The Society for Spontaneous Singing

Weekly Prompts for Improvisational Recordings, with Community Feedback

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Prompt 76: Gentle With Yourself

July 22, 2016 Amado Prompts

Have you ever committed yourself to something? Really dedicated yourself to a new daily practice, or a New Year’s Resolution, or a task you really need to finish by a certain time, or to consistently serving a community of people who’ve come to rely on you? Sure you have, one of those things, or something like them.

Have you ever fallen short of your commitments, your ideals?

Sure you have.

Consider again the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver. There’s something in it that reminds us that we’re human. That—being human—is something paradoxically humble and awe-inspiring at the same time.

So let’s not be too hard on ourselves for our stumbles and our failings. Let’s begin again, because only if you quit have you failed.

Your Prompt: Sing a song that is gentle with yourself. Sing a song that forgives yourself. Whatever is in your recollection that needs gentleness (and perhaps even a little redemption), grant yourself that gift, and give it to yourself with song.

Examples: in June 2015, one singer missed enough days in a row of his Daily Song Project commitment that he knew he would never “catch up” to the magical number of songs he’d planned to do in a year. When he began again, he sang this. And just today, contemplating an upcoming dramatic change in his life that may correct years of being off-course, he sang this. Yours needn’t be layered like this, of course.

To Contribute

The steps are as follows:

  • Step 0: Sign up for a free SoundCloud account here. Join the SSS group.
  • Step 1: Record yourself singing your gentle, forgiving song.
  • Step 2: Upload to SoundCloud and post the track to the SSS group.
  • Step 3: Listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow singers. (Play nice!)

Deadline: Your tracks should be uploaded by midnight wherever you are on Monday, July 26, 2016.

Length: The length of your finished work should be about 2 to 5 minutes, or however long you need to sing your song.

Description: It would be awesome to include a short description of where and when you sang your piece—and how it felt.

Title/Tag: When uploading to SoundCloud, put “[sss-gentle]” in the title of your track. Also include the term “sss-gentle” as a tag. This will help us find it.

Group: Once the track is uploaded, click on the “Add to group” button below the waveform and make sure to select the Society for Spontaneous Singing group. (This option will only appear if you have already joined the group! So do that now.)

Linking: You are welcome to include this info in your description:

This track is a reply to “Prompt 76: Gentle With Yourself.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org. You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing

Thank you, sweet singers!

  • « Prompt 75: Move and sing.
  • Prompt 77: Context, Motif, and Melody »

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