Kara Johnstad - office berlin
Transforming Lives Through the Power of the Human Voice

[Volume 2, Issue 51, December 19, 2012]
 
Greetings!  

 
Songwriters are able to move with grace between many worlds. They capture rhythms and tones and slip into the warm tea before it slides down their throat to warm their hearts. They start, where everything starts. With the breath. And then they begin to breathe life into space.

It is actually a crazy job to have. Take breath and make it sound, take breath and form sound to words. Take breath and consciously touch people, move people through those words.

But What should we do when our writing seems as stale as the old baguette in the bread
box? When writing a song try something like this ...  
 
 
CLICK IMAGE & LISTEN


ENJOY TODAY'S FEATURE ARTICLE

HOW TO BREATHE LIFE
INTO YOUR SONGWRITING 
 

 


  

Thank you for sharing your lyrics and songs - and those of you close to Berlin I am so much looking forward sharing with you a beautiful concert evening this Friday, on 21.12.12. 

   
Love and Light, 
Kara
 
  
 
 
 

  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
See the world come together and become part of a bigger movement that is happening.   
The 
Voice Your Essence™ Community
is growing every day and reaches around the globe.
 
Everywhere people are starting to VOICE-UP, join in at 

and receive your free gifts at 


  
THE STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF

 

My wonderful client Annette Yashpon is a pretty amazing artist; she is a successful pianist and established MC/TV presenter. Now, she has mastered the art of being a DIY singer/songwriter. In 2012 she established her own label Yashpon Music and with "Never Again & Always" and "Why Wait Until Christmas"released two CDs .

 

"Why Wait Until Christmas?"... to be nice!
    
 Coaching
Holiday 2012 - Free Coachings Offer - Special Offer

 
 
 

 

 
 
  
 In 2013 I am making the commitment
to mentor and coach YOU -  
in person or 
via Skype.  

 
PICK UP NOW YOUR FREE 30 Min COACHING SESSION
and save money on these special holiday offers!

 

 
KICK-START PACKAGE

Holiday 2012 - Your Coaching Gift - Special Offer
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Between concerts, writing and studio time, my coaching time is limited.


Yet in 2013 I am committed to mentor and coach a limited number of clients to develop a strong voice that will have an impact on our world.
 
 
 
VOICE CARE PACKAGE 
 
Holiday 2012 - Voice Care & Repair - Special Offer  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 Have a healthy voice and learn how to
 never lose your voice again, ever!

Easy to learn exercises so that you will never lose your voice again. Learn to regenerate and strengthen your voice while you are speaking and singing. On plus, you will get my wellness surprise package for free!
 
 
 
 

P.S. I am only offering the free sessions during December 2012. It has been an awesome year. I too will be setting up my concert and coaching schedule for 2013. I have a very limited number of clients that I can coach one-to-one. I would love for you to to get in. Please, check my coaching appointment calendar for free slots. Here's to your success!

Two world-class "Vocal Soul Divas" together on stage!
 Superb Vocal Art in its purest form!   

 

  

 

Come and join us in Berlin. 
Enjoy A Once in a Lifetime Special Concert Event
  

  

 

Hier online bestellen.

 

 

 

 

 

We Charge No Advance Booking Fee and No Shipping Costs.

 

view the event site



 

 

 

THE CHARTER FOR COMPASSION
THE CHARTER FOR COMPASSION


Help build a global compassion movement

Join with thousands of others around the globe in declaring that compassion, born of our deep interdependence, is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity, necessary to the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

 Ask,
"What would compassion look like in my daily life?"

   
I highly recommend it.   
 
feature_article

 

 
 

  

HOW TO BREATHE LIFE INTO YOUR SONGWRITING


Written by Kara Johnstad

 

Kara Johnstad lyrics
Candles lit,
Hildegard Bingen is moving through the room and i just got back from the
snowy markets of Berlin and bought an armful of fresh pine branches wrapped in
yesterday's paper.

What
should we do when our writing seems as stale as the old baguette in the bread
box?

Try as
we may to add a few adjectives and adverbs, we feel stuck.

One of
the most important things to remember while writing is the beginners mind.

The
beginners mind knows no about.

I am
writing a story about a dog. I am writing a song about my first love.

The
beginners mind is not about describing what love is. The beginners mind is
fresh in experience.

All
senses are perked.

Writers
are able to move with grace between many worlds. They capture rhythms and tones
and slip into the warm tea before it slides down their throat to warm their
hearts. They start, where everything starts. With the breath. And then they
begin to breathe life into space.

It is
actually a crazy job to have. Take breath and make it sound, take breath and
form sound to words. Take breath and consciously touch people, move people through those words.

So
again.. show, don't tell.

Don't
tell us about any of the big words, love, truth, anger, sorrow, hate, justice.

Share
with us the inside of a story and we will come to the same conclusion as you.

For
example when you experience falling in love, you may have moments of laughter
and joy and doubt and fear all at the same time. It is all there. Many songs
only talk about the ecstasy, few are honest enough to share with us the bitter
sweet.

The
nervousness. The doubts that creep in.

Don't
explain it. Show it.

Where
are you? Is it winter or summer? How is the sky? What do you see? Are you
walking towards him or are you walking side by side? Is there traffic passing
or are you standing underneath an old bridge?

Are you
struggling to find words? Do you stutter? How does he smell? Calvin Klein?
Eau de Cologne?

Mothballs?
He reaches out, is his touch firm? Soft? Does he grab you? Or, does he
talk and talk and talk and you wait for the moment of knowingness. In which
direction is this thing going?

What
are you listening to? Wind? Noises in a restaurant? Are you in a bus? A
rehearsal room? Are bombs falling?

