Sound Practice for Well Being
Professor Paul Rudy, DMA
Podcast
Course Requirements
Textbook:
Wooten, Victor, 2006. The Music Lesson: A spiritual search for growth through music. New York: Berkley Books.
Students will bring their own unique abilities and preconceived notions about what music is and what sound does. From there we will explore together techniques and practices of listening and responding. No prior experience or understanding is necessary. Everyone has the same built-in instrument: their voice. This instrument is ideally suited to help us with our own well-being, physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. We will also explore other instruments students have (including body percussion so no one is left out!), and listening to them for our own practice.
Technology and Environment
Students will need to have a computer and access to the internet, and to Zoom (free to download here: https://zoom.us). The mobile phone zoom app will work as long as the student has a way to use it hands free (we may need both our hands to make sound!). Students will also need a private, relatively quite space, to attend meetings, in order to make sound in uninhibited ways.
Course Schedule
10 hours total in 5 sessions
August 4, 6, 10, 12 and 14
11AM-1 PM (CDT)
Final presentations to the class: during the final class August 14 which may be longer thank two hours depending on how many students are enrolled
Each two hour session will be in two parts: Input and Output. Input is either a lecture, or listening exercise, and output is making sound individually or as a group.
Assessment
Participation/Attendance
Final Presentation
Final Presentation
Ideally, the student’s final presentation would be a short sound meditation (10-15’ depending on the number of students in the class), that they either present to the group as a “performance” (to the public through Facebook Live, Zoom, or other platform to the class). Students could also create an interactive “participatory” event of some kind for the class delivered through Zoom. Students may also propose other related projects and/or methods of delivery. However, everyone must present some sound to the group.
Course Schedule
Session 1. Introduction
Input (lecture/resourcing): Overview of course, technology, expectations, and introduction (brief discussion of Equinox Sound Meditation pre-req)
Output (practice): Listening deeply
Session 2: Our wiring system and sound
Input: Understanding the 5th Chakra
Output: Vocalizing (individual)
Session 3: Resonance
Input: acoustical and metaphysical resonance
Output: Instruments (group)
Session 4 Putting it all together
Input: Group resources (what have you discovered?)
Output: Practice (determined by group interests)
Session 5: Final Presentations: input/output
Input: Presentations
Output: Final discussion
School of Phonosophy
Description:
Introduction to Sound Practice for Well-being is designed to get the student experimenting with sound and listening inwardly and more deeply to the world, to expressing themselves more authentically. Victor Wooten says in The Music Lesson: “I listened to Music in the past but only in a one-sided way. I only listened to what I wanted to hear, not what Music had to say. It was as if I only wanted to hear my own opinion. No longer do I try to create her. I feel her and I listen! I know that I must listen to her for our relationship to be complete.” (p.3) Listening and then putting our own sound into the world is two sides of the same gem. When in balance, our judgements, responses and interactions begin to shift more towards what we want. This course will introduce deep listening and then responding in your own way authentically.
Prerequisite: “attend” my 2020 Spring Equinox sound meditation here: https://www.facebook.com/Gonetothesky/videos/10157025641776592/ and email me a short description of your experience, and why you want to take this class (1 page).
This course is offered for “credit/no-credit” and upon completion the student will receive a certificate of completion in “Introductory Sound Practice for Well-being.”
Instructor
Paul Rudy is a composer, performer, professor, author, photographer, land artist, and harmonization coach. He has been called “the High Priest of Sound” and his music, ranging from film scores to sound healing, has been described as “the universe unfolding one sound at a time.” Like the music, his photography takes the viewer “to a beautiful cosmic place where scale and time have no meaning,” and challenges us “to see an entirely obvious but rarely contemplated reality.” He also builds sacred spaces on 70 acres in Eastern Kansas that can be seen from Google Earth. He is a Rome Prize (2010), Guggenheim (2008), Fulbright (1997) and Wurlitzer Foundation (2007 and 2009) Fellow, and won two Global Music Awards for Innovation in Sound and Mixing/Editing. He is Curators’ Distinguished Professor and Coordinator of Composition at the UMKC Conservatory in Kansas City where he won the 2008 Kauffman Award for Artistic Excellence, and the 2019 Kauffman Faculty Service Award. In 1994 he completed the Colorado Grand Slam after climbing all 54 of Colorado's 14,000 ft. peaks. Rudy’s CD’s can be found at CDBaby, and additional information at his web site www.paulrudy.net.
Requirements for program completion include participating in the live or recorded seminar. Each participant is required to create a project which includes connecting live music streams within a distributed network of musicians and a brief final statement.
Earn GCAS Crypto-Tokens:
Once the participant completes this program, they can claim 125 GCAS Tokens “GCASY” via our Crypto Hub.
Enrollment Procedure:
Once a participant pays for tuition they will be issued a “GCAS.ie” google based email. The GCAS.ie email account will be used by the participant to access the course materials, the Zoom links, recordings, and other course materials provided by the professor. A participant is expected to activate their GCAS.ie email account within 36 hours of issuance.
Learning outcomes
Students will practice listening and making sound
Students will explore balancing the 5th chakra through listening and vocalizing
Students will personalize their confidence in making their own unique sound
Students will create a foundation on which they can explore sound meditation and healing on their own.
Participant Responsibilities
While I may use the term “sound healing,” I am not a medical professional, nor do I claim to practice medicine or curing anything. Sound has the ability to create health benefits in a completely individual way, and often unexpected way, and so the results of things we will practice will vary greatly. And that is healthy! Part of what we do is to practice sensitivity to vibration so we can perceive the effects and benefits. Regardless of the benefits you experience, sound practiced for well-being is not a substitute for medical treatment, and should not be considered as a replacement for such. Please take responsibility for listening to your own body, and bringing to my attention anything you need to process. I am glad to help you understand and continue to learn from your experience.
Refund:
A full refund will be given if after the first meeting you are not satisfied with the program.
Certificate of Completion
A PDF copy of a certificate will be issued to each participant upon successfully completing this program. Should the participant who completes the program desire a hard copy of the certificate be sent to them physically, there will be an additional charge for shipping and handling costs which may vary depending on the participant’s location.