February Newsletter

Healthy Recipe: Quinoa Salad

By Drew Sevel

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups dry quinoa (couscous can substitute)

1 1/2 cups cooked black beans

1 1/2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups cooked corn (Try roasting it!)

1 chopped, medium-sized green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1-2 small chilies, minced. (Try jalapeno)

1/4 cup chopped, fresh cilantro

Dressing:

5 tablespoons lime juice (Try to get fresh limes)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

A pinch of turmeric and nutmeg

1/3 cup olive oil

To prepare:

Boil 3 cups of water and generously salt. When boiling, add the quinoa and remove from heat. Stir repeatedly and cover. While the grains are cooling, toss vegetables and beans with vinegar. Whisk together all dressing ingredients except for olive oil. After fully mixed, gradually whisk in the olive oil. Combine vegetables and quinoa and drizzle with dressing. Chill.

Alternatively, for a warm dish, sauté onions and 2 cloves of garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes, add other vegetables and dressing ingredients. Simmer until dressing mostly reduces. Mix with quinoa and serve warm.

Faculty Spotlight: Christopher Scholl, tenor and Ellen Scholl, mezzo-soprano

By Sarah Puckett

As a general rule, Christopher and Ellen Scholl do not use ice in their drinks, and never before singing. “It would be like putting your legs in a really cold ice bath and then running a race,” Mrs. Scholl says. According to the Scholls, the way you take care of yourself significantly impacts how you perform. So they are always thinking about how to eat, how to practice, and how to stay sane.

When Mrs. Scholl was in high school and went out to eat after concerts with her brother, his viola would get a chair before his date. Now he’s a violist with the Houston Symphony. But for singers, it’s a little different from replacing strings when they break and oiling valves regularly. “You are your instrument,” Mrs. Scholl says. “If you get sick, you can’t perform.” Mr. Scholl considers music as physically demanding as a sport: “I tell my students all the time that you are an athlete and you have to have the regimen of an athlete.”

An important part of an athlete’s regimen is diet, and singers need to be especially careful. “Singers are very orally oriented and we like to eat,” says Mr. Scholl. “When you get stressed out you turn to comfort foods. The foods you should eat in moderation you start to eat a lot of.” And unfortunately these habits can have a high cost in a profession where so much depends on your appearance.

“This has become the age of visual as well as aural,” says Mr. Scholl. “You don’t have to be Heidi Klum, but you have to be physically well.” Mrs. Scholl recalls a friend in Germany who was a talented vocalist but who had trouble being cast as a lyric soprano because of her weight. Often we think of the stereotypical opera singer as being on the hefty side, but that isn’t always what gets hired. “Pavarotti was actually a very thin man when he started his career,” Mrs. Scholl says.

It’s also easy to get too intense about being thin. “It’s always about balance,” says Mr. Scholl. “Obsessing about losing weight is just as wrong.” And finding the balance is necessary not just in eating, but in practicing, as well. Music students tend to love extremes, and many of us don’t know when to stop. This can lead to fatigue, strain, and even injury. Mr. Scholl learned this lesson the hard way when he was a young singer. “I had lots of work and I got sick, but I kept singing. Luckily with the help of a therapist I was able to get it back within two or three months,” he says. Now he and Mrs. Scholl discourage students from singing too much, and they teach alternate forms of practice like studying text or comparing different interpretations.

If the balance is thrown off, your homeostasis, both mental and physical, can be affected. “Once I became really unhappy about losing a job, and I got violently ill for a very long time,” Mrs. Scholl says. “It was really more emotional than anything else.” With time, realizing she wanted to continue with her career and having the support of Mr. Scholl, she got back on her feet. For times like these, the Scholls say, we need a social support system. “If you don’t have somebody, go to a professional,” Mr. Scholl says. “When David Daniels, a well-known countertenor, was here, someone asked, ‘How do you have a good career?’ and he said, ‘Get a good analyst.’”

If you don’t find the time to vent to friends, if you neglect your general wellness and you lead a narrow life, the Scholls warn there could be dire consequences for your career. Whether physical or emotional, it all contributes to your self-image. “How you feel about yourself can play a huge role when you sing,” Mrs. Scholl says. “If you feel like you’re creepy and ugly, you’re not going to sing well.” The answer, according to the Scholls, is not to obsess over anything, but to do everything in moderation. And in return, you will feel better about yourself. “This is a very stressful job,” Mr. Scholl says. “You really have to find time to relax and just get away from it all.” Mrs. Scholl agrees: “Try to live a balanced life in all aspects.”

