What every musician needs to know about the body thoughts

 

               In lessons my prof has talked a lot about how playing the horn is athletic like playing a sport. For example, We have to warm up in order to keep from hurting ourselves. Just as athletes have to warm up before a game or practice.

               Also, pertaining to the “breathing is movement” section of this piece, I can relate to with my horn. I have found that many horn players will swing the horn up when taking a breath. I often do this because the theatrical movement makes me take in more air. This is because I feel like I am vacuuming in air and it makes me feel at one with my instrument. Also, when I do this my posture straightens and therefore my lungs become less constrained. 

              I had this same experience in my high school vocal class. My teacher was always content on his students standing up with straight posture and a dropped jaw. This posture helped me to take deeper breaths and breathe better because my lungs were less tense and less constricted.

             Another idea I found interesting in the text was the statement that says, “if you have trouble with articulation on the horn, you might check for tenseness in your neck.” As a horn player I have trouble with articulation on the horn and have tried some techniques to improve my articulation but they usually do not end up making much of a difference. I wonder if this could be the reason why.  

“A tense neck can distort this curve and restrict air flow.” This sentence makes me think that when people are performing it is harder to get a good breath because their back muscles intensify due to stress, which can cause pain in the neck leading to a restricted air flow.