Week 2 REPOST: Covering "Churchyard" by AURORA

 The theme I have chosen for this blog is hurt. My main medium will be singing, with digitally created electronic sounds to back me up. For my digital audio workstation (DAW) I will be starting out with Soundtrap and Audacity, and hope to experiment with Komplete which I just acquired recently. Soundtrap was featured in my Music Learning with Technology class this past spring, so I hope to brush up on the platform and use it as a jumping off point to learn more about digital music creation.

Singing connects to the concept of hurt in that singing--and more generally, organized speech--allows us to express and process these negative emotions. I have felt a lot of negative emotions in the past several months and have barely begun to process them all. I think these emotions trace back to being hurt in someway, by myself or others.

I notice that as I am singing and producing the digital sounds, everything else I might worry about seems to fall to the way side. I think this is the "flow state" discussed in Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's work. I just want to produce the best sounds I can. There is a level of mindfulness that allows me to relax while I focus on the task at hand. 

In addition to providing a good mental space, I think singing supports physical health as well. Since the act of singing involves our whole body, the whole body must be behaving healthy to produce a healthy sound. Hydration, good posture, and proper breathing are physical necessities of singing and also contribute to healthy lifestyles. So I think the incentives line up.

 

Attached is my cover of "Churchyard" by AURORA. To me, there are so many aspects of hurt wrapped up in this song, including domestic violence and prejudice.

 Listen to the cover on Soundcloud.

 

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