An Occupational Study of Physical Playing-related Injuries in College Music Students (original) (raw)
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Why Music Majors Pursue Music Despite the Risk of Playing-related Injuries
Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 2007
Music is an occupation that has existed across cultures and societies for millennia. What music means and how it is used differ depending on the context of an individual's life. University music majors often pursue music as a future career goal, despite the fact that playing-related injuries are a significant risk for this population and could end their careers. The purpose of this study was to investigate why university music majors pursue music despite the risk of playing-related injuries. This qualitative study used a naturalistic approach and focus groups to collect data. Nine students participated in two focus group sessions. The data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for themes. The results of the study indicate that both personal and environmental factors influence the participants' decision to continue to participate in music. Some students also were willing to play through pain, which is contrary to Maslow's theory of human needs, and many students experienced difficulties accessing desirable health care. Although an injury could terminate a student's ability to participate in music, the occupation of music itself transcended this danger. For several musicians, quitting was not a desirable option. These findings have clinical implications for health care workers with respect to modifying treatment to address musicians' specialized needs. Occupational therapists use a holistic and client-centered approach to care and offer interventions such as compensatory techniques, assistive devices, and methods of energy conservation that may facilitate continuing with this valued occupation.
Beyond prevention: Addressing the needs of tertiary music students with a playing-related injury
Music in Australian Tertiary Institutions: Issues for the 21st Century, 2007
The discourse within Australian tertiary music institutions on playing-related injury is slowly developing. The high incidence of injury in students is gradually being acknowledged, and awareness of prevention strategies is increasing. In late 2005, a Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University presentation introduced staff, students, and the public to a project collaboratively undertaken by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya), Barcelona, aiming to dissolve taboos on playing-related injury among both music students and professionals. In one aspect, however, the current discourse is critically inadequate. In focusing on injury prevention and physiological management, it overlooks the psychological, emotional, social, and financial repercussions of injury. What impact can an injury have on a tertiary music student? What are the needs of students who suffer injuries? What systems are already in place within tertiary music institutions for those students, and what can be done to address the deficiencies? From the perspective of my own experience, this paper makes suggestions for strategies that address the needs of tertiary music students with a playing-related injury.
The Reality of Injuries in a Musician's Career
American Music Teacher, 2017
Injuries in musicians are more frequent than previously thought. Numbers published in multiple studies related to the musician’s health shows that the incidence of injuries can be as high as 93%. Aggravating the situation, injured musicians tend to neglect professional help and decline the necessary recovery measures. Rest is one of the most recommended measures in the treatment of injuries. This leads musicians to ignore treatment citing financial strains, fear of losing a job and the necessity to keep practicing. Analyzed data on incidence, treatment and consequence of injuries in musicians lead to the conclusion that the best way to preserve their skills is through prevention methods.
International Journal of Music Education
Injury risks associated with musical performance continue to be a serious problem for professional and student musicians. Much research has focused on the incidence and severity of these problems yet less information is available on the potential influence of health awareness and attitudes to injuries in these populations. This study aimed to investigate health awareness and attitudes to injury amongst Australian music students. Using a qualitative case study methodology, in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 11 student cellists. Further interviews were undertaken with 10 orchestral cellists and five orchestral management staff as a means of triangulating student data. All data were analysed using a “themes-based” analysis of narrative approach. Findings indicated that in comparison to professional cellists students demonstrated poor health awareness and behaviours such as playing through pain and inaction in response to injury. Analysis of the combined interview ...
