I did a Google search on Singing and Mindfulness and was rewarded with THIS FANTASTIC ARTICLE by Princeton Professor and NATS Contributor,  Martha Elliott.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Let me know in the comments if you practice mindfulness either in conjunction with or separately from your singing.

Source: http://www.princeton.edu/~melliott/Martys_web_page/Writing_files/S%20and%20M%20for%20web%20site.pdf

​

While I am working on my next blog post, I thought I would share this Ted Talk.  Clocking in at 20 minutes, it is worth every one of them.  If you have seen it before (and a lot of people have at over 22 million recorded views), it is worth another view.  If you have not seen it before, I am envious of your first time.  Let me know what you think in the comments or on our facebook page.   

I led a workshop at the world headquarters of a multi-national bank last week.  This was the handout I gave to the participants and thought you might find some (all?!?) of it interesting and, perhaps, relevant.  I am going to explore singing and health a lot more in the coming weeks!
​

​​​Shhh, don’t say anything…
 
‘Keep a stiff upper lip’, ‘man up’, ‘keep calm and carry on’, ‘big girls don’t cry’!  there are many phrases that encourage us to bottle up stresses and anxieties.
 
In the professional world, susceptibility to such perceived weaknesses has been proof that someone could not do their job optimally.  Fortunately,  many companies are appreciating the benefit of addressing these challenges with the advent of wellness programmes. 
 
There is a way…
 
Well-being skills are now becoming popular stress and anxiety management techniques:  mindfulness, teaching people  to ‘be in the moment’ not dwelling on past problems or predicting future ones; exercise, such as walking where the mind and the body have space to re-charge, and yoga, which is based on ancient principles promoting health of mind, body, and spirit.  The introduction to well-being skills  not only gives people tools to cope with work pressures but encourages a cultural openness and acceptance, all of which creates happier staff and a more effective workforce. 
 
The arts and music are increasingly being used to provide well-being benefits.  Christine Descher of Cuckoo Studios who is running this workshop, knows first-hand about the pressures of a busy corporate environment.  I trained as a singer and singing teacher at university but then left the profession 10 years later ‘by accident’ and spent 15 years working in IT Security in the Banking environment. I returned to music and now I teach singing at various locations in London and at my home studio in Kent.  In a short time, I have seen the benefits of singing for the busy professional person. 
 
However, the evidence is not only anecdotal.  There are now many conclusive medical studies which correlate group singing with mental well-being.  Singing is the perfect ‘happiness cocktail’ as it raises endorphins - ‘feel good’ hormones and also raises oxytocin – ‘stress relieving’ hormones.  And it is fun!
 
Finding your voice…
 
Do you sing in the shower or in the car providing those vital backing vocals to pop songs?  Would you then sing unaccompanied alone or even in a group?  Many people wouldn’t, using the age-old excuse of ‘being completely tone-deaf’.  If I had a pound for every person who told me, ‘no one can teach me to sing!’ (They are wrong, by the way!)  The cause is lack of confidence which has root causes as varied and numerous as all of us who deal with it. 
 
Many of my students don’t want to be on stage or to perform a solo but what they want to do is immerse themselves in a fun hobby and to gain is confidence and be able to say that satisfying statement ‘I can do that.’  Singing is a great physical workout, too.  It promotes better posture, better lung function and lower heart rates. Singers are more confident and fit while having FUN.  Win – Win – Win.
 
Teaching someone to sing whether in a group or as a soloist is more than learning a song or to sing beautifully.  It is a holistic process which includes a mind/body/spirit connection which can be achieved just by the act of singing.  Singing is an amalgam of many parts:
 

• Technique – Improves concentration
• Theory  - Memory gets a work-out
• Musicality – Creativity at play
• Enthusiasm – An injection of positivity
• Working with others – Team-work and team building
• Listening – Something which always needs tweaking
• Breathing – Promotes calm and lung health
• Community – Gives a sense of belonging
• Confidence – Key to self-esteem

 
And this is only a short list.
 
A fun and rewarding way to health and well-being…
 
What I hoped you gained from today’s session is that learning to sing is an antidote to pressures and stresses caused by a busy life.  Also that it enables someone to take a little bit of time out for themselves and build confidence whether individually or with a group of like-minded singers.   A singer gains many useful personal skills but professional ones also.  And, whether an early beginner or a seasoned veteran, singers get the same benefits from the act of singing!
 
