Vinnie Stergin - The Unusual Step from Stress to Serenity

Plato said that music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. We’ve all known for a long time that music is not only a joy for the ears but can also make us feel comforted. A song can evoke pleasant memories, yes, but the power of music is amplified if we can play it. 

     My guest, musician and educator Vinnie Stergin, realized this as soon as he started teaching his students how to play an instrument. His instrument of choice? The ukulele. From this he developed his Mindful Ukulele Method and some of the things he discovered were:

·      The surprising magic of the ukulele

·      What happens when he combines ukulele playing with mindfulness

·      Why music is so transformative

·      What happened when he took his ukuleles to prison

·      How anyone can learn how to play a ukulele for transformation

Vinnie’s method is a testament to the transformative power of music and mindfulness. If you're curious about how a simple instrument like the ukulele can make a positive difference in your life, listen to this soulful episode of Dream Power Radio.

    Vinnie Stergin is a musician, artist & educator. He grew up in the Austrian mountains, where his parents kicked him down a ski slope when he was just 3 years old - that’s when he had to learn to stay on track. 
      He won some prestigious awards, wrote many compositions for the Tokyo Olympia 2020, was signed to indie and major labels, has been supported by corporate world giants such as Red Bull & Polaroid & his work has also been recognized by the Arts Council UK & Help Musicians UK (Do It Differently Award). His recent project ‘12 Photos 12 Tracks’ saw him sending a camera around the world, then turning the returning photos into a music album, live show & exhibition. Currently he writes and tours with his band Shiny Brain Crayons.
      Vinnie studied music education at the world famous Mozarteum Salzburg, worked for human rights organizations in Amsterdam and Los Angeles before moving to London where he resides now.
      Over the past 20 years he taught, coached & inspired hundreds of students from all walks of life to explore their creativity and experience the transformative power of music. He also worked in a prison in SE London teaching music to young offenders.
      Through his own mental health journey and discovering mindfulness & meditation he developed a very unique way of teaching which ultimately formed ‘The Mindful Ukulele Method’. 
 “I’ve always been very curious about people, nature and life and love to experiment, explore. I’m a constant work in progress, and love that.”

     Vinnie’s call to action: At his website, you can opt in for a free 4-part mini course of The Mindful Ukulele Method.

Website: https://mindfulukulelemethod.com

Chapters

• 2:09 Combining Mindfulness with Ukulele Lessons
• 14:30 Teaching music in prison
• 14:48 The power of music
• 16:32 Transformation through music
• 25:34 The importance of mindfulness in ukulele lessons

Transcript

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:00:00) - Hello, Hello. Hello and welcome to Dream Power Radio. I'm your host, certified Dream Life coach, Debbie Spector Weisman This is a place we talk about dreams, both daytime and nighttime dreams and how you can use them to make the internal shift to a life you love and rediscover the truth of who you really are. Let's start off today by giving you a little peek by the curtains of Jean Power Radio. When I first started this podcast, my main focus was on nighttime dreams, how I paying attention to these nocturnal messages. You gain greater self-confidence and self-awareness and insights in ways we just can't do in our waking hours. While dream work is incredibly special to me and responsible for the transformations I've had in my own life, to realize that those of you who find themselves not being able to remember your dreams naturally might want to seek out different ways for self-improvement. So over the course of this podcast, I'd expanded into talking about or daytime dreams by reaching out to experts in all areas of empowerment. And in doing so, I've greatly increased my own understanding of effective ways of connecting with our inner selves.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:01:18) - And I hope that you have two. Well, recently I became aware of a man who's had great success with the most unusual methods I'd ever heard of. Any. Sturgeon is the founder of the Mindful Ukulele method that pairs a practice of mindfulness with ukuleles. That's right, Ukuleles. Hey, that got me really curious. So I'll bring him on now to explain how this musical instrument can make such a positive difference in people's lives. Welcome to Dream Power Radio, Vinnie.

