5 ways to become a better musician! (First)

The following is the first, of the series of five posts I'll devote to: "5 ways that will surely help us to improve as musicians", both when executing an instrument, as well as our level of internal musicality. Because I remind you that although we spend hours and hours exerting a physical effort to improve our skills in execution, we forget that everything is the product of our mind, then we must condition a balanced body-mind, to obtain more beneficial results.

Throughout my life in music, I've gone through difficult and quite frustrating situations, due to the fact I didn't use the tools of learning and practice properly. Although in some cases I dedicated part of my time to practice, I didn't always achieve the expected results. Today I continue to learn from experiences, "good and bad", to improve my development as a musician, and I want to share with you some tips that have helped me.

Awareness of physical and mental effort

The execution of any musical instrument, including the voice, requires a certain degree of physical-mental effort of which we must become aware, since it warrants a wear of our abilities, causing a muscular and mental fatigue that with the passing of time (short or long term) can have counterproductive consequences for our performance.

The strategies that I have experimented to combat these factors, they are:

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Relaxation

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This is one of the most important points, even for everything we do in our lives, the relaxed, natural and calm action allows us a better physical development, which in turn, allows our mind to function freely and without rigidity.

Take a time of 5-10 minutes to perform inhalation and exhalation sequences, taking air for 4 seconds, and letting it out for 3. In addition to some deep breaths. This will oxygenate your brain and stabilize the breathing.

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Warm-up

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The warm up before to practice will condition our muscles and bones for optimal performance. As athletes take routines to warm up, before the same, we must have in mind that we also make a physical effort, less intense, but that over time avoid injuries such as, for example, the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome , which is caused by the excess of a repetitive movement and causes pain, numbness, tingling or weakness in the hands, among others.

The next is a warm-up routine you can do before each pratice time:

- Mobilize the fingers from each joint. 10 repetitions
- Raise and lower each finger of each hand. 10 repetitions
- Rotate the dolls. 20 repetitions
- Touch your shoulders and let your arms fall to their natural position. 20 repetitions
- Rotate the shoulders. 10 repetitions forward and 10 repetitions
- Keep your arms stretched back and forth. 20 repetitions
- With the arms crossed, move them drawing circles. 20 repetitions
- Turn the neck looking to the right and left. 10 repetitions
- Move the neck looking up and down. 10 repetitions
- Move the neck from one side to the other trying to hit the ear to the shoulder. 10 repetitions

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Stretching

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After each practice routine, I recommend you take at least 5 minutes to stretch the muscles involved previously. This will release the subsequent tension and allow you to remain relaxed and in optimal condition for subsequent execution opportunities.

I hope this post is very useful. This topic I consider basic before thinking about improving in other factors of music. In my experience, for a long time I ignored this kind of information and didn't give much importance, since all I wanted was to touch and touch. Since I have become aware that music comes from me, and I need to keep my body and mind in an optimal state to develop musically, my performance has really improved remarkably.

I share an informative post about The importance of taking care of your hands as musicians , by my good friend @esaug.

In the following days I'll follow this series of "5 ways to become a better musician". I would like to know your opinions and experiences as musicians, based on the theme.

Thanks for reading!

:V enoyreve rof cisuM.

Follow me on Instagram: @gpieromusic