Aflevering #4 Tina Margareta Nilssen - Timani

'The body is one of the greatest tools that we have to sing or play better' * Deze aflevering is Engelstalig Tina Margareta Nilssen is the founder of the Musicians' Health and Movement Institute , the author of 'Unleasihing the potential of the musician's body' and the creator of the movement system Timani, which develops a deep understanding of the body to support musical technique and performance. She runs a 3-year part-time certification program for professional musicians, to become certified Timani teachers. Tina's background in anatomy and movement comes from her studies as a massage therapist, personal trainer, kinetic control movement therapist, twice a certified yoga teacher and kinesthetics for pianists. She has taught workshops in places like Juilliard in New York, Colburn in Los Angeles, Royal college of music in London and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. As a pianist, she holds a MA form the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and has released four critically acclaimed CD's. In this episode we talk about: - Tina's musical background - The origin of the movement system Timani - That you can develop as a musician at any age if you know what to change in the body, it's a myth that bodies only get more stagnant when getting older - How Tina found out about anatomy when studying in Berlin for her master's degree and the impact that it made for her - That when she started using muscles consciously it didn't only make the music better but also made her feel more safe - That nerves can be related to how we use our body, so by using our body differently we can diminish nerves (maybe not completely, but still a lot) - What it means to change the coördination in the body; to start using the muscles that are meant to be used over time or for repetitive movements so that the compensatory muscles that tend to tense up too much or create unwanted tension can start releasing - Tension in the throat when singing high notes is a compensatory pattern: the tension in the throat can either be a compensation for a lack of tension somewhere else in the body, or be a sign of a reversed breathing pattern - How it's possible that in one place you learn to move out your belly when breathing in and in another place you learn to expand around the ribcage - An important (and funny) discovery that Tina did when she was taking a yoga class - That belly breathing is important for relaxation and that it can bring the downregulation of the nervous system that we need, but we should use this when relaxing and not when we're singing - How it's possible that by doing exercises for the feet, our singing can improve so much - What you can do when you're going up on stage to sing or speak in public, and you feel that the breathing gets high and tensed up - That when a muscle is tense, it tends to not activate in the most efficiënt way - That if we increase proprioception (the awareness of our body in space and time) it makes it easier for the brain to tell the body what to do more efficiëntly - When we try to maintain a good posture while the muscles on the inside are pulling us down, or the diaphragm is pushing down, we are going to fight ourselves - Why 'hanging forward in the hips' will make it difficult to feel the breathing all the way down to our feet - What a Timani lesson looks like - How emotions and feeling the music, expressing it, is related to Timani - That the goal of Timani is always to make it easier to express music - The importance of knowing where the lungs are And more! Here you can find the Timani website: www.timani.no You can find information over here about lessons, workshops, the certification course and an online membership And here you can find and order Tina's book: 'Unleashing the potential of the musician's body': https://giamusic.com/store/resource/unleashing-the-potential-of-the-musicians-body-book-10856