As anyone who has ever taken a music lesson knows, the key to playing well is practice. The same is true for another transformative discipline-meditation-and yet so often meditation and music fail to harmonize to the degree they could. IN TUNE takes you through twelve ways to sync them perfectly in pursuit of greater mindfulness: a kind of awareness that colors your everyday activities, and perks up your ears to truly hear the symphony of sounds, and silences, all around.
In this clear, straightforward guide drawn from years of personal and professional experience, award-winning music veteran Richard Wolf outlines how the skills and intentions of music and mindfulness can help nurture and complement each other. There's the conceptual "bridges" they share, of Dedication, Concentration, Patience & Perseverance, Silence, and more; plus a broad repertoire of music-based meditation and awareness exercises, ranging from basics like counting the beats of the breath to more advanced. Along the path are colorful anecdotes of famous musicians that illustrate how great an impact mindfulness can have on accessing creative potential, in music or any kind of art. As we come more fully in tune with our personal soundtracks-from the sound of the breath to the sounds of cars and dogs outside the window-we can enter into deeper harmony with ourselves and others. Practice-whether it's listening to a favorite song, refining the performance of a piece of music, or settling into a meditation seat-becomes a joy in and of itself over time, and its payoff of inner silence more accessible as we move through our increasingly noisy world.
