Yoga, Anyone?

I have been a rabid fan of yoga for almost 12 years now, and I give it a lot of credit for the improvements I have made as a musician since then. When I first began studying piano, I was a typical voice student… full of feeling, but a little challenged by the kind of focus that instrumental work requires. I desperately wanted to play piano. I had a dream of playing on stage while I belted out my own original songs. The problem? I couldn’t seem to focus long enough to remember how to play a few basic chords. Getting the right rhythm when switching from chord to chord was so hard… and don’t get me started on how challenging it was to coordinate BOTH of my hands at the same time! I worried I would never get it. Luckily, around the same time I took on the piano challenge, I was also beginning to learn about yoga and meditation. Here is what it did for me.

Spending 5 minutes a day with my eyes closed and focusing on just my breath was hard, but it made a huge difference in my musical practice. Have you ever had a student who seems to lose focus every time you try to teach a new concept? It is so annoying isn’t it? I actually know how it feels to be the student in that situation. As frustrating as it can be for the teacher, it can be just as irritating for the student. Spending 5 minutes a day in meditation helped me get my mind ready to focus on the lesson and practice.

Rhythm. In music, you have to stay on the beat or the whole song collapses. (I know, I am a drama queen.) But seriously, you have to play on time! Many new students have a poor sense of rhythm, and I was one of those too! The most important thing that helped me was using a metronome and playing along with a drummer, but yoga helped too. When you practice Hatha Yoga, you move with your breath. For example, let’s say you are in standing pose and you want to do a forward fold. Standing up you breathe in and let your arms go straight up over your head. Breathing out you fold over. Breathing in you put your hands on your shins and look up. Breathing out, you fold over again. And on and on. Every movement is connected to the breath. By learning how to notice my body’s own natural rhythm, I began to feel more connected to the natural rhythm in music. Can you do this dancer’s pose?

If so, you are learning how to coordinate both sides of your body. In piano, it can be very hard to make both hands do two completely different things at the same time. Since yoga relies on both sides of the brain to create so many of the poses, your brain is getting a good coordination workout. One time when I was teaching piano to a student who couldn’t seem to get a challenging coordination part down, I had him do a couple balancing poses. Then he went to the piano and played the song as if it was never a problem. I am telling you: yoga is AMAZING.

These are just 3 very good reasons why you should consider incorporating yoga into your studio’s curriculum. Many schools all over the country are adding yoga to their schedules and getting fantastic results. Most yoga studios have kids classes, and it is becoming quite common for teachers to become certified in kid’s yoga, so finding a teacher should be a breeze. If you don’t know anyone, fear not. There are so many great books and products out there like the kid’s yoga deck:

As well as several books and videos on how to teach yoga to kids. Namaste, everyone!