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Organized into four main parts, this book first explores the mind-body connection and then separately discusses the mind, body, and soul of musicians, scholars, performers, and teachers of all voices and instruments. With terms, questions for reflection, and assignments at the...
""The ancient practice of yoga, which has exploded in popularity in the United States over the past two decades, has the potential to help music students learn to practice more mindfully and reach peak performance more quickly. This book explores how professional musicians and music teachers of all instruments and levels can use yoga postures (asana) and breath work (pranayama) to enhance artistry. It begins with an overview of yoga philosophy and history before delving into principles of movement, alignment, anatomy, and breath. Following a research-oriented chapter illustrating the cognitive, physical, and emotional benefits of yoga, each chapter explores the unique benefits of yoga for a particular population of students, describing specific poses, modifications, sequences, and sample curricula that teachers can immediately implement into private lessons or group classes. Chapter Four describes the developmental benefits of yoga and music education in early childhood and includes a sample eight-week preschool music curriculum. Chapter Five on the adolescent student explains how yoga can alleviate stress related to social and performance anxiety, enhance mindfulness, and increase peer support in a music studio. Chapter Six, for professional musicians and college students, describes how yoga can prevent or alleviate repetitive stress injuries and other physical symptoms. The final chapter offers ideas for appropriate modifications for the retired adult along with a sample eight-week curriculum to combine yoga with Recreational Music Making. Throughout the book, yoga is presented as a tool for reducing physical tension and anxiety while simultaneously improving body awareness, enhancing cognition, and helping music students to achieve peak performance. ""--
Music Fundamentals: A Balanced Approach, Third Edition combines a textbook and integrated workbook with an interactive website for those who want to learn the basics of reading music. Intended for students with little or no prior knowledge of music theory, it offers a patient approach to understanding and mastering the building blocks of musical practice and structure. Musical examples range from Elvis Presley songs to Filipino ballads to Beethoven symphonies, offering a balanced mixture of global, classical, and popular music. The new edition includes: Additional vocabulary features and review exercises Additional musical selections and 1-, 2-, or 3-hand rhythmic exercises The addition of guitar tablature A revised text design that more clearly designates the different types of exercises and makes the Workbook pages easier to write on An improved companion website with added mobile functionality The author’s balanced approach to beginning music theory engages student interest while demonstrating how music theory concepts apply not only to the Western classical canon but also to popular and world music. With the beginner student in mind, Music Fundamentals: A Balanced Approach, Third Edition is a comprehensive text for understanding the foundations of music theory.
The Athletic Musician is an innovative approach that teaches musicians how to prevent and manage injuries, presented in a unique format that combines sound medical protocol with a musician's point of view. Harrison, a musician, discusses the magnitude of the problem of musicians' injuries with reference to statistical surveys and discusses the emotional and psychological impact of injury on the individual musician. Paull, an orthopedic physiotherapist describes, in layman's terms, the athletic approach to a musician's injuries. Each commonly injured area is examined in turn, from neck, back and shoulder pain to arm, wrist and hand problems. For each area, the anatomy is described, followed by an explanation of what causes the injury and how to avoid or prevent the injury from occurring. Musicians should regard themselves as elite 'musical athletes' and protect themselves from injury by following athletic training protocols. The authors present appropriate stretching regimes and postural corrections for both on and off stage, as well as ergonomic changes to instrument and playing positions. The text is amply illustrated with sketches for every exercise and stretch, photographs of musicians demonstrating playing postures, and unique anatomical drawings of musicians. The Athletic Musician presents research-based, scientific material in a format that is relevant, clear, and practical for all musicians. The combination of a medical and musical perspectives makes it an indispensable guide for all musicians and the health care professionals who aspire to help them.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • David Byrne’s incisive and enthusiastic look at the musical art form, from its very inceptions to the influences that shape it, whether acoustical, economic, social, or technological—now updated with a new chapter on digital curation. “How Music Works is a buoyant hybrid of social history, anthropological survey, autobiography, personal philosophy, and business manual”—The Boston Globe Utilizing his incomparable career and inspired collaborations with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and many others, David Byrne taps deeply into his lifetime of knowledge to explore the panoptic elements of music, how it shapes the human experience, and reveals the impetus behind how we create, consume, distribute, and enjoy the songs, symphonies, and rhythms that provide the backbeat of life. Byrne’s magnum opus uncovers thrilling realizations about the redemptive liberation that music brings us all.
How can musicians express themselves and recreate the great masterworks with ease and expressiveness and yet avoid injury in the process? Musicians face many challenges: a highly competitive environment, performance anxiety, demanding repertoire, years of solitary practice, and awkward postures. The hectic pace of rehearsals and performances when added to the mix often results in the very real risk of physical pain and injury. This book is a readable and comprehensive guide and reference for all concerned with pain in musical work: professional and amateur musicians, teachers and students, doctors and therapists. This book is essential for all musicians. String, keyboard, percussion, harp, brass and wind players will play better and feel better. Read about: Why it may hurt to play; Injury susceptibility quiz; Risk factors & danger signals; Hearing, back, disc, arm and shoulder problems; 10 onstage tricks; TMJ, teeth, larynx and joint laxity; Stretching & strengthening; Rehabilitation & work-hardening; Musician's survival kit; 10 do's & don'ts; Instrument modifications; Guide to safe practicing.
How can certain songs carry us through a tough workout, comfort us after a breakup, or unite 50,000 diverse fans? In this fascinating field guide, neuroscientist and opera singer Indre Viskontas investigates what music is and how it can change us for the better—from deep in our neurons to across our entire society. Whether hip-hop fans, classically trained pianists, or vinyl collectors, readers will think about their favorite songs in a whole new way by the end of this book. This is a vibrant and smart gift for any audiophile.
Caring for the Whole Musician brings together insights from two expert musicians and educators to consider the relationship between mental and physical health and artistic practice for musicians. Offering a holistic perspective that encompasses the whole being – body, mind, and heart – this book provides emerging musicians with tools, practices, and mindsets to address key challenges throughout their journey. The first part, Awareness, addresses wellness and embodiment in music, exploring how our bodies are constructed and how the use of our bodies as instruments affects function. Using approaches including Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique, this part helps readers discover adverse habits that interfere with natural movement, and nurture awareness of the body. The second part, Mindfulness, explores how meditative practice can be incorporated into every stage of concert preparation and embedded within the daily life of the musician. Offering mindfulness exercises related to each stage of the music-making process, these chapters provide strategies for readers to enhance their well-being and focus. Centered in the understanding of the musician as a whole being, this book provides an essential guide to how practices of awareness and mindfulness can allow musicians to better care for themselves and flourish in their artistic careers.
A musician's life is filled with many stressful situations: passing auditions, rehearsing and performing with difficult partners, sitting for long hours in uncomfortable chairs, going on stage to face audiences large and small, who may or may not be receptive to the performance they are presented. And yet many musicians are able to surmount these looming obstacles with grace and balance, to find satisfaction and artistry in their music and build productive and lasting careers. Indirect Procedures will guide you around these obstacles and along that path to becoming a balanced and successful musician. Based on the work of Frederick Matthias Alexander, this book is a thorough and practical approach to the issues of musicians' health and wellbeing. Author Pedro de Alcantara introduces concepts and exercises for musicians to let go of excessive tensions, stay focused, and direct their energies as they handle the challenges of practicing, rehearsing, and performing. Complemented by an extensive, easy-to-use companion website, and working alongside Integrated Practice, this new edition of Indirect Procedures is an invaluable and essential resource for today's musicians to learn to sing, play, and conduct with less effort and stronger results.