Harmonic Alignment
Sounding Your Voice in a Zone of Coherence
12 sessions, Tuesdays 6-7pm ET
January 20–April 7, 2026
When you hold a single note long enough, the sound opens, refracts as through a prism, and reveals its kaleidoscopic secrets.
Harmonic Alignment grew out of my curiosity with this phenomenon, and out of my own daily practice of finding those moments of lock-in, when voice, tone, and attention suddenly all align.
Most people think of notes as the building blocks of music. This course starts from a different premise: that music can be found inside a single note. Over the span of three months, we will listen through a sonic microscope and align our voices with the tones hidden within.
Harmonic Alignment is a 12-week online group journey of synesthetic singing: hearing, seeing, feeling, writing. Each week, we will meet via Zoom and sound our voices along with a drone instrument. Using visualizers and my custom animations, we will explore the musical anatomy hidden within a single note: the harmonics. I will guide you to align your voice with the harmonics of the drone, and experience what it means to be in tune—what I like to call a zone of coherence.
This journey will engage four modalities:
Hearing
Develop discernment through deep listening to long tones.
Seeing
Sonic visualizations display the components of the voice and how they align with other sounds.
Feeling
Embody the intervals between your voice and the drone, and feel the alignment of in-tune-ness.
Writing
Reflect on your experience through metaphor, analogy, imagery, or poetry via journaling and group discussion.
Each week we will investigate different harmonics, and slowly, bone by bone, build the skeleton of musical scales used around the world. This is not about any particular musical style—rather, this is an immersion into the natural building blocks from which music is formed.
No singing experience is necessary, only the ability to hold a long tone with your voice. Mics will be muted during the sessions so there is no pressure to “perform” (although there will be opportunities to share your voice with the group if you wish). Musical drone recordings and app recommendations will be provided, so you do not need any additional instruments. Recordings of each session will be available throughout the duration of the course, but consider live attendance mandatory.
Two Enrollment Options:
12 weekly sessions PLUS an hour-long one-on-one session with Shawn: $400
– OR –
This course is for you if:
- You want to explore the nature of your voice with the regularity and accountability of a group structure, without any judgment or pressure to perform.
- You are a sound healer/practitioner who would like a deeper understanding of the voice and how to skillfully use it in your work.
- You are a musician who would like to develop discernment about intonation, timbre, and harmony beyond equal temperament and into spectral tuning.
- You are a singer who would like to learn the foundations of harmonic singing (aka “throat singing”).
- You are a meditator who would like to add a vocal element to your practice.
What will you get out of this course?
- A dedicated hour per week of steady attention without distractions
- Sharpened discernment through deep listening
- A shared journey in a nonjudgmental group cohort
- A deeper understanding of the building blocks of musical sound (harmonics)
- A renewed relationship with your voice
- Nervous system regulation
- Heightened sensitivity to pitch and timbre
- A multimodal approach to sound, blending science and art
- Greater confidence with sounding your voice
- Be your own “sound healer”
- And, if you so choose, an additional discounted one-on-one session with Shawn
Why study with me?
I’m not interested in teaching people how to sing songs. I’m interested in teaching people how to listen—specifically, how to hear what’s already happening inside a single sustained note. My work sits at the intersection of music, sound perception, and visual patterning. Over years of practice, I’ve developed tools—drones, visualizers, and custom animations—that make the normally invisible structure of sound directly perceivable. This course is an invitation into that practice: a slow, focused exploration of harmonic relationships, guided by someone who has spent a long time sounding inside them.
My academic training includes a BA in Music from Harvard College, and an MFA in Intermedia from the University of Auckland. At the California Institute of Integral Studies, I studied Sound, Voice, and Music in the Healing Arts with vocalist Silvia Nakkach. In 2017, I became a certified facilitator of Deep Listening®, based on the work of Pauline Oliveros. My other vocal teachers include Timothy Hill and Iva Bittová. I have led sound-based workshops and retreats both online and in-person at venues such as Lifebridge Sanctuary and COSM. My animations of the harmonic series feature prominently in the touring Concert Theatre Works production, What Music Is. I am also a 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Music/Sound from The New York Foundation for the Arts.
Testimonials from my previous class, The Embodied Voice:
“As a musician and singer, I thought I was in touch with sound and my voice until I took The Embodied Voice. Through gentle, embodied, practical and gradually developing practices, I was empowered to step outside of what I had known and learned about music making, and learned to deep dive in the multilayered, fascinating sea of sound. Since taking the course, I feel much more connected to my own voice as the connecting bridge between my body and my spirit and more present with all sounds. I find myself returning to the warmup exercises that I learned at this course before practicing music. These exercises also show up organically in my daily meditation practice.”
—Mani Nilchiani
“Shawn teaches how to listen deeply, to connect your experience of listening with a meditative approach to life, and ultimately a calming, broadening set of tools I now use every day.”
—Brett Bond
“Shawn taught me how to connect my voice to my nervous system in a totally new way. I came into the course with absolutely no music or singing background and now have vocal tools that feel integral to my regular meditation practice.”
—Tina
“Super unique subject matter! Anyone with a body can learn a new approach to connect with sound.”
—Axel
Two Enrollment Options:
12 weekly sessions PLUS an hour-long one-on-one session with Shawn: $400
– OR –
If you have any questions, please get in touch! I look forward to beginning 2026 in harmonic alignment with you.
—Shawn