Mindfulness Of Sound Meditation Workshop [Event Review – Red Hot Yoga, Guildford, 4/7/14]

This article is a real TMMP first. I’ve experienced all kinds of live music events, from punk festivals to acoustic nights, EDM shows, circle-pit-packed metal gigs, and even operas starring Japanese pop stars who don’t exist – but still, this experience was new to me. The world of music is mind-bogglingly vast; you could never hope to comprehend it in its totality, and it is crammed with all manner of treasures, large and small.

This workshop was small, humble, and unassuming – at least, it would seem so to anyone walking past and peeking through the door. But huge things can happen when you sit down and take on a formal meditation routine. This workshop – led by mindfulness teacher and professional musician Andrew Ford of Inner Pieces fame – was based around mindfulness of sound.

Myself and a group of other attendees were invited to lie or sit down, close our eyes, and listen while Andrew improvised a set of instrumental pieces on various exotic instruments. Verbally guided meditation sections opened and closed proceedings, and the evening was punctuated by periods of silence during which sound was still present. After all, it was possible to hear traffic both vehicular and human outside.

Although one’s first thought might be that such intrusions would be counterproductive, they were actually very useful. A core principle of mindfulness practice is the concept of non-judging – and trust me, when you’re tryign to focus on the beautiful tones of a Swiss hang while a truck revs its engine at a stoplight thirty feet away and groups of drunken revellers clash on the pavement outside, it gets very difficult to suspend the mind’s natural tendency to judge things!

Fortunately, before beginning Andrew pointed out that there is no such thing as “good sound” or “bad sound”, and keeping this in mind when the session was under way actually led to a state of relaxation maintained in the face of events that would normally bug the hell out of me.

The achievement and maintenance of a deep state of relaxation is a standard expectation when it comes to meditation – and I did leave the building feeling far more calm than I did when I arrived. But personally, the overall experience provided much more than just relaxation. It was educational in an unexpected way.

Mindfulness of sound – paying attention to sound in a non-judgmental manner – proved very useful in negating the potentially negative effects of sounds I didn’t like. Andrew’s music was fantastic, and this workshop was one of the most fascinating live music experiences I’ve ever had – but I’d never before managed to listen to the incoherent rantings of drunken strangers, or the fragmented noise of a van on the verge of breaking down, without getting uptight and annoyed. Through this workshop, Andrew taught me that it is actually possible to remain relaxed in the face of normally irritating outside events. It definitely takes effort, but it is possible!

As a music writer, I’m going to have many opportunities to apply the lessons passed on during Andrew’s workshop in the future. It’s going to be very interesting to see how my critical listening, thinking, and writing evolves from this point onward.

Thanks, Andrew.

Links

Get in touch with Andrew Ford on Facebook and Twitter for updates about future workshops.

Check out Red Hot Yoga’s website here.

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Posted on 07 July 2014