Become aware of the body.

By Laura Lizeth Pinzón Yazo

The body is the medium that helps us transmit art, but do we really become aware of it? The
proposed exercise on body awareness in our musical practice, in my case on the piano, helped me
note localized physical aspects such as:

- Tensions: facial, at the level of the jaw it remains tense and in movement - permanent
tension and face tension around the eyebrows - temporary tension, especially in difficult
passages.
- Breathing: shallow breathing, not deep, only the clavicular part is used, there are
generally no changes.
- Expressiveness: little expressiveness, only movements of the hands and arms when there
are changes.
- Technique: To maintain the technique, the part between the eyebrows is tensed
repeatedly, but it is not permanent.

I can categorize that the location of tensions, gestures and postures in this exercise is a first
diagnosis of how my body is, it helps me reflect on my body state when assembling music
through the piano and the tensions that I have. in my routine study practice.

It is worth mentioning that at the end of the week (on Friday) I had the presentation of the Latin
American ensemble with the master's group, in which I did not have any tension problems, on the
contrary, according to what I saw in the recorded videos, I realized that I lacked expressiveness,
despite the music with Latin and folkloric airs, in which it seemed as if my body was not
connected to the music.

Another aspect to observe are the thoughts that occur during individual study practice, which are
focused on the music, while during the presentation a series of thoughts go through such as not
wanting to make a mistake or this did not sound the way I wanted, etc., especially when there
were piano solos.

This diagnostic test leads me to a series of concerns regarding the entire somatic part in music, I
feel that now I know that I must work and put a focus of attention, it is important first of all that
before entering into musical practice one must have a awareness of the body, taking as an
example singers who condition their body and voice to have greater projection and better musical
speech, instrumentalists must take into account our body, in order to achieve better musicality, be
aware of our body, of our breathing and our thoughts.
I note as a point to be developed taking into account what has been diagnosed, the question: what
specific exercises should I integrate into my musical practice to condition my body so that
tensions do not arise? My search will continue...