For three years before I launched Vocal Tai Chi I was experimenting with improvised singing, drawing on my studies in North Indian classical vocal raga. I wanted to find a way, a language, a style in which to sing – while meditating.

A friend said one day – “it looks like a vocal form of Tai Chi,” as I was drawing on Tai Chi movements while singing. ‘Vocal Tai Chi’ seemed to encapsulate the essence of what I was searching for.

Vocal Tai Chi helps you both expand and deeply relax into your voice, as if it were the very ground of your being, from where you may follow your own internal golden threads on a musical journey of your own making.

Tai Chi principles provide many safe harbours for the body and the mind, especially if you are working with voice. I bring these safe harbours into sessions: centred in your core, connected to your abdominal breathing, and grounded through the feet.

Vocal Tai Chi asks: ‘where are you really, with your voice?’

Through vocal exercises that employ a simple voice map we begin a conversation around how your voice can be a window into new parts of you. This map, known as the four floors of the vocal house, reveals, in non-technical language, the four basic voice placements: basement, ground floor, first floor and attic. We sing into this vertical range and then begin to journey, supported by by Jenni’s coaching, backing tracks, and looping.

Letting go of the judgements of good and bad voice, right and wrong notes we begin to accept our voice as it is and get curious about the truth of that, today.

You will probably not be singing a virtuosic solo cadenza, or a whipper-snapper scat around the keys, but you will almost definitely sing something real, not predetermined, not formed by convention, but arising out of personal inquiry and intention so your music relates to what is alive in you.

As the many layers of your voice are met and sounded out – there may be one note, or a line, or a special felt moment – that becomes the new spark for a felt-intelligence, a place from which you can draw, again and again, in seeking out starting points for creative work.

Mixing meditative and creative processes, Vocal Tai Chi offers a new language of expression, sourced from the parts of you that truly need and wish to be heard, and in so singing, bring a new completeness to you, and, to the others listening.

This is a singing hearth around which anyone can draw close. A place where everyone can feel the heart, and heat of a true vocal homecoming.

Video testimonials from people who attended a Vocal Tai Chi concert commenting on nine participants who sang their own Vocal Tai Chi solos accompanied by backing tracks created by Jenni.

For more information see www.vocaltaichi.com

Practical Information

Who is it for: Everyone
Tutor: Jenni Roditi
Number of particpants: up to 8 (minimum of 4)
Length of session: 75-90 minutes (depending on numbers attending)
Dates and times: Alternate Saturdays 5pm-6.30pm
Cost: £15 per session

What you need to bring:
Your whole voice

List of forthcoming sessions in this series

Your tickets will arrive very quickly. If you can’t see them, please check your spam/junk folder.
Shortly before the session Jenni Roditi will send you the Zoom link for joining.