Mindful Eating

By Sarah Puckett

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” -Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk

In the February 7th, 2012 New York Times article, “Mindful Eating as Food for Thought,” Jeff Gordinier explores the Buddhist practice of tuning in to your dining habits. When we think about mindfulness, we often think about meditation, or even music practice, but we don’t usually consider eating.

According to Gordinier, mindful eating isn’t about making yourself eat healthier. Instead, it’s about experiencing food more fully in the present moment. Like many practice techniques that musicians use to develop full-body awareness, mindful eating is about observing your sensations as you eat at an excruciatingly slow pace.

“It’s about experiencing food more intensely—especially the pleasure of it,” Gordinier writes. And sometimes you might be surprised at what you discover. “You can eat a cheeseburger mindfully, if you wish. You might enjoy it a lot more,” says Gordinier. “Or you might decide, halfway through, that your body has had enough. Or that it really needs some salad.” Often, when we become more aware, we make better decisions. If you want to try it at home, Gordinier advises turning off the computer and TV, keeping conversation to a minimum, creating a peaceful environment with flowers and candles, and chewing slowly while you eat.

December Newsletter

Seasonal Tips

By Sarah Puckett

This time of the year, we not only have the pleasure of increasingly miserable winter weather to deal with, but exams are also just around the corner.

Look around. When our eyes become fixated, our bodies become rigid. If you have to focus for a long time at a computer or in a practice room, take a break roughly every 20 minutes to release your eyes from the screen or your music and let go of any tension you’ve been holding before resuming work.

Make time for fun with friends. It’s easy to go into a practice/study cave towards the end of the semester. Setting aside time for socialization, even just to commiserate about all of the work you have to do, is a good way to recharge.

Invest in waterproof gloves. For those who have a long walk or bike ride to school or who drive and have to clear snow off windshields, waterproof gloves are essential to keep hands from losing heat (which saves time when you get in the practice room).

When it comes time for juries and exams, don’t drastically change your routine. We perform best under normal circumstances. If you normally eat a pop-tart for breakfast, cooking an eggs and bacon feast on jury day will probably throw you off.

Laughter Yoga Alone

By Sarah Puckett

Do you tend to get road rage driving around town by yourself? Does it feel like your world is crumbling if you can’t get a cup of coffee in the morning? You might need Laughter Yoga Alone.

Dr. Madan Kataria of Mumbai, India developed the practice of Laughter Yoga in 1995 to help people find relief from normal physical and mental ailments. Now people all over the world get together and practice laughing for no reason with the idea that the bodily process of laughing has the same physical and emotional benefits whether you believe something’s funny or not. And often, fake laughter leads to real laughter.

With Laughter Yoga Alone, Dr. Kataria gives some ideas on how to achieve the same physical and mental benefits even throughout the day when you don’t have the support of a group. For example, he suggests laughing in the bathroom. You might even try doing it regularly with your morning shower to condition the physical laughter response as soon as you turn on the water. The car is also a great place to laugh without any self-consciousness and cure the stress of traffic jams. To lighten your overall mood, he suggests laughing at yourself when minor things go wrong. Instead of getting upset when your cat spills your cereal all over the floor and you have five minutes to get to class, say “haaaaa” a few times, even if you don’t feel like laughing. Sometimes just feeling ridiculous but being willing to act a little foolish is enough to trigger real laughter.

If you’re not sure how to start laughing, use Dr. Kataria’s instructions: say Ho Ho and then Ha Ha, and repeat (if you don’t like the sound of your own voice, you can even do this exercise without making any sound and it will still work). These syllables work the abdominal muscles, and, after a little warming up, will trigger mental relaxation.

Check out Dr. Kataria’s website for more information:

www.laughteryoga.org

Feeling tense? Need a break from end of the year stress? Try a Lie Down!

By Drew Sevel

The Lie Down is an exercise commonly utilized in the Alexander Technique to relieve tension and allow the spine to gather into its normal position. This technique places the body in semisupine position.