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders
Background: The achievement and improvement of skills in musical techniques to reach the highest levels of performance may expose music students to a wide range of playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs). In order to establish effective solutions for PRMDs and to develop future preventive measures, it is fundamental to firstly identify the main risk factors that play a significant role in the development of musculoskeletal conditions and symptoms. The aim of the study is to identify those factors associated with increased risk of PRMDs among music students. A further goal is to characterise this population and describe the clinical features of PRMDs, as well as to determine the evolving course of PRMDs in music students during their training. Methods: One hundred and ninety schools have been invited to participate in this study, sixty of which have already confirmed officially their support for the investigation's recruitment procedures, by means of a subsequent distribution of the link to a web-based questionnaire to their student groups (total potential student numbers available: n = 12,000 [based on~200 students per school on average, and 60 volunteering schools]; expected number of students: n = 3000 [based on a 25% response rate from the 12,000 students attending the 60 volunteering schools]). The web-based questionnaire includes questions about any PRMD that students have experienced during their training, and different potential risk factors (i.e. lifestyle and physical activity, practice habits, behaviour toward prevention and health history, level of stress, perfectionism, fatigue and disability). Overall recurrence or new onsets of PRMDs will be assessed at 6 and 12 months after the first data collection to investigate and record the development of new incidents within a period of a year and to enable characterisation of the nature and the evolving course of PRMDs. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, no other longitudinal studies on risk factors for PRMDs among music students have been conducted so far. Therefore, this study can be considered as an opportunity to begin filling the gaps within current research in this field and to generate new knowledge within musical contexts in education and employment. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03622190), registration date 09/08/2018.
Becoming a healthier guitarist: Understanding and addressing injuries
The field of performance arts medicine is supplying musicians with alarming statistics regarding their health. Authors give statistics as high as 93% when discussing the injury rate among instrumentalists. As guitar is one of the instruments listed with the highest incidence of playing-related injuries, this work addresses the types of injuries to which musicians, including guitarists, are prone, as well as their causes and treatment. Musicians often tend to neglect proper treatment for playing related injuries, which leads to the conclusion that investing time in prevention methods is the best choice in regards to injuries. The efficacy of common routines for injury prevention such as warming-up, taking breaks, among others, has proven statistically to be successful. Studies show that warm-up routines and periodic breaks from music practice seem to be effective against playing-related injuries; the benefits of stretching, however, remain controversial. Since some of the injuries investigated are preventable to a large extent through technical adjustments, informed suggestions for guitarists are included. Though the solutions presented are not necessarily the only ones available, they are supported by studies in performing arts medicine.
Survivors on the edge: The lived-experience of professional musicians with playing-related injuries
2010
The purpose of this study was to understand the lived-experience of professional instrumental musicians who have experienced playing-related injuries. This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology developed to examine this lived-experience. Indepth interviews were conducted with ten professional musicians. This was followed by a focus group where preliminary findings were presented to participants and their feedback was sought. Other sources of lived-experience included participant-observation by the researcher, who is a musician and has experienced injuries; and biographic and artistic representations of musical performance and its loss, including literature, films and television. The findings were summarized in a visual representation unique to this study. The representation illustrates three roles-musician, worker and teacher-that are participated in, and disrupted by, the experience of being injured. In addition, the experience of a playingrelated injury takes place within the context of a healthcare system which was perceived as insufficient to meet their needs. Specialized care was rarely available, and if available, was not local or timely; treatment operated on a fee-for-service model when many musicians had meagre incomes and lacked coverage for these services; and treatment provided often failed to allow musicians to continue to perform at the level they had previously achieved. Finally, the representation illustrated four existentials-lived time, space, body and social relationsthat permeated the experience. This study suggests that improvements to healthcare delivery and education of musicians, music teachers and healthcare professionals are needed. It also suggests that occupation and the experience of flow can be detrimental to health, and this impact needs to be considered in future research and in clinical applications.
Playing-Related Health Problems Among Instrumental Music Students at a University in Malaysia
Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 2016
Musicians from a wide range of backgrounds experience playing-related health problems including musculoskeletal disorders, hearing loss, and performance anxiety. Few studies have focused specifically on the health concerns of musicians in Malaysia. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate playing-related health problems among student musicians at a university in Malaysia as well as their knowledge and awareness of playing-related health problems. METHODS: Instrumental music students enrolled in undergraduate and post-graduate university music courses (n=98) participated in a self-report online survey which addressed aspects such as educational background, playing experience, knowledge and awareness of musicians’ health issues, history of physical problems, lifestyle factors, and prevention and management strategies. RESULTS: Of the total participants, 28.9% reported that they were currently experiencing playing-related pain in a body part, and 46.4% had experienced playing-related pain...