Why Musicians Need a Strong Core

When someone says to you “you need a strong core” or “you need to train your core”, does that leave you scratching your head in confusion?  I mean, what IS your core, anyway, and what on earth does it do? Is it your insides?  The middle of your body?  Your diaphragm?  Let me help you clear up all the confusion.

The core, in its simplest form, is actually the area of your body called the torso – therefore, not your arms, legs or head.  These aren’t just your abdominal muscles; there are LOTS of other muscles that make up the core.  In fact, some of the key players to core strength are in your back and lower back.

There are an awful lot of muscles in your core, and each one plays a role in how well you play your flute.  Yes, that’s right, your hip flexors, your back muscles, your abs; all those muscles have an impact on how you play.  How is that, you ask?  Well, the easy way to explain it is that all your muscles work together in any activity you do.

• Standing uses your core muscles to keep you balanced and from falling over.
• Driving uses more than your arms; your core is heavily involved. An indication of core weakness is pain in your hips or low back when you get out of the car.

The muscles in the front (your abs) serve to pull your body forward. These are the muscles with which you are probably most familiar, and as you know, spending most of our day in a bent over position works them plenty.  What this shows is that your back muscles may become weak from the forward-pulling motion of your abs. To have a strong core, this means that you must train your body to resist forward flexion and side to side twisting.

So how does this relate to playing your flute?  Like I mentioned before, you don’t just use your arms to play the flute.  Remember that old song “the head bone’s connected to the….neck bone” etc.?  It’s true.  Your body works as a whole.  It takes lots of different muscles to lift your arms, turn your head, hold up a flute and breathe to play.  And some of those muscles will get tired.  When this happens, other muscles take over.  If this goes on too long, you get what are called muscle compensations and imbalances, meaning that some muscles become weaker and allow other muscles to do their jobs for them.  This can lead to pain.

Each muscle is made to do a job whether that is its own job, the job of being a synergist (helping other muscles do their jobs) or an antagonist (the opposite of a muscle).  For example, your hip flexors are antagonists to your gluteus muscles.  If your hip flexors get too tight with too much sitting, your gluteus muscles become weak, eventually allowing other muscles (your hamstrings) to do the job of the glutes.  What happens then?  Your knees could hurt, or maybe your low back hurts from the stress of too much tightness in the front.  When your low back hurts because it is weak, this can translate to a weak upper back.  If your upper back is weak, it cannot support your arms which are doing a really hard job of holding up your flute, so when your arms tire, you’re just in pain everywhere, all because your hips are too tight, and guess what?  They’re part of the core!
So what to do?  I think by now we’ve established why you need a strong core to play.  When the body works well as a whole, you can play longer without compensating.  There are lots of good exercises to help with core strength.  My favorite exercise is the plank.

This can be progressed by lifting an arm or a leg, putting your feet on a bench or arms on a ball, or adding weight on your back, and can even be done on your side.  The goal is to keep your hips in line with your shoulders, so your body looks just like a plank; a board.  Even with the progressions: do not twist your hips or sag in the middle.  Hold for 30 seconds or longer, rest, and repeat.

Another of my favorite core exercises are 1) The Anti-Rotation Static Hold and its variation 2) Pallof Presses.  These are just fun, and it’s a great way to work your entire core without having to do a single crunch, or sit-up and if you have bad shoulders, these are an excellent choice without putting your shoulders into a compromising position.

To set up for both: 

Stand perpendicular to a cable station with a weight stack or a pole to which you’ve wrapped around a band.  Grasp the band or handle, pull it in front of you and then push it out in front of you, without twisting.  If you hold that position, that’s the static hold.  If you push it out and bring it back, those are Pallof Presses.  The goal with both of these is to avoid twisting (hence: anti-rotation) which you’ll feel all down the middle of your body. Make sure to choose a heavy enough weight so that the exercise is challenging.

This is a video of the Pallof Press:

http://youtu.be/JmcH0UsXRVw

If you hold the weight out without bringing it back, again, that is the Anti-Rotation Press.

If you are looking for a program of strength training that will train your core from every conceivable angle and get your entire body stronger in the process, I highly recommend a book called “The New Rules of Lifting for Abs” by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove.  I’ve done the whole program myself and not only was it fun, I saw my strength increase by leaps and bounds!  They actually have a brand new book out called the “The New Rules of Lifting For Life”.  I just got it today and intend to read through it soon, but the gyst of it is that it is geared for non 20-yr olds, more towards middle agers and people who want to learn how to program their own workouts.

