Songwriting Part 3 of 5

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 to try to capture the empowering essence that always transforms us each year.

I wanted it to be a song that we could sing throughout the year so we can continue to live in that beauty of friendship and wisdom. A feeling we could revisit any time we wanted. 

The theme this year was, Now I Walk In Beauty. Here is a spiral path that we all got to walk on the last day to the tune, Now I Walk In Beauty... beauty is before me, beauty is beside, above and below me.

Our time together this year went so fast it was from Thursday afternoon until noon Sunday, August 4-7. It felt like living a whole month in 4 days! 

[Morning Workshop: Math for Grades 5-8 with Rebecca and Amber]

Thursday was full of really exciting vibes mixed with nervous energy. It was crazy good to see everyone again and to meet new people.

[In no particular order: Jean Miller, Barbara Dewey and her daughter, Maxime, Beverly, Sarah, Shawna, Amber, Rebecca, Christy, Crystal, Aneta, Alison, Joe M, Eshanne, Viktorya, Marie, Jennine, Cindy, Aleksandra, Leah, Misty, Christie, Mandy, Trinity, Karissa, Tory, Jaclyn, Joe, Rachel, Lael, Justine, Nicole, Emily, Elizabeth, and a few others, not picutured: the teachers from the Everlasting Tree School.]

It was great finally meeting, Justine Tullier, she stays up to date with me through my online stuff at Living Music. She is a musician; she sings, plays piano, a little guitar, recorder and pennywhistle. We got to chat the week before about her playing with me on some songs.

[Leah and Justine]

She joined me on pennywhistle on my song Joyful Creation for the Saturday morning circle, which was the first time ever having a pennywhistle part, I was excited for this! How fun to have everyone singing a song you wrote, live and with all the parts!

And on Sunday, she played the recorder part as I played the guitar part for the Spiral Walk, Now I Walk in Beauty.

I invited her to sit beside me on Friday night for our music jam session. She had wanted to pack her keyboard, but it was too big! She was a great help in singing the songs I picked out, and she added a cute little bird part on pennywhistle to Bob Marley’s, Three Little Birds.

It was a beautiful twilight evening, and the first song we sang was You Are My Sunshine, to get everyone warmed up. Then I played, I Love You So, a song me and my cousin wrote. They liked it so much that they wanted to sing it again, because they really enjoyed learning and singing it with me. How sweet to have all these voices on my song!

I am mostly an instrumentalist, so having real singers to join me was so new, wonderful and inspiring! I never sang in a chorus or groups, as a child, but I have been taking vocal lessons from Crystal Hosea, Legends of the Staff of Musique for the past 2 years, and she has taught me a lot.

I was amazed that so many people could all sing so beautifully and so lyrically- you know, smooth and connected.

Then I played them my version of Over The Rainbow. I blended the original version that Judy Garland sings with Israeli Kamakawiwo’ole’s version. They where trying to figure out how to sing it throughout the song and when we got to the end, they were said, “That was so pretty…I liked that a lot…that was so different!”

Then I played them Travel On, another song I wrote with my cousin. One of the chorus line goes, “I Travel on and on and on and on from Ohio, to Atlanta, to the breezy Gulf Shore."

How cool to sing it in Ohio, after taking a 750 mile road trip from Georgia.

In the song, I was supposed to sing, “There’s something about the view from way up here, no I can’t really get it from way down there.” But I couldn't help myself from singing it this way: "There’s something about the view from way up here, no I can’t really get it from down in Georgia!?!?”

The next song was, Can’t Help Falling in Love, and everyone sang along, it was a moment when all conversation stopped. And all you could hear was singing. It's nice when you can really connect with people all at the same time. What an intimate moment, one I will remember forever.

So many times we came together as one voice at Taproot, especially at circle time when we all joined hands. This is always such an amazing feeling.

During these few days, we seem to have the same collective intentions, to bring this special wisdom back with us, in us, and to our families and keep it alive for yet another year. 

We get to soak in as much beauty as we can in our time together as friends, and in nature, and in creating the most aesthetically pleasing environment that we can for our family.

It is the beauty that lives inside of us as well. It is in the simple, but beautiful ways we teach with our hearts, hands, and minds. 

Making new bonds and deepening our bonds with our old friends is such a gift in our life. 

[Leah, me, Mandy, Aneta, and Aleksandra]

I am happy with the way our song, A Dream Set Free, turned out, I feel it captured the true essence of this years Taproot 2022.

[Jaclyn, Justine, Jennine, me, Amber]

Thank you for stopping by today!

Check out Part 4