Spread Joy: Sing, Play, Laugh (with Shannon Simpson)

Today's episode is a laughter reunion with my elementary school friend, Shannon Simpson.

Shannon is a musician and music teacher. She has such beautiful energy and natural gift to spread so much joy through everything she incorporates and shares in her classes.

It was pure joy to catch up and laugh with Shannon in today’s episode, and was so honored that Shannon chose to sample a beautiful and moving original song for us.

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Learn more about Music with Shannon : https://musicwithshannon.ca/

Follow Shannon on IG: @music_with_shannon

Find Shannon on YouTube: @musicwithshannon2270

Find Shannon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicwithshannon

About your Host:
Lauren Tatner, founder of Law of Happy, is an inspirational teacher, attorney, author, wellness arts practitioner, and inspirational clown. She is certified as a Reiki Teacher, Consulting Hypnotist, and Meditation Teacher, Laughter Yoga Leader, and Fitness Instructor Specialist. She also trained in Theatre, Dance, Zumba, Voice, Mediation, Public Speaking, Improv, Clown, Comedy, Past Life Regression (with American Psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Weiss), Shamanism, and Qigong.

Lauren has always been fascinated with the mind, body, and spirit connection. She is passionate about teaching the power of laughter, meditation, and movement in a fun and relatable way. When Lauren gives talks and leads workshops in the corporate and private sectors, she uses a unique approach that integrates elements of her diverse skills and experience.

Lauren is the mother of twins and a rescue pup.

- Follow Lauren on IG @TheLawofHappy
- Watch & Laugh with us on YouTube
- Interested in laughing with Lauren on the show or in a customized workshop: Get in touch

Transcript

0:10

Welcome back to the Law of Happy podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Tatner. I'm an attorney and I teach laughter as an exercise. When we laugh, we feel good and we raise our energy. This allows more good, fun things to flow into our experience. This is the law of happy. So let's laugh, have fun, and practice the law of happy together. I'm so excited for you to meet today's guest Shannon Simpson. I met Shannon in grade four, and I vividly remember being in music cross with Shannon and his 10-year old kids. And the highlight for me was not playing the recorder. The highlight for me was witnessing Shannon's talent and passion for music. She just lit up in that music class. Today shannon is a musician and teaches music to adults and kids I'm so happy to reconnect you with shannon recently and that my twin toddlers and i got to experience jen and super creative and fun music classes together She has such a beautiful energy and natural gift to spread so much joy through everything she incorporates and shares in her classes It was so much fun to catch up and laugh with shannon in today's episode And so honored that shannon chose to sample a beautiful and moving original song for us please join me in giving a warm welcome to shannon

Lauren: 1:22

Shannon, I'm just so excited so a laugh wants to come out. But Shannon, I'm so excited that you're a guest today on the Law of Happy podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

Shannon: 1:33

Thank you for having me, Lauren. I'm excited

Lauren: 1:36

too. Okay. I'm Super excited for many reasons. You're a musician, music teacher and actually I come to music classes with my with my twins and we love you. You are so talented and inspiring and fun. And so I'm excited about everything you're doing today. And I'm, this is extra meaningful for me because you and I go back a few years. We went to elementary school together. And I remember when it was music class just be just being drawn to wanting to watch you because you, were lit up and I knew that there was something special with you in general, but you and music and I would just watch you because I was I was, in awe of, I know, I don't think I've told you this before. We've reconnected recently. But I'm so happy to reconnect with you and it's it's so exciting to have you as my children's first music teacher and first group class I'm going on and on here but I just wanted to say that I saw how passionate you were and talented you were the music field. Right from elementary school and probably before that, before I knew you. So all this to say, Shannon, can you please tell us about how you got into music and I'd love to hear about a bit about your journey.

