The practice of deep listening is powerful. It trains you to hear the whole world around you as music, and helps you to discern the PARTS of what you’re hearing within pieces of music.

It’s both a way of enhancing your musical intelligence, and delving more deeply into what you’re hearing on a visceral and even spiritual level.

Deep listening can be a meditative practice that brings you more fully into the moment and helps you to feel more calm and grounded.

It’s beautiful to start with NATURAL SOUNDS.

Birds singing, dogs barking, people chatting in the distance, wind rustling in the trees, the drone of traffic in the background or a bus rumbling by outside your window, a candy wrapper crunching in your pocket. It’s all good. Every sound you hear is meant to be there and is part of the orchestra.

Use my videos (below), or go outside to a spot of your choosing. You can lean out your window, or you can do it inside — when you really listen to your indoor environment you begin to realize that you’re actually living inside of a complicated machine!

Here are a few ways to do this:

• Set your mind to take it all in as a totality — the audio equivalent of soft focus. Let the sounds around you wash over and through you as you would a piece of music.

• Notice the layers of sounds: What’s closest? What’s happening in the next layer out? What’s happening in the distance?

• Focus on just one sound you’re hearing, and follow it — one bird call, one faucet that drips, one kind of traffic sound.

• Try listening to human-made music in this way. Do you experience it differently after practicing this activity with natural sounds? Is it easier to separate out the… (cello, a single voice singing harmony, etc.)?

Join the Fearless Singers Playground online membership program — a supportive and joyous singing community specially designed for beginners! When you join you’ll get access to great online skills & song lessons, as well as live sing-alongs, workshops, and open mics.

Such a great way to grow as a singer!