- Find something to like in every sound: listen
- Support others: copy
- Take turns letting your voice be heard: share
I’ll demonstrate these guidelines with an exercise I call “toning.” In this exercise, I take people on a guided meditation that will start relaxing them, getting them out of their heads that are thinking “I’m not a singer,” “I can’t do this,” “He expects me to sing out loud?” And so on.
Lots of different things happen during the meditation. Sometimes people settle in quietly. Other times there is laughing or talking. I’ll mention hearing these things without making any judgment about it, just so people start to become aware of the sounds in the room; the sounds that are always in the background. The meditations helps people start to become aware that they are no longer just individuals, but they are also part of something more than just them. Generally, I start to feel when people are becoming present, and that tells me I can move on.
I’ll tell them that we will take a big breath together and let out a sound. This sound can be anything you want. I just ask you to hold it as long as you can and not change the quality or pitch of the sound to match anyone else. All I want you to do is to listen to what happens when all these sounds mix together. Listen, and appreciate.
There are a lot of reasons behind these instructions and these exercises, but I don’t need to explain them, here and now.
We’ll do this two or three times together. It is different every time. Sometimes it’s quiet and breathy. Sometimes raucous and loud. Sometimes very harmonic. Sometimes…. well, as I say, anything can happen, and it usually does.
I’ll ask people to stand up and to let their sounds change. Gradually, out of chaos, order arises. It’s almost impossible to stop. People badly want things to sound “acceptable,” but it is usually too soon for that. I’ll suggest that people find someone else’s sound, and start copying it. Support them in what they are doing. I’ll instruct people to walk around the room, making eye contact with one person after another, taking turns to teach each other their sounds.
All I ask is that people listen to each other and pick up on each other’s sounds. Sometimes I’ll focus on something like rhythm or harmony. Sometimes I’ll go from person to person, coaching and encouraging. Sometimes I’ll tell people who to copy. Sometimes I’ll ask people to do a call and response game. Usually, I’ll find that someone has a question or a specific reaction to their discomfort around making sounds, and I’ll focus on that, and try to make it safe for them to do whatever they want.
For example, if laughter is an issue, I might introduce them to the laughing meditation. We start using our serious voices to say, “Ha, ha, ha. Ho, ho, ho.” I might suggest people pair up to do this looking into each others eyes. It is almost impossible not to change from fake laughing to real laughing when doing this.
Movement is incredibly important in these workshops. People seem to free up as they move around and relate to each other in the language of sound that has no words.
Depending on how people seem to like this, I may continue to develop it more and give people more practice. We might spend the whole session just doing toning.
Where I go from here depends on the mood of the group and the way they are relating to each other and to me.
There are two other introductory exercises that I might do. One is the name game. In the name game, I ask people to create a movement and make a tune out of their name. Then we’ll all learn the song and movement. Then it’s the next person’s turn, but at the end of that person’s turn, we also go back and repeat the first persons song and movement. We continue around so that everyone in the group has a chance to make a song and movement out of their name, and each time, we go back, repeating the song and movement of everyone who has gone before.
This helps me remember names later on. Often times, I’ll remember the movement and this will help me recall the name. People will start greeting each other with the movement and the song. Whether I use this exercise depends partly on how many people there are. Seven or eight people is about the maximum for this exercise.
Finally, there’s the drum circle. I bring a lot of percussion toys, and put them out so people can choose the one they want to try. Again, we go around the circle. Each person gets a chance to work out a rhythm — usually something simple. It needs to leave space for others. So the first person might start with a simple time keeping beat. Then others add their sounds as we go around the circle until everyone is playing together.
By that time, we’ve generally got something pretty complex going. I might ask people to sing a call and response riff in time with the beat, or I might lead that. It can be difficult for people to keep a beat going and sing at the same time, but it doesn’t really matter if things break down. We are free to recreate something as we go along.
Then, to end the exercise, each person will drop out, one by one, starting with the person who started it all. Once you lose your cues, it can be really hard to keep your sound going, so people usually simplify things as they go along. This is an exercise that you can practice over and over for months and years, and still find ways to become more precise or accurate, if you want to.
There are other exercises, but that’s usually all I can fit into the hour or hour and a half that I might have.
People usually like doing this. They find they are more relaxed and accepting afterwards. One person told me that it gave him meaning in his life. That was pretty moving for me. However, if people continue to do this work together regularly, say once a week, things start to change. People learn how to do various things. They start feeling more confident. They come to trust the exercises and become willing to try a wider variety of sounds.
Eventually, with enough practice, people can move very quickly out of their conscious, questioning, doubting minds into this musical space where they feel accepted, supported and heard. It’s like meditation in some ways. Practice is very important. I find it much easier to do than meditation. It also involves creativity, but it gets you out of the conscious mind and into the sensate mind, which is where sounds and movements come from.
Sonic Sandbox Improvisational Music Workshops are a practice that can be used in conjunction with other wellness, spiritual or recovery practices. It can augment learnings from meditation, prayer, 12-step, or support groups. It has the additional advantage of being fun and creative!