Yoga for Musicians The Plank English Piano Teacher Free Audio Classes Adults Children.
hello musicians welcome to the yoga for musicians podcast now i'm a teacher and i always always stress upon my students to use yoga effectively and to use a warm-up a yoga warm-up if they can before they start their practice and actually consider it a bit like perhaps tuning up is it something that you just do before you practice look we don't always get time please please please do your stretches at the very least don't sit down to practice without doing some stretches but if you've got a bit more time and if you've got a routine going it's it's really a very good discipline to have a regular practice routine at a regular set time with a regular set um meditative session beforehand so get up in the morning have your breakfast your coffee whatever it is that you do answer all your emails get all that out the way do your stretches do your five or six yoga movements and then do your practice and then every 20 minutes if you can or every 45 at the very most have a break for 5-10 minutes do some stretches have a drink look out the window rest your eyes stretch sit down again and practice for the next 40 minutes okay i mean look i understand that musicians often practice six seven eight hours if you push your body too much you're going to end your career early if you push your body too much you're not going to enjoy the act of playing music as much as you should okay it's not some sort of self-flagellation and i think as musicians you know we're all so guilty of this pushing pushing pushing we want to excel and we become obsessed completely obsessed you know to the point of um you know losing friendships getting divorced um not sleeping and eventually having to retire early because we've completely we're you know riddled with arthritis and this isn't this is not a myth this happens um you know julian lloyd webb has had to retire recently for uh medical reasons you know the body can't take it so i do really try to press upon musicians that i teach that this these methods will not only allow you to practice better and to improve at a faster rate but they will also give you longevity in your in your music your musicianship okay so the stretches are absolutely durable you have you must do the stretches at any rate but if you can put together four or five yoga moves to do before your practice sessions each day that's such a cool idea and if you can get into this habit of practicing regularly at a set time um each day after your stretching and your yoga movements you will find i i absolutely promise this you will find that you improve your musicianship improves you will have to practice less but achieve more this is how it works this is how the body and the mind work okay together so i'm putting together a series of yoga movements that i think will benefit particularly musicians and the first one what i'd suggest you do by the way is is you put together your own four or five that you do um in the mornings or before your practice i mean look if you if you prefer to do them in the evenings and and wake up the next morning and just go straight into your breakfast however you do it however you work it out you work out your own um uh timetable how best suits you to um perform at your your peak you know um now this one is called the plank and the plank is um as a core strengthening exercise and the reason the core is so important for musicians is because when we're playing we absolutely need to have a strong core it's the co in the core is this center um this area that goes from your head um down to your rump if you're seated and actually down to the ground if you're standing but it's the center of your gravity um your physical um energy center if you like and the stronger the core the better your posture but also the better your balance and the better equipped you're going to be to handle your instrument you'll understand balance and you can...