Song Leading 101
Recorded Training with Sarina Partridge & Lydia Violet
What will you walk away able to do?
Learn the core skills to confidently lead community singing that cultivates belonging, resilience, and connection; in retreats, classrooms, community gatherings, movement spaces, and beyond.
Why This Training:
Community singing is one of humanity's oldest technologies for building trust, moving emotion, strengthening movements, and helping people remember they are not alone. Yet many people who long to bring more singing into their communities don't know where to begin.
In this experiential training, Lydia Violet and Sarina Partridge will share from their decades of experience leading songs in movement spaces, workshops, protests, and community gatherings. You'll leave with practical tools, increased confidence, and a deeper understanding of how song can become a powerful form of facilitation.
What You'll Learn:
• What to work on to confidently teach songs by ear to groups of any size
• Practices for cultivating cultural integrity in your song choices
• How to choose songs that support the emotional arc and purpose of a gathering
• Tips for navigating common challenges, including self-doubt, nervousness, and varying levels of musical experience
Who Is This For:
This training is for facilitators, educators, organizers, therapists, clergy, community leaders, and anyone who wants to bring people together through song.
No formal musical training is required, just a willingness to sing and a desire to help others find their voices.
Logistics/What To Bring
• A computer or tablet with Zoom and a stable internet connection
• A quiet space where you feel comfortable singing out loud
• Water, a notebook, and something to write with
Why This Training:
Community singing is one of humanity's oldest technologies for building trust, moving emotion, strengthening movements, and helping people remember they are not alone. Yet many people who long to bring more singing into their communities don't know where to begin.
In this experiential training, Lydia Violet and Sarina Partridge will share from their decades of experience leading songs in movement spaces, workshops, protests, and community gatherings. You'll leave with practical tools, increased confidence, and a deeper understanding of how song can become a powerful form of facilitation.
What You'll Learn:
• What to work on to confidently teach songs by ear to groups of any size
• Practices for cultivating cultural integrity in your song choices
• How to choose songs that support the emotional arc and purpose of a gathering
• Tips for navigating common challenges, including self-doubt, nervousness, and varying levels of musical experience
Who Is This For:
This training is for facilitators, educators, organizers, therapists, clergy, community leaders, and anyone who wants to bring people together through song.
No formal musical training is required, just a willingness to sing and a desire to help others find their voices.
Logistics/What To Bring
• A computer or tablet with Zoom and a stable internet connection
• A quiet space where you feel comfortable singing out loud
• Water, a notebook, and something to write with
Facilitators
Lydia Violet
A longtime student and colleague of Joanna Macy, Lydia spent more than seventeen years studying and teaching the Work That Reconnects, bringing it to thousands of participants through retreats, trainings, universities, climate organizations, and community gatherings around the world. As founder of School for The Great Turning, she is known for creating spaces where ecological grief, beauty, music, and deep inquiry become sources of resilience, belonging, and meaningful action.
Sarina Partridge
Is a musician, community songleader, and educator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Drawing on years of studying folk singing traditions around the world and touring with Northern Harmony, she now brings song into movements for justice, classrooms, and communities, including singing with Singing Resistance during recent immigration solidarity mobilizations in Minneapolis.
Start the Training Now
📅 Originally recorded on Wednesday, Sept 16, 2026
💻 Format: Class access will be sent immediately after registration
⏳ Duration: 2 hours