This article looks at injuries to musicians. For an expert perspective, I interviewed Dr. Sarah Mickeler, B. Mus., DC Dr. Mickeler is a former professional musician and chiropractor who focuses on injuries to musicians in her practice.

1) What led you to specialize in musicians’ injuries?

I have a very personal connection to injuries to musicians. I had trained as a classical clarinet and it was during my undergraduate degree that I started having all kinds of problems from playing too much and having bad posture. Unfortunately, they told me, like many others, that I should play despite the pain and that maybe I would get better. Of course, it didn’t, and it eventually led to the demise of my clarinet career, because I was totally unable to hold my instrument. So, I decided to choose a new career that would help other musicians, and hopefully before they got to the point I was at! Chiropractic attracted me to the entire healthcare paradigm it embodies: As chiropractors, we diagnose and fix the cause, rather than mask the symptoms.

2) What is the difference between treating musicians and treating the general population?

Often what I tell people who don’t understand the details of musicians’ injuries is that “it takes one to know one.” As a musician, it can be very difficult to explain to a doctor or physical therapist or even another chiropractor what the mechanisms look like when you play your instrument. But when someone walks into my office and says they play the flute, the guitar, the tuba or whatever, I know exactly what the physical component of playing their instrument entails. That is a very important first step.

Second, not only must you be able to understand well what playing that instrument entails, you must also be able to see that person play. Even if someone tells me that he plays the violin (I automatically think: “ok, then they will tilt their head to the left and have problems with their right shoulder, etc.”), I am often surprised to see how over the years of playing , They have wriggled into a little pretzel while playing!

So on the first or second visit, all my musicians bring their instruments and I do a full performance analysis to see what they are doing right and wrong. It could be that your posture is contributing to your injury. Or maybe there is something about the instrument that we could change; You may only need a slight adjustment in the thumb rest or a key position.

For example, I have very small hands and it was difficult for me to reach some of the alternate fingering keys on my clarinet, so I cut them off and re-soldered in a different direction to be able to reach them.

Third, it’s important to recognize that there are some really common reasons for performance injuries. The most common are a repertoire change, an instrument change (like a new mouthpiece or something similar), a practice time change, or an upcoming recital. If we can pinpoint what the artist has been doing differently lately to contribute to his injury, that helps immensely.

And lastly, it’s very important to realize, especially for freelance artists, that you can’t just tell them to take a muscle relaxant and take a few weeks off. If these people took a few weeks off, they wouldn’t have a roof over their head and no food on the table. While sometimes it is absolutely imperative that you take a break, most of the time I take a holistic approach to treating artists and changing and fixing what we can, within the obvious limitations of current concerts and upcoming events.

3) What is the most common injury you see in your office?

In my office, there is a tie for the most common injury. The first is pain in the upper back / shoulders / neck; I group them together because those terms can mean the same thing to many people; often someone comes in and says their shoulder hurts and points out the pain, but for me what? what they are targeting is actually the upper back or lower neck. This is often due to poor posture or poor ergonomic practice. If we can figure out how to improve the overall posture and ergonomic situation, this will tend to resolve itself quickly.

And the second most common injury is pain in the hands and arms. You wouldn’t believe how many people walk into my office with numb and tingling hands and fingers, which can be very scary if you’re the one experiencing it, to discover that the problem isn’t actually their hands and fingers. , but it is a little higher up the arm and can be treated quite easily once properly diagnosed. Or they come with tennis elbow, but they have never owned a tennis racket in their life! In my office, I call tennis and golfer’s elbow “musician’s elbow” because it is a repetitive stress injury. It is really very common and surprisingly easy to treat.

4) What can musicians do to prevent injuries?

First of all, don’t be a hero! There is simply no reason to practice for hours on end without a break. Remember to always take a short break for every 30 minutes that you are playing. Second, don’t play with pain. The pain signal is there to tell you that you are doing something wrong. Playing through it will get you nowhere except to more pain and worse shape in the future. Third, consider your ergonomics. If you sit down to play, does your chair fit you? In rehearsal, do you have to strain a little to see both the position and the director? Do you have strangely contorted arms to be able to play properly? This is not OK. And lastly, seek the help of a professional who can not only help you with the injuries you are currently facing, but can also help you avoid future injuries and optimize your overall performance.

You can learn more about Dr. Sarah Mickeler and her Toronto-based chiropractic practice, which focuses on musicians’ injuries at http://www.drsarah.ca.

To repeat Sarah’s advice, pay attention to any pain signals your body sends you! Admitting that you have a physical problem does not make you less of a musician, it means that you are a very smart musician with years of playing ahead of you!

This article was originally posted on the Muses Muse songwriter resource website (February 2005) http://www.musesmuse.com.

(c) Copyright Linda Dessau, 2005.