Community Singing!

I'm Sarah Bentley and my thing is community singing.

Community singing is just a group of folks getting together singing.

Usually we do it without lyrics or music.

So typically community singing is taught in the oral tradition and we'll use like a call and echo or a call and response type teaching style.

And it's just a way for people to get together, enjoy themselves.

And oftentimes there's sort of a theme or a purpose behind the gathering or the circle.

How long have you been doing these circles?

I have been doing community singing circles for, I want to say about three years.

Ironically, I discovered it online during the pandemic.

You wouldn't think community singing and online would go together.

And it's definitely much better in person.

But I was looking for ways to be connected with folks and discovered a woman named Heather Houston, who's based out of Santa Cruz.

She has a organization called Sisters in Harmony and yeah I just started joining her Zoom sessions and I did her Sisters in Harmony song leading training in 2021 so I guess it's been a few years.

When you found

this, were you looking for community? Were you looking for singing? Were you looking for both?

I think I was looking for community and I was looking for singing.

I'm Sarah Bentley and my thing is community singing.

Community singing is just a group of folks getting together singing.

Usually we do it without lyrics or music.

So typically community singing is taught in the oral tradition and we'll use like a call and echo or a call and response type teaching style.

And it's just a way for people to get together, enjoy themselves.

And oftentimes there's sort of a theme or a purpose behind the gathering or the circle.

How long have you been doing these circles?

I have been doing community singing circles for, I want to say about three years.

Ironically, I discovered it online during the pandemic.

You wouldn't think community singing and online would go together.

And it's definitely much better in person.

But I was looking for ways to be connected with folks and discovered a woman named Heather Houston, who's based out of Santa Cruz.

She has a organization called Sisters in Harmony and yeah I just started joining her Zoom sessions and I did her Sisters in Harmony song leading training in 2021 so I guess it's been a few years.

When you found

this, were you looking for community? Were you looking for singing? Were you looking for both?

I think I was looking for community and I was looking for singing.