Christine Stevens – Awakening Through Sound

Description Of Awakening Through Sound

Learn the depth and breadth of improvisational flute playing — technically and soulfully — to rediscover playfulness and freedom, build confidence, release inhibitions, and access your soul wisdom.

The Powerful Benefits of Improvisation

In this eagerly awaited course, you’ll not only transform the way you play the flute… you’ll transform the way you live and feel in the world. (And if you’ve never played the flute before, you’ll discover joyous, fun, and accessible ways to start playing!)

In practicing the flute, along with deep meditation processes, you’ll diminish your self-consciousness and be able to move with ease into a state of creativity. As in life, you’ll learn the structure, the rules… and fly from there. One major aspect of flute improvisation is that you don’t need to know where you’re going from one phrase to the next. And, embodying that concept will help you develop more presence in the here and now in all aspects of your life.

You’ll become more confident and spontaneous, understanding the enormous breadth of possibilities contained in your flute — and your life! It’s a path toward self-compassion, awakening, self-discovery, vulnerability, and connection. You’ll learn to use the flute as a healing tool for yourself. And you’ll develop the heart and the skills you need to offer profound relaxation and peace of mind to others in need.

Playing extemporaneously is a deeply cathartic approach to healing and self-expression. And it’s your birthright. Whether or not you believe you do it well is not the point. It’s about changing your heart and brain, and awakening to the uncharted songlines in your soul.

You’re sure to walk away from the seven modules with lifelong tools for liberation, healing, playfulness, and joy.

The Elements of Improvisational Flute Playing

Improvisation is the difference between knowing 10 songs, and being able to play an infinite number of songs anytime you pick up the flute — because they come from inside you.

When you register for this program, you’ll immediately receive a collection of video tutorials from Christine, demonstrating foundational and supplemental techniques of playing the Native American flute — including scales, embouchure, ways of blowing into the flute, how to hold your fingers on the flute, embellishing the notes, and a flute blessing practice to help you let go… so you can turn off the anxious, self-critical mind and connect to Spirit.

Throughout the course, Christine will provide creative prompts — themes, skills, and spiritual practices — from which your heart songs can freely emerge. You’ll learn the scale and rhythms of the blues. You’ll have an immersive embodiment session to help you practice playing your emotions — even your shadow side, which you might not normally be willing to see.

An extra special aspect of this journey is the cards Christine and her team have created, like tarot or other divination cards, for you to print out and enjoy. There are LOVE cards, designed to provide creativity and ideas for your playing. And there are PLAY cards, designed for you to practice your techniques. Christine calls them Practical Oracle Cards — Flute-Play-Love!

And, in some sessions, Christine will have a pitband in her studio… to create the backtracks for your improvisation.

Also, Christine has invited a very special guest teacher, Mary Youngblood — who is half Seminole and half Aleut — to lead one of the sessions. Known as the First Lady of the Native American Flute, Mary is a two-time Grammy winner for Best Native American Music Album, and the first woman to record solo Native American flute with Silver Wave Records. For over 14 years, Mary has done a great deal of work in teaching prison inmates to play the flute.

What you’ll learn in Awakening Through Sound

In thisAwakening Through Sound course with Christine, you’ll:

• Learn tools and techniques to play improvisational music and access your soul’s wisdom
• Develop the ability to shut down self-criticism so you can freely express yourself by playing improvisationally
• Discover the neuroscience behind developing the brain pattern of enlightenment through improvisation
• Play with the unabashed freedom of “riffing” and creating your own compositions
• Experience the guest teachings of Mary Youngblood, known as the First Lady of the Native American Flute, as she shows you the key of using rhythmic pulse to create songs
• Learn simple ways to free up your playing by giving structure to your improv
• Practice various styles of improvisational flute playing from rhythmic to meditative; from mantras to songs
• Play along with backing tracks that contain a variety of instruments, such as the drum, guitar, and more
• Begin to speak your feelings through song with a wide array of enhancing embellishments
• Experience and embody the blues through melody and beat
• Practice soul-informed playing, by slowing down and waiting for the next notes to arise from within
• Understand how to match the key of your flute with different chords and instruments

What You’ll Discover in Awakening Through Sound

In this Awakening Through Sound course, Christine will guide you through the fundamental skills you’ll need to release self-criticism, access the playfulness of your soul, and offer healing to yourself and others through improvisational flute playing.

This Awakening Through Sound course will feature teachings, training sessions, and experiential practices with Christine. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to rediscover playfulness and freedom, build confidence, release inhibitions, and help heal yourself and others.

Module 1: Heal Your Inner Critic Through Flute Improvisation

We are all artists. And the flute is a tool for accessing your soul’s deepest expression.

In this opening session, Christine will share how you can carry the Native American flute as an ally in challenging times — and as a tool of expression beyond words.

Although it may be scary to trust the unknown — The Mystery — as Christine will explain, “jamming” is actually your birthright!

Often, we’re so hard on ourselves, and expect perfection instead of practice and play. Christine will share how improvisation changes your brain — switching off the critical, judgmental, and self-monitoring areas… while igniting the medial prefrontal cortex, the seat of self-expression and being in the moment.

In this first module, you’ll:

• Experience jamming within the ABA — a symmetrical structure in music that represents musical ideas
• Discover how structure actually provides flexibility
• Play with call and response to develop your musical ear
• Learn to play dancing scales with your unique expression
• Explore a sound-healing practice to release your inner critic

Module 2: Enjoy Musical Freedom Through Rhythmic Structure

In this class, Christine welcomes featured guest instructor Mary Youngblood, First Lady of the Native American flute.

