jennyarntzen.music

  Last night I attended a Vancouver Folk Song Society Zoom Song Circle. The Zoom circles started in response to the pandemic, when face-to-face gatherings were cancelled. This Zoom Song Circle had been convening on the fifth Wednesday of a month having five Wednesdays. The VFSS hosts it's regular weekly face to face gatherings on Wednesday evenings. This was the first Zoom Song Circle I had attended where there was no live, face to face gathering occurring at the same time. I was skeptical of the efficacy of attending an entirely online gathering but that has been replaced with enthusiasm.  First, we are not out of the woods in terms of communicable disease. In fact, given the rise of anti-vax and anti-science demagoguery, we are at higher risk of infectious outbreaks. Second, this rise in infection risk is coupled with an over-stressed healthcare system. It behooves us all to take precautions to stay healthy when and where we can. At the same time, we are in continuing state ...

  The first Sunday of February has come up fast! It is time to re-charge our collective batteries and get ourselves on the same page for the month ahead.  Many of us are facing unprecedented challenges that are calling us to our best work, our best selves and our greatest courage. Ellen Dissanayake asked, "What is Art For?" (1988). She observed that art-making behaviour was common across humankind and was curious about the significance of creative works in human social systems. How is it possible that we allocate precious resources to creative works even in times of scarcity and difficulty? What is it about our art-making activities that gives us the sustenance we need to face an uncertain future? We may not understand the relationship between our transcendental experiences with art, art-making, and art appreciation. We may not be able to define how our experiences of creative works as a collective body giving us strength to persevere, increasing our resilience through our sh...

  My sister and I shared a new experience last evening. We attended an open mic gathering at our local community service centre.  Holly arrived at my house at 2 pm in the afternoon. We had a cup of tea and caught up on project developments and then rehearsed for an hour and a half. We wanted to prepare a couple of songs for the open mic, we also wanted to work on songs that are new to each of us. When Holly and I play together, our default instrumentation is for Holly to play the dulcimer and I play the bass. Our alternate instrumentation is to have Holly play the piano, and I play either the bass or a recorder or whistle. For this expedition we were self-contained with our string instruments and our own amplification. The songs we settled on for the open mic were pieces that we have performed before. We were going into a new situation with new people. We decided it would be best if we also didn't add new music and arrangements to the mix. That said, we spent time working out ...

  I want to increase my vocabulary for when I am playing my bass. I want to understand when and why I might select a certain pattern or feel. I want to increase the range of notes I might select at any given moment in a song. Nathen Aswell is a well-known and respected musician I have known for many years. For this lesson, he played my ubass for the first time.  This is my first lesson with Nathen. This is what I learned. Pick a song that has a combination of instruments, including the bass. For example, a Cat Stevens song. Listen to the song for each instrument - if there are five instruments, listen to it five times.  Voice Guitar Bass Piano Drums Notice what each instrument is doing in relation to the other instruments. How they are listening to each other to create a whole sound out of their individual instruments. As rule, the bass player is going to stay out of the way of the melody.  The palette of notes and patterns to choose from breaks down into three grou...

  What a great way to get started on the new year and the new month!  We were fourteen friends, family and neighbours gathered to share songs, stories and poems. Amazing writers in our midst. We sang my new song, Adele - Christmas Rescue, with all three parts overlaying as we sang the Outro. I cannot describe how soulfully satisfying it is to hear this song and to watch Adele walking from person to person getting pets and scratches. After the song was completed, Adele made her way back into her den and curled up in her nest of stuffed animals. Trevor shared his haunting song, Gepeto, inspired by the fairytale, Pinocchio. The song tells the story from the point of view of the puppet, waking up from the glow of a magic star. Trevor also shared an acoustic cover of a song from the Sacred Hearts.  One of the things I love the most about gathering to share creative works is being introduced to new songs, writers, and stories that I would not otherwise encounter.  We went ...

  Wishing everyone a healthy, productive, impactful year of creative work ahead! Neighbourhood Folk is continuing in the New Year. Our goal is to host gatherings to share creative works on the first Sunday afternoon of the month from 3 to 5 pm with a potluck following at 5 pm. Our mission is to build strength in our creative capacity and increase our depth of connective capability. The work we do to articulate our human experience through creative works may be the most important investment we make to improve outcomes for humanity and life on earth. https://simpli.events/e/neighbourhoodfolk_jan5_2025 Neighbourhood Folk is inspired by the idea that we need access to creative experiences within walking distance from home, where there are no dues or fees to pay in order to be part of the sharing.