UkuleleYOU:
A Soulful Musical Retreat for Women
Fri. June 29 – Sun. July 1, 2018.
Hallelujah Farm Spiritual Retreat, West Chesterfield, NH
Led by Certified Gateless Master Teacher, Lisa McCormick
* Treat yourself to an opportunity to deepen your relationship to the
life-changing miracle of music-making, through the ukulele.
* Open creative doors inside you may have never known were there.
Engage in intimate conversation with your musical muse.
* Delight in the joyous spirit of the world’s happiest instrument, and learn powerful methods for taking your playing to the next level.
* Be well fed, nurtured, loved up, and have a total BLAST
with other women, all on a New England summer paradise weekend.
* Many enrollment options to chose from!
* Pop-up Song Circles and Jams. Learn new songs, make new friends, and have the time of your life making music, music, music with other women. Just us gals.
* Nightly Grand-Slam Jams: Big group play-along, with full all-woman band! Bass, Drums, Guitars, Ukuleles, and you! Spacious sanctuary with mind-blowing acoustics, overlooking rolling hills and mountains. Easy-to-play, super-fun songbook provided for all.
* Gentle Restorative Yoga for Musicians (chair-yoga option). Gentle yoga positions, mindful breathing, and gentle stretches specially designed by Certified Yoga Instructor (and fellow uke-player!), Erica Zinter. Open up, expand, relax, and connect with your music-making muscles, breath, and energy channels.
* Gateless Writing: Engage in dialogue with your tender, precious musical-self in a loving supportive space, through guided journal-writing exercises.
* Sacred Ukulele Sunday Morning Circle: Discover the simple and perfect magic of a mystical 5-note sequence, rooted in Sacred Geometry, and found in melodic sacred music in every human culture across time. Create prayerful meditative music with ease and grace, and experience a profound connection with the timeless mystical spirit of music.
* Song-Swaps: bring copies of a favorite song, and bring it to life with a group jam!
* YOU-Time: Rest and relax deeply. Play music to your heart’s content, with all the time and space in the world. Wander the gardens, explore the forest. Cozy up out on the screen porch to read, or write in your journal. Bask in the hot tub under the night sky. Drift and dream in a spectacular country retreat on a sweet New England summer weekend.
* Note2Self: Interactive workshop with Lisa McCormick on her signature transformative philosophy of music-making – interconnecting self and music in a circular, paradigm-shifting, approach. Reach new unbelievable heights of joy and musical ability through Note2Self exercises and experiences.
* Beginner-friendly! No previous musical experience needed. Ukulele-angel-mentors will be on hand to help you learn. Ukuleles will be available to borrow for the weekend, or purchase.
* Meals: Lovingly home-cooked meals, made with local, organic, and homegrown ingredients. Plentiful healthy delicious options, including gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan.
* Cozy Overnight Accommodations available.
* Ukulele Petting Zoo: Tons of Ukuleles for you to try out! Explore different sizes and styles. If you fall in love, most are for sale to take home with you.
* Handicapped accessible
* Travel: 2 hours from Boston. 3.5 hours from NYC. Brattleboro, VT (5 miles from Retreat) can be reached via Amtrak. Nearest airport: Bradley International, Windsor Locks, CT. (1 1/4 hour drive from Retreat).
* Many Enrollment Options! Ranging from an all-inclusive weekend immersion with all meals and overnight accommodations, to a Grand Slam Night Jam or two with a big gang of great gals.
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I’m so grateful I took the leap of faith and signed up to learn ukulele with Lisa. It’s something I would never have expected I’d do. Learning ukulele has been an amazing experience. It makes me feel empowered, and driven to practice. It’s truly fulfilling, not a chore or a disappointment to not be ‘good’. When I’m learning a song, I feel it in me throughout the day and can’t wait to play it again. I believe it’s helping me tap into parts of my brain I haven’t used to their fullest potential yet in my life. I’ve been doing a lot of work in my life to find my inner strength and my own voice. Playing the ukulele and singing aloud is helping me find my voice, strength, and build new confidence in myself.
