Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Artists are Actually Athletes

We all might think that we are artists, but as far as our bodies are concerned, we are athletes. Realization of the demands of the instrument, practice process, and the music on our bodies is a first step towards developing a healthy attitude towards playing and living. Susan Eichhorn writes in Once More With Feeling about the athletic demands of singing, but what she says is applicable to every kind of musician:
Admit where you are. Start there.

There is no right or wrong, but there is a truth. How strong are you innately? How coordinated are you physically? How balanced are you physically? How aligned are you? How flexible are you? Do you have a quick muscle twitch, or are you sluggish?

All of these physical athletic observations are KEY to discovering what sorts of athletic and physical activities will be best suited for YOUR physicality, your natural development, and your psyche.

If you are tense person - physically, emotionally, psychologically - then you need to find an athletic activity that gives you permission to release not to add more tension!

If you are a sluggish person - then you need to discover more energy, more demand, more engagement.

Make sense?

...As we continue to develop as artists, as singers, we discover what the physical instrument needs and what the integration of the physicality needs with our emotional and spiritual element.

1 comment:

  1. Being a piano teacher myself, I've never thought of it that way. Interesting!

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