freedom, friends, as time stood still long enough to write this song.

We hope you enjoy it!

Here is the moment we completed the song and we captured our practice performance.

The plan was to sing it for everyone that evening at the Saturday Night Sharing.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Check out Part 5 Now

A Dream Set Free 

The Essence of Taproot

 Part 1 was brainstorming and coming up with verse 1

Part 2 was coming up with verse 2 the next day out in nature

This is Part 3 the essence of Taproot Teacher Training

[Me, Jodie Mesler and Jean Miller]

In this blog post, I want give you a feel of A Dream Set Free, which is a very important part of songwriting. What is the collective feeling of this time together?

[Our small group, moms with kids 1st-3rd grade]

Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Education, states,

"We look at a painting and see beauty, with music we become beauty...

in the sculptural and pictorial realm we look at beauty, and we live it;

in the musical realm we ourselves become beauty...but in music humans themselves are the creators.

What they create does not come from what is already there, but lays the foundation and firm ground for what is to arise in the future."

The songwriting vision I had before I got to Taproot was...

A Dream Set Free

Part 2 of my songwriting experience at this year's Taproot Teacher Training, hosted by Jean Miller and Barbara Dewey.

Saturday morning, August, 6, I sat under a tree as I witnessed God Manifested beauty.

In front of me was 

a beautiful lake,

with a vacant canoe,

beside me was rolling grassy hills,

and above me where blue skies with white puffy clouds.

I took in the sounds all around me, the buzzes and hums of summertime.

The warm wind gently blowing in my hair.

The peace.

The oneness.

The calm.

The love.

I sat with my guitar and just played with no singing, taking in this feeling.

Planting this feeling in the song.

Finally, when the time was right, I tried out our lyrics from yesterday.

"A dream is just a simple thing,

It starts as a seed.

A wish deep within your heart,

That longs to be freed. 

Planted deep, and still asleep,

Don't hold it in, let it out." 

Then, new lyrics for verse 2 came to me as I rested in this...

A Dream Set Free

Check out this clip that I caught on my Voice Memos App on my iPhone and some video footage of the campground.

How many times have you had your dream set free? Here is one of my dreams being set free and I want to share it with you.

A Dream Set Free is a beautiful new song written by me and my friends at the 16th annual Taproot Teacher Training, hosted by Jean Miller, of Art of Homeschooling and Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls.

Over 30 amazing friends came together for this training and retreat from all over the USA to Camp Asbury in Ohio. These incredible parents and teachers are changing the world on breath of love at a time. 

It was an inward and outward, playful and collaborative project that was so amazing!

Guess who was in this session?

Amber Hellewell of Hearth Magic and published author of the new book, A Summer's Call: A Michigan Day.

What a great start to our session, having her with us.

In the water with my mermaid friends

...