Vinnie Stergin (00:01:52) - Notably beautiful, nice interaction. Everything you said.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:01:57) - Well, I understand that you actually trained musician, but whatever got into your head to ukulele and mindfulness go together.

Vinnie Stergin (00:02:09) - I've been always besides being an artist, besides being a recording artist and a live artist musician, creator. I've always been an educator, so it was as a self-employed musician, you got to spring, you got to spread your wings wide and far. And teaching has always been a thing I did on the side. But actually, the more I did it, the more I loved connecting with people and sharing what I can do with people who don't have anything to do with music.

Vinnie Stergin (00:02:42) - And at some point, someone wanted ukulele lessons. I'm mainly a guitar player, but ukulele always played on the side as well. It's quite an easy instrument and that's exactly the point. It's very easy to learn instrument, it's very accessible and mindfulness and meditation has always been a very important part of my own mental health regime. So at some point I started to introduce some exercises with my students, and they found it immensely helpful because they didn't know about it and then just started to do different exercises alongside the lessons. And it just made a very big impact in their lives because they only came to learn how to play an instrument. But then actually they learned something much more deep that started to affect other areas of their life, especially if those people are having a lot of stress because they have stressful jobs, stressful lives and so on. And so I just combined them into my new teaching method, like.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:03:47) - Building the mindfulness with the ukulele lessons or the ukulele lessons with the mindfulness.

Vinnie Stergin (00:03:54) - Sorry, can you say it again? You were cut out.

Vinnie Stergin (00:03:56) - I said, did.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:03:56) - You start with the beginning, the mindfulness to the ukulele students, or did you combine the ukulele with the mindfulness students?

Vinnie Stergin (00:04:08) - Not like I started to combine the mindfulness with the ukulele students.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:04:13) - And was it something I did? One of the students reach out to you and say, you know, this is interesting, but I. Stressed out or something that actually evolved.

Vinnie Stergin (00:04:27) - It's some of my students. Not all of my students are. Have quite a big range of people of different kinds of people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. And what I noticed with a specific group of people, people who work a lot, people who are. In stressful environments, doing corporate jobs and not having music in their lives. They first start to come to me because they sort of are in a career where they want it to be. But I always sensed, okay, they are looking for something deeper and it was like trial and error. I thought, okay, would you like to do a little breathing exercise? And people were really hooking onto that.

Vinnie Stergin (00:05:11) - And then I thought, okay, it's actually really beautiful to combine something like the ancient old history of mindfulness with the learning of an instrument because you. Help people to develop healthy habits that impact their lives in many other areas, while also while they are also learning how to play an instrument. So it's quite amazing that you start doing something fun like playing the ukulele, but then also learning all this other stuff. And people were just really loving it and then just kept doing it and experimenting more and over the years just developed it into my own very own teaching method.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:05:59) - So you said that you are using the ukulele because it's an easy instrument to learn. How easy is it? Because, I mean, I don't really play very many musical instruments. Can I pick up the ukulele and learn it?

Vinnie Stergin (00:06:14) - Yes. I promise you, if we have a lesson after an hour, you're going to play your first song. I mean, it's always of course, everyone is different. But the thing is, even when you just strum the strings with the open strings, which anyone can do.

Vinnie Stergin (00:06:31) - This is the first step of engaging in music, engaging in creativity. And very often what I also find is that a lot of my work is helping people to trust themselves again, to jump, jump start their curiosity, to tell them, okay, yeah, I can do that. Don't worry, we're going to make hundreds of mistakes. But it's not about this. It's all about starting a journey and immersing yourself in in creativity. And music is just a very. Natural way for us humans to express ourselves. And by doing that, it just opens up so many other things. But say anyone can. Anyone can learn music. And although one of my other main things that are very important to me as an educator is to open up this world that I love and that I'm passionate about to anyone because, you know, in our society or in our times where everything is perfect, it's the perfect selfie culture. There's an app for everything to optimize your life. And I want to get people away from that.

