music – Biomechanics and performance psychology for musicians and guitarists

Holidays, perspective, draw your line

On the eve of what will be for many the holidays, with the family and friends reunions. It is a good time to put things in perspective. In this work so demanding that we make, it’s easy to put aside our friends, our family, our leisure activities and relationships, all that for the benefit of our work and professional success. It is so easy to get lost in our career, until finally, considering work as the most important thing in our life.

The danger in this way of thinking is that we end up defining ourselves by our work. Each professional failure lived in this state of mind will seem insurmountable. Healthy relationships help us to maintain a balance and a life outside of work. This could help you maintain a healthy emotional balance essential to a high-level performance.

Moreover, these friends, the family and all the people around us will be there to encourage us, to help us change our ideas, and so potentially help us increase our confidence in ourselves, which will facilitate our evolution.

Again, it’s all about balance, and that is to each of us, to draw the line.

Left-arm lateral movement

The secret of quick and efficient movement of the left arm is to use the shoulder muscles to move the arm and forearm. The hand is never the driving force behind the action. It is relaxed, and it is brought into place by the musculature of the shoulder. The forearm is then called upon for a more accurate adjustment, while the wrist and fingers maintain their optimized positioning as described above.

The eyes determine the end point of the hand, allowing the brain to calculate the distance between the start and end positions easily.

Focus, concentration, commitment

Maintain maximum concentration and focus is one of the goals of all those who have to perform. Some have a natural ability to enter this state of mind. Other less fortunate will need to work a little.

The first thing to do is to manage its energy level to be able to use a maximum when it is necessary. Maintaining a state of concentration for a long time is demanding. We must learn to dose our efforts.

Great athletes use to the most of this trick, which is both simple and complicated. They simply decide to rush headlong to give the best of themselves and perform in a state of relaxed concentration. Everything is there. They have a clear purpose and fully engage in the pursuit of their goal.

Sometimes the fear of failure can motivate us, but often it paralyzes. In a situation where we have already experienced the failure or fear, one can focus on the routine preparation, on the warm up to finally connect fully with what we do during the performance itself.

We must constantly remind our best moments, our success, our pleasure, our pride in order to feed this mental state.

Another simple trick is to always work with the same desire to reach a state of concentration and commitment to what we do. Give yourself clear goals in your practice and focus on how to achieve your goals. This will help you develop your focus.

Sleep less, work more?

Cutting the hours of sleep to get more time to work? Is it effective?

Everyone knows that a good night’s sleep is important. Not only, we rest, but the brain also uses this time to defragment the hard drive (our brain) by analyzing and classifying information in the right place. He also takes the time to make brand new bridges, completely new connections that will allow us to run perfectly our new learning.

We can maximize the effect of sleep by doing a nap after a period of intense work (particularly effective around noon). The brain then digests the information, which becomes available after our sleep. In addition, the nap will help us reduce our cortisol levels. We can systematically take a nap just before a stressful event to a halt the production of cortisol.

Lack of sleep affects our cognitive abilities, but how much?

Take the example of a student who always gets ” A ” and still ranks in the top 10% in everything she did. If she sleeps just less than seven hours a night during the week and about 6:20 the weekend, she will see her results fall in the back rows, as people that would normally get results in the lower 10%.

A study on soldiers responsible for operating a military complex showed that after a night’s sleep less, there was a 30% decline in their cognitive abilities coupled with a decline in their performance. After two nights of sleep deprivation, the drop was 60%.

When a person is sleeping less than six hours a night for five consecutive days, we observe the same effects as a person deprived of sleep for 48 hours.

Although sleep is important to maximize the effectiveness of your work. Sleep well and be more efficient than ever.

Right hand

We can apply all the principles developed for the left hand to the right hand. Although the arm is supported on the guitar, we must, nevertheless, maintain tone. This will prevent the arm from relying too much on the guitar, compressing the soundboard and reducing resonance. In addition, several important tendons pass through the point at which the arm lies. Supporting the arm with the appropriate muscles reduces the pressure on the tendons and thus ensures the free movement of those fundamental elements.

The right hand falls into place much more naturally than the left hand. We can optimize the action by applying a slight supination, which increases the agility and independence of the fingers. Although the wrist should be involved in facilitating the passage of tendons, a light ulnar deviation facilitates the movements of the fingers. In addition, by moving the thumb away from the index, we use extended opposition, which promotes the stability of the hand and accuracy.

In addition to extended opposition, other principles can help maximize the action of the fingers on the instrument. Each finger can flex and extend. They can move laterally as well, but also in axial rotation.

The musician looks for a free and quick flexion of the finger. He also looks for a rapid extension without amplitude and a possible side extension of the fingers when necessary, despite bending.

The initial rule is to use the sequential winding of the phalanx. The second phalanx must be the engine of the movement, followed by the first and, finally, the third. This sequence ensures the proper functioning of the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hand. Follow exactly the same sequence to take up the finger. By starting the movement with the second phalanx, we optimize speed.

The rounded balanced hand ensures functional stability. It also promotes the independence of the fingers. As the gaps are difficult when the fingers are flexed, we can facilitate this by flexing the wrist. In addition, the lateral motion must begin from the pulp and not the base of the finger. In summary, the hand reaches equilibrium when there is harmony between its intrinsic and extrinsic muscles.

The index finger is stable if it is inclined from the radial side. If it is turned on the ulnar side, this destabilizes the hand. The middle finger is, meanwhile, a finger that moves laterally and is extremely stable. It can serve as a stabilizer for the other fingers. The ring is the true functional axis of the hand, and everything can be organized around it. It is difficult to move up, but if we use the sequential winding of the phalanx, it facilitates the extension. The auricular has its own musculature. It is sometimes difficult to control because of this characteristic.

Beat stress in 32 seconds

A simple exercise that can help you lower your cortisol level, and that is fulfilled in 32 seconds, anyone? This exercise is easy, take a deep breath counting four seconds. Never stop your breath, exhale slowly now, even, counting four seconds. Repeat until it makes a total of 32 seconds. Good at math? 😉

By controlling your breathing, it is possible to break the cycle of the physical effects of stress, giving a contradictory signal to your brain. This is what we call cardiac coherence and was first developed by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber.

Controlling your breathing helps to regularize your heart rate and thus standardize the operation of the brain. This will improve your general homeostasis. Repeat it every time you feel your stress levels increase. Can you afford to take 32 seconds for you? I hope so!

Smaller is Better!

When it comes to setting our goals, it’s easy to dream big. Dreaming is excellent, but it is often difficult to take actions that will lead us straight toward our goals.

It is difficult not to consider every obstacle in our path as the materialization of the failure of this great dream. Why not just split this dream in different stages, as the climber who climbs the mountain one step at a time, his only goal to be the next step. On an expedition and in my life in general, I often use this technique, enjoying and concentrating on every step taken towards my ultimate goal.

“Do the difficult things while they are easy, and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Lao-Tzu Not only split our dreams into intermediate steps allows us to draw a clearer path towards our goal, but in addition, each little success can be savored. This action enjoying the success, as brief it may be, will help you build your confidence in your abilities. Your brain will store all as small victories against adversity. One can also, by doing so, easily adjusts the shot and reacts to an unexpected obstacle.

Set yourself small goals, achievable fairly easily, every day, every hour, every minute, every second of your life. Next, take concrete actions to achieve them. Enjoy every success, do not minimize them.

“What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry From time to time, go wide angle, re-evaluate the distance that separates you from your dream, analyze if this is still what you want and finally, adjust your actions in the right direction. Continue your expedition one step at a time, living every effort, every step forward and every small victory.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matters the road is the life.” J. Kerouac