Overview

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.

Audience

Primary Subject: Singing & The Performing Arts / Singing
Secondary Subject: Speech and Language Pathology / Voice and Voice Therapy
Audience Level: Professional/Textbook - 90 Days

Foreword
Preface
Introduction

Part I — Cognitive Bodily-Kinesthetic Awareness (CKA) and Singing

• Chapter 1 — Why Cognitive Bodily-Kinesthetic Awareness?
• Chapter 2 — The “Missing Link” to Mind-Body Awareness
• Chapter 3 — New Directions
• Section Review
  • Key Concepts
  • Glossary of Terms

Part II — The Systems of Singing: Anatomy and Function

• Chapter 4 — The Systems of Singing
• Chapter 5 — Sensory Systems
• Chapter 6 — Motor Systems
• Chapter 7 — Audio-Motor Integration
• Chapter 8 — The Nervous System, The Reticular System, The Autonomic System
• Section Review
  • Key Concepts
  • Glossary of Terms
  • Practical Application Exercises:
    Getting to Know Your Vestibular System

Part III — CKA and Sensorimotor Processing for Optimal Performance

• Chapter 9 — The Role of Cognition in Sensorimotor Processing: I think, therefore I sing
• Chapter 10 — Sensory Information Processing
  • Perception of the Self and One’s Environment
  • Perception of One’s Own Voice While Singing
  • Practical Application Exercises:
    Getting It from the Source
• Chapter 11 — Planning Voluntary Behavior from Image to Impulse
  • Task to Goal Matching
  • Imagery and the Working Memory from Image to Impulse
  • Practical Application Exercises:
    Auditory, Somato, and Multimodal Sensory Imaging
• Chapter 12 — Behavior Processing, the Impulse to Initiate Action, and the Rhythms of the Nervous System
• Chapter 13 — Putting It All Together: “What and When” Planning and Meta-Monitoring for Optimal Performance
• Section Review
  • Key Concepts
  • Glossary of Terms
  • Practical Application Exercises:
    What + When + Meta-Monitoring

Part IV — Conclusions, Theories, and Future Research

• Chapter 14 — CKA Theories
• Chapter 15 — CKA and the Singer as Athlete
• Chapter 16 — CKA and the Singer Actor
• Chapter 17 — CKA and Vocal Artistry, Mindfulness, and Peak Performance
• Chapter 18 — Future Research
• Section Review
  • Key Concepts
  • Glossary of Terms

Appendix

• The Cognitive Bodily-Kinesthetic Awareness and Singing Research Study
• Bibliography
• Glossary of Terms
• What and When Exercises

About The Author

Karen Leigh-Post, DMA

Karen Leigh-Post, DMA, is on the voice faculty at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Appleton, WI, and was invited to present her research at the National Conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) in 2010. In keeping with the liberal arts tradition, Dr. Leigh-Post has engaged in interdisciplinary studies throughout her performing and teaching career. Her extensive study of the interaction of mind and body includes first-hand work with Alma Thomas, Barbara Conable, Ryugin Myo-O, and Wesley Balk, and spans a broad range of disciplines, including the Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, yoga, fencing, Chi Qong, and dance.

Critics describe her mezzo-soprano as “striking” with “well-formed supple lines,” and in her dramatic portrayals, “Leigh is brilliant in her depth of character, her pacing, her facial expressions, her gestures….” Her rich and varied performing career includes the roles of Carmen, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Venus in Tannhäuser, Jenny in Die Dreigroschenoper, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, and Anita in West Side Story, as well as the premieres of A Death in the Family and Animalen. Leigh-Post’s concert appearances include several PBS broadcasts, from the tradition of Mozart with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra to the songs and arias of Bernstein at Lincoln Center, and embrace the intimate chamber works of Loeffler, Respighi, and Ibert as well as the orchestral settings of Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Martin’s Cornet, to name but a few.

Among her teachers and coaches are Shirlee Emmons, Joan Dornemann, Emma Small, and Warren Jones.

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