Newsletter

Hello All,

We hope that you and yours are doing well. We are still taking advantage of this time with no concerts and very limited teaching opportunities to spend a lot of time backpacking and hiking in the Colorado wilderness. David has been recording some little found percussion videos while in the backcountry, sharing ideas and techniques on how to play music with stuff you either take backpacking or find out in the wilderness. In these videos, he plays on objects inside the tent and items from the outdoor kitchen, as well as on dried seed pods and stalks, and on different kinds of fallen trees. Here is a link to a playlist with those fun videos.

David will be offering a Rhythm, Music, Movement, and Kendama outdoor summer camp for kids 8 and up Monday through Thursday, July 13-18 from 9:30-11:30am outside in Paonia Town Park. The summer camp is offered through the gift economy (by donation) and sponsored by the local non-profit organization, Arts For All. David will be assisted by dance instructor and percussionist, Rose Costello for this fun engaging camp. Limited to 10 participants, so sign up now if you are interested. Here is the link to sign up for the summer camp and how we will be dealing with trying to keep everyone healthy.

The Embodying Rhythm Marimba Ensemble will be recording a 15-20 minute set of our music to be aired online in late August as part of the Paradise Fest sponsored by our local Paradise Theatre of Paonia. We will keep you posted on those details as they get closer. If you are wanting some fun marimba music before then, here is a link to a playlist with videos of us playing live over the past few years. Also here is a free link to our album released in December 2018. And please feel free to subscribe and/or engage with us on our youtube channel, Arlyn Deva.

Many blessings,
Arlyn and David

“Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.” – Rumi

Hello,

We hope that you and yours are well and healthy and able to keep breathing during these strange and uncertain times, as well as finding ways to enjoy (or simply stay present with) this time of self isolation, social distancing, and distance learning. If you are an essential worker, thank you so much for what you do and offer to this world. If you are staying at home these days to help keep your community safer, thank you too, as we know trying to work from home, being furloughed, being out of work, learning how to home-school your kids and trying to be good parents, teachers, and workers all at the same time can be pretty rough. Not to mention the feeling of uncertainty that we all feel at different times to different degrees. Our family is still trying to find the new normal and wondering what that new normal will continue to evolve into, and we have been spending a lot of time hanging out in 6 year old play time.

Our son just turned 6 and we got him his first mountain bike with 8 gears and handbrakes (and his favorite thing to brag about: a kick-stand). We have made a fun single track for bike riding (with a little bumpy dirt park section) on the property we live on. We are feeling super blessed to be living on a few acres. With all of our work being totally canceled or postponed for the foreseeable future, David has been recording a fair amount of instructional video lessons and tutorials about music and percussion to help his students (as well as the local music teachers and their students) with this new distance learning plan we are all having to adjust to right now.

David has recorded a series of videos on how to make and play found percussion instruments from common household items, like mason jars, tin cans, boxes, bicycles, books, shells, buckets, etc.. He also has recorded a series of tutorials on modern applications to auxiliary percussion instruments like shakers, triangles and tambourines. And he also recorded a beginning series of play-a-long videos addressing snare drum warn-up exercises, stick control, stickings, basic sounds, flams, buzz rolls, accents,etc… Feel free to share these educational videos (especially the found percussion series) to friends, families and teachers that you know who might enjoy them and/or could use some fun musical ideas to inspire them to play music at home with common household objects.

Here is the Found Percussion play list (6 new videos + a few oldies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XqwVciXa-w&list=PL76RMiBD2RnRjKO01QhYWUPdsoemUmLhx&index=2&t=4s

Here is the Auxiliary Percussion play list (4 videos– shakers, tambourine, triangle, snapping on a frame drum): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY1t034V6dc&list=PL76RMiBD2RnQKWTwUx3IJDMqYgsi-jxfy

Here is the Snare Drum and Stick Control play list (4 videos): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gju76FAgk&list=PL76RMiBD2RnTKr17lqJdOPc-PybZEBOWt

Also, here is a new video of the Embodying Rhythm Marimba Ensemble playing an original tune featuring steel pan, drum set, bass marimba and trumpet from their last live performance on the World Music in Paradise Concert Series a few months ago: https://youtu.be/ZIHakKjj0_s

David has been booking some exciting groups for the World Music in Paradise Concert Series for autumn 2020, but besides those, all of our events have been canceled for the foreseeable future.

Our good friend,co-teacher and musical ally, Dlyan Fixmer. released a new CD this past month, a self-titled album from the project, Traditionish, which features original and traditional Irish tunes and songs. David got to play drums on a handful of tracks on the album. Here is a link to the whole album on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmTNge7JHRo&list=PLugtsqRqzMAoyrIzE9rJBUbABLa52Mz7p. Dylan is a member of our Embodying Rhythm Marimba Ensemble and you can find our whole first album ‘Music for Everyday Life” here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0IkxmwsBDc&list=PLoKtmrOcfzb5J1Ku4804rKgraVRvbInqV We are planning on recording our second album this June, but we will see when we can actually get into the rehearsal room and the studio in the coming months.

Feel free to check in with us know and let us know what you’ve been up to and how music and embodiment has been serving your journey.

love,
-David and Arlyn

“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” ~Rumi

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” ~Maya Angelou

Dear Ones,

We hope you are well and enjoying the touches, tastes and smells of spring (or happily running to the high country for more time in the snow).