Vinnie Stergin (00:07:45) - Want to want them to forget about it and just. Take something in their hands, an instrument, and start exploring it. And it's kind of magic, like creating a sound or writing. Writing a song is really magical, and very often we forget about this in our crazy lives where we have to pay mortgages, take care of all our crazy lifestyles that we have. And it's just an amazing way to stop the noise and start to grow out from yourself again. Yeah. Isn't interesting.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:08:20) - What I mean isn't that you're getting them to focus on something so that they're putting their attention on something that's beautiful and magical, like music and not putting their focus on the things that are going on in their life.

Vinnie Stergin (00:08:36) - Exactly. And that's a side product because you. You meet with someone; it's not about creating the next musical genius or whatever. It's all about engaging in the creative act and gaining a new perspective. And your universe is only as big as your perspective. And if you open your perspective suddenly and we all have that as kids very naturally when we don't think about optimizing stuff.

Vinnie Stergin (00:09:07) - But as we grow older and as our responsibilities grow. Very often this gets lost, but we still have it. And by engaging in in a creative act. We or I also always find. I found in myself in many things that many of the answers that I'm having, many of the questions that I'm having. I have the answers already. I just need to let them grow out of me, of myself, and just stop the noise and listen to myself again. And music or my method is just a tool to allow that again.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:09:44) - I let it go. So it's probably fun to.

Vinnie Stergin (00:09:48) - Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's fun. It's connecting. It's connecting over something beautiful and it's a lot of fun. I always have a really deep connections with my students, people who don't know. And after two months, you just get to know each other. It's just. I love it.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:10:07) - So talk to me a bit about the experience. Give me examples like someone who comes in and hasn't played ukulele before and you get them into it.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:10:16) - What is the session like for them? What happens when they leave? But tell me about the difference.

Vinnie Stergin (00:10:23) - So we start wherever this. Wherever my new student is. Some people maybe have had some kind of lessons in their lives. Some people would have always liked to have music in their lives, but they never got the chance or life got in the way. And so it just starts wherever, wherever we are. And the first steps are very simple. It's call and response. I play something on the open strings. The other person plays something back and then we just grow it from there. And a lot of the work that I'm doing is also more from the mindfulness side is focusing on the breathing because, you know. Loads of people forgot how to breathe. It's a very simple thing, actually, but we're not aware of it anymore. And my whole method is about realigning your body with your mind. And breathing work is a big part of that. So we start to do some simple exercises just becoming aware of our breaths.

Vinnie Stergin (00:11:33) - These turns into. Short meditations where we become aware of different body parts and it's always going between those two. Doing a bit of music, doing a bit of meditation, breathing work. And by the end of the lesson, usually people are much calmer. They experience something they never did before. They get the feeling, hey, hey, I can do that. I thought I never could do that. Everyone always told me you can't. And it's just. Creating an awareness for themselves. And being calmer after a session.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:12:20) - I would think it would also promote greater self-confidence.

Vinnie Stergin (00:12:24) - Exactly. Exactly. It's a lot about confidence and telling people. You can do that. It's not rocket science and each journey has different speeds, but it's also then becoming aware of your own speed and allowing your own speeds. And everyone says very different, but everyone has the same. Everyone is the same. Important. Has the same importance.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:12:54) - Oh, this is so fascinating video. I hear more about this, but we have to take a break. Now we are speaking all about mindfulness and ukuleles with Vinnie Sturgeon. And we'll be right back.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:12:59) - Yes. Welcome back to Dream Power Radio. I'm your host that these things are. Weisman And we're talking about ukuleles and mindfulness with Vinnie Sturgeon. Well, Vinnie, so talk a little bit more about just the power of music itself, because music is its own language. You know, we don't really usually people aren't musicians don't think of it as being a language, but it has such a powerful effect on us. So just speak a bit about, you know, the power of music itself.

Vinnie Stergin (00:13:48) - As we were talking before, music has always been around as a very. Basic way of expressing our feelings even. Back in the caves. We started to hit things and then rhythm came about. Or even when you talk when I talk, when anyone talks with creating music, there is the voice goes up and down rather than speaking like this. So we're creating music all day long. And it's just an amazing way of creating connection, communicating with each other.

