Hello dear ones! O I have SO loved working with you over the past many years.

It’s a huge adventure to return to California now that I’m woven into a 3. But we’re coming.

This is a weekend of creativity for folks who have worked with vocal improvisation a lot already.

We’ll warm up and connect, familiarise ourselves with the folks we don’t know, and then spend the weekend luxuriating in a variety of small and large group forms for swimming in vocal improvisation together. Music, music, music.

Please bring what you need for lunch and snacks;

Teas will be provided.

Timing

Saturday arrive 10am for a 10.15 start.

Sunday arrive 10.45 for an 11am start

Each day, we’ll be done by 4.45pm for a 5pm departure.

Cost and Registration

Tier 1     $325

Tier 2     $225

Tier 3     $125

We invite you in integrity to select your tier, we don’t assess you.

Payment plans are available: email info@brionygreenhill.com to arrange something that works for you.

Please Register Here:

and Pay Directly by Venmo or Paypal:

Venmo @Briony-Greenhill

Paypal brionygmusic@gmail.com

Booking 2 weekends? $50 off.

Tier 1 - $600

Tier 2 - $400

Tier 1 - $200

Briony Greenhill is “one of the world’s leading proponents of collaborative vocal improvisation (CVI)” - The Guardian.

CVI is the art of co-creating vocal music in the moment. Here is a short film about Briony’s teaching. Briony is in the lineage of Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, Joey Blake and others, and holds the transformational aspects of the art form with skill and care.

Briony is a co-founder of The Well Global Vocal Improvisation Network, and the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival.

She has released 4 entirely improvised albums. Her debut studio album took improvisations and reproduced them adding instrumentation in the studio: Crossing the Ocean featured in The Guardian, Mojo, Radio 3, Woman’s Hour and more.

Briony teaches vocal musicianship from beginner to advanced levels, while also honouring the spiritual, ritual and therapeutic application of CVI. She is a qualified SomaSource Leader; a “psycho-spiritual educator, artist, activist and healer who has an integrated understanding of how to creatively work in developmentally attuned ways with diverse people throughout life’s cycles.” You can read more about Briony’s teaching values, Vocal Musicianship Trainings, and a history of vocal improvisation in the American tradition here.

Students have said:

“One of the most powerful experiences of my life! I feel changed on a cellular level!” (ok it was a 4 day retreat not a weekend…)

“Briony really made us all feel at home – starting off with exercises that didn’t force me outside of my comfort zone, and a no judgement pact, really allowed me to feel comfortable with the group, which then gave me the confidence to try out some solos.”

“It was seriously fun, crazy, inspiring, opening and meditative, all at the same time.”

“Some singing teachers teach you sing with your voice. Briony teaches you to sing with your heart and sing from your soul.”

“You made it feel like a womb. Protected, loved, nourished, warm and holding.”

Hello dear Singer!

I am offering a weekend introduction to the wonderful art of Collaborative Vocal Improvisation, CVI, for people who can sing in tune, keep a beat, and want an adventure.

CVI is a wonderful artform of improvising vocal music together with others in the moment. It’s thrilling and fun and challenging and can deeply connect us to ourselves, one another, and our surroundings.

If you haven’t worked with me before, let’s start by laying some good ground. We’ll explore forms and approaches to improvising with others, vocally. I’ll provide a safe holding for all that it might bring up for you. We’ll take a deep journey into your resonant body, help you cultivate a healthy loving relationship with your voice, and set it free.

CVI is a thrilling, challenging, beautiful approach to singing. The Bay Area is so full of rich opportunities to do this; from Bobby McFerrin at the Freight & Salvage on Mondays to Dave Worm’s great teaching to all the groups gathering to do this together, and I’m sure there’s more I don’t know.

Each teacher and practitioner has their own style of working; so if you’re new to working with me, I invite you to start at the beginning. Students often end up working with me over many years and these can be long and beautiful relationships into a deeply empowered, free, competent relationship with an available, intuitively and technically capable, healthy voice.

So if you’d like to meet me in January, here I am.

Briony Greenhill is “one of the world’s leading proponents of collaborative vocal improvisation (CVI)” - The Guardian.

