You were born to make music. You might just need help remembering.
Becoming Music:
A Song Divination Workshop
Held by Brian 'Yam' Dwyer & Thomas Promise
Saturday, April 25th - 1:00-3:30pm
Spirit of Peace | Downtown Missoula, MT
Have you ever wondered where songs come from?
Have you ever wondered what songs are wanting to come through you?
Join longtime friends, neighbors, community singers and cosmic co-pilots Brian βYamβ Dwyer and Thomas Promise (based in Bellingham, WA) as they welcome participants to collectively explore the ancient art of song divination aka βsong catchingβ in the context of everyday life.
This is not about βgoodβ voices and βbadβ voices.
This is everyday music for everyday people. All voices are welcome.
Can you hear it?
From the magical to the mundaneβ¦the music awaits. Hiding everywhere in plain sight.
What to Expect
Thomas & Yam will begin by inviting everyone to circle up and orient themselves to the space and to one another.
We'll then drop into a space of deep sharing and co-created music β opening the floor for an extended time of emergent discussion, heart-opening movement, sound-making, rhythm and singing, supported by Thomas & Yam. Expect a playful & courageous space to loosen your armor, let go of masks, and open up your voice with the encouragement and supportive spirit of the group.
Participants will then be released into the wild to explore on their own β to listen more deeply and notice what arises. Every sonic discovery is welcomed and celebrated.
Ideas, fragments and sketches are brought back to the group and turned into fully-fledged songs β live, in real time, with everyone's voices. The group then takes turns lifting up each other's songs and helping them take flight.
It will likely not be what you expect. We lean into improvisation, freedom of expression, and whatever is most alive in the circle at any given moment β meaning the best parts of this container cannot be planned, anticipated, or premeditated.
Date & Time
Saturday, April 25th Β· 1:00β3:30pm Spirit of Peace Church 506 Toole Ave, Missoula, MT 59802
The workshop runs 2.5 hours and begins at 1pm β please plan to arrive by 12:45pm so we can open the space together.
Getting here: Parking in the immediate area can be tricky β we recommend biking if you can or plan a few extra minutes to park in the surrounding neighborhood.
"You can't do it wrong. You can't do it right. Just come on." β Yam
Let's Become Music Together
Becoming Music
Join us Friday, April 25th from 1:00β3:30pm at Spirit of Peace (506 Toole Ave) for 2.5 hours of song-catching, voice-warming, and collective musical discovery. Expect the unexpected. The best parts can't be planned.
Regular Price: $125
Early Bird Price: $97 (first 20 tickets)
Brian 'Yam' Dwyer
Brian 'Yam' Dwyer (also known as 'Yambaby')(He/Him Tree/Him) is a community song enthusiast, artist, rhythmist and student of emergent musical space. His interactive, inclusive teaching style is rooted in the experience that music is every human's inherent birthright and that singing together in community helps us remember who we truly areβas humans, as a people, and as a living, dreaming planet.
He views music as a direct line of connection to our ancestors, our more-than-human kin, and the entirety of the cosmos. Brian has studied music, rhythm, and improvisational singing for over 30 years, transmutative men's work for 9 years, and has held medicinal and grief ritual space in the Cascadia Bio-region since 2022.
He currently resides on the unceded ancestral lands of the Lummi, Nooksack, and Coast Salish peoples (aka Belongingham, WA), where he is a glad dad, mystic, dedicated friend, companion, co-parent, and father to a 12 year-old son.
Thomas Promise
Thomas Honest Promise is a musician, devotional artist, and aspiring ritualist committed to the wild art of presence.
With a punk-monk spirit of disciplined play, his work flowers wherever beauty, aliveness, and courage find their voice.
Through music, play, and devotional love, Thomas cultivates spaces where people are invited to remember the joy of being fully alive together.
A Note from Barron:
Yam is something special. He carries music in his whole being way of being. The way he speaks, the way he invites silence. The way he rushes to chime a bell on his front porch when a neighbor or friend shows up.
He speaks in songs as much as he does in words. There's something about the way he laughs, the way he listens, the way he makes you feel like life a beautiful journey of co-pilots on the path, stumbling along, finding our way, laughing, crying, and moving with music on our lips.
Yam has been an inspiration and teacher in my own musical homecoming from the start. He is a dear friend, and it is one of my greatest joys to bring him to Missoula to share his gifts, and inspire us all in the art of becoming music. I hope you'll join us for this special gathering.