What you need:

1.       Firm surface such as a floor or table—avoid beds. Softer surfaces provide less support.

2.       An exercise mat or rug

3.       2-4 books

4.       A small towel

Here’s how to do it:

1.       Place the rug or exercise mat over the firm surface. Stack a couple of books at the head of the rug. Fold your towel on top.

2.       Gently lower yourself onto the ground, eventually lying on your back. Your knees should be comfortably bent.

3.       Lift your head and place the stack of books under it. Adjust the height of the stack as needed. You will need enough to prevent the curve of your neck from flattening but not enough to feel your chin pressing against your throat. Experiment to find what works best for you!

4.       Rest your hands on your chest under your sternum.

5.       Ideally, you will lie here for at least ten minutes but even a couple minutes are better than none! If you feel one of your knees becoming tense, gently straighten your leg and allow it to relax for a couple of minutes. Take this time to mentally scan your body. Notice any tension you may still be holding and let those muscles relax.

November Newsletter

This month, spend some time listening not only to the sound you make on your instrument, but also to your body and your mind. Find out how Dr. Lillios got into Deep Listening, learn some self-care tips, check out the benefits of meditation and use your leftover Halloween pumpkin to make soup!

Upcoming Events

Sunday, Nov. 13th, 6 pm

Healthy Potluck hosted by Dr. Leclair. Bring your favorite dish to share.  Check Facebook/email for directions.

Wednesday, Dec. 7th, 7 pm

Self-care/burnout session (joint event with OCMEA)

We will define self-care and strategies that can lead to short and long-term physical and psychological improvements. We will also discuss burnout, its phases, and how regular self-care can prevent it. Location TBA.

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Elainie Lillios, Associate Professor of Composition

By Sarah Puckett

How do you get something from nothing? Dr. Elainie Lillios finds that it’s precisely when you open yourself to the nothing that the possibilities for creativity become endless. It’s all around us—we just need to find a way to access it.

“Who teaches us how to listen?” Lillios asks. “For instance, your piano teacher says, ‘You made a mistake there.’ Is that teaching me how to listen or is that teaching me how to identify when I made a mistake? Is there a difference between those things?” The pursuit of learning how to listen is what drew Lillios to Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening®. The threefold philosophy and practice aims to cultivate awareness and conscious listening through meditation, physical activities, and listening in dreams.

The first step for Lillios was turning inward, developing awareness of self and realizing just how much noise we make as individuals. When she turned outward and connected with others in her practice, her creativity blossomed even more. Some of the physical improvisations which inspire participants to boogie unreservedly seemed strange at first. But soon the sense of community became a source of safety, encouraging Lillios to push herself farther, especially in sound improvisations. “What you’re doing is exploring and there is no mistake in that exploration,” she says. “If you make the response that your inner self wants to make, you cannot make a mistake. Whether that response is “caw,” or “screech,” or “beep,” or “bop,” there is no judgment on that.”

Reflecting on a Deep Listening® retreat she attended, Lillios says, “I remember thinking to myself, ‘I wonder what kind of music she [Oliveros] is going to play for us.’ But we didn’t listen to any music the entire weekend. We just listened. I could tune in to my own creativity in a way that I hadn’t done before.”

When Lillios is able to access her creative stores, the benefits extend even beyond the success of her compositions. She believes that being creative actually influences her sense of wellbeing. “My own sense of wellbeing is driven more by creativity than it is driven by academic knowledge or technical knowledge or technical ability,” she says. “I have the greatest sense of wellness when I feel that I’m being creative and that I’m able to share that creativity with my students.” According to Lillios, when we seek perfection, we often look in the wrong place. While we may look great on paper we might still lead an unbalanced life.

“When we talk about the idea of wellness we’re not just talking about one aspect of ourselves,” says Lillios. “We’re talking about physical, emotional, psychological, mental. For example, do I feel engaged with myself? Do I feel engaged with my activities, my work, my studies? Do I feel engaged with my community, with society, with culture? Do I have a place within the context of the whole?”

If Lillios engages in life through working creatively, practicing Deep Listening®, and connecting with students and community, then she feels truly well. “If I’m the greatest composer that ever lived and my students are unhappy in their own studies, to me that’s not wellness,” she says. “Wellness extends beyond me.”