CVI is the art of co-creating vocal music in the moment. Here is a short film about Briony’s teaching. Briony is in the lineage of Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, Joey Blake and others, and holds the transformational aspects of the art form with skill and care.

Briony is a co-founder of The Well Global Vocal Improvisation Network, and the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival.

She has released 4 entirely improvised albums. Her debut studio album took improvisations and reproduced them adding instrumentation in the studio: Crossing the Ocean featured in The Guardian, Mojo, Radio 3, Woman’s Hour and more.

Briony teaches vocal musicianship from beginner to advanced levels, while also honouring the spiritual, ritual and therapeutic application of CVI. She is a qualified SomaSource Leader; a “psycho-spiritual educator, artist, activist and healer who has an integrated understanding of how to creatively work in developmentally attuned ways with diverse people throughout life’s cycles.” You can read more about Briony’s teaching values, Vocal Musicianship Trainings, and a history of vocal improvisation in the American tradition here.

Students have said:

“One of the most powerful experiences of my life! I feel changed on a cellular level!” (ok it was a 4 day retreat not a weekend…)

“Briony really made us all feel at home – starting off with exercises that didn’t force me outside of my comfort zone, and a no judgement pact, really allowed me to feel comfortable with the group, which then gave me the confidence to try out some solos.”

“It was seriously fun, crazy, inspiring, opening and meditative, all at the same time.”

“Some singing teachers teach you sing with your voice. Briony teaches you to sing with your heart and sing from your soul.”

“You made it feel like a womb. Protected, loved, nourished, warm and holding.”

Timing

Saturday arrive 10am for a 10.15 start.

Sunday arrive 10.45 for an 11am start

Each day, we’ll be done by 4.45pm for a 5pm departure.

Please bring a packed lunch and any snacks you will need. Teas will be provided.

Cost and Registration

Tier 1     $325

Tier 2     $225

Tier 3     $125

We invite you in integrity to select your tier, we don’t assess you. Payment plans are available: email info@brionygreenhill.com to arrange something that works for you.

Please Register Here

and Pay Directly via Venmo or Paypal:

Venmo @Briony-Greenhill

Paypal brionygmusic@gmail.com

If you have any questions, please email info@brionygreenhill.com.

Healing forms for experienced practitioners

This will be a deep, confidential container to explore in-depth healing CVI forms used for self expression and interpersonal support. 

We’ll slow down, warm up, and work mostly in small groups to give each person space for expression and support through these delicate beautiful forms.

Most of these forms were developed collaboratively by The Elements featuring Shay Nichols, a Sound Healer, Christopher Kuntzsch, a coach and singer; Green Huse and myself who have done a lot of deep healing work. For all of us, Vocal Improvisation has been one of our primary paths of healing.

You can take these forms into CVI groups where you are building bonds of trust. Your CVI group can become like a women’s group or mens group - but it’s a peoples group. A very special place of community, connection, and interpersonal support. And then you can use this art form to connect to the more than human world, too……

We’ll explore forms such as CVI Sound healing, Call & Response, Integrated Expressive Practice (IEP), Resonant Body, Supported Solo and Supplicant-Messenger.

Led by Briony Greenhill. 

This is for folks who are already experienced in Vocal Improvisation. If you’re not sure, please email me to check - info@brionygreenhill.com.

Timing

Saturday arrive 10am for a 10.15 start.

Sunday arrive 10.45 for an 11am start

Each day, we’ll be done by 4.45pm for a 5pm departure.

Cost and Registration

Tier 1     $325

Tier 2     $225

Tier 3     $125

We invite you in integrity to select your tier, we don’t assess you. Payment plans are available: email info@brionygreenhill.com to arrange something that works for you.

Please Register Here:

and Pay Directly:

Venmo @Briony-Greenhill

Paypal brionygmusic@gmail.com

Payment plans are fine. Email info@brionygreenhill.com to agree something that works for you.

Booking 2 weekends? $50 off.

Tier 1 - $600

Tier 2 - $400

Tier 1 - $200

March 8-9, April 5-6, May 10-11 @ Moor Imagination Collective, Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0AB

This is a 6-day course spread over three weekends, shaped to profoundly shift your relationship with your voice from challenge to freedom, from judgement to love, from anxiety to pleasure.

