LJS 164: Warming Up the Body and Mind for Killer Musical Performances (feat. Michael Lake)




Welcome to episode 164 of the LJS Podcast where today we have on special guest trombonist, author, and educator Michael Lake to talk about warming up the body and mind for musical performance. Warming up is important for avoiding injury, and physically being able to play to your best ability, but it's also good for your mental game as well. We get inside Michael's head and learn his best practices and tips.
Listen to episode 164







Something that not everybody knows about me is that I'm a runner. I like to run. It is my exercise of choice. It keeps my body healthy. It keeps my mind healthy. And I genuinely enjoy doing it. I do it about 4-5 times a week.
However, if someone were to say to me, "Hey Brent, how about you run a marathon with me tomorrow?" I would not be prepared to do that.
And let's pretend that I do. Let's pretend that I say, "yeah, sure, I'll run a marathon with you tomorrow." So I wake up early in the morning and I start running this marathon. What's going to happen?
Halfway through, if I get halfway through, I'm going to get an injury. My legs are going to breakdown, not only because I'm not physically prepared. I'm not mentally prepared.
In music, we also need to be mentally and physically prepared to perform at our best ability to have a great performance.
So, on the show today, I have Michael Lake to talk to us all about warming up your mind and body for killer musical performances.







In this episode:
1. Why is warming up important?
2. Why brass players need to spend more time warming up than some other instrumentalists do
3. Changing your practice environment
4. Warming up the musical mind, and how to do that







Thanks for listening to this episode of the Learn Jazz Standards Podcast. If you aren't already, make sure you are subscribed on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
I look forward to having you join me in the next episode!
Important Links
Michael Lake's website 
Michael Lake's YouTube channel 
LJS 159: Brain Hacking for Speeding Up Your Jazz Improv Success



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The LJS Podcast is the podcast where you get weekly jazz tips, interviews, stories and advice for becoming a better jazz musician! Hosting the show is the jazz musician behind learnjazzstandards.com, author, and entrepreneur Brent Vaartstra, who’s one goal is to answer any question about playing jazz music you may have. Jazz can be a challenging music to learn and play, but it doesn’t have to be so hard. Each episode features a specific musical challenge that jazz students may come across, where it is discussed and answered. Special jazz guests frequent the show, sharing their expertise on an array of different musical subject matter. Listeners are invited to call in with their jazz questions to the podcast hotline, where it could get answered on a future LJS Podcast episode. Join thousands of other listeners getting free jazz education every week!