-Laura Senes
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SCHEDULE and ACTIVITIES:
Fri., June 29.
Arrive at Hallelujah Farm 3pm or later.
Find your room, settle in, explore the incredible surroundings, play some music.
5pm: Gateless Writing circle: Greet and explore your inner Goddess of music in short guided journaling exercises. Open the conversation with your musical muse that you will continue to explore all weekend long.
6:30-7:15 Catered dinner for all: local, organic, homegrown, home-cooked
7:30-9 Grand-Slam Jam, in the Sanctuary, with full band!
Sat., June 30:
9:00 am: Coffee and Homemade Breakfast
10:00 am: Gentle Restorative Yoga for Musicians, led by certified yoga instructor (and fellow ukulele-player!), Erica Zinter. Chair yoga option.
11:30 am: Note2Self presentation, by Lisa. What is the Note2Self Method, and how will it radically change your relationship to your music?
12:30 Catered lunch
1:30-2:15: Gateless Writing circle
2:30-6:00 YOU-time. Explore the woods and fields. Find a friend or a spontaneous song circle and play some music. Rest, reflect, write, read. Find a magical spot under a tree and settle deeply into your music.
Afternoon Facilitated Song-Swaps
6:30-7:15 Catered dinner
7:30-9pm Grand-Slam Jam in the Sanctuary, with full band!
Sun., July 1:
9:00 am: Coffee and Homemade Breakfast
10:00 am: Gentle Yoga for Musicians, led by certified yoga instructor (and fellow ukulele-player!), Erica Zinter. Chair yoga option.
11:15 – Sacred Ukulele Sunday Morning Circle
12:30 – Catered lunch
1:00-3:00 YOU-time. Explore, play, write, jam.
Check-out, 3pm.
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I first started to learn the ukulele to stimulate my brain by learning something new. What I have received is so far beyond that. On the simplest level I can actually play music! And a joy crept into me as I played. Holding this little beauty next to my heart and solar plexus did something, though I’m not sure why. This past fall and winter was a very dark, difficult time for me. Playing songs and singing Dylan’s lyrics to ‘Knockin’ On Heavens Door’ allowed me to experience and express “it’s getting dark, too dark to see” in a deeply healing way. I love playing my ukes. One travels with me whenever I travel away from home. – Keely Eastly
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ENROLLMENT OPTIONS and COST:
* TOTAL IMMERSION PACKAGE, Earlybird Registration:
Full weekend, all inclusive. 6 catered meals, 2 nights lodging, handbook, songbook, all activities. First dibs on lodging options. Register and pay in full by May 15, $465.
($75 non-refundable deposit is included in this price.)
* TOTAL IMMERSION PACKAGE: (after May 15 )
6 catered meals, 2 nights lodging, manual and songbook, all activities. $485
($75 non-refundable deposit requested)
* Tuition includes overnight accommodations, lovingly home-cooked healthy meals featuring local organic ingredients (with vegetarian and gluten-free options), freedom to wander perennial gardens in full bloom, vast wildflower meadows, peaceful quiet woods, dip your toes in natural freshwater ponds, cozy up on a serene screened-in porch, bask on the spacious patio, soak in the hot-tub, attend any and/or all activities. Comprehensive take-home handbook/songbook also included.
(*Why you should stay overnight if you can: This is a unique chance to grant yourself a total OASIS for you and your music. Driving home at the end of the day breaks the spell as you plunge back into the distractions of your everyday life. Give yourself this well-deserved gift of total immersion in something that means the world to you. Besides, then you can say you’ve been to a Ukulele Pajama Party!)
* COMMUTER PACKAGE:
6 catered meals, manual and songbook, all activities.