If you would like more exercises and more information, I actually have a longer blog post I’ve written about it with videos here: http://fluteangel.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/3-exercises-1-for-core-strength-and-stability/

As always, I have spots available for long distance training where I can write you a program to strengthen your core, improve your endurance and help you learn to play without pain.  You can find me via my website: www.MusicStrong.com and I’m always around on Face book: www.facebook.com/MusicStrong.  Come by and say hello, or send me an email with your comments and questions to angela@musicstrong.com  I look forward to hearing from you!

The Pomodoro Technique for Musical Parents and their Kids: It’s Like Eating Pasta

This is my 7 year old son, Luca, who has been studying piano for three years. He LOVES playing piano.  Practicing?  Not so much.

A few days ago I learned about the Pomodoro Technique from Angela Beeching and Alexis Del Palazzo, and to them both I am eternally grateful.  I love the idea that this was designed by an Italian (who are not always known for being punctual).  I spent eight years living in Italy, with eight years of eating.  Eating and everything about food pretty much dominates much of Italian living, and I came to love kitchen timers that are in all shapes and sizes, in various fruits and vegetables, that keep the food churning out in every Italian home.  The Pomodoro Technique takes its name from one of those timers, in this case, ones that are shaped like tomatoes (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato).  So of course the Pomodoro Technique immediately appealed to me.

Take a Stand, Day 3 Highlights (i.e. staying connected and feeling re-energized)

As I write this, sleepy-eyed in Washington DC, I am pulling out notes, random handouts and the numerous business cards of like-minded educators and arts advocates to gather together my thoughts for this final post on the Take a Stand Symposium. I slept on and off during the flight from LA, with my brief naps interspersed with readings from Tricia Tunstall’s new book about El Sistema, and my mind racing and re-energized and recommitted to this good work. I must say the wonder of the Sistema movement (aside from the millions of children whose lives have been lifted up, as well as the re-birthing of classical music and orchestras into a new model of hope and a sustainable future), lies with the people behind the movement–the advocates, the educators, the musicians, the health professionals, etc. They are some of the most forward-minded, giving people, with such clear vision and passion to make a difference using music as the means.

Take a Stand, Day 2 Highlights (i.e. getting out of the traffic)

The end of the day’s performance of the Simon Boliver Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel performing Mahler’s Symphony 7  matched the opening talks this morning by noted author Eric Liu and the ever witty and entertaining Bard College President, Leon Botstein. All were filled with hope, inspiration, joy and a vision forward for how we think about music and its transformative power for social change.

Take a Stand Symposium Highlights, January 30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a YOLA Ambassador, we started the day with a session led by Eric Booth. Getting teachers together and communicating stories and experiences was a missing aspect in the Sistema movement, he felt, and this opening session was about collaborating and networking and getting to know one another through those stories and experiences as well as fun ice-breaker activities. During the session, I appreciated a comment from Dan Berkowitz of YOLA that seemed to sum up how to keep things fresh, engaged and full of high expectations. He feels that  a constant state of crisis is vital and spontaneous and frequent performance are commonplace and necessary. I love the idea of keeping a state of crisis, in the positive sense, and keeping it positive to help nurture the young musicians we are encouraging.

Take a Stand Symposium 2012, Los Angeles, the arrival!

Greetings from LA!

Monday through Wednesday of this week I am on assignment in LA at the 2012 Take a Stand symposium on El Sistema. I’m thrilled to be here as a YOLA Fellow, one of 25 music educators across the US chosen for a fellowship to be able to attend. I will be sharing reflections, experiences, etc over the next three days.

Travels went ok except for a slight fear in Chicago when they couldn’t open the luggage compartment under the plane (seriously!) and my connecting flight to LA was dangerously getting close to leaving. Reward on the plane was getting free red wine and sitting next to three Australians with lovely accents!

I’ve just arrived in Los Angeles, buzzing and alive.  The first thing I see upon leaving the airport are these gigantic other-worldly neon lit columns with palm trees dancing almost with them. The city is alive even at 10pm, a good sign. There is a sense of life in the center, another good sign..and the warm breeze is giving quite the welcome, reminding me of my old home of Rome.

Tomorrow morning at 10am the YOLA Ambassadors meet with the amazing Eric Booth. On the flight from Chicago I read his essay on Sistema’s Open Secrets which I think is the best summary I’ve read so far about El Sistema. His description of the nuturing, spiritual side of Sistema and the passion, dedication and love that he saw while in Venezuela is so inspiring. I can’t wait to meet him. Then another highlight tomorrow will be to hear the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra which is as good as it gets……

Photos:

Downtown LA, Map

Museum of Contemporary Art, LA

Are students who don’t want to learn classical music insubordinate?

