Archive for 2012

Musicians and Hearing Loss – One Page Fact Sheet

• 50% of musicians may have problems with hearing loss.
• Listening to music, live or recorded, in performance or rehearsal, can result in significant exposure to high sound levels.
• Risk of injury is based on a combination of sound intensity and duration.
• Hearing loss is cumulative: all sources (24/7) of elevated sound levels contribute.
• Permanent noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible.
• Temporary noise-induced hearing loss is reversible with adequate rest and recovery.

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Categories: 1 Page Fact Sheets, Auditory and Oral Health

Athletes and the Arts

Integrating the science of sport and the performing arts for the mutual benefit of both. Athletes and the Arts is an initiative focused on linking the sport athlete and musician/performing artist communities through collaborative exchange and application of wellness, training and performance research and initiatives.

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Categories: General Topics

Tags: goals, medicine in the arts, objectives, vision

Performance Anxiety – One Page Fact Sheet

Performance anxiety, commonly referred to as “stage fright” in performing arts contexts, is a distressing and disabling condition that affects performers of all ages. At least half of all performing artists, regardless of age, gender, and talent or experience level, report problems associated with performance anxiety.

Download a one-page fact sheet (PDF) on Performance Anxiety.

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Categories: 1 Page Fact Sheets, Mental Health, Practice and Performance

Focal Dystonia – One Page Fact Sheet

Focal dystonia is an abnormal movement disorder that develops when a person is attempting to perform a specific task such as playing a musical instrument. It shows in the loss of voluntary muscle control while playing an instrument. Focal dystonia can affect any group of muscles in the body including the face, lips, tongue, neck, arms or legs.

Download the Focal Dystonia (PDF) one-page fact sheet.

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Categories: 1 Page Fact Sheets, Injury Risk and Prevention, Practice and Performance

Tags: focal dystonia, overuse

Eating Before Performing – One Page Fact Sheet

The day of a performance, I often feel nervous and sometimes skip lunch, only to feel hungry later. Performances are usually in the evening so I know I need to eat something beforehand. Playing extended sets, I rarely get a break. What foods can I eat and at what times to supply me with enough energy to perform well the entire time?

Download the Eating Before Exercise (PDF)

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Categories: 1 Page Fact Sheets, Nutrition and Hydration

Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Connecting the Dots to Improve the Well-Being of Musicians and Pro Football Players

“The music that can deepest reach, / And cure all ill, is cordial speech.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
By: Bethany Ewald Bultman, President of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Assistance Foundation
New Orleans, known locally as the WHO DAT nation, is world-renowned for good music, good food, good times and our passion for our beloved Saints football. As the birthplace of the USA’s only indigenous art form – jazz – tourists from around the world …

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Categories: Health Care, Monday Morning Musings, Practice and Performance

Practice and Performance in Perspective

In most sports, there are objective measures that can be used to show individual improvement. These include variables measured by time (speed, quickness agility, pitch speed) or distance (jump height, long jump, javelin throw). Just get a baseline, train, and re-evaluate. You are either faster or slower. Even team sports have a metric – the final score.
Defining improvement in performing arts is more subjective (similar to such sports as gymnastics and diving). There may be judges or just the …

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Categories: Monday Morning Musings, Practice and Performance

Artists as Athletes?

The performing arts, as wise intellectuals have surmised over the years, are one thing that separate humans from the animals. In all cultures across the world, those who express themselves through singing, music, dance, or acting numbers in the hundreds of millions.
Yet, the medical and physical needs of these artists have rarely been made a priority–by artists, by instructors, by medical professionals. Looking at the issue more closely, one becomes confused.
Colleges will have eight athletic trainers covering one football …

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Categories: General Topics, Monday Morning Musings

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