For more information on Deep Listening®: www.deeplistening.org or search Deep Listening on Facebook.

Recipe: Curried Pumpkin Soup

From Drew Sevel
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon canola oil
Lime juice to taste
2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 ½ cups pumpkin or the flesh of one 2-3 pound sugar pumpkin
2 teaspoons curry powder (or make your own by seasoning to taste with cumin, turmeric, coriander, nutmeg, and cardamom)
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ half-and-half (For a healthier version, use zero or reduced fat dairy)
Cilantro to garnish
Pepper to taste
Directions: Sautee onion and garlic in oil until onion is translucent. Add all remaining ingredients except half-and-half. Bring to a boil and simmer until pumpkin is tender. Blend with a food processer or mash pumpkin with a fork. Mix in half-and-half. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Overview of Mindfulness for Musicians Workshop

By Dan Frakes

Mindfulness is acting consciously and being aware of your body and thoughts; further, being aware in the moment without judgment.

How can mindfulness be beneficial to your practice?

>helps you identify the reason for problems in your playing so you can solve them efficiently and without harshly criticizing yourself

>frees the body to perform without being bogged down in analytical thought

meditationformusicians.com is a useful resource offering various listening and practice exercises.

Observations after doing a meditation exercise from meditationformusicians.com:

>could hear body: became aware of body tensions

>identified tension in areas of body not even considered before

>found it difficult to NOT respond to unexpected sounds

Other ideas for exercises included playing one note for five minutes several times a day or using free improvisation to tune in to your body.

Simply Self-Care

By Drew Sevel

It’s that time in the semester when responsibilities start to pile up. Although it is important to keep commitments, your ability to do so will be much greater if you take some time to be committed to yourself.

What is self-care? It is engaging in valued activities to promote balance in your life, foster feelings of satisfaction, establish balance, and restore health, leading to long-term benefits. Here are some tips to help you stay vitalized.

1. Adopt the right attitude: taking care of yourself is not selfish! Addressing personal needs will promote better professional, musical, and academic functioning.

2. Relaxation doesn’t have to be passive. Identify an area of your life you would like to improve (emotional, relational, spiritual, physical, intellectual) and set goals.

3. Be flexible! Try out a variety of activities that keep you mentally and physically fresh so that nurturing yourself doesn’t become a chore.

October Newsletter

Welcome to the October online edition of the Well-Tempered Musician. This month, read about Dr. Jacqueline Leclair's take on awareness, check out a book at the new Wellness Library, try some tips to combat stagefright and bake falafel.

Upcoming event:

Melissa Falb, president of the BGSU Mindfulness Club and PhD candidate in Psychology, will give a talk at the end of October. Stay tuned for dates and times. She will discuss acceptance and commitment therapy, which is loosely based on concepts of Buddhism and mindfulness. According to Falb, if we can accept our anxiety and listen to it in the right way, it can actually be a useful tool. Then, commitment means making the decision to move forward with things that give our life meaning despite any anxiety we may have. This is particularly relevant and liberating for us as musicians, since we may have to perform whether we feel confident or not.

Seasonal Tips: Preparing for Performance

By Drew Sevel

With recitals and gigs in full swing for the remainder of the year, here are a few suggestions that may improve your performance.

Performance Day Meal:

-Avoid large meals two to four hours before your performance. Less work digesting means more energy available for your performance.

-An ideal pre-performance meal is high in complex carbohydrates, with a small amount of protein, and low in sugar and fat.

Get to know the space: Get used to the acoustics of the room and consider how you will enter and exit stage.

-Visualizing yourself in the performance situation beforehand can increase confidence in the moment.

Relaxation techniques for combating nerves:

-Progressive muscle relaxation: Deeply inhale through your nose. Slowly exhale for 5 seconds while continuously contracting one muscle or muscle group. Repeat 2 or 3 times for each group. Start with toes and work your way up. Be careful not to tense enough to cause pain.

-Mindful breathing: While sitting, close your eyes and allow a breath to enter through your nose (do not force). When the breath stops, mentally say “one.” Allow the breath to exit and mentally say “two.” Focus on your breath and count to ten.

Meet a Professor: Dr. Jacqueline Leclair, oboe

By Sarah Puckett

What did you eat for breakfast? Did you fight with your roommate this morning? How aware of your lifestyle are you? Dr. Jacqueline Leclair believes the path to wellness lies in answering these questions. “If we don’t know we’re out of tune, how are we going to fix it?” she says. “The first step is to be aware.”

