Mindfulness and Music

Stage Fright

How Learning an Instrument in Public Reduced My Stage Fright

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on May 28, 2024

A Personal Perspective: A lonely office hour became an opportunity for insight when I decided to learn an instrument in front of my students in our lecture hall.

Conscientiousness

Who Remains Committed to Music Lessons?

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on January 28, 2024

What characteristics are most likely to predict which parents will encourage music lessons, and what are the personality qualities of those most likely to stick with lessons?

Imagination

Jungian Integration of Opposites and the Active Imagination

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on March 28, 2023

How we can use the practice of music as a means for integrating unconscious and conscious aspects of the psyche.

Imposter Syndrome

How Performing Artists Can Deal with Impostor Syndrome

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on June 13, 2022

Despite your success, do you feel a sense of inferiority or phoniness as an artist? These feelings are a near-universal human experience.

Memory

How Poetry Sets the Tone for the Music Lesson

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on March 26, 2022

How a music teacher who had students read poetry affected my experience of teaching and learning music.

Attention

How to Cultivate Right Intention in Music-Making

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on February 1, 2022

Are you finding despair and anxiety in your musical pursuits? Reconsidering one's motivation can change everything.

Environment

How Musical Land Art Can Enrich Your Life and Musicianship

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on October 19, 2021

Do you feel alienated from yourself, your partner, or your surroundings? Musical land art can bring you into contact with authentic being.

Play

How Positive Affirmations Changed the Way I Play Piano

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on August 27, 2021

Are you struggling with sight-reading? A change in your beliefs about your ability might be the key to improvement.

Attachment

Cultivating Mindfulness of Attachment to Praise

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on May 31, 2021

Is attachment to approval and fame interfering with your creative or performing artistry?

Career

The Eight Worldly Concerns in Musical Practice: Gain and Loss

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on April 2, 2021

The study of the essential nature of the eight worldly concerns in our musical lives can transform our daily experience of practicing music.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness of Body While With the Instrument

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on March 1, 2021

Through the Satipatthana Sutta we can find new relationships with music and music-making.

Meditation

Bill Evans' Meditation on Serenity

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on January 16, 2021

When studying an instrument, it can be useful to focus on the cultivation of expression before technique.

Psychology

How Integrating Our Weaknesses Cultivates Musical Experience

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on December 20, 2020

How to identify and integrate our weaknesses into our strengths, both musically and in our lives.

Attention

Music & Origami

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on November 3, 2020

Origami and music share a complementary geometrical significance that enhances the music lesson experience.

Mindfulness

All We Need is One Scale

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on October 6, 2020

How to transform the mundane daily technical routine into a meaningful and joyful experience of musical engagement.

Authenticity

Freedom and Responsibility in Music Making

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on September 6, 2020

Cultivating the conditions for creative wholeness begins with choices in everyday life.

Motivation

Parent-Child Music Lessons

Matthew T Giobbi Ph.D. on August 22, 2020

In family systems music lessons, the parent and child take conjoint music lessons, offering the child the opportunity to benefit from the parent's example and a time for bonding.