Playing with being present

Next time you sit down at a piano or pick up an instrument or open your mouth to sing, try this:

  • Play
  • Listen so deeply to the sounds – focus your entire mind on the sounds.
  • Don’t hold on to maintaining one sound or melody or phrase. If the music should lead you somewhere else, follow.
  • Notice when you judge yourself, and recognize that you can start again in the next moment, without judgement. Each moment of sound is new. Allow yourself to be present to each moment, without worrying about how you got there or where you are going.
  • Feel the music so deeply.

This approach to making music is really about giving yourself permission to to be transformed by it. It’s about deepening your relationship to yourself through the music. Have fun playing!

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  1. L Nielsen’s avatar

    What a delight to read Playing with Being Present! You are the only person listed under Music Therapy and Sound Healing who mentions Singing. As a vocal healing practitioner/educator I teach people to discover their own healing voice. Asking people to listen to their own sounds without judgment, to simply allow and honor the beauty of who they are being expressed in the moment is a gift, so necessary to discover the vibrational medicine held within their body and conveyed by the voice. Thank you for your wonderful blog posts. I enjoyed all of them, and this one in particular really brightened my day. So happy a friend recommended ATH site to me. My work and profile is described on my website noted above. Blessings to you…

  2. Suzannah’s avatar

    Thank you, Linda, for your comment. And thank you for reading – I’m so glad that those from outside the music therapy world are reading my blog, thanks to the ATH site. Your comment made my day. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Dr. Diane Austin, but in the music therapy world she is a pioneer in the use of the voice in music psychotherapy. Her website is here and there is a link there to her very beautifully-written book, The Theory and Practice of Vocal Psychotherapy: Songs of the Self. Wishing you well.

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