                Awareness should not be limited to the sounds coming out of our instruments. Over the years, Leclair has learned to pay attention to everything, from how her body feels after eating a bag of potato chips to the yoga her friends practice to the kinds of restaurants her fellow wellness-minded musicians choose to go to. She cautions: “Everything goes with you on stage. You don’t just take the good practice on stage; you don’t just take the good food you eat on stage.”

                The importance of diet in particular became clear for Leclair when she was 24 and got a kitten. “I fed him the worst possible food—worse than bad—so he was six months old and already he was fat and had a bad attitude and would just lie around grumpy.” She didn’t realize the cheap dry cat food was to blame. But she read a book, The New Natural Cat, which explains feline nutrition. “I started making my cat’s food for him with raw meat and vegetables and he became super-kitty. I thought, ‘Gee, what am I eating?’”

Leclair recommends building awareness and effective practice techniques by considering all aspects of yourself when you’re in the practice room. “Negative attitudes and fear and stop you dead in your tracks,” says Leclair. “That’s bad technique. A weak emotional approach to practicing is poor technique. We need a good emotional approach, a good psychological approach and a good physical approach.” According to Leclair, what we need to work on personally is right there in the music we create, if we really listen. She says, “Music is like a mirror; it reflects back on you. Our daily practice reveals ourselves to ourselves.”

                The good news is that as students of music, we are poised to improve. Just by choosing a career in music, we are surrounded by friends and colleagues who, in order to gain awareness and become better players, really think about their general health and wellness. “It’s a very happy unforeseen condition of being a performing musician—we bring our whole selves to it because we’re looking for long careers,” Leclair says. “It’s this happy, very beneficial part of our world.”

Healthy Recipe: Baked Falafel

From Drew Sevel

Ingredients:
15oz can chickpeas or equivalent dried chickpeas soaked overnight
½ onion, chopped
2 ½ teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
dash red pepper flakes
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix together all ingredients except olive oil in a large bowl. Transfer mixture into food processor or blender. Don’t have either? The mixture can be mashed together with a fork, just make sure it isn’t too chunky. Form into balls 2-3 inches in diameter, gently press down to form a patty. Brush each falafel with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until bottom of falafel begins to brown. Flip each falafel and bake for an additional 8-12 minutes. Let cool and serve on top of a salad or inside pita bread.

Musician Wellness Library October Titles

The Wellness Library (located in the Curriculum Lab) is officially up and running. Currently these books are available:

Fit As A Fiddle: The Musician’s Guide to Playing Healthy
                William J. Dawson

Body Learning: An Introduction to the Alexander Technique
                Michael J. Gelb

How to Learn the Alexander Technique: A Manual for Students
                Barbara Conable

Indirect Procedures: A Musician’s Guide to the Alexander Technique
                Pedro De Alcantara

The Musician’s Body: A Maintenance Manual for Peak Performers
                Jaume Rosset I Llobet and George Odam

Awareness Heals: The Feldenkrais Method for Dynamic Health
                Steven Shafarman

The Musician as Athlete: Alternative Approaches to Healthy Performance
                Dorothy Bishop

Playing (less) Hurt: An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians
                Janet Horvath

The Athletic Musician: A Guide to Playing Without Pain
                Barbara Paull and Christine Herrison

What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body: The Practical Application of Body Mapping to Making Music
                Barbara Conable

MWG Minutes, 8/30/2011

Officers:
Jim Lang, Treasurer
Sarah Puckett, Newsletter
Drew Sevel, President
Agenda:

1. Welcome and general information about the organization (See our mission statement).
2. Budget:
1. SBC has allocated us $700 to host fall and spring workshops and clinics.
2. We are obligated to raise 25% of that amount
3. Dues: $10 yearly membership dues will be a way to raise money to match our SBC obligations
1. Dues will include free access to all meetings and workshops we host and access to a blackboard resource page
3. Up-Coming Events
1. 9/25/11: We will be hosting a 2 hour workshop on basic principles of Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique. For this, we have invited Donna Doellinger, an Alexander Technique and Body Mapping instructor from Columbus, Oh. Following the workshop, she will also provide 30-minute private lessons for $25.
2. Mindfulness speaker: We are in the process of organizing a session on mindfulness and how it can enhance practice, performance and education practices of musicians as well as wellness outside of the profession.
3. Burnout/Self-Care session: We are also working to organize a co-sponsored event with OCMEA that will discuss burnout and delineate important self-care strategies that can lead to life-long, healthy careers.
4. Healthy potlucks: Be on the look-out for information about potlucks hosted by the MWG.
5. If there are any topics of interest to you that you would like the MWG to address, please send suggestions to lsevel@bgsu.edu!
4. Newsletter:
1. The Well-Tempered Musician covers a variety of topics in each issue
1. Past issues have included: faculty profiles, seasonal tips, book reviews, healthy recipes and therapy spotlights
2. We are always welcome to new writers or article ideas. Please send inquiries to sarahwpuck@gmail.com

September Newsletter

Welcome to the online edition of The Well-Tempered Musician, the newsletter for the BGSU Musician Wellness Group. Look for us in print around the CMA. In this month's back-to-school issue, Drew, the group's president, offers tips for adopting a healthy practice routine. The September issue also features 

ideas for recreation in the Bowling Green community--check out some of the parks the BG area has to offer while the nice weather lasts!

***Our next event will be a workshop featuring Body Mapping and Alexander Technique on September 24^th. Details to follow. Join our Facebook group by searching BGSU Musician Wellness Group or add yourself to our mailing list for schedule updates.***

Feature:                             

Get active off campus 

By Sarah Puckett

Hot Yoga with Joe, 29101 Hufford Rd, Perrysburg

20 minutes from BG, Joe offers Bikram yoga classes (a set of specific yoga poses in 104 degrees of heat) as well as massage and hot kettlebells. $5 for first class, $15 per class after that.

http://hotyogawithjoe.com/

Slippery Elm Bike Trail, Sand Ridge Rd

13.5 miles long and set on a former railroad bed, this trail winds past scenic views of corn fields and stables into the town of North Baltimore.

http://www.ohiobikeways.net/slippery.htm

BG Community Center, 1245 W Newton Rd

Cardio, yoga, Zumba and Pilates classes, as well as square dance and drop-in volleyball.

http://www.bgohio.org/departments/parks-and-recreation/programs/fitness-yoga-dance

Portage Quarry Recreation Club, 12701 S Dixie Highway, Portage

Scuba diving, something called hydro bikes, not to mention a twisty water slide. $5 for entry.

http://www.portagequarry.com/

Hiryuu School of Martial Arts, 437 S Main St

Beginner-friendly classes for adults that foster a high level of concentration and physical health.
http://www.hiryuuschoolofmartialarts.com/

State Parks

Mary Jane Thurston State Park, 15 minutes away

Maumee Bay State Park, 35 minutes away

Catawba Island State Park, 1 hour 15 minutes away

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/tabid/726/Default.aspx

Healthy Recipe

From Jessica Heller Knopf

Zucchini Tomato Salad

Serves 4

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium zucchini, cut in a ½ inch dice

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

¾ cup corn kernels, thawed OR 1 ear of corn, kernels removed

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp honey

2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs, or 1 tsp dried (suggestion: basil, parsley, oregano)

½ tsp pepper

¾ tsp salt

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes.  Put in a bowl, along with tomatoes and corn.

Whisk all dressing ingredients together.  Add enough to the salad to thoroughly coat the vegetables (there may be extra left that can be used as a salad dressing).  Refrigerate or serve at room temperature.

Musician as Athlete: Tips for resuming healthy practice to start the year off right

By Drew Sevel

    •       Warm-Up Away from Your Instrument

Warm-up is essential before stretching and

playing to ensure easeful movement and to

prevent excess tension and injury. Gently and

slowly explore the motion of your neck,

shoulders, arms, hands, hips and legs. Try slowly

raising your arms above your head and down to

your sides, then experiment with different

directions.

    •       Stretching

After a gentle warm-up, stretching increases your ease with your body and therefore with your instrument. Great stretching tips are in Paull and Harrison’s The Athletic Musician.

