Mind-Body Awareness for Singers: Unleashing Optimal Performance

Mind-Body Awareness for Singers

by Karen Leigh-Post

Mind-Body Awareness for Singers provides a fundamental understanding of functional anatomy and cognitive neuroscience, which guides singers and teachers of singing in unlocking the mystery of the mind-body link. New theories and concepts, rooted in both the wisdom of the masters and current and unique scientific research, are introduced from the refreshingly meaningful internal perspective of the performer. Practical-application exercises train the mind of the singer to work with, rather than at cross purposes with, the systems of singing.. Performers learn how to integrate the cognitive and conscious, the imaginative and alert mind, with the subconscious sensory and motor processes of our nervous system to intuitively guide elite integration of the complex audio-motor behavior that is singing. By mapping not only the body’s musculoskeletal structure but also the body’s voluntary and involuntary (reflexive) behavioral responses generated from the neuropathways, the vocal artist is empowered with an ability to maintain with ease: . Optimal performance, characterized by elite execution, coordination, and self-correction of the well-learned, highly automated, complex sensorimotor behavior of singing. An ideal performance state, characterized by heightened awareness, vigilant attention, and autonomic balance or “calm,” absent of anxiety. Imagery, or mental manipulation of a mental representation of a sensory event, characterized by an ability to express one’s thoughts and feelings as guided by an infinite supply of phenomenal images. A product of the imagination, imagery is a conscious and cognitive function of the working memory that, it would seem, cannot be delegated to automated behavior.

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