5-week online course via Zoom
Sundays, February 6, 13, 20, 27 and March 6
4 pm–6 pm EST/New York time (1 pm–3 pm California time, 9 pm - 11 pm UK time)

$130 ($120 for $5/a month and above Patreon members)

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Our relationship with sound begins in the womb. We experience our mother’s voice vibrating through our body while we are suspended in amniotic fluid, surrounded by the sound of her heart and her breath. The outside world is distant and invisible, but we hear and feel that, too. When we are born, air hits our bodies and ear drums for the first time; now we are surrounded by light and the full range of sonic frequencies. We hear our own voices for the first time. By this time we have already embodied the melodies and cadences of our native language or languages, we know the sound of laughter and crying, anger and affection.

It is no wonder, then, that sound and music play a huge role in our lives; music exists in all cultures with a wide variety of functions and qualities. Music is found in rituals- from birthdays to funerals- it lulls us to sleep, it energizes us, moves us, fills us with joy, helps us to mourn, and offers us a direct path into our deepest memories. It brings us together and builds community, and perhaps one of the most incredible things about it is its universality: we don’t have to understand the words of a song, or the meaning or origin of a rhythm, to feel it, and know it inside of us.

In these five classes, we will travel from the known beginnings of music in its sacred and secular forms, with a focus on music in relation to nature, healing, trance, death and time, right through to the present day. We will look at indigenous music such as Flamenco (and duende), the drumming music of the Yoruba people, ancient music of Asia, India and the Middle-East, Jazz and Blues, experimental music, improvisation, pop music, and much more. We will also study exercises in ‘Deep Listening’ inspired by the research of Pauline Oliveros. We will learn how to compose music using writing, photography, painting, and sculpture as a starting point. You will be given bespoke playlists and lots of links and additional material to further your own research.

Mikey, who has developed his own music-based healing technique combining his flute and reiki training, will offer reiki-flute sessions. There will also be guest performances from Iraqi-Kurdish singer Nawroz Oramari, Japanese taiko musician Akinori Fujimoto and a Greek musician Othon Mataragas whose experiences with Ayahuasca and Amazonian shamans has profoundly influenced his relationship with music, creativity and life.

There will be a strong creative element to the classes. By the end of the course we will have created an album of our own musical and sonic creations (both individual and collaborative), accompanied by our own artwork and writing, drawing on musical genres and ideologies of your choice. No musical experience is necessary to take this course, while musicians of all levels and experience are welcome.

Mikey Kirkpatrick is a flutist, singer, composer and performer who has released multiple albums and toured internationally under the stage name Bird Radio, as well as collaborated with musicians, filmmakers, poets, theatre practitioners and sound artists. He is also an associate lecturer in music and education at Goldsmiths University in London where he is also the founding director of Alchemy, a collective of artists, teachers and mentors that works with teenagers at risk of exclusion from school, using music creation and performance to build confidence and develop creative skills that can support them in carving out futures for themselves. Mikey has been practicing reiki and music for 30 years (he has performed over 200 ‘reiki-flute’ sessions via live radio during the Covid-19 pandemic) and has more recently become interested in how musicality and listening can be hugely beneficial to all aspects of life. His recent explorations into hypnosis combined with psychoanalysis have also profoundly influenced his relationship with body, memory and creativity.

Image: John Coltraine’s drawing of a “Coltrane circle,” given to saxophonist and professor Yusef Lateef in 1967