Richard “Wolfie” Wolf

Author of
In Tune The Experiment (The Experiment, 2019)

Richard “Wolfie” Wolf is an Emmy Award winning film and television composer, multi-platinum selling record producer/songwriter and professor at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he teaches courses on music and mindfulness. As a producer, remixer, songwriter and composer he worked on projects with Prince, Bell Biv Devoe, Freddie Mercury, Coolie, Seal and MC Lyte. Throughout his career, Richard has been contributing to the soundtracks for hundreds of films and television episodes from “The X-Files” to 12 seasons of the current worldwide hit “NCIS”.

Mindfulness apps are growing in popularity as listeners try to find an easy entry point into meditation. Even with apps, sometimes it can be difficult to get into the right mindset, and the practice of meditation itself can seem downright intimidating to start. Richard Wolf, producer and Emmy Award–winning composer, explains that this doesn’t have to be the case; meditation is a practice that can come as naturally as listening to music.

In Tune connects music methods to the disciplines of meditation and mindfulness. Wolf introduces readers to twelve “bridges”—common skills found in the musical world that easily help you bridge the gap and gain a comprehensive yet accessible understanding of how to achieve mindfulness in your life.

Across the twelve bridges, Wolf charts individual concepts from musical practice—like Concentration, Posture, Harmony, and Silence—and each bridge includes helpful exercises and meditation prompts; such as how to schedule time to meditate, how to focus your breathing, how to count your breaths and harmonize with the room you’re meditating in, and more.

Interspersed with personal anecdotes about eminent musicians like Miles Davis and Dr. Dre, Richard Wolf offers insightful guidance and a broad repertoire of meditation and awareness training methods to keep readers informed, engaged, and inspired as they progress down their own mindful path to the intersection of musical and mindful living.

Praise

“Richard Wolf uniquely shows how the combination of music and silence can be a doorway into the life-changing benefits of a mindfulness practice.” –Allen Weiss, director of Mindful USC

”It seems like everybody is talking about ‘mindfulness’ these days, but Richard Wolf uniquely connects that practice to the satisfaction and uplift we humans find in music. Whether you’re someone capable of writing symphonies or someone who merely hums along to the radio, <i>In Tune</i> can help lead you to inner peace, personal insight, and greater productivity.” –Chuck Crisafulli, music journalist and author of Nirvana: Behind Every Song

”Richard Wolf discovered . . . A natural convergence of mindfulness and music, where each practice deepened the other. Meant for his fellow musicians at any level, this book offers a plethora of music-based mindfulness exercises for the “transferable virtues” music can cultivate.” –Mindful Magazine

”Though many of the techniques—loosening the whole body, counting breaths, letting the mind drift—are standard beginning approaches, the musical associations provide fresh context. . . . Readers with even slight musical background will enjoy Wolf’s sharp, useful suggestions to make mindfulness a more achievable goal.” –Publishers Weekly

”The techniques, key steps, and commentary that Wolf provides in each chapter as he blends music and meditation together will prove beneficial to the reader who wants to cross these bridges for a more meaningful mindfulness.” –New York Journal of Books

”Not since Ram Dass’s 1971 treatise Be Here Now has a Western writer truly examined the relationship between meditation and art as Richard Wolf does in In Tune. As a frequent guest participant in Richard’s USC Music and Mindfulness lecture series, I have seen firsthand the benefit of his unique approach to helping young musicians achieve their potential through the practice of artful listening and a relaxed, unfiltered awareness.” –Clyde Lieberman, Emmy Award-winning producer of The Voice

”The excellent mindful meditation techniques that Richard Wolf teaches in this book, especially those centered on deep listening and tonal breathing, have been really helpful in unblocking my creativity. Thanks to Wolf’s artful explanations and pointers, I’ve also been better focused and inspired to practice meditation.”– Peter Scaturro, senior music producer of Sony PlayStation

”I found nuggets in the book that I relate to, that I can work with, and that help me greatly with my practice. For instance, I’ve been counting bars my whole life. It’s so connected that I don’t remember how it started—it’s become an intuitive thing from the music. Wolf’s methods incorporating musical and rhythmic counting pick up on this, and have become my favorite ways to meditate.” –Steve Rowe, music editor of NCIS