Shannon: 2:56

Oh, you said so much, just so much that I want to, answer. Thank you for that introduction. So music. Oh my goodness. I it's funny because there are no musicians in my family. There's, nobody who's musical at all. And I can remember being in those elementary classes. And I can remember. Loving music class, we, I remember we used to do those tone bells and I remember the thing for me about music that has always, it struck a chord throughout my, my musical history is when people, lots of people make music together. That has always been something that even when I just say that I get goosebumps. Because I have memories. Of sitting there and our music teacher teaching us how to read the music and when it was our turn to ding that bell, but it didn't matter. If I rang that bell by myself perfectly on that note in that time, it didn't matter because what mattered was when we all did it at the right time. And we made this beautiful music. And that to me has always been so inspiring. And that's how that's actually the thing that got me into music. I can remember being in high school. We had a field trip and we went to go and see an opera. It was like a dress rehearsal of an opera. And there was this opportunity where the conductor asked for volunteers and nobody volunteered. And I was like me, pick me. And they brought us up onto stage into the middle of the orchestra and they had these seats placed right in the middle of the orchestra. And so I got to sit, I don't know, somewhere in the strings. I feel like I remember sitting in the strings, like between the. violas and the cellos. And I sat, I remember sitting there and as soon as that orchestra started to play and the overwhelming sound, but like all these people working together to make this incredible sound, I got goosebumps. And I remember thinking then and there, I can remember the thought clear as day. I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is what I want to do. Yeah, it was like a kind of a pivotal moment. And yeah, so I picked I picked the cello. I played cello in the orchestra. I loved it. I had a lot of fun. My parents put me into private lessons. I did my undergrad at McGill. I had a that's how I put myself through school. I played I did a lot of gigging, so I did a lot of. Weddings and funerals and corporate events cocktail events, things like that. That's how I put myself through school. And then I took a very, long extended break. So I took almost a 15 year break from music. I didn't play my cello. I didn't play anything actually at all. And then I had my kids, I had my family it's, funny how. Kids, they open you up and they remind you of how to be a kid, right? What, how much fun it was. And how, much you've forgotten, right? As an adult how to play, how to let go, how to. Dance like nobody's watching those little things. I was given an opportunity at my local women's center which hosts classes very similar to the one that you take with me. They were looking for a music teacher and they knew that I had a musical background and they said, what would you be interested in this? And I said I've never taught kids that young before but let me think about it. And I went home and I started putting together some material and some content. And I was realizing, Hey, wait a second. This is really fun. And I have a lot of ideas and I went crazy and I said, you know what? I just, I created a 10 week course. Let's try it and see what happens. And that was history. I have. The very lucky job of seeing over a hundred individual families on a weekly basis and singing and dancing and moving and laughing and and having a ball. And that's how I ended up where

Lauren: 7:02

I am now. Oh, thank you so much. And it's just so amazing that had that opportunity and moment when you were in, was it in high school when you just, when you had that experience and you said to yourself, Oh my God, this is what I want to do for the, rest of my life. And and you're, doing that you're in music, you're teaching it, you're sharing it. You're bringing so much joy to so many people. It's all about having fun. I, love hearing about people's inspiring journeys like yours. I just it, excites me and then inspires me and to, just hear stories of people who are Doing what they love and sharing what they love with others and and who and also people who incorporate different tools that allow them to feel good and that they share with others. And so music is huge for you know that can uplift and inspire people and laughter and dance and movement. You're combining so many creative. Feel good tools and I'm wondering if we can have a practical part to this because I love talking about this stuff. It gets me excited, but then there's nothing like feeling it and practicing it. Shannon, can we do a just like a laughter exercise I'll guide us in that because laughter is one of my go to tools with that I use to boost my energy and my mood and so get excited when I can do it with with fun people so let's do it. Okay, cool. So this is the, name. Intro laughter exercise. It's a long name. So basically, it's just I'll start. So it's the let's call it the name game. So I'm going to say my name, and I'm also going to say my favorite instrument. I just added that for our for this episode. Improvising. Improvising, exactly. So I'm going to say my name, say my favorite instrument, and then I'm going to start laughing. You join me and just laugh with me. And then it'll be your turn. Okay. And also, and I want to remind. Us and our listeners to if you're when you're joining in or doing this, just know that it's a practice and it can feel silly or a little awkward or weird at first, because we're not used to just laughing as an exercise or on purpose like this. But, the body doesn't know the difference whether you're laughing spontaneously, or if you're simulating laughter. As long as you're laughing for a certain amount of time. And like a belly laugh, your body will get the same incredible. Health benefits, you know it like it increases the oxygen to the body. It increases the blood flow. It lowers blood pressure lowers cortisol releases feel good endorphins. So there's so many biological, physiological benefits and it boosts your mood. And so all that to say your body still getting the benefits, even if you're simulating laughter. And what happens is, that oftentimes when you're simulating the laughter. At a certain point, it can turn into real laughter that flows, but be gentle with yourself. It doesn't always happen right away. So it's okay. Okay. Okay. Let's do it. So I'm going to start. So hi, my name is Lauren. And my one of my favorite instruments is. The ukulele. I had to think about it because I'm I love it. I love the ukulele. But I'm just really just learning. Okay. Okay.