Having worked for over 14 years with inmates in California prisons, two-time Grammy-winning flute artist Mary has helped players of every experience level learn to improvise.

For over a decade, she has introduced playing the flute to complete beginners.

With Mary and Christine as your guides, you’ll discover, through improvisation, how the unique polarity of structure leads to freedom in both melody and rhythm.

As you’ll discover, improvisation describes all aspects of sacred playing — meditation, prayer, sound healing, and song creation.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• How to use the beat of a drum as a springboard to jamming
• Simple ways to give structure to your improv
• How to improvise with a 2-chord progression that fits the flute scale
• Mary’s signature embellishments in call and response
• Mary’s inspiring stories of healing broken souls through playing the flute

Module 3: Cultivate Playfulness & Healing — Improvisation in the Key of Joy

When you embrace curiosity and adventure, the gift of transformation often emerges without effort.

During this session, you’ll experience firsthand why we say we “play” music.

As Christine will share, synergy lies at the intersection of playfulness and healing. You’ll see how your allies of curiosity and wonder emerge — in the enjoyment of simply making music.

In this module, you’ll:

• Experience a cathartic improvisation — playing all the mistakes you’re afraid of making, and turning it into song
• Play with dialogues — finishing a sentence, asking a question, turning off words, and communicating with song
• Learn to listen for endings of phrases that punctuate and complete a sonic story
• Explore various styles of improvisational flute playing in a (virtual) jam session

Module 4: Journey With the Roots of Rhythm — Shamanic Improvisation

As a child, you may have climbed trees or found solitude hanging out on a favorite branch…

In this class, Christine will share how the flute represents the branches, while the drum represents the roots.

The flute uplifts — honoring a birdsong, while the drum grounds you in an earthy heartbeat.

Christine will guide you to access a union with nature, journeying with the roots of rhythm.

In this module, you’ll:

• Play along with a shamanic drumbeat on a medicine drum
• Learn to ask a question to the universe on your flute
• Practice wild embellishments of barking, howling, and chirping
• Learn a specific flute phrase to ground the end of your improvised compositions

Module 5: Flute Prayer — Stay in the Present to Improvise With the Motion of Your Emotions

True musical emotional expression must be captured in the now moment, through improvisation. As Christine says, there’s no other way.

Dancers know this, and as you’ll discover, you can use their movements to inspire your songs.

As Christine will share, a flute melody can be said to “dance.” The ascending and descending phrases are what “move” us.

And when you embody the experience of playing the flute through improvisation — the music will dance you into the present.

In this module, you’ll:

• Improvise with ascending and descending notes — connecting to both upward and inward emotions
• Learn to use a song as a liftoff point for improvisation
• Tap into new styles of playing your flute within the ABA musical structure
• Learn to add embellishments to speak feelings through song

Module 6: Transform Challenge Into Song — Playing the Blues

The hook is a repeated phrase — a lyric that speaks the soul’s longing.

During this class, Christine will explain how there’s a pulsing rhythm that underscores hundreds of years of expression — in the art form known as the blues.

When you learn just one magical note, “the blues scale,” you’ll be able to jam with the groove…. turning pain, struggles, and sadness into song.

In this module, you’ll:

• Play with the 12-bar blues — a progression that creates a sacred geometry of expression
• Embody the blues scale through call-and-response jamming
• Learn the art of bending notes to make them cry
• Experience the melody of the blues scale and the rhythm of the blues beat

Module 7: Enhance Your Improv Toolkit — Hooks, Embellishments & Progressions

In this final module, you’ll celebrate with Christine and your new global community, as you reflect on your journey…

Christine will explain how to move from open-ended jamming to playing structured songs.

She’ll share how to remember a song or phrase — and how to memorize music without it being written down.

You’ll also discover how the energy of another person informs your flute playing for the purpose of healing.

In this final module, you’ll:

• Learn how to play a “hook” using your favorite embellishment
• Practice soul-informed playing — slowing down and waiting for the next notes to arise from within
• Experience Christine’s favorite progression for flute jamming — a 2-chord formula of success
• Learn to play a healing improv for someone you love, and a prayer
• Explore how to match the key of your flute with different chords and instruments

About Christine Stevens

Christine Stevens is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, drummer, and music therapist. Holding master’s degrees in both social work and music therapy, Christine inspires people all over the world with her message that music promotes holistic health, spirituality, and wellness. Christine taught her Shift Network courses, Awaken Your Rhythm and Awaken Your Healing Rhythm, to over 1,000 students from 36 countries last year.

Christine is the author of Music Medicine, The Healing Drum Kit, and The Art and Heart of Drum Circles book and DVD. She’s recorded three play-along albums: Reviving Rhythms, Drumming Up Spirit, and Drumming Up Diva. A leader in the music and wellness movement, Christine also serves on the editorial board of Explore: A Journal of Science and Healing.

Christine is the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, offering training programs and online courses around the world. She’s trained facilitators and led workshops in more than 20 countries, including Iraq, Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and Western Europe. Through Remo, the world’s largest drum company, Chrsitine co-created the HealthRHYTHMS evidence-based group drumming protocol, used in schools, medical centers, and veterans hospitals worldwide.

Christine’s work in Iraq was featured in the book and DVD Discover the Gift. Televised media credits include PBS, NBC, KABC-Los Angeles, KTLA – Los Angeles, Tournament of Roses Parade, London Tonight, Living Better TV, Discovery Health, and Hong Kong News. As a contributing writer, Christine’s work has been featured in Fitness magazine, Spirituality & Health, Body & Soul, Fast Company, First for Women magazine, The Oriental News, The Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report, Yogi Times, and Natural Beauty and Health.

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