It can be difficult to create any kind of music and mindfulness practice when you are busy running a home, perhaps working full time, looking after kids and just generally juggling a whole range of projects.
Mindfulness, that process of giving present moment attention to your experience and sensation, is a great fit for music making. There are many activities that you could use in its place, yet music, in particular, offers such a satisfying experience of mindful focus that I recommend it here.
For this practice, you are going to be making music yourself. It is not a passive listening exercise. That may work but here we are looking to hone our attention to the moment by moment process of playing an instrument.
Choose your instrument for this process. Any melodic one will work well. Don’t worry if you don’t have a great technique yet, this process is one of awareness and not dexterity!
What are you to use? I recommend these for starters: piano; any simple stringed instrument; tuned percussion such as marimba/xylophone/tongue drum/hang; simple flutes; ocarina; your voice.
With the instrument in your hands, begin to explore its surface. The body of it. Place your attention on how it’s put together, the manufacturing process. Has it been handcrafted or molded? Is it painted or decorated in any way? How does the weight of it feel in your hands?
Keep exploring all of the details of the instrument and also the sensations you physically feel as you hold it. Its weight, temperature, texture, and luster.
Really look at this marvel that you have in your hands. Narrow your attention to just the very nature and embodiment of this sound tool. Not as a concept, or as it is named but as an object within your span of focus and awareness. At this point, it’s possible that the edges of your experience blur and begin to dissolve. That the instrument merges into your perception and becomes unreal. This may not happen and it is not crucial that it does, simply that some sense of dissolving or connection with this object can come to your attention.
Continue to be with this presence and allow things to shift. Breath into the process and enjoy the experience. When you are ready begin to play a single tone on your instrument. Listen to it and notice the shape of the sound as it fades. Is it a steep sharp decay or does it take a long time to disappear?
Play the note again, you are not striving for consistency in execution but are looking to notice the quality of the sound you create. Bring your awareness to the start of the note and listen out for any changes in timbre across the gesture you make.
After some time doing this begin to synchronize to the note by playing and breathing as one. Take a deep breath, relaxing and filling your belly. Pause then exhale and play the note at the same time. Continue to exhale as you bring your awareness to the tone as you did before.
Make this process as enjoyable as you can, aim to flow from one sound to the next and absorb your attention to it as much as you can. If you find yourself drifting away and thinking of something else simply bring yourself gently back to the sounds you are producing.
Mindful music making can be both absorbing and transformative for your discipline of focus and listening. It can slow down your thought process and deepen your breath cycle.
If you are ready then begin to play a simple three or four-note melody. Make each phrase the length of each exhale and be present through each phrase. Rest when you need to then repeat the process. Inhale, pause, exhale and play a simple melody, pause.
This really is a beautiful practice that will grow the more that you use it. Try to keep your attention in these stages for at least 10 minutes but extend this once you feel comfortable.
If you enjoyed this piece then you will probably enjoy my ‘music-making manifesto’ which you can download for free by clicking here.
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