Vinnie Stergin (00:14:30) - Share a story I was working for in the past. For the past five years. Four years. I was working in a prison in southeast London. There. I worked with young offenders in the prison system and showed them. How to produce beats. It was a lot about music production, like how you the technology behind it, but also about songwriting. And for me, it was such an amazing experience to come into a room with people I don't know, people who are at the end of society that no one wants. We put them there because through whatever reason, they ended up there. We could talk a lot about that. But I come in there with strange accents and then instantly we can talk about something, and we both share the same passion. And that was for me, one of the most amazing experiences that we can come from such different backgrounds. And instantly we have something that connects us and. And music wherever you go, it doesn't matter what country you go. Music is everywhere and it's always a language that is in another frequency similar than dreams, right? Dreams are just another frequency of reality or something.

Vinnie Stergin (00:15:57) - What our souls or our minds want to tell us. Tapping into that frequency. Anyone can do that. And it's just very powerful. And it pierces through cultures, through loads of differences. It's just something inherently human.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:16:21) - Oh, yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about, you know, the effect it had on the prisoners? And did you see any kind of transformation taking place with them?

Vinnie Stergin (00:16:32) - It's hard to say if I'm if I'm very honest. It's from a because I've met my students there just for a short amount of time once a week. But for that amount of time I could definitely see them being engaged in something. It was not about what they did wrong. We just focused on something positive and something beautiful. And maybe one of the facts is that. People learn about clear communication. It's about accountability. Okay. If we want to record a song, we got to do this and this and this first. And if you don't do that, we can't go there.

Vinnie Stergin (00:17:16) - And it's also about adaptability because things go wrong all the time or the infrastructure within the prison was very basic. So we always had to come up with ways to make things work. And from that point of view, it certainly helped people to get better at those soft skills. We call it right. And all in a very playful way. It was not a PowerPoint presentation. Okay, this is how you get better at communication, but it's all about. Just very practically doing something and through that process, developing those skills.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:17:55) - Yeah, I mean, it is, you know, it's wonderful work that you're doing. And it brings to mind a dream worker friend of mine who has spent time. With going into prisons and teaching them about dreamwork and how to really remember their dreams and work with their dreams. And she had found great changes in some of them with prisoners who knew they were going to be getting out and the insights into themselves, the way they were able to help themselves. Some of them were able to get off drugs and some of them were able to resolve some of the traumas that they've had.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:18:32) - And so maybe out of prison, they were better equipped to deal with the post-prison life than somebody with no skills and then would get out and then probably end up going back in because--

Vinnie Stergin (00:18:46) - Yeah yeah and fascinating never thought about that like teaching dream work in a prison but obviously it's a good idea. But what I found is also. Some of the people in there, or maybe most of them have experienced horrible things in their life growing up in abusive families, being surrounded by drugs and just horrible circumstances and being able to. Put some of those things, some of those feelings into words. And even just speaking it out loud is a way of processing it. Even if some of the lyrics were very graphic and very brutal. But I think it's a good way of. Just relieving yourself of those things that you have inside rather than always taking them deeper and deeper. Like bringing it up is a better way of trying to deal with it in some way.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:19:45) - Oh, absolutely. I mean, the thoughts, the feelings that remain hidden and don't get expressed are the ones that get festered and turn into exactly into the traumas that people go through. So did you bring the ukuleles into the prison?

Vinnie Stergin (00:19:59) - It. No ukulele. It was hard to. It was very hard to bring anything in the. But we had computers and some really, really old guitars with two instead of six strings. But even that, we just used that and made something out of it.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:20:15) - To make sound for anything.

Vinnie Stergin (00:20:17) - Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:20:18) - We work with it. Might get back to your session. So when you see people, do they just have one session with you, or do you go through a whole series of how does that work?

Vinnie Stergin (00:20:28) - I have one of my main things that people do is 12-week course, so it's like a 12-week mindful ukulele course where we start somewhere and by the end of those 12 weeks, I want my students to be able to play their favorite songs at the beginning. We always make a list. Okay, these are the songs I want to be able to play and also want to want them to have the mindfulness tools that they can then take on in their lives.