Interesting Links
A lot has been written on the subject of singing and well-being.  Here are just a few interesting links to read/watch:
 
Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health
https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/health-and-wellbeing/sidney-de-haan-research-centre/sidney-de-haan-research-centre.aspx
 
Telegraph Article
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10496056/Choir-singing-boosts-your-mental-health.html
 
NHS (video in bottom right corner)
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/improve-mental-wellbeing.aspx
 
 
Thank-you for coming, today.  This session could be a big step to feeling good.  This is my favourite subject and I love comments and questions about it.  If you have any, please contact me at:
 
Christine Descher
[email protected]
www.cuckoostudios.com
 

As a holiday inspired addendum to my first post, I want to mention the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. I am talking about the concept album  released in the US in 1970.The one with the brown cover. The one with Ian Gillan, of Deep Purple fame, as Jesus; and Murray Head, of Chess and One Night in Bangkok fame, as Judas Iscariot.

When I was a little girl, my mom and dad did not own this album. Rodgers and Hammerstein/Lerner and Loewe was the preference at home. But my aunt and uncle did; and my parents and I spent a lot of time at their house.  I am an only child, they didn’t have kids yet, and I LOVED to pass my time by singing along to musicals. This is how I passed many Friday evenings, singing along to JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR in the extra bedroom of their house.  

The words were printed in a separate booklet, so I had the libretto.Which for the most part I did not need…except for side 4 of the double disk, which I did not often get to before going home. The music was so thrilling and different from those stalwarts of the Broadway stage written in the first half of the 20th century.  The opening guitar chords made me tingle, now they make me…nostalgic.

As the years went by, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR came in and out of popularity both with the public and with me. I listened again in earnest when I directed a production in the 90’s. 

But every year, I reserve some time on Good Friday – apropos of the day – to listen to  and more importantly, to sing along with JSCC.

‘My mind is clearer now…’

In the Jan/Feb 2015 edition of Saveur magazine, Jody Williams (chef-owner of Buvette in New York and Paris and one of the chef-owners, with Rita Sodi, of Via Carota in New York), wrote a piece called Nostalgia is an Ingredient.  The subject of nostalgia in the context of food preparation turned my thoughts to nostalgia in the context of musical preparation.

After a long hiatus from singing, and an even longer time since seriously learning (learning seriously?) music, I have finally taken the plunge into repertoire after dipping my toe over the last few years.  And, even though there is much more repertoire which I have not sung than which  I have , some of my most comforting and most satisfying moments in the studio are with pieces I have sung in the past.

These pieces are like the best chicken noodle soup you can imagine, delicious and warming.  Mi chiamano Mimi, Pirate Jenny, Fantoches,  Die Forelle, are some of my favourites from a time I will henceforth refer to in this blog as ‘the St. Louis Days ’.  They are old friends. But I was singing way before I entered higher education so what about Deh Vieni or every song from every Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (every album owned by my parents) or The Rubber Ducky Song from Sesame Street?  Musical memories are my earliest memories and just thinking of that music evokes a happy, nostalgic response even when I am not actually hearing it or singing it. 

So, I go into the studio and pull out my copy of Boheme and start singing.  The music is so beautiful and I know the words, the notes, the interpretation like the back of my hand.  But there is also something else buzzing in the background, something is not quite right. My throat tickles and my voice tires easily.  What is going on?  For me, like for many singers, repertoire, sung when our technique was less advanced can come with baggage. We revert to old, less healthy technical habits. So, it may feel ‘comfortable’ to sing these beloved pieces from the past but comfortable is not always healthy. My interpretation seems a little off, too.  This was one of my favourites which I performed a lot, but I am not connecting to Mimi and her words the same way I used to do. I am connecting to them, just differently than I did over a decade ago.  And it feels weird.  I am discombobulated.

Crap.  Why are pleasurable things bad for us?  Do I have to give up singing anything from the St. Louis Days, all the things I love? Where do I go from here so that nostalgia can give me pleasure like it is supposed to without causing me to move backwards as an artist?

That sounds tough (and a bit whiny) but it isn’t. 

We can only live in the present so I will have to repurpose the memories to work in the here and now. I will allow these favourite pieces to lead me to different repertoire by the same or similar composers, so I can try something new. I will get my blast of nostalgia by discovering new interpretations of ‘the oldies’ on Spotify and on YouTube.  And when I am ready, I will try singing them again with a fresh approach and voice, informed by the past but enhanced by present. And I can keep repeating this process until it feels and sounds good. And when I need a little fix, I can go to my memories and ‘hear’ the music.  I can always count on nostalgia.

Postscript – And, speaking of ‘the best chicken noodle soup’, here’s my current favourite from The Smitten Kitchen:  http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2015/01/my-ultimate-chicken-noodle-soup/