We’ll integrate Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI) with Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) to work with the parts of us that struggle to be heard, that constrict the voice, experience performance anxiety, are beset by inner criticism and inhibition. Beneath all of that, I believe you are a living instrument designed - and able - to sing.

This is a mixed level group for people who can sing in tune, keep a beat, and want an adventure (these are in my view pre-requisites for studying vocal improvisation).

Whatever the voice is buried under, we’re going to work together to lift it off, bring the voices out, and set them free. We’ll use these voices to improvise, express ourselves, connect to others, self-sooth, and heal.

There will be spiritual aspects to this course, in the context of an Earth-Based spirituality that welcomes every kind of spiritual diversity including atheism. 

We will gradually become able to co-create vocal music with others in real time, and come home to our natural capacity to sing, part of our human design, our birth right. We’ll take the broken wings and learn to fly, midwife the voices, and gradually, enjoy their soaring.

Welcoming out parts of us that might prefer the safety of hiding, and giving them a chance to express and relate through vocal improvisation.

The voice is a profound ally for welcoming all of ourselves home, as it brings our inner material into awareness, gives it an avenue of expression, and soothes us, all at the same time.

In IFS terms, vocal improvisation seems to go beneath protector parts and reach either exiled parts - parts needing to be welcomed home into integration - or what is called “Self” - the aspect of us that is always present, compassionate and curious. How most of us like to be, and how we mostly want people to be with us.

So, welcome to the healing ground. Diving into the transformational art form of vocal improvisation with a shared group intention to use this for our healing and growth, and let our living instruments fly, heal, whole, ground, and flourish.

Accommodation

If you need a place to stay, there 2 initial accommodation options.

The Christian Community - £40pp pn. They’re right across the road from MIC and have 4 very comfortable clean bedrooms and a small self catering kitchen (and a chapel, and a workshop space).

Local air bnb - £50 pp pn, £65 for private en suite room. A lovely shared house with 4 bedrooms / 6 beds, 1 mile away. It’s a 5 min drive or a 30 min country walk.

To book accommodation please email Dan info@brionygreenhill.com. The sooner the better, as we can’t realistically book the local air bnb until a few people want to stay there.

MIC has a cafe that does lovely healthy tasty affordable food on Saturdays. There are local shops and cafes.

Practicalities

• The workshop is non-residential

• We meet 10-5 each day

• Each day we do 1-2 hours of IFS therapy after lunch, mostly through singing.

• Hot drinks will be provided; please bring a packed lunch and any snacks you may need.

• On the Sundays we do floor work; please bring a yoga mat and blanket, or something to lie on and something to lie under. If you are travelling in from afar by train, often local people can bring extra for you.

• We suggest avoiding alcohol the nights before we gather as it can interfere negatively with your experience.

• Please don’t come if you are contagiously ill. It’s possible to swap your place for another course in this instance.

• I teach Vocal Transformation with assistance from one or two IFS therapists. (If you are an IFS therapist and would like to assist, please email info@brionygreenhill.com.)

This course if suitable for you if:

• You haven’t worked with me much or at all before

• You want to sing freely but face constraints

• You have fairly stable mental health currently.

This course is not suitable for you if:

• You are currently in a mental health crisis - other forms of support are likely to be more supportive

• You are an experienced CVI student. If you still face these constrictions after extended study with me, arrange a call with me by email.

Questions? Email info@brionygreenhill.com

Fees

Vocal Transformation costs £625 for the 3 weekends earlybird; £795 later bird.

2 Assistant places are available at half price. If you’d like to be considered as an assistant, please email info@brionygreenhill.com

Men, we miss you.

Typically 1, 2 or 3 men come to each class I run. The men miss other men. The women miss the men. I don’t know how the non-binary people feel about it.

Singing is core to our humanity. The male template has been repressive to this aspect in some cultures, perhaps British culture.

I know it’s in you. Men, this weekend is for you.