Vinnie Stergin (00:20:57) - Like all basic meditation that we keep doing. And lots of my students actually, they stay on. Some of them stay on to learn how to play the guitar or want to have one student, and he just loves coming once a week out of his He's working 15, 16 hours every day and once a week when we meet online. So it's most of those lessons are online with people from all over the world. It's just a time out for him to. Just focus on this thing, have a nice time together, learn something fun and exploring music in a. Nonjudgmental, nonjudgmental and positive environment.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:21:42) - And that is so amazing. You could see the affects you see on the smile on your face, people and board with a smile. You just talked about it brings such a smile to you so I can see you get an awful satisfaction. Oh, yes.

Vinnie Stergin (00:21:58) - Yeah, totally.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:22:01) - Well, do you have your ukulele with you now? By any chance? Yes.

Vinnie Stergin (00:22:05) - Sitting next to me. Ta da!

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:22:07) - So could you give me a little.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:22:08) - Little taste of kind of thing? No. Yeah.

Vinnie Stergin (00:22:12) - Okay. Let me see. Is it in tune? Yeah. I'm going to just do a little groove and just come up with something and see what happens.

**** (00:22:22) - It. It. He. To. Maybe. It.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:22:47) - Oh, nice. Nice. So in one session, you can have somebody playing chords like that.

Vinnie Stergin (00:22:54) - Maybe not so many chords that I have a couple of tunes already up my sleeve that only use one chord. That is, for instance, the Bob Marley tune. Then let's turn out.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:23:08) - Before you write.

Vinnie Stergin (00:23:09) - That there's just only one chord, which is quite easy to play, and it's a fun, fun tune to play.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:23:18) - I bet. I bet the people who've never picked up a ukulele before amazed that they could actually play it.

Vinnie Stergin (00:23:24) - Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's also for lots of people. Then when they go home and can share these with their kids, with their partners, it's it spreads the love further out from the lesson.

Vinnie Stergin (00:23:38) - And it's just such a simple thing. But I'm not reinventing the wheel here. It's I'm just using very basic ingredients. But it has big effects on people's lives, even if they just if they try it out and just give it a go. But I always find that people. Live with a smile on her face and think, Oh yeah, that's pretty cool. That did that. I think.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:24:04) - So. And you know, it's funny, I just the other day read that Dick Van Dyke in age 97 have taken up the ukulele. Yes. Is that. Well, learn something new.

Vinnie Stergin (00:24:17) - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Beautiful.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:24:19) - Guess you can be it. Yes.

Vinnie Stergin (00:24:22) - It's all about just being open, being curious and allowing yourself to. To dive into something.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:24:33) - That is something. Well. This time has gone by very, very fast. So do you have a final word you'd like to leave for our audience?

Vinnie Stergin (00:24:43) - First of all, it was really beautiful to chat to you. And if anyone is interested in my mindfulness methods, especially for you lovely listeners, you can go on power mindful ukulele method.com where you get a free four-part mini course recorded some videos and we're going to learn first chords.

Vinnie Stergin (00:25:04) - It's over seven weeks. You get sent some emails, just go there and try it out. Nothing you can lose and if anyone's interested, just hit me up. Or if you have any questions, drop me a mail. Would be lovely to hear from you. Okay.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:25:18) - Could you. Could you repeat the website again?

Vinnie Stergin (00:25:21) - It's a power dot mindful ukulele method.com.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:25:26) - Wonderful. Well, Vinnie, thank you so much for being on our radio today.

Vinnie Stergin (00:25:31) - Yeah. Beautiful to be here. Have a lovely day. Okay.

Debbie Spector Weisman (00:25:34) - We've been speaking about the transformational power of music with ukuleles with Vinnie Sturgeon. Albert enjoyed today's program. If so, please hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any future episodes. Until next time. This is Debbie Spector Weisman saying, sweet dreams, everybody.