I listen to alot of punk and hardcore. I am of the opinion that the harder stuff is for working out. Gets you pumped and sometimes pissed. Fear Factory is great for the heavy bag.
On the other hand, trance/techno is good stuff for forms. The beat keeps you in the groove. Sometimes its good for taiji. A friend of mine likes doing his taiji to Moby every once in a while to change things up.
I also like the traditional Chinese stuff, too. And I even have a cd of traditional African rhythms with nothing but drums. That is the ONE. I can turn that on, and totally slip into this weird mode where I don’t get tired and am oblivious to everything around me. Could be something to do with the effect of certain rhythms on the human brain.
On a side thingy- Some studies have shown hard music like metal and rock to stunt cell growth and brain activity, while things like classical music, music with a more complex mathematical structure have been shown to stimulate growth and brain activity…I am not aware of any cold hard facts on the matter, but its thought provoking, anyway…
i strongly doupt that rock will stunt your brain growth i’ve listend to it for years. and i’m one of the smartest students in my state. According to the standardized tests and grades etc etc.
however i wouldn’t be surprised if people who listen to classical found it more stimulating for their thought process. i don’t mind classical i just don’t care to spend my money on it.
Well these pieces I found stirred up the blood while working out or doing forms.
Give me the prize: Queen, It’s a kind of magic
Anvil of Crom: Conan The Barbarian soundtrack
Any track from the Robin Hood soundtrack
Eye of the Tiger : Rocky III soundtrack
Decent into mystery: Batman Score
No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn : Beatie Boys, Licence to Ill
Predator Soundtrack
You could be mine: Guns n Roses,Use your Illution II
Welcome to the Jungle: Guns n Roses
Aliens Soundtrack
Matrix Soundtrack
The soundtrack from Phantom Menace where Obi-wan and Qui-gon fight Darth Maul
I have others but the name of the track slip my mind at this moment.
If you really want to bring out the “warrior within” try listening to some John Denver. And for that little extra push you need in your workouts try some Vanilla Ice; it never fails.
Seriously though, one cool thing to try is some very rhythmic Brazilian tribal-type music while sparring or shadowboxing. I think someone in an earlier post mentioned African music. That also sounds like a great idea. --FSY
Since I started training Capoeira I can’t imagine training without music. In Capoeira it’s sort of a key thing - without music there’s nada energy.
What about you? Do you practise to music? I remember that when doing WT we sometimes had music before the “actual” training (which was great) but then when we got serious the music was turned off… Why? Is it not appropriate in CMA?
I really love practicing to music, i used to do it while i was in KickBoxing, the teacher loved good rock and basicly all music, so you could bring a CD and play it throughout the practice, really loved listening to some good hardcore like SOAD or Dimmu Borgir.
I do this sometimes if i get some alonetime in a big gym room with a good stereo system. Nothing like doing some forms or kicks to a hardcore screaming voice. I also like soothing Ambient or techno. Hell i really love ALL music, including 60s-70s-80s-90s (gotta love ace of base).
Don’t know really, but I can imagine that music might make it more difficult to concentrate and the instructor might have to raise his voice to be heard.
and… well.. this is pretty far-fetched, but.. there’s a steady beat in music and you might start to do your technique in that same rhytm. then you learn to do techniques in a steady rhytm. not a good thing =) hehe.
I think music during the warm-up and stretching is nice.
As much as a love training to music, i only turn it on in a light session. serious training I like to focus on breaking rhythm, and techniques at different speeds and rhythm. I find i start to adapt to the beat whether i like it or not though
It’s distracting. When I train, I try to remain focussed.
When listening to music, you tend to move along with the beat. This is fine in dancing, but not so in fighting. While fighting certainly DOES have a beat and rhythm to it, the tempo should move according to match the situation, not to match a soundtrack. For example, you may do a “punch - block - punchpunch” rhythm, in other words, you’ve thrown a punch, blocked a hit which also opened the opponent, and dug into that opening with a two more punches, but in quicker succession. In musical terms, if the first punch and block were full notes, the last two punches were both semi-notes. It’s what boxers call the “old one-two” follow up. The timing of the fight is dependent on how fast you’re moving and how fast your opponent is moving. Not on how fast the music is moving.
Music is fun, but not practical for combat training.
“Wit is educated insolence.” - Aristotle (284-322 BC)
Our school, although very traditional in its curriculum and methods, might seem untraditional in some of our training. We play music-Steve Vai, Satriani,Chemical Bros, Rage against the machine, Peking Bros, traditional music, my younger jr instructors bring in KMFDM, and Korn,the class ROCKS! We are very high energy, we clap, cheer each other on, smile a heckuva lot, and sweat, sweat, sweat! As long as you walk out of my class wanting more!
A lot of us like the Latin Music especially Si Mo :).
It lifts the spirit and isn’t detrimental to the training.
Standing Post exercise is done in silence though as it helps us to focus inward with little distraction.
But meditation at the end of class is done with soft flute music playing which helps ease the mind and in some cases provides a really pleasant point of focus.
At home when I train I usually do it in silence though, but that’s because i don’t have a source of music in my training room.
Good to see another capoeirista on this forum! What style, Angola or Regional? Not that it really matters that much. If the instigator of this topic sees this, could you tell me some of the calls and chants your school uses!
I also enjoy practicing to music, but there is one thing I need to warn against. Do not try practicing to a metronome. I did this for about a week. I figured this would add structure and order to whatever I was doing, and it did, but at the cost of my flow. When I began to have trouble practicing without the metronome I stopped using it.
“Love is something which is never meant to last. It is but a flower that blooms and then withers away.”