Last time we did it, an epic brotherhood emerged for the weekend. We called it Stag Heart, the feeling of great resourced-ness from being in the healthy company of a group of men.

Many men expressed a sense of vulnerability arriving into a group of men. Is this safe?

They built safety together. I helped, stood back a little more than I normally do.

The voices were Beautiful. There were tears, haka dancing, breakdancing, a solo about a c**k, support, kindness, and a whole lot of magnificent music making.

I’m not expecting it to be like that every time. This is improvisation after all.

But ultimately I would love to cultivate balance in the growing community of CVI (Collaborative Vocal Improvisation) lovers and practitioners; female, male, non-binary, white, black, straight, queer, able bodied, disabled, 

So I call to the musical and the poetic in you; to the vocal and vulnerable; to the rhythmic and harmonic; to the journey into embodiment and en-heart-ment, into brotherhood and wholeness, and the place of voice and singing in that.

I lead as a woman, an experienced teacher of CVI, happily married (to a men’s work leader…) with a fab little son, a fab Dad, a son on the way as I write, and lots of good male friends.

You are welcome. I will help you to sing and to improvise, and I will hold with care whatever comes up on the way. 

Recommend for people who can sing in tune and keep a beat.

When?

31st May - 1st June 2025

Saturday 10am - 5pm

Sunday 10am - 4.30pm

Please arrive about 15 mins before the start time.

How much?

Earlybird £125

Regular bird £175

I’ve little money but I want to sing £65 (5 spots)

I’m abundant and I’d like to help others be there £250

Limited to 16 places.

Where?

Held at the Moor Imagination Collective, Buckfastleigh. There’s a nice cafe on site with quirky opening hours - check here.

Add accommodation @ £40 per night. It will be either a) directly across the road, or b) 1 mile away - a 5 min drive or a lovely half hour walk across the edge of Dartmoor. Both places are very comfortable and clean and have a kitchen for DIY breakfast. If you’d like accommodation, the sooner you book the better: please email info@brionygreenhill.com requesting it and Dan will sort you out.

Students have said:

“I’m discovering a reservoir of power actually, which I suspected was there but I hadn’t actually felt or experienced coming through in the way that it is, both in my voice and in my day to day. It’s very much like something has been stirred and invigorated and given some channel to start moving in the world, and this is really really really exciting, and really beautiful. I’m just absolutely delighted by it.” - Tom Hirons

“Thank you for a revelatory and transformational weekend Briony! Much has moved in me. 🙏🏻” Mark

“Briony's approach to CVI is a kind of revolution. She presents this vibrant, creative and compelling art with a masterful sensitivity to the needs of her students and their unique singing journeys.” - Xander

“It’s all leadership and listening I reckon, and that’s what you teach. Finding our voice, facing out fears, following our hearts, listening deep within, expressing our love, it’s all what you do 🙂” Dave

“It was deeper than an ayahuasca ceremony, I grew more than in workshops with leading psychologists, and it’s the safest I’ve ever felt in a group.” - Robin

“It was seriously fun, crazy, inspiring, opening and meditative, all at the same time.” - Dave

A 5 day residential deep dive into the use of vocal improvisation for healing, wellness, connection, personal growth and nature connection.

Led by Briony Greenhill at Bala Brook Retreat Center, Devon.

Singing without a song tends to bring up a lot in the inner life that’s ready to heal. Healing can be described as “bringing love to the places that hurt”.

In my years improvising with The Elements quintet, we developed a lot of forms for self expression and mutual support. For hearing, supporting and helping each other in small ensemble format.

In my years of teaching, I’ve found these forms to be very powerful for supporting students with what comes up on the journey, as it has been very supportive and connective for me as a practitioner over the last 15 years.

In this autumn equinox week, we’ll connect, sing sing sing, build our container of trust, and then use these forms to go deep together.

When the weather permits we’ll take our singing outside and deepen our connection with the more-than-human world, to support our healing and growth and also to deepen a healthy vibrant respectful relationship with our non human kin. The improvised voice is a powerful way to connect and relate with nature.

This is for Journey people, Advanced Students and Alumni. This content was formerly part of Singing The Unseen.

