Mind-Body Awareness for Singers: Unleashing Optimal Performance

Includes Foreword by Shirlee Emmons

In Mind-Body Awareness for Singers, Dr. Leigh-Post broadens the scope of recent voice science texts by applying an insightful understanding of mindfulness, cognitive neuroscience and functional neural anatomy for the musician seeking to optimize one's performance in an ideal state--absent anxiety.

This book provides a fundamental understanding of functional anatomy and cognitive neuroscience to guide singers and teachers of singing to unlocking the mystery of the mind-body link involved in the complex audio-motor behavior that is singing. New theories and concepts, rooted in both the wisdom of masters in the field and current scientific research, are introduced from the unique perspective of the performer. Practical application exercises train the singer to work with, rather than against, the systems of singing to integrate the cognitive and conscious with the unconscious sensory and motor processes of our nervous system.

By mapping not only the body's musculoskeletal structure, but also the body's voluntary and involuntary behavioral responses, the vocal artist is empowered with an ability to maintain the following with ease:

• Optimal performance, characterized by elite execution, coordination, and self-correction.
• An ideal performance state, characterized by heightened awareness, vigilant attention, and autonomic balance/an absence of anxiety.
• Imagery or manipulation of a mental representation of a sensory event, characterized by an ability to express one's thoughts and feelings through an infinite supply of phenomenal images.
• Alignment.

"In this ground-breaking volume, Leigh-Post demystifies the mind-body link by presenting clearly and understandably the science of how the conscious mind integrates with unconscious neural processes to produce the expressive and artistic endeavor we know as singing... .Mind-Body Awareness for Singers is a significant contribution to the field, a must-read for every singer and teacher of singing."
--Constance Chase, coauthor, Prescriptions for Choral Excellence (2006)

"In this new intriguing book...Leigh-Post nimbly weaves together discoveries in neuroscience with the experience of vocal artistry to show how singing can be viewed as a perception-action cycle."
--Raymond D. Kent, PhD, coauthor, Functional Anatomy of Speech, Language, and Hearing (1986)

"As an artist, performer and teacher, this book has opened my eyes to a new and exciting approach to singing."
--Harolyn Blackwell, soprano, Metropolitan Opera

"I highly recommend Mind-Body Awareness to singers as well as psychologists, physiologists, and other scientists who have an interest in the process of singing. Dr. Leigh-Post has done a superb job of condensing a large amount of research and literature to help us understand the processes whereby we produce vocal song and experience ourselves doing so. Her contemporary views and insights regarding the complex interactions that underlie the act of singing are complemented with her own helpful theoretical perspective."
--Timothy Petersik, PhD, contributing editor, ''Perceptual-Motor Skills"

"Mind-Body Awareness for Singers has come at an important time "The holistic field of cognition and bodily-kinesthetic awareness has taken a high place in contemporary research as we seek to understand the connection between the voice, ear (vestibular and cochlear), and brain" Dr. Leigh-Post's research and resources are impeccable and will stir your interest...."
--Marvin Keenze, Emeritus Professor of Voice and Pedagogy, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ

Details: 264 pages, Illustrated (B/W), Softcover, 8.5 x 11"

Illustrations: 140

ISBN13: 978-1-59756-444-1

Release Date: 01/07/2014