Useful Websites & Library Resources for Musician's Health
Looking after yourself mentally, physically and musically is essential. Check out these web resources on musicians health or search ECU WorldSearch for titles in the library collection.
Playing (Less) Hurt by
(Book). Making music at any level is a powerful gift. While musicians have endless resources for learning the basics of their instruments and the theory of music, few books have explored the other subtleties and complexities that musicians face in their quest to play with ease and skill. The demands of solitary practice, hectic rehearsal schedules, challenging repertoire, performance pressures, awkward postures, and other physical strains have left a trail of injured, hearing-impaired, and frustrated musicians who have had few resources to guide them. Playing Less Hurt addresses this need with specific tools to avoid and alleviate injury. Impressively researched, the book is invaluable not only to musicians, but also to the coaches and medical professionals who work with them. Everyone from dentists to orthopedists, audiologists to neurologists, massage therapists and trainers will benefit from Janet Horvath's coherent account of the physiology and psyche of a practicing musician. Writing with knowledge, sympathetic insight, humor, and aplomb, Horvath has created an essential resource for all musicians who want to play better and feel better.
ISBN: 9781423488460Publication Date: 2010
The Biology of Musical Performance and Performance-Related Injury by
Music performance requires a high degree of physical skill, yet until recently, musical training has paid little attention to the considerable demands made on the mind and body. The Biology of Musical Performance and Performance-Related Injury presents singers and instrumentalists with accurate information on the physical processes that underlie their craft. The book provides a concise overview of the biological principles associated with performance technique while assuming no prior scientific knowledge, making it accessible to both musicians and to health professionals who treat performance-related medical conditions. Author Alan H. D. Watson explains the concepts and techniques of music performance, discussing themes such as posture and the back; movements of the arm and hand and associated problems; breathing in singers and wind players; the embouchure and respiratory tract in wind playing; the larynx and vocal tract in singers; the brain and its role in skill acquisition and aural processing; and stress and its management. Watson offers performers and teachers the tools they need to create a rational approach to the development and communication of technique. He also provides insight into the origins of performance-related injury, helping to reduce the risk of such problems by encouraging a technique that is sustainable in the long term. Each chapter includes several illustrations and an extensive bibliography for further reading. To support the text, a CD-Rom is included, featuring original diagrams that clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of body structure and function, explaining and illuminating key concepts through an extensive set of animations, sound files, and videos.
ISBN: 9780810863750Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Indirect Procedures by
The problems of a musician may have many causes and many possible solutions. While working conditions, stress, and instrument and furniture design are all significant factors, the most important aspect of a musician's life remains not what is done to them, but what they do to themselves. F.M.Alexander (1869-1955) saw the individual as a whole, and talked not of `the body' but of `the self'; not of `posture', but of `use'. The aim of his technique is not to teach you to do what is right, but to help you stop doing what is wrong, through a series of practical procedures which awaken yourawareness and allow you to develop your innate potential. The Alexander Technique applies to all areas of musical activity, from technique, sound production, and interpretation, to daily practice, rehearsal routines, and the mitigating of stage fright and health problems. This book, by anexperienced professional musician and Alexander teacher, is the first to deal specifically with the applications of the Technique to music making.
ISBN: 9780198165699Publication Date: 1997
Sound Performers Online Course
Sound Performers is an online course designed to help musicians optimise their full potential through gaining understanding of how the body and mind work in practice and performance.