We are doing well. We are about to finish up 4 weeks of dance residencies with Kindergarten through 6th grade students in Paonia and then are getting ready for a 2 week marimba residency with upper elementary students the following week. We’ve also been playing in the dirt on our south facing hill as well as starting a few early starts in the windows – the little kales have been looking especially happy these past few days.

We hope to see you soon – see below for a list of some fun upcoming local opportunities for live music (and a women’s drumming class series in April).

Best,
Arlyn and David

– Upcoming Events –

• Thursday March 5^th at 4pm — Celebrate the Beat student dance performance at the Paonia Vo-Tech (old middle school) gym. This student show is the culmination presentation of our 3 week in and after school residency and will feature the 2nd – 6th graders at NFSIS and PES celebrating the theme of resistance and social action through dance and movement. The performance has full musical accompaniment by David Alderdice, Dylan Fixmer, Jeannette Carey and Daniel Be.

• Tuesday March 10th at 6pm — Java and Jazz at the Creamery Center for the Arts in Hotchkiss. Featuring the North Fork Valley Community and Parade Band, HHS Jazz Band, and Hotchkiss K-8 Jazz Band. Free admission. Complimentary coffee and sweet treats provided.

• Sunday March 15 at 3pm — Traditionish CD Release Party and St. Paddy’s Day Celebration, at Paonia United Brewing (P.U.B.) in Paonia – Original and traditional Irish and Irish inspired music featuring Dylan Fixmer, accompanied by David Alderdice, Mark Fitzsimmons, Sarah Off, and Lindi Merenes.

• Thursday March 26^th at 6pm — NFSIS 3rd – 6th grade Marimba Residency Student Showcase at the Paonia Vo-Tech in the gym with guest appearance by the Embodying Rhythm Marimba Ensemble

• Women’s Drumming & Rhythm Class Series with Arlyn Alderdice — 3 Thursdays in April 2, 9, 16, 2020 from 10-11:30am at the Drum Room in Hotchkiss $15 for each class or $40 for the series. Bring your drum, or use one of ours. Come as you are and experience the healing powers of rhythm through hand drumming and rhythmic practice in a fun and safe learning environment. We’ll spend time checking-in and coming into rhythm together and we’ll play. For new players as well as experienced musicians. please register by

—

Beauty is here
Where we stand now.
Where we always stand.

Beauty and holiness
In the tiniest of sounds and movement,
In the texture of the light.

Beauty is what I see here
When I stop looking elsewhere for it,
And become intimate with ordinary things.

It is everything; there is nothing else.
Dance in beauty until you dissolve,
Until you see your own true face everywhere.

-Adrianna Heideman

Hotchkiss High School Music Department Concert December 17^th 6pm at HHS. Including a holiday tune in collaboration with The NFV Community & Parade Band.

Dark Night with Craig Childs, David Alderdice, Dylan Fixmer, Beth Quist and Aaron Jerad, December 20 & 21, 2019 8pm at the Paradise Theatre in Paonia. $25. The subject of this 11th annual event will be “time,” ranging from archaeology to the end of the universe. Told through spoken word, visual multimedia, and live musical accompaniment, this series of adventures will be thought provoking and palatable to adults and curious kids.

Celebrate the Beat. Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019 4pm at the NF Montessori at Crawford. Watch the culmination performance of the 3 week CTB dance residency. With musicians David Alderdice, Dylan Fixmer, Jeannette Carey & Daniel B.

North Fork School of Integrated Studies 4th Grade Play featuring Norse Mythology. Community Performance December 19th 6pm with musical accompaniment by Arlyn Alderdice.

Embodying Rhythm Marimba Ensemble –

Friday, January 17, 2020 Listening Concert online tickets
Saturday, January 18, 2020 Dance Concert online tickets

New — $35 for both concerts in advance at the Paradise or the Cirque.

The funky 8-piece marimba ensemble will be joined both evenings by the sounds of mandolin, trumpet, flute, melodica, drumset, cajon, steelpan, percussion, clarinet, alto saxophone, and voices.

Saturday, January 18, 2020 1:00pm – Kid’s Matinee with Embodying Rhythm Marimba Ensemble (free)

Marimba Music Workshop with David Alderdice
Sunday, January 19, 2020 10:30am – Noon ($25) register: info (at) embodyingrhythm.com

—-

“The enemies of practice are pride and fear and self-satisfaction. To practice requires humility. It forces us to admit that we don’t know everything. . . To practice isn’t to declare, I’m bad. To practice is to declare, I can be better.” – Dan Heath

Java and Jazz at the Creamery in Hotchkiss. Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019 6pm with the NFV Community and Parade Band, K-8 Jazzifiers, and the HHS Jazz band.

Celebrate the Beat. Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 6pm at the Hotchkiss K-8. Watch the culmination performance of the 3 week CTB dance residency for all 4th and 5th graders plus some 6th graders at Hotchkiss K8.

—

The impact of a healthy lifestyle can be hard to grok when we are younger. And often times our lifestyle just kind of happens without us consciously choosing it. Maybe we don’t really think about when we are going to eat or sleep, we just do it when we remember to. Maybe we don’t exercise until we’ve gained 50 extra pounds. Maybe we do not consider conscious relaxation until we experience a panic attack at work. Perhaps we think it is normal to not sleep soundly because no one else does. In the same vein, it is unimaginable to feel the bodily sensations of a person who has practiced yoga for 30 years. It is nearly impossible to comprehend the impact a regular meditation practice has unless you have one. We are unable to comprehend the impact something done, or not done, over the course of decades can have on the quality of our bodies, minds, emotions and spirits. . . – Amy Williams