    •       Warm-Up on Your Instrument

Before getting to work, take a few moments to focus on one or two fundamentals. Treat practice as physical exercise (because it is). The same way an athlete wouldn’t start sprinting at full speed right after waking up, you shouldn’t start playing the hardest passages in your music right after getting to the practice room.

    •       While Practicing

Aim for variety and analysis. Avoid mindless repetition. Rather, critically analyze your playing and experiment with small changes that may help you reach goals. Alternate between vigorous, technical passages and those with less bravado to prevent excessive fatigue.

    •       Know When to Stop

Taking breaks is an easy way to prevent serious injury. When you start feeling tired, tense, sore or hurt, put your instrument down, step away from the piano or music stand and take at least a twenty second break to loosen up, do a couple warm-up movements, or take a walk. A good rule of thumb is one twenty second (minimum) break for every twenty minutes of playing. This also improves mental focus.

    •       Warm-Down and Stretch

Gentle and slow movements to wrap up your practice session are equally as vital as warming up. Engage in some warm-up exercises before post-playing stretching to allow your next practice session to be healthy and free of tension.

Judith Lasater’s Living Your Yoga

Review by Sarah Puckett

    We tend to think of yoga in terms of what happens on the mat. In a lot of westernized yoga classes and DVDs, it’s basically just stretching. But for Judith Lasater, the practice of yoga is much more than poses.

    With chapter titles like Control, Compassion, and Patience, Lasater spends hardly any time discussing forward bends and lotus poses. Instead, she dissects passages from the Bhagavad-gita and the Yoga Sutra, relating them to concepts westerners can understand.

    Her chapter called Attachment and Aversion is especially pertinent for musicians. As students, we are constantly criticized for practicing our musical craft the wrong way. It becomes far too easy to develop an attachment to the notion of right or an aversion to the idea of wrong. When this happens, Lasater says, we become subject to physiological and emotional reactions that are out of control, and we lose touch with the reality of things in the present moment.

    Picture you’re in the middle of a performance and it’s going horribly. Because you’re so averted to the idea of humiliation in front of your teachers and peers, your muscles tense and it becomes difficult to play. On the other hand, if the performance is going well, you might be so attached to the idea of recognition and having a “good” performance that you become distracted from the music and ruin the performance anyway.

    Lasater writes: “The sad thing about being caught up in attachment or aversion is that it interferes with the ability to experience things as they are…Learning to live in the moment, complete with your preferences and recognizing attachment and aversion, is like a soothing balm on a sunburn.”

    She goes on to give practice exercises that work on mindfulness in everyday life, not just during yoga class. Living Your Yoga is pleasant and easy to read, though I find it a little heavy on anecdotes of her kids, since those are harder for me to relate to. Still, for performing musicians, learning mindfulness in the present moment is crucial, and this book is a great and easy way to start.

April Newsletter

Tips for Better Sleep

By Katie Pakizer

Sleep Deprivation: General Info

·       The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep

·       Sleep loss can impair the ability to perform tasks involving memory, learning, and logical reasoning

·       Sleep deprivation can inhibit weight loss

·       More than 100,000 auto crashes every year are fatigue-related

Try to avoid:

·       Alcohol or caffeine in the late afternoon or evening

·       Disturbing noise in the sleep environment

·       Exercise three hours before bed

·       Using the bed for anything but sleep or sex

·       Exposure to bright light before bed

If you can’t fall asleep, don’t force yourself to stay in bed! This will only cause more anxiety. Get up and do some kind of relaxing activity until you feel sleepy like listening to soothing music, reading, or knitting. See also: sleepfoundation.com

Meet a Professor: Jeff Halsey, double bass 

By Sarah Puckett

It’s happened to us all before: you hit a wall practicing and you can’t figure out how to conquer a piece. The technique’s all wrong and the notes aren’t coming. You start to get stiff—things just feel wrong in your body. What do you do? For jazz bass professor Jeff Halsey, it’s all about community.

“The jazz musician knows right up front it’s about all of us, together,” he says. “And I really think it affects brain chemistry.” Something about trusting the group sets him free. “I tell you when I perform there’s an elation that happens. ‘Cause we jump off the cliff every time we play. And somehow when we play we create a safety net for each other.” Somehow, that safety net sets his fingers free so when he’s on stage Wednesdays at 149, his giant, heavy bass seems light and effortless to play.

