Listening to Music Mindfully

Listening to music provides the foundation upon which we build our musical skills and identities. However, music educators, therapists, and researchers often do not know how to guide listening experiences to maximize the growth of listening skills in a manner enjoyable to students and clients. This book investigates a novel approach to structuring music listening in order to nurture music listening sensitivity and enjoyment: mindful listening. First, the author presents a review of scholarly literature related to music listening and to mindfulness, and then weaves these two streams of research together to empirically investigate the effect of mindful music listening on music sensitivity and enjoyment. The results of the research strongly support the use of mindful listening experiences for listeners at all levels. Music teachers, therapists, and researchers in the fields of music cognition, education, and psychology will benefit greatly from reading this book, as will others who are interested in the fields of mindfulness and music.