Essential skills for promoting a lifelong love of music and music making: developing the fundamental skill: healthful, injury-preventive technique: Part 2 of 4

American Music Teacher, April-May, 2005 by Gail Berenson, Barbara Lister-Sink

Introduction

Consider the feelings you have when a performance has gone well and you've really connected with the audience. Successful at projecting your excitement and love of a composition to the audience, your face is flushed, your heart is beating fast and every inch of you feels alive. Those same emotions also can result from giving an exhilarating lesson. We teach and perform because the love of music has transformed our lives.

We all wish our students a lifetime of joyous music making, yet, in spite of our best efforts, countless students suffer injuries that prevent them from reaching this goal. A medical subspecialty has arisen in recent years to help performers in all disciplines regain the ability to practice their craft. Performing arts medicine is a growing field with, sadly, more than enough injured performers to fill the practice.

Although medical professionals can be very helpful, there is even better news. Musicians also are getting onboard, taking control of their destiny by becoming better educated about ergonomics and injury preventive techniques.

The National Association of Schools of Music (the national accrediting body for music schools) now is mandating the inclusion of wellness information into the music curriculum of music majors. Music schools have begun to include information to help music students learn how to maintain their physical and psychological well-being. As students begin their careers, they will pass this information on to their students, creating a vital link for wellness.

In technique, as in most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For music teachers, this means teaching ergonomically correct, pain-free movement techniques from the very beginning of study. Developing a healthy technique has been the passion and life work of Barbara Lister-Sink, the author of this article. She explores the essential skill--the ability to perform with physical ease and technical efficiency. She offers AMT readers invaluable information we hope you will find beneficial enough to integrate into your own teaching and performing. Barbara lists some wonderful resources in her article for further investigation.

As I write, a colossal earthquake has disturbed the earth's rotation; a tsunami, as well as war, bizarre weather, famine and disease, has destroyed untold lives. Our planet, this resplendent blue, green and white sphere, is traveling in a vast universe while tragic events unfold, impossible to ignore.

In the face of global chaos, why even write about such a relatively insignificant topic as a healthful, injury-preventive technique? Why, indeed. Because music has sustained us through the worst--and best--of times, since the dawn of humankind. Members of a global community, musicians have always been citizens of the world, peacemakers, bridge builders and healers. Technique is the absolute foundation upon which our music-making rests. Lacking that essential foundation, one risks losing the ability to make music freely and to serve humanity effectively. We also suffer the devastating effects of losing our own musical "voice," as one keyboardist poignantly describes:

   "As a young child, I was forced to pull my fingers
   apart to develop a bigger span and to raise
   high, curled and tight fingers to develop independence.
   Technique was just about fingers. When I
   started practicing more in music school, I developed
   an injury and couldn't even do daily activities.
   Not being able to play the piano was
   devastating. The loneliness and sense of isolation
   and defeat were overwhelming. I thought of quitting
   school and the music profession altogether."

This should never have happened, but it does happen to musicians on a daily basis. Surveys consistently reveal that 50 to 75 percent of musicians have suffered playing-related discomfort, pain, injury or dysfunction at some point in their musical lives. That rate of injury is equaled only by misconceptions, ignorance and misinformation regarding technique.

As a result, numerous talented and dedicated musicians collide with a wall of pain, injury and dysfunction. Many who never will suffer injury may diminish their potential as fully expressive musicians for lack of a healthful technique.

The good news is that the information and knowledge needed to build a healthful technique, and even eradicate injuries, is available. The fields of music medicine and technology have added scientific validation to successful pedagogical approaches, past and present. Articles, books, videos, websites and workshops on injury-preventive technique abound. However, it is a daunting task to sift through and organize this information for one's own teaching and to discover the commonalities among so many sources.

Someday soon, this formidable challenge may be met, I believe, through a collective, national effort to define the principles of healthful technique; to develop reliable methods for producing replicable, consistent technical results; and to disseminate this information in an understandable, appropriate manner to all musicians.