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 24th. 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
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.
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
BG Community Center, 1245 W Newton Rd
Cardio, yoga, Zumba and Pilates classes, as well as square dance and drop-in volleyball.
Scuba diving, something called hydro bikes, not to mention a twisty water slide. $5 for entry.
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/
http://www.hiryuuschoolofmartialarts.com/
State Parks
Mary Jane Thurston State Park, 15 minutes away
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment