Recommended Reading
Healing musicians have a lot of reading assignments during their training. It is only natural to keep reading books we find interesting. Here are some of our favorites.
| BOOK | RECOMMENDED BY |
| Body, Mind and Music: A Practical Guide to Musical Wholeness by Laurie Riley (a discussion of our cultural relationship with music, how the brain learns it, how we practice it, how we perform it, how we listen to it, how we teach it, and finally, how it is used in purposely therapeutic ways) | |
| Compose Yourself: Awakening to the Rhythms of Life by Andy Barnett. Learn how to bring musical intent to everything you do. Fun, simple exercises throughout the book will help you joyfully bring harmony to all aspects of your life. Using your innate musicality to work with the ancient Vedic system of the chakras, you can strengthen your body, deepen your breath, open your heart, fine-tune your hearing, and sharpen your wit. | Alison Ware |
| Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gibson. Aprille finished this book while on vacation and really enjoyed Elizabeth’s journey from a nasty divorce to immersing herself in Italian food and culture while learning the language, meditating in an ashram in India and reconnecting with a healer in Bali. | Aprille Isham |
| Healing Harps (Pursuing Wholeness Through Music) by Dr. Ron Price. Dr. Price worked over 35 years with music helping people with disabilities. | Aprille Isham |
| Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned about Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients by Dr. Bernie Siegal. This book is about how unconditional love is the most powerful stimulant of the immune system. Michelle liked the stories of the miraculous recoveries of patients who believed in the power of love. | Michelle |
| Making Music For The Joy Of It! by Stephanie Judy (a discussion of every aspect of making music, from the point of view of both student and teacher, especially the topic of performance anxiety) | Alice Freeman |
| Music and Soul Making: Music Therapy and Complexity Science by Barbara J. Crowe (explains why music therapy is effective) | |
| Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain by Dr. Oliver Sacks. Dr. Sacks is a neurologist and describes case studies of interesting patients with brain “malfunctions” involving music in one way or another. Not nearly as technical as The Power of Sound, Alice found this book very entertaining and it made her think about how lucky she was to have “normal” brain function. | Alice Freeman |
| No Time To Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva by Pema Chodran (comments on an eighth-century text by the Indian Buddhist sage Shantideva as a guidebook for developing bodhichitta, an awakened mind that expresses itself in compassionate action to alleviate suffering) | Aprille Isham |
| The Practice of Presence by Patty de Llosa. How to use Gurdjieff teachings, T'ai Chi, Jungian studies, and the Alexander Technique, with prayer and meditation as paths to wholeness (the integration of body, mind and feeling). | Alice Freeman |
| Talking to Alzheimer’s: Simple Ways to Connect When You Visit with a Family Member or Friend by Claudia Strauss. A wonderful book about communication. | Aprille Isham |
| This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Dan Levitin. A fascinating study about what happens in the brain when we listen to music which both scientists and lay readers will enjoy. | Aprille Isham |
| The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin (how six specific forms of music played a pivotal role in creating human culture and society as we know it) | Stella Benson |