There is a thread on the FLUTE discussion list right now about a student who prefers to play pop rather than classical. A flute teacher wrote asking for advice about what to do with this particular student, wondering if she should drop the student or if others could offer advice about how to deal with this student.  This student, mind you, LOVES (this is the teacher’s description) the flute and practices/plays a ton. So what is the problem?

Improv Insights: Improv Game of the Day

Dear Readers,

I am in LOVE with this new blog of Jeffrey Agrell, and wanted to share the Improv Game of the Day that just arrived in my inbox.  Check out this blog, there are wonderful teaching and performing tips to wake up the improviser in you and your students!

Thanks to Jeffrey for this new resource.

Laura Lentz for IPAP

Improv Game of the Day: Gregorian Chance

Posted on January 11, 2012

2 players. Player One plays a drone on a chosen note. Player Two uses a choice of one of the following scales to create a slow, chant-like melody:

Dorian mode: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

Phrygian mode: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Aeolian mode: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

go to http://improvinsights.com/ for the rest of the post…

Spotlight on interfaith creativity project: Poetry Pals — by Adam Shames

I wanted to share some about Poetry Pals, an interfaith non-profit creativity program building bridges between diverse communities, that I am directing here in Chicago.  We are experimenting with different ways to teach, engage, improve self-expression and have cross-cultural dialogue with kids–8-12 years old–through creativity.  We work on writing and performing poetry, and we also include a music portion.  We have some confines to work with, as the Muslim schools prefer no melodic instruments or overt dancing, but we have a theme song, lots of group voice play and two professional percussionists in the mix.

Product or Process?

 I’m dealing now with performance anxiety, and how we might treat ourselves better, and prevent this in our kids. A lot has been written, but I am writing this now with a tinge of rebellion. The occupy wall street movement has got me thinking about my own small way to change commercialism, greed and obliterate the senselessness of the must-have mentality.  I ended up with performance anxiety on my mind. Give me a minute and I’ll explain.

 There’s the so-called “outcome oriented” performer, who pays attention to the result of the performance. This naturally produces uncomfortable feelings on the stage as they are worried about what the audience or jury might be thinking. Then there are the “process oriented” performers, who are able to do two things. First, they see each performance along a continuum where they set performance goals over a larger span of time. Second, they are involved in the process of making music while performing, bringing their attention back to the music itself. Paraphrasing Stanislavski, in order to get your attention away from the audience, you have to be interested in something on the stage.

All of this is probably not news to anyone, but when I looked into plastic arts, there are some classes that are called process-oriented, and the others are actually called product oriented; where kids as young as two and three are being taught that they need to produce something within the hour to take home. The expectation is that this product will receive praise from mommy which will encourage them to produce more. (By the way, since I moved back to US, I have only found product-oriented classes. The Sammlung Essl near Vienna was process oriented. http://www.essl.museum/kunstvermittlung/kinder.html)

The process-oriented kids are given paper and paint. They are given big brushes, little brushes, lots of color, combs, and sponges, whatever they want. The teacher merely assesses when they look a little bored and puts another type of tool in front of them.  She doesn’t say a word. She just puts it there, and they begin to experiment. She feeds them paper and when it dries, they can take it home, or not.

It’s not a mystery to me that these kids like to paint more. It is also not a mystery which kids are retaining more of their inherent creativity. It’s not a mystery how we are creating performance anxiety by presenting music foremost as a commodity. It is logical that we then let self worth, artistic worth and monetary worth become entangled. It makes sense that when we focus on process, the value someone assigns to what we create is secondary.

 

I’ve actually written a creed:

 

This is my personal occupation, to see my work and myself as a process and not a product. When I perform, I invite people to share in my process with me. I will do everything I can to dissuade my children and my students from becoming product oriented, measuring self worth by the monetary worth given to the art that they create.

 

I was going to write a bit more about art and music education here, about impatience and the denial of the necessity of time needed to give artistic tasks. However, I went to a local toy store, here in educated and affluent Brookline, Massachusetts. The pictures say it all. I’ll let them end this post.

 

 

I’m wondering about the cutesy misspellings on products for kids, but the progression here is what is a bit humorous.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I don’t know why I should have anything against a saxoflute, except that it is neither “saxo” nor flute, it is a plastic tube.