Yoga within the music studio

American Music Teacher, August-Sept, 2004 by Evelyn Lee Soen

Over the years I have noticed that when students arrive for their lessons, many are tired, sleepy or lack concentration. Small talk, a short game or sight reading helps them somewhat to think of music. However, while their mind might be able to shift to the present, their bodies are far from ready to play an instrument. Their back is tense from carrying a heavy backpack, their legs are tired from kicking a soccer ball, their arms are stiff from holding tennis rackets and the list goes on and on. Asking a tired student to start with scales and arpeggios may not help either. Thus began my search to help my students, and I found the answer in my own yoga practice.

Yoga is one of the six orthodox Indian philosophies that are collated by Patanjali in his "Yoga Sutra." In its totality, yoga is "the yoking of all the powers of the body, mind and soul ... the disciplining of the intellect, the mind, the emotions, the will ... to enable one to look at life in all its aspects evenly." (1)

There are eight limbs or stages of yoga, one being the practice of the asanas or the poses. Most health clubs and studios in the U.S. emphasize this aspect of yoga. Practicing the asanas teaches total concentration and focus of the mind, control of the breath and every part of the body in a mindful and conscious relaxation. These very characteristics of the practice of asanas also are the fundamentals of optimum athletic and musical performance, the essence of which is the union of the body and the mind. Not surprisingly, yoga is embraced in large numbers by Hollywood, athletes and musicians.

One of the first musicians to embrace yoga was Yehudi Menuhin, who, in 1966, wrote a foreword to B.K.S. Iyengar's book Light on Yoga. He wrote: "The practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure and proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony. With unflagging patience we refine and animate every cell as we return daily to the attack, unlocking and liberating capacities condemned to frustration and death." (2) As such, yoga can be another tool for music teachers to help students in their attempt to unlock and liberate the capacity to play an instrument.

There are several helpful asanas. Because of the space limitations and lack of yoga aids, such as a mat, in an average music studio, I have chosen the simplest poses that can be practiced while sitting or standing. Teachers can choose one or two poses for each lesson according to the student's age and length of the lesson. The added benefit to the teacher is a better transition and relaxed time between students. Shoes and socks should be taken off so the feet are grounded. Keep in mind that all exercises should be done in a relaxed and unhurried manner.

BREATHING

One of the eight limbs of yoga is pranayama, the science of breath. Prana means breath, respiration, life, vitality, wind, energy or strength. (3) This limb is about control and extension of inhalation, exhalation and retention. To the yoga practitioners, the breath is life itself, Many other healing arts, such as tai chi and qi cung, also emphasize "correct" breathing.

In this aspect, American medicine agrees. The American Society of Hypertension advocates slow breathing exercises for fifteen minutes a day, three to four days a week to lower blood pressure (4) and to prevent heart disease. For musicians, deep breathing before and during performance calms the nerves, enabling them to concentrate and immerse themselves in the music. Therefore, teaching good and slow breathing should be part of the teaching of music.

The Exercise

The breathing asanas are difficult even for advanced yoga students, but the slow breathing cultivated at the beginning of each yoga session is easy to teach and beneficial for everybody. Yoga students are taught that in addition to inhalation and exhalation, there also is the time between each. One can imagine a racetrack where the longer sides of the track constitute the inhalation and exhalation and the shorter sides the changeover.

Start the exercise by asking the student to sit straight on the bench with feet firmly grounded, while pretending the crown of the head is reaching reward the ceiling. Shoulders should be down and chest widened (called opening the heart center in yoga lingo) by getting the shoulder blades in the back to move toward each other, squeezing the muscles together. Hands should be placed relaxed on the lap, palms facing up with the thumb and the pointer making an O.

Help the student start breathing deeply through the nostrils with eyes closed, while slightly constricting the throat. Instruct the student to relax the body starting from the top of the head, to all parts of the face (including the tongue) to the upper torso, lower torso, down to the legs and the toes. Some instructors teach students to say "sa" as they inhale and "ha" as they exhale or hum like a bee or say "Om" (the sound of the universe) during exhalation. The objective is to completely ignore external sounds and thought and "park" the mind somewhere else.