The Musician's Way Blog

Have you ever experienced pain or discomfort as a result of your music making?

If you answered yes, you’re not alone.

As described in my book The Musician’s Way, musicians frequently incur injuries, particularly to hands, limbs, backs, necks, vocal cords, and ears.

In fact, based on the data gathered by researchers worldwide, it appears that more than half of all professional musicians, at some point in their careers, endure music-related maladies that sideline them temporarily. Some performers even become permanently disabled. Students, too, are at risk.

The good news is that almost all of these occupational injuries are preventable.

Chapters 12 & 13 of The Musician’s Way provide research-based guidelines for avoiding such injuries and promoting personal wellbeing. Below is a condensation of those guidelines:

The Twelve Habits of Healthy Musicians by Gerald Klickstein
1.  Increase playing or singing time gradually
2.  Limit repetition
3.  Regulate hand- or voice-intensive tasks
4.  Manage your workload
5.  Warm up and cool down
6.  Minimize tension
7.  Take breaks
8.  Heed warning signs
9.  Take charge of anxiety
10. Keep fit and strong
11. Conserve your hearing
12. Care for your voice

The Musician’s Way specifies ways in which you can incorporate these twelve habits into your lifestyle. Here are a few highlights:

• #1: To avert overuse injuries, restrict any increase in your total playing or singing time to a maximum of 10-20% per week (p. 12).
• #4: Respect your physical limits and ask a mentor for advice before you take on an overload of duties (p. 243).
• #5: Pages 37-39 present a six-step process for warming up thoroughly and efficiently.
• #6: Two sections in Chapter 13 – “Balanced Sitting and Standing” & “Meeting Your Instrument” – depict how musicians can form easeful habits. Forty-one photos are included.
• #7: In solo practice, play or sing no more than 25 minutes before pausing for a 5-minute respite. The Musician’s Way itemizes six restorative movements that help to invigorate breaks (p. 75-82).
• #8: Injury symptoms can be subtle, as are the social issues that come into play when unwell musicians who are expected to perform need to rest instead. Pages 237-241 untangle these topics.
• #9: Anxiety doesn’t just scuttle musicians on stage but also impels some to overpractice to the point of injury. Strategies to neutralize anxiety interweave throughout The Musician’s Way and come to the fore in Chapter 7, “Unmasking Performance Anxiety.”
• #10: Music making requires mental, physical, and emotional vigor. Healthy musicians, therefore, mind their nurtrition, rest, exercise, and other self-care needs much like top athletes (p. 245-246).
• #11: Strategies that thwart music-induced hearing loss are summarized in my post “Hear today. Hear tomorrow” and fleshed out on pages 277-291.
• #12: A section titled “Voice Care” encapsulates vocal hygiene under seven headings, the first of which is ‘Drink plenty of water’ (p. 268-277).

What strategies do you employ to stay in top form?

I hope that The Musician’s Way and MusiciansWay.com will help you be a productive musical artist who is conversant with both self-care and musicianship.

© 2009 Gerald Klickstein