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