Shannon: 10:46

You, stole my

Lauren: 10:46

answer. Oh, and that's it. I didn't want to steal your answer, but I was like, I was almost going to say the violin.

Shannon: 10:51

You know what? that that made it even funnier for me. Okay.

Lauren: 10:55

Okay. But you choose any instrument.

Shannon: 11:00

So my name, hi, my name is Shannon. And my favorite instrument is cello.

Lauren: 11:23

And yeah, it's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for being open minded and open to this. One of the exercises I like to do to when an extra laughter exercise winds down is I like to because we combine clapping and, being childlike and playful. So an exercise that we do is we clap with our hands parallel, like you can start off in a prayer position. And then we bring our hands apart and then clap them together, keeping our hands and fingers parallel. And we say. Very good. Very good. Yay. Okay. So we just can do that together. Very good. Very good. One more time for good luck. Okay. Very good. Very good. Yay. We put our hands up on the yay. I'm explaining this to our audio listeners. Okay. Thank you. Wow. Oh, Shannon, thank you for and listeners, thank you for joining us in that laughter exercise. So listen, I I, want to talk more. I love that you're philosophy and mission. It's all about having fun because it sounds simple. But it can be easy to forget. And sometimes even if something starts off as fun, we can start I don't know, putting a lot of pressure on things and taking things seriously and feeling Oh my God, like just allowing different things to get in, Our own, or we get in our own way and then it can stop feeling like fun. I want to know from you, how do you keep it like feeling and being fun for you. Do you have techniques that you apply in, your own life to to keep the fun and joy in all this?

Shannon: 13:11

That's a, great question. There was a moment actually, I think the whole beginning of the pandemic was such a we always talk about how, dark. And all of the, negative things that came with the pandemic and I really have to say that it was a lifesaver for me. And I found so many silver linings in such a dark place. And one of the things that I learned is that, I fill my schedule so ridiculously full that there isn't time to allow that creative process to happen. And so what I now have built into my life are these blacked out weekends or blacked out weeks where I escape. I escaped life. I escaped with my family. I escaped with my friends. I put the things that are the most important to me as a priority in my schedule and that's not to say that we, all need to work and we all need to go to school and we all need to do all the things that there there's, the things that we have to do. We can't just put those, we can't ignore those. But making space and prioritizing. The space and the time and the things that bring me joy. That's what keeps me being creative. And looking at things from different perspectives and remembering why I do this I do it for the people that I love. And and that's, one of the things that that definitely probably the main thing for me to keep it fresh and to keep it fun and to keep it. Just keep it real.

Lauren: 14:57

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And it's an important reminder for everyone that even if we are doing what we love it's still important to take time for self care and rest and re energize and just mix things up a bit so that we can stay feeling. Energized and excited about what we're doing and the different things we're doing

Shannon: 15:17

It's super important in order to keep it genuine

Lauren: 15:19

and so Shannon, I see an instrument. I see several instruments. I'm wondering if we can I don't know, is it. Is it a good time for a sample of some of your music

