Today we’d like to introduce you to Mira Dee.
Hi Mira, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My journey with music begins in childhood, singing in church. Voice was my first instrument, and it is still my most important one. But the banjo came to me in a very fated way.
When I was living in Boston, I worked as a lunch lady at a school for children with autism. One day, a teacher came in to grab his snacks & started telling me about the instruments he played. He asked if I played anything. I said no. Then he asked, “If you could play any instrument, what would it be?” I said, “The banjo.”
Later that same day (this was back when I used to drink, I don’t drink now) I went to a bar and ran into a couple. They asked me the exact same question: “If you could play any instrument, what would it be?” Again, I said, “The banjo.” The man told me he used to be a music teacher and had a banjo at home. He said if I promised to learn how to play it, he would string it up and bring it to me.
He did.
The next day I told the teacher at school that I had acquired a banjo. I thought he might think I was crazy when I told him the story.
Although I had planned to take the banjo seriously, I was at that time in my life, I was struggling with severe alcoholism, and I didn’t take the banjo seriously. About a year later, I was moving away from Massachusetts and all of my bags were stolen outside of a hospital. The only thing that wasn’t stolen was the banjo that man had given me. I showed back up in Missouri with a purse, a surgery boot, and a banjo — and those were all the belongings I had.
A couple of years later, I returned to Salem, Massachusetts, where I had already spent six Halloween seasons working as a professional tarot reader. (I have been a professional card reader for 27 years.) On my first day back, I noticed a woman I hadn’t seen before and felt strongly drawn to speak with her. I second-guessed myself, but eventually went over and introduced myself. She told me she had studied drums in Africa, went to music school for percussion, performed West African dance, and had even danced for a president overseas. I thought it was incredible. She was a 6-foot white lady with a soul like a bass drum.
Then she asked me, “Do you play anything?”
I said no.
She asked, “If you could play anything, what would it be?”
I said, “The banjo.”
She goes, “Well, I work at a banjo store.”
My thought was, “Wtf is a banjo store?”
She laughed and told me she worked at a string instrument shop…and they were offering lessons. The lessons happened to fall on my exact day off. I took three lessons with a woman named Deb who had attended Berklee College of Music, and I used my Salem tips to purchase the banjo I had been practicing on. The week I bought that banjo, the shop sold four of the exact same model after not selling a single banjo for over a year.
From there, opportunities kept appearing in the direction of banjo and music. I received a grant from the Bluegrass Foundation to learn how to build banjos. I apprenticed with Joe Mendel at Mendel’s Frets in Chesterfield, Missouri, and over six months built my first instrument. After that, I received a scholarship to attend the John C. Campbell Folk School and was invited into other programs to continue my education. Eventually, I was awarded a grant to attend music school, where I now study voice as my major instrument and guitar as my secondary.
Music has been a massive part of my healing journey. I’ve taken my banjo to Peru and played in plant medicine ceremonies. Music—especially in sacred and ceremonial spaces—is what saved me from alcoholism and gave me my life back.
Because of that, I seek to share music as a tool of mysticism, beauty, and self/community connection. I believe music is a full-spectrum expression and healing tool. Dancing is also one of my strong suits when it comes to embodying sound.
All in all, I feel that life itself is musical. I think of it as a cosmic symphony. Each of us is a vibration with a metronome in our chest. We’re an individual note moving across the staves of time— eventually making our way back home to ourselves, the way a G note (or tonic in any key,) returns home after its long journey through a song.
This is why I created The Music Mystic, LLC. The Music Mystic Programs focus on improv playing, structures for self expression rather than perfection and performance.
I’d say it’s a more “Tao” approach to music. Our slogan is, “We don’t ‘serious’ music. We play!”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest struggle for me has been overcoming alcoholism and smoking addiction to become the best version of myself. When I was going through these things, my voice changed. I wasn’t able to fully express myself and I was letting my gifts be taken over by addiction. I also knew that I was only living life at 40%. And even though others thought I was great, I knew that I was operating way below my capacity. And few things suck worse than you knowing that you’re only half-assing something as important as life or the things you do to enjoy it. I’d say the second most challenging thing has been music school. While I find the information to be very helpful and useful in understanding music, I also find the dry, souless world of music theory and reading sheets and having to repeat what some dude like Bach did instead of creating new expressions from my heart, to be a big challenge. I have become a better musician and singer because of music school though, and I’ve had great teachers. And the program has shown me how I want to structure the programs that I create as a more well-rounded, enjoyable experience for the human.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work and specialty is in teaching improv, self-expression and teaching people about the metaphysical/mystical/ceremonial roots of music—and not just music, of life. I’ve basically lived my life as an art form. For me, being creative—and expressing that creativity—is the lifeblood of the soul. Something I’ve learned over the years is that creativity doesn’t belong to just one lane or one title. It moves through many modalities.
We’re often taught as kids that we’re supposed to pick one thing and do it for twenty years until retirement. My life hasn’t looked like that. That path has challenged me at times, because people tend to push against what’s unconventional—until enough people do it that it becomes normal. But I’ve always been wired to create in many directions.
Artistically, my gifts span singing, freestyle rapping, writing, poetry, resin art, painting, banjo, guitar, some piano, comedy, professional photography, videography, and dance of all kinds — from swing dancing of the 1920s to pole dancing to twerking. Anything with rhythm speaks to me. Cooking and baking are also major creative expressions for me. I was a professional chef for 15 years in fine dining across diverse cuisines, and I truly see cooking as an art form.
What sets me apart is that my entire life is an art project. My entire life is lived as a prayer.
There is art in the plant medicine ceremonies I’ve hosted. There is art in the way I structure a class, in how I hold space, in how I move through a room. For me, life itself is a canvas, and every action is a brushstroke. Everything I pick up and put into the world is another layer of paint.
I consider myself a “Jill-of-all-skill.” But more than that, what sets me apart is that I include Spirit in everything I do. And by that I mean: life is spiritual. It’s a flow. So everything I create is grounded in that flow.
My art includes tarot reading, mysticism, and working with the unseen or underlying currents of life and the Universe. I don’t see science and Spirit as separate. Music theory and emotional response belong together. Technical skill and heart belong together. The question “How does it make you feel?” matters just as much as “How does it work?” Community matters. Connection matters. Flow matters.
In every craft—whether it’s music, food, photography, dance, or ceremony—I’m always asking: What wants to express itself right now? What is life asking for in this moment? Sometimes it’s laughter. Sometimes it’s deep listening. Sometimes it’s sound. Sometimes it’s silence.
That relationship with the present moment, that willingness to let expression move through me instead of forcing it, is what defines my creative life.
What’s next?
I am currently running a fundraiser that will allow me to buy more instruments so that I can host free or low-cost instrument classes. All-in-all, I want The Music Mystic to expand and become a new way of teaching that challenges the old, dry systems of academic, Western music teachings to loosen up and include more room for self-expression rather than perfection and being boxed in. I am creating some group classes and personal professional development classes for musicians and artists starting in May.
Pricing:
- 4-pack of 1-hour banjo improv classes-$285
- Group classes—$25
- Monthly jam-$0
- Community Circle-$10
- Basic Music Theory/Other instruments: Ask
Contact Info:
