Two useful exercises

[Anonymous]

I recently had stiff hands from gardening and had the idea to exercise the fingers by using a stress-ball. I found one which is between a tennis ball and golf ball in size. When I started it was difficult to compress, as I concentrated on the lower three fingers on each hand. I started with only ten compresses for each hand, and now I do 30-40 a day. It has made my playing feel effortless as the exercise is becoming much easier to do. The other exercise which has helped me is the common-or-garden sit-up exercise. This helps to strengthen the core muscles which take strain when I’m seated and have played for more than an hour.

These two exercise only take ten minutes a day to do and have made a big difference to my comfort whilst playing the sax.

[Anonymous]

Everyone that’s watched me play the sax, say’s to me “RELAX YOUR HANDS”. lol

What they don’t realise is when you play guitar for donkeys years, you build up very strong fingers to hold down the metal strings, which translates to the sax keys, so i find it very difficult to pussy foot gently around on the keys….

As for exercise, i try and run on the spot for 30 mins most days, with very very slow controlled breathing which translates to long tones breathing on the sax. I also do a couple of abdominal exercises. But does give me more energy to attack the sax … Mick Jagger is a good example of the benefits from execise, i don’t think he could do what he does without exercise..

[Author]

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