When
you write stories and songs, stay in direct connection with the senses and what
you are writing about.

Capture
how your mind flashes the first time before the comments and critics walk into
the room.

The
first flashes and words are usually the ones that reflect like a mirror,
neutrally.

The emotions are
formed by our identification to them. By our belief systems.

If you
write from this space, your audience can identify from their own experience and
not borrow yours. Who wants a borrowed love affair, a borrowed moment.

Kara Johnstad lyrics


We want our audience to listen and feel like it could be them
that is stepping out of the bathtub.

Warm Bath Water
Reflecting candle flame
Cool still

My body still chilled
I relax into the wetness
Surrounding me...
- Excerpts from my song "Beloved"

When I read
the word "about" in one of my clients writing, my ears perk and an inner alarm goes off.

Skip that 
"I love you because you are so nice. How you touch me is so great. This is my love song for you."

Instead, try something like this:

Kara Johnstad lyrics
Sticking to my skin
Air sweet as honey
Seems kind of funny
To be tickled from within
In the night of no moon
When all the stars disappear
Our breath echoes story of love
And I draw you near
- Excerpt from my song "Seems Natural"
 
 
Images trickle down my veins
a symphony of
hot desert sands
and distant lands
hand carved stone, and buried bones
of water falls, and hanging trees
and little birds that sing to thee
of cuckoos call
and sycamores tall
and caverns dark
and one small spark
as we're carried                            
to the edge of time
and then beyond ...
beyond the time
more than one, less than two  
 
 
More than one, less than two.
Now when you write more than one less than two, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that these two souls are deeply merged?

Of course once in awhile you might need to go into second or third person or make a comment or two. 
 
Dare to enter the story and take us into it.
 
CLICK IMAGE & LISTEN TO PODCAST
 
If the song is boring,
it is normally because we have not dared to walk inside of it.
 
We are explaining it, talk about it, talking about how we lived it, but we are not breathing life into it.

A splash here and there of general statements can be appropriate. Don't be hard on yourself if they enter onto the page. One or two concrete lines help to anchor a song and gives it often the "hook" line.

Just make sure to back it up with sensory imagery and pictures so that it touches on deeper levels.

Breathe life into it. Come from a place of "No Mind". Innocent and pure. Of neutrality where all the senses are alive.
 
Please do ocean me
Take me out to sea
Where the gulls do dip and dive
Leave your footprints on my beach
Savor this ripe peach
Nietzsche is dead
Yet God is so alive

And I'm curious,
Ever so curious
Where you would go if you would travel in me.
- Excerpt from my song "Journey Me Home" Kara Johnstad
 
We are open, absorbing with all our senses and simply reflecting the space that we are in.
 
Kara Johnstad lyrics
 
 
Breathing life into words, 
words into song, 
songs into life.
We are all connected through breath and our stories.
 

Enjoy exploring  and being deeply embedded inside the songs you write.
 Exhale.

 Stay gold. 

Kara  

  

 

 

 

P.S. Share your experiences of how you are setting up your business as an independent artist, and feel free to join the Voice Your Essence™ Community over on Facebook: www.facebook.com/voiceyouressence. I'm really excited to hear what you have to say.
 
Thank you, as always, for tuning in, reading and contributing.

 

 

 

CLICK IMAGE & LISTEN
 
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE?
Please do! Just be sure to include this complete blurb with it.
 
Kara Johnstad is a creative visionary, transformational catalyst and a powerful voice in the time and age of transition. She is a singer / songwriter, creator of The Essence Radio Show™, and founder of the Voice Your Essence Program. If you are ready to take your voice and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription of her weekly eZine, at www.karajohnstad.com


 

"As we float our spirits kiss the fullness of the moon"   
Kara Johnstad 

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NEW RELEASE 
NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

CLICK IMAGE & LISTEN

 music and lyrics by Kara Johnstad / design by Linda Gavin  

 

 

I don't remember being born and I have yet to die. And yet I do remember that moment where the two collided. Life and death that is. They were only a heartbeat away. Only one blink slowed, and the eyes no longer opened. I was given this song to keep me breathing. 

 

The only hope you have is to fill it up with poetry and song
and a never ending thirst for the bigger questions. 

 

 

A powerful voice of unbridled passion and purity. 

Poetry has never sounded so good. 

 

... and while there, please leave me a comment.


SEARCHING FOR AN ANGEL is the ninth single in singer-songwriter Kara Johnstad's

 

NAKED THOUGHTS ALBUM series the newest series of songs and poems by Kara Johnstad created to celebrate the year of the Chinese Dragon. She is releasing in 2012 one song every month

  

  

I welcome you to my Naked Thoughts concert series.

Kara Johnstad - singer/songwriter




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Kara Johnstad is creative visionary, transformational catalyst and a powerfuvoice in the time and age of transition. She is a singer / songwriter, creator of the Voice Your Essence Radio Show , and founder of the Voice Your Essence Community.

  

Leading change agents, healers, personal development speakers and others recognize her as being a unique source of powerful truth and wisdom. As a top voice expert she has helped thousands with her "break-through" voice techniques and shares with us the secrets behind this powerful instrument and the role the human voice plays in fine tuning our Mind-Body-Spirit systems.

Kara connects each and every week with subscribers from around the world via her Voice Your Essence eZine

If you liked today's issue, you'll also enjoy listening to Kara's soulful music as part of your daily ritual of reconnecting to source or jump onto the next level and experience personally the power of your true authentic voice with Kara Johnstad's Voice Your Essence Programs.
 

  

 
Images of Kara by Joerg Grosse-Geldermann
Cover Art for "Searching For An Angel" by Linda Gavin