The Art of Mindful Singing – book review
The Art of Mindful Singing is a sort of a book that I have been looking for for quite a while. There have been books written about mindfulness and music. I have previewed recently one called In Tune. And there is another one – Mindfulness in Music. But both these books are focusing more on musicians and how they can bring mindfulness to their life, performance and practice.
The Art of Mindful Singing has been published by the Leaping Hare Press. This publisher specializes on mindful books that embrace community spirit and explore ecological principles in a positive way. They cover mindfulness from many angles, including mindful walking, baking, birdwatching, or parenting. So if you are interested in other aspects of mindfulness, you can check their website here.
The Art of Mindful Singing is focused on everyone, who is open to try benefits of singing. That includes musicians and singers as well. But this book could be a great inspiration especially for those, who don’t think they can sing and who don’t even dare to open their mouth for anything resembling singing.
The author Jeremy Dion states his intention in the book’s subtitle Notes on Finding Your Voice. On short 140 pages he manages to offer exactly that – inspiration and exercises aimed to change reader’s perception on his or her own voice and on the singing in a broader sense.
The book starts with the absolute basics, and that is ‘Silencing the Inner Critic’. This mindful approach is what helps overcome the biggest hurdle for most people – the fear of singing. If you follow and do recommended exercises, you can go from improving your breathing, through accepting and getting used to your own singing voice, all the way to finding and engaging with other singing partners.
I recommend this book to everyone, who is not sure about his or her voice, who would like to start singing but doesn’t know where to start. Also to those, who are curious about mindfulness, but are not sure how and why this could be beneficial for them. This is a short read and truly could benefit each person who gives it a couple hours – and especially who goes through exercises and includes them in their daily routine.
Here is how the author describes the benefits of mindful singing: Any singing is healthy, leaving us feeling better than before – but when combined with the art of mindfulness, singing can become transformative. Mindful singing tunes us in, wakes us up and expresses our emotions in ways that leave us feeling more open, connected and joyful. Who doesn’t want that?
1 Comment
I never heard of the idea of mindful singing before, but it is definitely an interesting concept. I may have to look at this book to learn more about it.