Shannon: 15:32

sure, absolutely. I would love to, I would love to play something for you. I I've chosen a song to play for you. And it's I don't think anybody's ever heard it aside from my family. Ukulele for me has been a it's a, very special journey. Classical music is very prescribed, right? So we play what's on the page. And I've never, I never had the opportunity. Throughout my performance degree to or maybe I just never took the opportunity to improvise and to go off the page and see what could happen. And so when I started teaching myself, ukulele I did and realize that Hey, wait a second. I don't, there is no paper in front of me. There is nothing telling me what I have to play. I started by taking classics that I knew and changing the words. A lot of them are updated. Some, tunes really just need a refresh. The lyrics are either outdated, not appropriate or we can do better to make them more modern, more accessible more inclusive a lot of things, and I always, say like, why are there so many kids songs about old men all the time, right? There are so many songs, this old man and old McDonald and the old man who bumped his head. And I guess a lot of the tunes come from, if you look into the history you can understand that a lot of these tunes were written for they're marching tunes. So either they were sung while soldiers were marching to keep everybody in time or to keep everybody upbeat. A lot of children's tunes were sung about about, about the times. And they're, not all, they're all happy tunes, but the lyrics are not necessarily grounded in happy. So, yeah, it's interesting to dig into the history of a song and then add your a modern twist to it. But that then leads you down a road where you start wanting to just create, yourself, and do you do what where you want to go and see where that takes you. So this song is called spending time with you. And it's a song that it just appeared out of nowhere. It came to me. I remember writing the whole thing down in maybe half an hour, 45 minutes. And then I went and I played it for my family and and they were all like, It's a good one. It's a keeper. This is the first one that I've written. I'm working on a, I'm working on an album very slowly of originals. But this is the first one that I did. And yeah, I'm gonna play it for you. I'm

Lauren: 18:23

so excited. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Shannon: 18:25

There could be sunshine or rainbows or snowflakes, dark clouds over my head, frost on my window, my breath in white clouds, don't care what they say. The weatherman's us, when you look at me with those eager eyes and an adventure calls our name. My dears, I love spending time with you. Our mood is topsy. Our minds go turvy. Often just misunderstood. We laugh, we cry loud. Emotions flip flop. Yo yos ain't got nothin on us. But when you look at me with those eager eyes, And at a lecture calls our names again. My dears, I love spending time with

Lauren: 19:33

you.

Shannon: 19:38

You are. There's no place. I would rather be right here in this moment with you. My dears, I love spending time with you. I love you.

Lauren: 20:23

Shannon, that is so beautiful. Thank you. Oh my gosh, what a moving, beautiful song. I was, yeah. Sorry. Oh my god. It's unbelievable. I, love, like the melody the, rhythm, the I don't have a music background, so I'm just, I hope the words that I'm using are, the accurate words, but what I'm trying to say is that the music is, the melody, the music is, So beautiful. I just wanted to keep listening to that. But then I was focusing on the profound, meaningful words and the message and the to to your, children, right? It's, you wrote this for your children. Oh, my gosh

Shannon: 21:06

My, three boys. And my four boys, my, my three, three, three little boys and my one big guy, right?

Lauren: 21:13

Oh it's so beautiful. It's just such a. Beautiful song in every way. Thank you for sharing this with us here and now. Thank

Shannon: 21:25

you for being such a beautiful audience. Oh, my goodness. That's I like I said, that's no one else has heard it. So that's very encouraging. And thank you for being so so kind and open

Lauren: 21:35

i, can't wait for your album too. Come out when it's, ready to be released to the world and very exciting. Shannon, I'm wondering if we can do one more laughter exercise together. Okay. I want to combine Music and laughing. So I like to I like to challenge myself to and improvise a bit like we were doing to, to combine these different things and stay with our theme of music. Okay, okay, so what is, let's put we're going to pretend or mime. I know you have instruments near you but I don't have any around me so we can make this a miming type of exercise. What instrument should we pretend to play.

Shannon: 22:18

The, flute.

Lauren: 22:19

Okay. The flute is the one we played on the to the side. Yeah. Okay.

Shannon: 22:25

Exactly. So like the Flute up

Lauren: 22:29

here. Okay. So with our hands, how would we describe this to an audio listener? So the

Shannon: 22:34

so, yeah, like we imagine like the instrument kind of comes straight out like perpendicular to our bodies. And we play it with our mouth. We have to hold it up beside our face with our two hands up here. Yes.

Lauren: 22:51

And so that the hand that's closer to our our mouth would be facing facing our mouth. Oh, I don't know. Okay.

Shannon: 23:00

Yeah. I guess that kind of makes sense.

Lauren: 23:02

Okay. Anyways, we don't have to get so technical. I don't know. I

Shannon: 23:05

don't play. I was like, I

Lauren: 23:10

was like, I'm talking to a music teacher. I want to get this right. But you know what, guys, listen, it's a laughter exercise. Thank you, Shannon, for reminding me. We're going to just hold up our imaginary flute any way that feels comfortable for you. I guess the purpose is to laugh. So we're going to just pretend we're playing our flute. And with this flute, the more we laugh, the more the sound comes out and is beautiful. Okay, so we laugh into our flute to hear the flute. Okay, so we can everyone laugh and play at your own pace. Okay. And you can even laugh a song, laugh a tune if you

Shannon: 24:06

want. Okay.

Lauren: 24:12

Oh my goodness. Okay. My Thank you so much. Very good. It was fun. Very good.

Shannon: 24:19

Yay. Yay. Yay.

Lauren: 24:22

One more time. Very good. Very good.

Shannon: 24:25

Very good.

Lauren: 24:26

Yay. Yay. Oh my gosh. Shannon, thank you for Playing the laughing flute with me. It's a new, it's a new, brand new game. Shannon, if there's something that, this is just a question that I like to ask my guests. If there's a question that I didn't think of asking you, but I, it would have been a good question. What would your answer be? Oh.

Shannon: 24:50

So yeah, that's a great question. So my answer is anybody can, learn an instrument and have fun and make music and either I, say you can play for your family or your friends, or whoever it is, you can play in front of a a crowd of a ton of people, or you can play for your plant or your dog it doesn't matter who you play for, yourself. Music is universal. It's accessible to all of us. And I really firmly believe the more music we have in our lives the happier we are. Yes.

Lauren: 25:22

Oh, I love everything that you shared and, you make so many amazing points I definitely want to learn the ukulele properly with you. And I encourage everyone to Find you Shannon find you online or wherever they can. So how can people find you?

Shannon: 25:39

So you can find me at musicwithshannon. ca. And I'm on all the social media platforms. So you can find me on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook. Or you can find me in, in, in point Claire in the West Island. If you want to come see me in person. Because I do teach a lot. I teach adult classes as well.

Lauren: 25:58

It's, amazing. It's really, it's such a gift you're giving to so many people because like you said, music is is universal and uplifting. The power of music is unbelievable. So thank you, Shannon, for everything you shared and that you do. And it's

Shannon: 26:13

Thank you for everything that you do as well, because I think your message and bringing more fun and finding happiness and finding more ways to be happy and bringing all of this positive light into our lives is something that I think. We all need more of, and I am so happy that we found each other and and that we can do more of that spreading joy. That's, what it's all about, right? Yes. Thank you for the opportunity and for the conversations. Lovely to talk to you.

Lauren: 26:43

Thank you. Yes. You too. I'm so excited. Can't wait to see you at the next music class and we'll have in the show notes, all of the the links where people can. Can find you. and and all the best with everything. And I'm super excited about your future album. Okay. Thank

Shannon: 26:59

you. Thank you for being my very first audience.

Lauren: 27:02

Oh, I'm honored. And thank you for, sharing that with us. It's really like an honor and privilege. So thank you, Shannon. I'll say goodbye, but but thank you again for being a guest. And I like to end with a a goodbye laughter exercise where we wave. And laugh. Okay. Okay. Bye. Bye. Okay. I need to find the stop button. One second. Okay.

27:29

Thank you for having tuned into this Law of Happy episode. If you smiled, laughed, or felt inspired, please subscribe, rate, review, and share the Law of Happy podcast with someone you'd love to have fun with. And if you'd like to laugh with me as a guest on the show or in a customized program, you can email me at lauren at law of happy. com. I look forward to laughing with you soon.