A Focus on the Voice: Attention as a Unifying Mechanism Underlying Vocal Training and Mindfulness

ABSTRACT Recent decades have generated a proliferation of research into the phenomenon known as mindfulness. This literature gives voice and speech researchers an opportunity to reconceptualize and assess their practices. Voice and Speech Training (VST) for actors shares certain techniques and attitudes in common with mindfulness. Thus, it is plausible that these two practices rely on similar psychological and neurological mechanisms and may produce similar benefits. We provide an interdisciplinary review of the contemporary literature regarding vocal production, VST practices, mindfulness, and meditation, highlighting conceptual and practical connections between them. We propose that attention is a common mechanism that unifies VST practices and mindfulness. We provide an overview of how attention and mindfulness meditation have been conceptualized and summarize recent empirical studies on their possible relationship. Finally, we suggest future directions for how interdisciplinary research teams might investigate the relationship between VST, mindfulness, and attention, and bring empirical methodologies to bear on questions of artistic significance.