Songs and Singing
Welcome
Welcome! I’m Liz Hodgson.This website contains my original harmony songs to listen to for free. You can also buy 'Learning Kits' for each song. Enjoy! Details of events and workshops are below here and also on the Teaching page (keep scrolling).
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Next indoor workshop on Sun 13th July is cancelled because of scanty bookings. It's a shame, but it's not fair to to those who have booked to cancel late, or run a session with too few people. Meanwhile.....
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STOP PRESS! another Meadow Sing in E Oxford with Emily Marshall & me on Sunday August 17th 2 -5. Link here:
https://www.emilyschoirs.co.uk/
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Singing in Nature monthly at Boundary Brook Reserve beside Larkrise School OX4 4AN in East Oxford. 2.30 - 3.15 every last Thursday of the month. To come, please contact info@ouwg.org.uk, where you can join the Oxford Urban Wildlife Group and book your place.
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Featured song:
As the Crow Flies
Not really a bird song, more about walking through a summer meadow, as shown by Renoir above. You can hear it now by clicking below. Look in the A-Z list of songs for the Learning Kit to download with separate tracks, lyric sheet & score.T
Video
This song, Light, Dark, Shadow, was created for the Pop-Up Arts Collective exhibition in 2020. Video thanks to Clare Davis and Jules Francis-Sinclair. For more about the art, visit https://www.popupartscollective.co.uk/
Donate
Click here on the button if you'd like to encourage me!
The Songs
These songs are all by me, with some lyrics from other sources. Sometimes they started while I was cycling back from a group, sometimes on waking, or walking.
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A donation will enable you to download a "Learning Kit", which includes everything you need to learn and teach the songs: a full recording, the parts sung separately, a score and a lyric sheet.
All the Way
A layered short song which you can lengthen as on the recording, slipping parts in and out at will. To do with going home, together.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
As the Crow Flies
Two parts, a bit jaunty, summery, not hard. Partly inspired by Renoir's painting Summer at Chatou (see a highlight in the picture here).
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Beach
Celebrating Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex, UK. A place of stones, shells, sand and strange wind-sculpted wooden remains.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
Bells of Rye
Lyrics from the ancient bells in Rye Parish Church, Sussex (see picture). They all have rhymes engraved on them!
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Bindweed
Celebrating a 'weed'? Bindweed is unloved and even loathed by gardeners, but when you see it somewhere else where it's not ruining your crops or your flowers, it's a bit different. A Boundary Brook Nature Reserve moment. Three verses, two parts.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Fix and Mend
A 2-part, 3-verse song about repairing our stuff, ourselves and more. Try different arrangements - this is the one I liked.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
Hope
''Hope is the Thing with Feathers' - a poem by Emily Dickinson, renowned 19th Century American poet - made into a round. Mistake! It's 'sings the TUNE without the words', not the song as here. Will correct it but that's how it should go.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Maysong 2020
From the first pandemic lockdown, recorded with open windows and a blackbird singing. I had just discovered the word for the smell after rain on warm ground.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
Moss
A very green song, 4 parts - a 3-part backing/chant and a melody, with an extra line for singing when you're out there with real moss. Picture from Bagley Wood.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
New Song
Not really about cake, but the delightful process of singing a new song together.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Sharp Air
An autumn song, savouring the colours, the harvest, the hunkering down and the air. Can be sung with unison sections, using just one set of chorus lyrics, or the whole range of words and harmonies, as you like.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Sing,Thrush
Another bird song, 3 parts, celebrating the repetitive song of the song thrush.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
Song for Comfort
For those less than perfect moments. Three parts, four verses, short but heartfelt.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Spring Chickens
A 3-part song with 2 sections - repeat as desired. The recording gives one arrangement. Possibly more relevant for slightly older singers?
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
Sunflower Song
Some words from William Blake, some from me. Ah, Sunflower!
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
The Tiniest Bird
A Goldcrest appeared in the hedge! And Field Maple seeds sprouted. Tiny things bringing joy.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Walking Chant
This song is for Singing Walks! And for any time you need a steady pace and lots of repeating parts to play with.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £5)
Click to download:
Winter Magic
A short 4-part song that can be lengthened with repeats all you want! A sense of optimism for winter.
Download the Learning Kit (for a suggested donation of £7)
Click to download:
Singing guidelines
Be playful! Some of these songs are easier than others, so have a listen to see what you think. One way of enjoying the more complex ones is to sing one or a few parts at a time, rather than having every part going at once. Any song can be sung higher or lower than here. The recordings and scores were placed to fit my range, that's all. Don’t assume that men have to sing the lower parts.​​​​​​​​​
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Licence for use
Making a donation gives you the rights to sing, teach and perform these songs. If you’re thinking of recording or filming, (exciting!) I’d love to know! If you start to copy the scores or lyrics multiple times or distribute the recordings – e.g. for choir participants – then a larger donation would be welcome, or you can refer people here. If you want to arrange the songs, please contact me first. If you find you want to change them or add new elements, then I suggest you create something that's truly yours, and leave mine as they are. Thanks!
Questions? Contact me here if any of this isn’t working for you.
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About me:
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In 2019, someone asked me if I’d been singing all my life and I realised the answer was basically ‘yes’. Lost my way in the 1970s, then discovered voice workshops, Frankie Armstrong and the beginnings of what is now the Natural Voice Network. Since then, I've run and performed in many kinds of groups. Suffice to say that the transformative act of singing is our birthright and it's been a joy and privilege to be part of the Network and give voice in company.
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About the songs:
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I love sharing songs. Somehow songwriting crept up on me, and with much support and encouragement here we are! The songs are informed by the decades I've spent encouraging people to sing, my need for conviviality and to savour the natural world. Some have been sung at open mikes, Joined-up Singing, Towersey Village Voices, with the Birdwatchers, Frabjous Day and/or John Radcliffe Hospital staff, at parties, in the woods...
You'll find most of them on the Songs page - keep scrolling down. Each song has a track to listen to and a 'Learning Kit' with everything you need to learn and teach them (a full recording, the parts sung separately, a score and a lyric sheet). I've also written a set of six seasonal songs which you will find on the Seasonal Cycle page.
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Do please let me know where they get to - I get a real kick out of knowing a song's been sung in Bristol or Sheffield or wherever!
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Questions? Send me a message via the Contact page.
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Credits and thanks to many people! Photos are mostly by Jonathan Leach and me, plus Emily Marshall, Joan Hodgson, Inez Kretzschmar, Robin Stocks and the internet.
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Teaching
Workshops and One-to-One Teaching
Next singing workshop is Sunday 17th August 2 - 5 in a meadow, with Emily Marshall and me. Please book here:
https://www.emilyschoirs.co.uk/
See pic for last year's session. It was good! (The July one at Caper Bookshop is cancelled because bookings were too few.)
Singing in Nature
At Boundary Brook Nature Reserve by Larkrise School, East Oxford, OX4 4AN. Every last Thursday of the month 2.30 - 3.15pm. Book at info@ouwg.org.uk, where you can also join Oxford Urban Wildlife Group for £5/year and get membership benefits.
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Also very happy to be hired to run one-off sessions or to share facilitation with others. Please get in touch about that and one-to-one coaching.
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