In 1989, Sifu Phillips and a group of students established the Vanderbilt Kung Fu Club where Joe Rea serves as an instructor and faculty adviser.  This club offers Chinese martial arts classes of Baguazhang, Tai Chi, Walu, and other Chinese boxing styles and hosts special workshops with James Cravens.  But in 1997, Joe Rea’s passion for Tai Chi led him to another venture.  As a musician, he realizes that many musicians and musical students suffer from Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI or Repetitive Motion Disorder).  As a Tai Chi practitioner, he fully understands how Tai Chi can help to relieve pain from the injury and prevent RSI to occur.  He did a study and found out that Southern Methodist University, Webster Conservatory, and Southern Illinois University offered Tai Chi for credit from their theater departments.  Syracuse University offered Tai Chi for credit from their school of education.  Allison Bert, a guitar colleague of Joe Rea’s from Syracuse University, has taught clinics in Tai Chi for musicians at Julliard and the Manhattan School of Music.  He presented “Tai Chi for Musicians” to the Blair School of Music’s curriculum committee and his proposal was accepted unanimously.  Sifu Phillips has been teaching this course since. 

Sifu Joe Rea works with students one-on-one

With Joe Rea’s extensive training background in Tai Chi and knowledge of musicians, “Tai Chi for Musicians” has a very rich curriculum that includes the following:

Warm-ups

Chen and Yang – Stretch muscles, tendons, ligaments.  Work on circulation of blood and Qi. 

Chen joint opening exercises – very helpful for wrists and shoulders since many musicians working to get their Qi to the fingers. 

Walu energy exercises.  Walu is referred to as a “Bridge” of the “external” to the “internal” in martial arts.  It has a few bare hand forms and others, but the core of the art consists of 44 energy exercises.  Sifu Phillips finds that these energy exercises help to get tension out shoulders and wrists.  He selects 4 exercises for the class. 

Students learn the 1st section (or six movements) of the Grandmaster Cheng Man-Ch’ing’s Yang short form. 

The students do the 1st section in 4 directions on their final exam for this course. 

Study and use as a training supplement the Essence of Tai Chi, a DVD made by Joe Rea’s teacher, Professor James Cravens. 

As a seasoned Tai Chi instructor, Joe Rea understands the importance of the proper posture and body alignment.  He spends much time on one-on-one guidance and tirelessly corrects student’s posture.  Joe Rea said that many students took the course due to a pre-existing condition.  The results of this course are quite impressive.  Students with tendonitis reported that their problem improved greatly after taking this class.  One semester he had a student who suffered from scoliosis who claimed improved condition after the course.  In the past fall semester, a harp student had tennis elbow and informed Joe Rea that her tennis elbow was significantly better at the end of the course. 

Sifu Joe Rea Phillips helps students' posture

Tai Chi and music are different types of arts.  But to Sifu Phillips, there are many similarities between these two art forms. 

Body State: both require the body state to be soft but full of energy (or Peng energy). 

Relaxation: a musician must resist tension to play well, just like Tai Chi will not flow with tension. 

Balance: both Tai Chi and music need physical, mental, and emotional balance to perform. 

Centeredness: Tai Chi practitioner needs to be Zhong Ding while a musician needs a focus. 

Projection: To Sifu Phillips a Tai Chi practitioner projects Qi and power while a musician projects to the audience. 

Wow, amazing blog layout!  How long have you been blogging for?  you make blogging look easy.  The overall look of your web site is wonderful, as well as the content!.  Thanks For Your article about The Tai Chi Examiner | Yang-Sheng . 

I am a journalist as well as a certified Tai Chi instructor.  I have written more than 250 articles on Tai Chi, Qigong, Fitness, and Health.  You can read my articles via http://www.examiner.com/x-57561-Tai-Chi-Examiner.  Thanks for your kind feedback. 

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