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Friday 11 November 2011

Day in the life of a professional musician

So, as I get back into my clarinet playing thoughts have turned to how unfit I was whilst on tour and having back niggles and eating unhealthily, drinking too much, being tired and lethargic, no focus, just going through the motions, eating all the wrong food. Loads of time sat in traffic to and from gigs, home and slump on sofa, late night, poor sleep, up late. Practice, phone calls, rehearsals, more car time, teaching lessons, coffee to keep awake, gig to get to, another rehearsal, never-ending phone calls. Day in day out. This takes it's toll. When do any musicians get some exercise and eat healthy? When do they ever take half an hour a day to work on posture, improved strength and conditioning? How many drummers do I know that suffer with chronic back pain and do nothing about it? Core strength is unheard of. How many woodwind players would benefit from improved diaphragm strength and stronger backs? Loads!! More core control would equal more strength to perform better, sound better and feel better! More energy, more time to put in quality performance and fitter to lift gear around the place.
I know all this because I was in a former life a professional musician! Sax, flute and clarinet. Now as a Personal Trainer returning to playing I am much stronger, can create a bigger sound, have more control over the instrument and have more staying power to put in the practice needed to get back to where I was and to start actually improving. Without a doubt as I get back into my playing I am rapidly making progress through some of the classical clarinet repertoire and it feels much easier than when I played all these pieces 15 or so years ago. For example, the last time I played Rossini's Theme and Variations for Clarinet was at an LRSM exam, 1995 I think it was. 16 years on and I reckon that had I not been so fit and healthy I would be struggling to get any sound out of the instrument. 2 weeks into my playing, it's almost back to performance standard!
If any musicians reading this would like to get in touch and discuss health and fitness training for musicians, then feel free to get hold of me through this blog.




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