Cost

The cost includes 5 nights at Bala Brook, incredibly healthy, partly organic meals, drinks and snacks; all the teaching, and morning practices (yoga, dance).

Tier 1 £1125 (single room)

Tier 2 £895 (shared room)

Tier 3 £675 (shared room)

2 assistant places are available at £225 and there are 2 Name Your Price places.

We invite you in integrity to select your tier, we don’t assess you.

Payment plans are available.

This is an experimental journey into the wider shores of courage, power and intimacy as vocal artists.

We’ll work a lot with improvising with language, with being seen and heard, and themes of taboo and Paradigm Shift.

Paradigm Shift

What breaks your heart in our world? What do you want to see change?

What comes up in you as you turn towards the big outer, the deep inner; our times; and what we are living through? What more beautiful world does your heart dream of?

Experiment with using your voice to call in change, by being a voice for it among humans, and by, potentially, praying, calling in, giving strength to life-honouring, earth-honouring ways of being in this world, and may they become bigger than an extractive violent colonial paradigm that funds genocide and subsidises fossil fuels $7 trillion a year (globally).

How can our voices be part of tipping the balance? Let’s try.

Taboo

Can we widen the truth frame, as vocal artists; so we can stand in our ground while giving voice to realms of human experience so often couched in privacy, shame, and unspoken-ness. Can we ease our own shame, and that of others, if we use the power of art to give voice to universal themes? What comes up in you as you sing this openly; as you witness others do so? We’ll explore this.

The literal and the lyrical; the poetry of vocal improvisation and the power of art, grounded in compassion, which we’ll cultivate together.

We’ll hold a strong container of confidentiality and safety, and have each other’s backs as we feel what we feel as we give voice to what is authentic.

Together, we become braver

Together, we grow in voice and power

Together, can we heal our pieces of the world?

The Structure

We’ll work at the Moor Imagination Collective in Buckfastleigh. The cafe there caters for us; local, very healthy, partly organic, vegan food; 3 meals per day are included.

We open 4-6pm on 21st October, dine together and sing a little that evening.

Morning practice 8-9am - yoga or dance

Breakfast 9am - lunch 1pm, Dinner 6.30pm

Sessions run 10-1 and 2.30 - 6.

There are evening sessions on the Tuesday (not very late) and Thursday (quite late).

On the last day 24th October we finish by 3.30pm at the latest.

Accommodation

There 2 initial accommodation options.

The Christian Community - £40pp pn. They’re right across the road from MIC and have 4 very comfortable clean bedrooms and a small self catering kitchen (and a chapel, and a workshop space).

Local air bnb - £50 pp pn, £65 for private en suite room. A lovely shared house with 4 bedrooms / 6 beds, 1 mile away. It’s a 5 min drive or a 30 min country walk.

To book accommodation please email Dan info@brionygreenhill.com. The sooner the better, as we can’t realistically book the local air bnb until a few people want to stay there.

Cost

The cost includes all teaching / space holding, 3 meals per day at the MIC cafe - healthy, vegan, partly organic - and optional morning practice each morning at 8am (dance / yoga). It does not include accommodation.

Tier 1: £525

Tier 2: £375

Tier 3: £250

There are 2 assistant places at £95 and 2 Name Your Price places.

We trust you to select your Tier with integrity. You will not be assessed.

Would you like to contribute to The Scholarship Fund? Any amount is very welcome; it’s to help widen access to this work.

Level

If you are a Newcomer to CVI with Briony, please make sure you do an intro course before this one.

This is for folks who have already worked with Briony, so Journeypeople, Advanced Students and Alumni.

@ Moor Imagination Collective, Buckfastliegh nr. Totnes, Devon

10am - 5pm each day

Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI) is a thrilling, inspiring, challenging, ancient, and contemporary approach to singing with others. When we sing together without a song, composer or conductor, those roles become shared in the moment with spontaneously created music and emergent shared leadership. It involves deep listening to self, other and the space between us, and an adjustment to improvisation: new for many people, often quite scary, usually also thrilling and hugely nourishing.