It wasn’t always so easy, though. When Halsey was a student, it was all about standing out from the competition (maybe things haven’t changed so much). “You’re focusing on all this hot technique trying to become the next big lion or lioness,” he says. But people wouldn’t think about how it felt to play. “We would get pain,” he says. “I remember playing and having repetitive stress pain, but I was always trained as a kid, ‘that’s pain and you’ll just deal with it.’”

This lack of body awareness worked for Halsey when he was younger. At least the consequences weren’t so apparent then. How he treated his body in the practice room or what he put in his mouth for fuel didn’t matter so much. A typical meal on tour, he says, would consist of a Hostess Sno Ball, a Diet Coke, “some sort of meat stick” and a cigarette.

Then, a few years ago, a visit to the doctor made Halsey aware of just how important his body was. “I was sort of shocked into improving my health,” he says. “For one year I went on a very strict diet regime. I got interested in Indian food because it’s so flavorful without having all the fats and things that aren’t good for your health, and I dropped two pounds a week for a year.” He lost a total of 120 pounds and made exercise a daily part of his life.

Now he notices when his exercise routine is off or he eats too much red meat. “You don’t have as much energy, everything’s not running on all cylinders.” All the physical health aspects have to be there, because, he says, “Your body is your vessel; it’s what allows you to communicate.”

And when communication is open, there is the potential for that magic that happens when Halsey loses himself in the music with a group. With those young lions and lionesses, communication gets shut off, both within their own bodies and with other musicians. If all you care about is showing off technique, according to Halsey, you miss the point. But if you remember that you’re using your body to create music, great things are possible. “If you serve the music,” he says, “the music will serve you.”

Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress and Develop Body Awareness

By Drew Sevel

One:

·       Sit or stand straight.

·       Inhale through your nose. Fill the lower section of your lungs.

·       Notice how your chest raises and your lower ribs expand.

·       Hold your breath for a few seconds.

·       Exhale slowly, allowing your abdomen to relax.

Two:

·       Sit or stand straight.

·       Inhale a complete natural breath, as described in the previous exercise.

·       Hold this breath for several seconds.

·       Exhale a little of the air with force through a small opening in your lips.

·       Stop exhaling for a moment, then blow out more air.

·       Repeat until you have exhaled all the air.

Fast healthy dinner on a school night: Sweet potato with curry yogurt

From Sara Courson

1 large sweet potato

¼ c plain yogurt

½ tsp curry powder

¼ tsp cayenne or ancho chile powder (optional—spicy)

Diced cucumber, garnish

Microwave sweet potato 1.5 minutes, pierce with fork 3 to 5 times, then microwave another 1.5 minutes or until tender. Stir together yogurt, curry powder, cayenne or ancho chile powder and cucumber. Serve over potato.

Did you know?

Sweet potatoes are one of the most nutritious vegetables according to the Center for Public Interest. Not only do they contain hardly any fat or sodium but they are also high in vitamins E, A and C and they provide a good source of fiber (especially when eaten with the skin). Sweet potatoes may help promote healthy digestion, maintain a healthy immune system, and lower the risk of colon cancer. For more info on this orange tuber, see www.sweetpotato.org

Therapy Spotlight: Massage and Reiki

By Dan Frakes

Adapted from a presentation given by Dr. Christina Laberge, Reiki Master Teacher, at the Wellness Group Meeting on March 28^th

Massage

Not-so-obvious benefits:

-stress reduction

-shorter healing time for injuries

-reduction of muscular tension (tension in the shoulders is extremely common, and can lead to tension in arms, forearms, hands, jaw, tongue, and head)

-overall sense of well-being

-release of impinged nerves which can cause pain, numbness and/or tingling

-increased flexibility

-increased awareness of areas of muscular tension

-sinus drainage

-release of muscular toxins like lactic acid that accumulate, causing fatigue

-reduction of headaches

Reiki: What is it?

Reiki is a form of therapy that considers four different kinds of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  It utilizes the same type of energy involved in acupuncture, but instead of needles, the therapist transmits the energy directly through his or her hands.  Reiki can help acute and chronic physical conditions, and is most often used in conjunction with other forms of therapy.

To learn more, visit www.reiki.org or if you’re interested in booking an appointment, go to Dr. Laberge’s website at www.wellspringbodyworks.com