Activity: Singing to Connect to Your Inner Self Bailey’s meet-up was completely unique - she recorded a podcast which we all tuned into together. The recording explores how singing can help us connect to ourselves, remove inhibition and kindle new energy to channel into creative work. You will need: • Ideally you’ll be in a private room where you can feel free to sing and experiment without feeling self-conscious. • You’ll need to be comfortable lying down in your space, ideally on a yoga mat or similar – if you don’t have one, a comfortable carpeted area or blankets can also work well. It’s also good to have a couple of cushions and blankets on hand in case you need more support to get comfortable. • Wear loose fitting, comfortable clothing. • Have a glass of water or a cup of tea on hand, and maybe a notepad and pen for jotting down thoughts. • You’ll be listening to guided exercises and music so if you can, listen to the session via a speaker or in-ear headphones to get the best quality audio. When you’re ready, scan this QR code:
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Jasper Twitter: @iOvrThoughtThis Bandcamp: treasurer.bandcamp.com
The question I came and leave with: How can I build a system and a place to release my music?
How would you sum up your Makers Marathon in 3 words? Inspiration, Discovery, Acceptance. How would you define making? Making for me walks the line between producing and creating. It’s about turning thoughts and feelings into experiences. What have you learned from this process? That it’s more than structure and accountability I need to make. I need community and inspiration as well as space within myself and my life. Making is something I need to make and protect time for. Tell us about something you’ve made. One of my favourite things to make was the playdough. I’d played with it as a child but never considered that it might not have to be a complicated chemical covered mess. That it might just be a bit of oil, flour, salt and colouring. It’s empowering to learn things like that because now having playdough isn’t an unchangeable factor of the environment. I can just make some.
“I found that having permission to take time and create a maker's environment really helped a lot. Permission to cut paper into strips, to scrunch foil, to tear boxes. Permission to make a mess, to buy paints, to take time. Perhaps it’s a little like a fire. The parts to make it are all around us but we need to arrange things specially and provide a little spark which we protect and feed to stay alight. You can make with anything but to start you need something easy, the space to do it and a tiny, imperceivable little spark.” - Jasper
Activity: Metaphors and Lyrics Jasper often uses metaphors in songwriting as a way to put complex feelings into words. Instead of being limited by our current paradigm of expression, metaphor allows us to call in a different ‘world’ of reference, and thereby a whole bunch of linked images and descriptions. His workshop explores applying metaphor to a challenge, feeling or thought in your life, and developing into a song ‘hook’. You will need: • A notebook and pen Step 1: A short story of feeling Take your notebook and do some stream-of-consciousness writing about a challenge, feeling or thought you’d like to explore. The idea is not to write something perfect but to generate content to use later in the workshop. Step 2: Taking Stock Look back over what you’ve written and highlight anything that stands out. Note them down on a fresh page of your notebook. Step 3: Finding Metaphors For each of these snippets of text, note down objects, images or situations that share characteristics with your story. When you find ones that feel like they connect, expand on them. How can you enrich that metaphor? Step 4: Lyric Writing When writing metaphors into song lyrics, it can be useful to try and start with the ‘hook’ - a line or phrase which you can sing or say that captures the core of what the song is about. To give an example, Jasper wrote a song about letting go of someone he loved. The hook in the song is “So just keep me sedated, I don’t want to feel a thing”. It stems from using an operation, something that would hurt now but ultimately be good, as a metaphor for his experience.
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