Physical Warm-ups: Two Hand Stretches
June2
The following are two hand stretches that I learned from the composer Michael Colgrass. He gave a class at IU, back in ye olden times when I was a student there and before it became the Jacobs School of Music.
I’ve been using these stretches as part of my warm-up routine ever since. I hope you will find them as useful as I have.
And a little prize for those of you who have made it to the bottom of this post:
These are great! Thanks for posting. You know, we were probably at that same Colgrass class at IU – wish I’d taken notes. I only remember some of what he told about the position of the eyeballs – pretty much the same as the concept of “drishti” in yoga.
Yep, sounds like the same class!
I like these a lot! They seem very gentle and low-impact (not pulling or pushing on the fingers/wrists) but also deep if you want them to be.
Thanks!
[...] My Lessons with Kumi by composer Michael Colgrass (who incidentally taught me the hand stretches from this post) [...]