I have decided to not to name any tracks, If anyone wants to setup a discussion on naming them go for it and I will name it what ever you decide.(I am hopeless at naming or even categorizing.)

The Benefits of Yoga and Meditation on Musical Performance

Zen, meditation, yoga, for many people these words conjure up images of harmless but somewhat misguided individuals shaping themselves into impossible poses while singing Kumbiah. Those are the images that always came to my mind when those topics came up. That is until I tried it. Often seen as an unreachable goal these practices are not just for the few, but for anyone-particularly anyone who wants to play better and with more ease.

There is really no magic or secret to Zen practice. One merely has to breath. I can hear some of you saying now, that's silly we breathe all the time." Ahh, but what I am talking about is conscience breath.

Here is a challenge for you. Sit quietly somewhere and take ten deep, long breaths through your nose. Count them.

Go ahead try it. I'll wait.

How many of you got to ten before you forgot what you were doing?
Contrary to popular belief, the goal of meditation is not the absence of thought, but the observance of it. To put it another way it is as if we live in a constant stream of thoughts and to meditate means simply step out of the stream long enough to observe the flow. Try another 10 breaths now and see how you do!
Now how can you play effectively with all that noise in your head? Problem is what can be done about it?

The answer, sitting around doing nothing. That is to say meditation. Will that help your playing? There is some scientific and anecdotal evidence to suggest this is the case.

In 2005 the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center partnered with the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and Harvard Medical School to study Yoga's effects on musician's performance. (Hardy, 2006) After its second year the study reports significant reductions in performance anxiety among the participants of the study.