This beginner-intermediate introduction is for people with little to no experience of improvisation, who may feel a bit shy to share the voice, but are up for having a go. To access this art-form you need to be able to sing in tune and keep a beat. This work can help cultivate the natural magnificence of your voice, reduce self-judgement and help you love your voice.

Led by Briony Greenhill who is one of the UK’s leading teachers of CVI. She has studied extensively with vocal improvisation pioneers Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, David Worm and Joey Blake, as well as improvisation teachers in France, India, and leading piano teachers in California. She continues to pioneer the therapeutic application of CVI, her integration of CVI teaching with her SomaSource therapeutic training with Dr Melissa Michaels, and what unfolds in her teaching. 

She is creator of the Resonant Body method for cultivating the magnificence of each unique, natural voice, and vocal and personal healing.

She has released four entirely improvised albums - Listen, Sketches, Voice Unknown and Remembering. Her debut studio album, Crossing the Ocean, was featured in The Guardian, Mojo, Women’s Hour and Radio 3. Briony is a founding member of the new The Well Global Vocal Improvisation Network and the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival.

Her students call her a “master”, her work “life changing.”

To hear about everything as it happens or in advance, subscribe to the mailing list.

Practicalities

Hot drinks will be provided.

It’s best if you don’t drink alcohol on the preceding evenings; CVI asks for and cultivates a high level of presence and sensitisation, and alcohol can blur that somewhat.

Please bring a packed lunch and any snacks you may need.

Please bring a yoga mat and blanket on the Sunday. If you’re coming from further afield by train, local people may be able to bring extra for you.

Cost

£230 Early bird (before 1 September)

£250 Later Bird (2 September onwards)

Limited to 16 places.

Students have said:

“One of the most powerful experiences of my life! I feel changed on a cellular level!” (ok it was a 4 day retreat not a weekend…)

“Briony really made us all feel at home – starting off with exercises that didn’t force me outside of my comfort zone, and a no judgement pact, really allowed me to feel comfortable with the group, which then gave me the confidence to try out some solos.”

“It was seriously fun, crazy, inspiring, opening and meditative, all at the same time.”

“Some singing teachers teach you sing with your voice. Briony teaches you to sing with your heart and sing from your soul.”

“You made it feel like a womb. Protected, loved, nourished, warm and holding.”

Please direct questions to info@brionygreenhill.com.

Assistant Places

Two assistant places are available at half price. If you'd like to be the assistant, please email info@brionygreenhill.com. The assistant arrives an hour before and leaves 30-60 mins after on each day and helps with set up, pack down, tea and kitchen overview and facilitating the group to clean up after lunch. The assistant doesn’t have an assistant role during the singing sessions and is 100% participant in those times.

Sound and Silence

Vocal Improvisation, meditation, deep rest, and the velvet black: a residential retreat on Dartmoor for those who can sing in tune and want a rest.

Often in CVI (Collaborative Vocal Improvisation), at the end of a practice we are left in a state I call the Velvet Black: a deep and expansive rest state. Singing can be a beautiful route into profound states of meditation.

In my normal classes we don’t linger here, because the point is singing.

This time, the point is also the quiet, the rest.

We’ll do toning, Resonant Body, Sound Healing, napping, meditating. Probably bits of circle singing for bouts of harmony and joy. Then we’ll check in and do it some more, interspersed with long break times, late rising, early to bed, gentle morning body practices (yoga/dance, optional), and very nourishing food.

Quiet.

Exhalation.

Restoration.

The voice is very potent tool for clearing us out and shifting us into the rest-digest-recover state.

We’ll linger and lounge there…….

It’s timed to be a deep, early winter restoration pause to resource and nourish for the winter season ahead.

Details

Arrive Friday 5th December 4pm for a 5pm start. Depart by 3pm on Sunday 7th.

Prices:

Tiers relate to the Green Bottle Model below. You select your tier. You will not be investigated.

Tier 1 £575 (single room)

Tier 2 £445 (shared room)

Tier 3 £335 (shared room)

There are 2 assistant places at £195 and 2 name your price places.

Payment plans are available.

How to Book

To book, make a £100 deposit and complete a short registration form. Then we’ll get in touch with you to complete your registration.

If you have any questions please email info@brionygreenhill.com.