Music and martial arts.

[Alucard]

I want to know, how much does Music and Martial arts really go together. And is mastering both necessary? I have recently become fond of the Guqin. It's like the guitar in many ways but without frets. Unfortunately, the prices of the Guqin are astronomical. Recently I have been thinking about taking a Taijiquan class, but I'm without a single penny. If anyone knows a place where I could possibly get a working Guqin or you have any input about Music and Martial Arts, please leave a comment. Thank you.

[Takezo]

Rytham helps you in your martial arts. But understand that sometimes you need to loose rytham in order to be effective in your kumite.

[sdargie]

Necessary for what?

I've found that by staying healthy and clear headed with martial arts, my musical ability with composing/arranging/performing/directing/etc is freer and richer. I use musical terminology to express martial arts ideas sometimes because everyone in our dojo are musicians. However, practicing a phrygian scale in thirds doesn't make my tiger strikes better and vice versa.

[Traditional-Fist]

Mas. Oyama believed that musicality and having good rhythm helped ones advancement in karate.

[back_fist]

I dont think they are really necessary in relation to one another. However, the guqin is an amazing instrument. I too would love to have the chance to learn to play one.

[Sohan]

When I began Shorin-ryu, my sensei and I found we had a shared interest in music. We both play guitar and (attempt to) sing. At every dojo party we usually perform with some other musicians from our dojo who are of much better caliber than we are and do renditions of popular classics.

It has been something very enriching to share with my sensei outside of karate. Lyrically challenged or not, it is an added dimension to our relationship as teacher and student.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[ebff]

I've performed, learnt and taught for more than 13 years now and upon hearing aikidoka's accounts of "blending" in the art... I've found exactly the same to apply in music. Except it's something you develop with a lot of experience, with a group where everybody is very good - you don't just play anymore, you blend your sound within the group's sound. The result can be heard live if you go and listen to orchestras like the London Symphony Orchestra or the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who have brought this technique to an insane level - they play all so well in tune that if a clarinet and a flute (for example) are playing together even professional musicians can't tell them apart.

I think a lot of this applies to martial arts. I'm taking the path music => martial arts, but you can most certainly take it the other way round. But don't learn the violin or piano whatever you do, there's far too many out there!

[sdargie]

Read "Effortless Mastery" by Kenny Werner if you want to see some aikido philosophy applied to music. I don't know if Mr. Werner is an aikidoka but he does make mention to parallels he has noticed in some martial arts.

[Skeptic 2004]

Chibana Choshin used to play sanshin (lit. "three strings"), a three stringed Okinawan version of the Japanese shamisen. While I've recently found out that a lot of Okinawans play sanshin, Chibana used to play it to maintain dexterity in his fingers. He punched makiwara all the time, and if not for playing sanshin, he would have lost dexterity in his fingers.

[Anbu Alex]

Training alone its awsome but in the dojo its kinda hard when your sensei is trying to correct you and u cant hear him guess that teaches u to listen not hear