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Your Naked Voice

by Chloë Goodchild



      Chloë Goodchild, founder of The Naked Voice, is a singer, music philosopher, and voice teacher. Her Your Naked Voice is a collection of three CDs and a 26-page booklet that teaches meditative listening and singing skills. This is not a practice for trained singers, though it can benefit them. It is a practice for ordinary people to reclaim not only their true voices - without conditioning from society - but also to get in touch with their authentic selves.

In the first CD, "Session One: The Deep Listening," Goodchild explains the background behind her programming and the techniques of listening. She sees a link between silence, speech, and sound. Goodchild came to this understanding after suffering temporary deafness for three years as a child. The silence she experienced awakened an awareness in listening, singing, and music when her hearing was restored. She feels that we need to experience deep listening through meditation first before we engage in vocal exercises.

The second CD, "The Seven Sounds of Love," teaches sounds for the seven chakras combined with mudras, or sacred hand gestures. She says that we will "fall in love with our own voices, our own selves."

In the last CD, "In A," Goodchild presents a soundscape in which we can play with our voices. We can either do some of the exercises she has taught us, or we can explore our voices freely in a playful way. It also is a fine piece of meditation music.

According to Goodchild, she intends to restore honor to the ear, rediscover ancient knowledge of sound, and redeem and redefine singing and sound to help us realize our true nature.

Her British-accented speaking voice and her lovely singing voice guide the listener through instruction and practice. Though she is talking about a deepening spiritual awakening and self awareness, she also is definitely talking about singing, with speaking bound up with it. Unlike expressing the primal voice in energy chanting or the groaning voice Buddhist chanting, Goodchild is talking about real singing and breathing. She believes that anyone can sing and can express and observe himself/herself or someone else without judgment. She calls this "the witness consciousness."

Your Naked Voice is a powerful tool to help us discover more of who we are. We can then speak more authentically and with more love.. And, some of us may even begin to be not so frightened of singing. Excellent. Highly recommended.

The Book

Sounds True
December 2006
3 CDs & Booklet
ISBN10: 1591795273
ISBN13: 978-1591795278
Non-fiction, self-help, spiritual inspirational
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE: Author suffered from temporary deafness as a child.

The Reviewer

Janie Franz
Reviewed 2007
NOTE: Reviewer Janie Franz is the author of Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid!, Relaxation Techniques for Children, Relaxation Techniques for Adults; Co-author of The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book and The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book. Coming Soon: The Ultimate Wedding Workbook, Get Rich on Love, and Sacred Breath (a sound recording of relaxation meditations).
© 2006 MyShelf.com