I just had a lovely springtime coffee with Jaime Birch of Jaime Birch Design and Tara Newbigging of STUDIO b.  I hadn’t met Tara before, despite us swimming in the same small pond, and after this first chat I am excited to see where our conversations will take us.

In all the work I do with voices and music-enabling, my biggest motivator is how the effects of these activities will benefit the whole person.  When I say that I mean community, mind, body, emotions, spirit – all parts of what makes a unique individual human.  What I see in Tara is that she is motivated by exactly the same things in her work as a fitness guru.

In fact, this is lifted straight from Tara’s website.  I could have written it myself for Guitar Mama Showcase.  Exactly these words!

Creating connection with self and others. Helping with emotional cleansing, energy clearing, and creating connection with other women to empower one another and support each other.​

Building a network of supportive women who have a common passion.

Helping women feel good in their bodies and minds. To feel strong, beautiful, empowered,

free, and clear to know what they want and need to live their most authentic life.

It is impossible to separate the act of making music from our physical bodies.  The sheer act of playing an instrument proceeds from a bio-mechanical process involving brain, torso, arms, fingers, thumbs – sometimes legs and feet.  If you sing, your instrument IS your body.  I tell my singers that it is important to look after your instrument.  Hydrate, sleep, get some exercise, breathe well and enjoy the sunshine.  If you are an instrumentalist, you need to look after your physical body just as much.

I am excited now to be starting conversations with Tara about collaborating on some workshops that give attention to the whole person – physical body, creative senses and music-making sensibilities.  Tara’s strengths and gifts put next to my own seem to be a good compliment, and our reasons for doing the work of our hearts – our motivations – are the same.

As for Jaime, the third of our coffee trio, she is the connector in this case.  She knew us both and made sure that we got together.  Another brilliant example of the power of community.  And whatever Tara and I get up to, we’ll have some great Jaime Birch graphic design!