Arrange for your own lodging off site. $350
($75 non-refundable deposit requested)
* SATURDAY ONLY: 3 catered meals, all Saturday activities: $140
(full day plus evening jam)
($50 non-refundable deposit requested)
* SUNDAY ONLY: 2 catered meals, all Sunday activities: $65
(half-day)
($25 non-refundable deposit requested)
* GRAND-SLAM EVENING JAMS only: $20, or 2 for $35.
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A little over a year ago, an inner voice told me to go buy myself a ukulele. I knew almost nothing about it at all. I’d been a folkie back in the day, hadn’t played guitar in years, but something told me it was time for a Uke. I noticed almost immediately what a sweet and joyful feeling it gave me. As I kept teaching myself, and learning with Lisa, the joy kept growing. Playing my ukulele seems to cause a vibration in my soul that creates happiness. It’s made music a very comforting and personal thing for me. -Cass Morgan
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ABOUT HALLELUJAH FARM, and The UkuleleYou Womens Retreat:
This spectacularly beautiful spiritual retreat is set in the hills and meadows of the southwestern corner of New Hampshire, in the small town of Chesterfield (just 10 minutes from Brattleboro VT, and I-91 Exit 3).
The mission and ministry of the founders and hosts, Sandy and Roger, is to provide hospitality in the deepest sense of the word… a welcoming and sacred space for rest and renewal, deepening of relationships to self and others, a setting for contemplative practices and creative possibility.
Hallelujah Farm features two buildings: the Lower Farm, and, the Upper Farm, located on hundreds of acres of pristine New England forest, and vast open meadows, and serene dirt roads. The 2 buildings are about 1/4 mile apart.
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UkuleleYOU Retreat:
LOWER FARM Activities and Lodging:
All UkuleleYOU Retreat activities and meals will take place at the Lower Farm, a lovingly-restored 1780’s cape with the original hand-hewn pine beams and wide plank pine floors, 4 fireplaces, and a spacious kitchen/dining room overlooking fields, a pond, and distant hills and mountains.
Attached to the cape is a super-magnificent chapel-sanctuary, where tall windows fill the room with summer sunlight. Incredible acoustics add to this space’s unforgettable magic when filled with music.
The Lower Farm also features a screened-in porch, a sweet open porch, a spacious stone patio with expansive view of meadows and forests, and numerous ‘secret’ little spots to tuck yourself into to play, chat, write, meditate, breathe. Yoga mats and cushions available to use.
The ground floor of the Lower Farm, where all activities and meals take place, is fully handicapped accessible.
Lodging at the Lower Farm:
2nd-story country-style bedrooms feature 2 single beds and a sink in each. All linens, towels, etc. are provided. Shared bathrooms. Lovely quiet upstairs common sitting area open to all. Feel free to request the roommate of your choice!
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UkuleleYOU Retreat:
UPPER FARM Activities and Lodging:
The Upper Farm is also a beautifully restored 1780’s cape, with bedrooms upstairs and a comfy homey living room downstairs.
The Upper Farm is smaller and more intimate, with a cozy B&B feel. Amenities include a spacious detached screen-house for outdoor bug-free relaxation, music-making, etc. A hot-tub welcomes you to soak in the open-air under the summer sky. An above-ground pool, and outdoor lawn games and sports equipment offer extra fun.
2nd-story bedrooms feature 3 single beds in each. All linens, towels, etc. are provided. Shared bathrooms. Coffee and tea will be available in the mornings. (plus an early-morning hot-tub soak if you like!) Feel free to request the roommate(s) of your choice!
The Upper Farm is a 1/4 mile (hilly) walk along a country dirt road (or a 30-second drive), to the Lower Farm for all Retreat activities and meals.
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Sorry, no private rooms are available at this time. There are numerous wonderful cozy AirBnB options close by if you prefer your privacy (choose the Commuter Package). Please contact Lisa via email if you require a wheelchair-accessible bedroom at the Farm.
REQUEST a REGISTRATION FORM, and/or MORE INFO:
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