Using Iyengar Yoga to Enhance Violin Playing

Abstract

Yehudi Menuhin was the first famous musician to use yoga as a way to address pain and the physical issues related to his career as a concert violinist. Iyengar Yoga is the original form of alignment based yoga and was created and developed by yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar. Menuhin’s work with Iyengar was the first collaboration between a classical musician and a yoga teacher and was essential to the rise in popularity of yoga in Western Europe and the United States. Many musicians now promote yoga as an excellent way to alleviate the difficulties of playing an instrument and combat the physical symptoms of performance anxiety.

This document examines the initial collaboration between B.K.S. Iyengar and Yehudi Menuhin, how Menuhin used yoga to combat his own pain and physical issues, and how yoga influenced his approach to teaching and playing the violin. It also examines how Iyengar Yoga and alignment based yoga developed as a form of therapy and how musicians employ yoga as a way to address musculoskeletal and somatic issues. The field of performing arts medicine, established in the 1980s, regularly publishes research regarding the medical conditions that affect violinists. This document examines the research and positive results of using yoga therapeutically to address issues that also impact violinists.

The final chapter of this paper is a tribute to Menuhin and Iyengar and offers Iyengar Yoga for violinists in the practice room, rehearsal, lesson, and performance settings. These recommendations use medical information regarding violinists’ health and the benefits of alignment based yoga to enhance violin playing by reducing the chance of injuries and the negative effects of performance anxiety.