Thomas J. West Music

It's amazing to me how my attitude stacks the deck in my favor and seredipity is the result. Back at the end of April, Hal Leonard Books was promoting the newest version of Janet Horvath's monumental book Playing (less) Hurt. They had a little contest on their Facebook page to win a free consultation with Janet. The contest was "Tell us your best 'Whoops! I shouldn't have done that' story." My story was an embarrasing teaching moment where I unwittingly embarrassed one of my students and had to do a lot of backpedaling.

I won a phone consultation with Janet and spoke with her last night for about 30 minutes. It was a great exchange of information. I myself have had my own experiences as a performer and as an instructor with repetitive use injuries, especially in the marching band and drum corps arena. I shared some of those stories with her, and her current work is to delve more deeply into the playing injuries that result as a unique part of the band world. She said surprisingly (or perhaps not), that hearing problems are often the result of marching band and drum corps work. Not just hearing loss, either - tinnitus (ringing in the ears) can become a chronic condition that keeps musicians awake at night!

Janet's career as a musician's health activist began with her own injury early in her performing career. As a professional performer, she thought her life was over. Like many performers, her sense of self-worth and value was identified with her ability to play her instrument. At the time, music performance-related injuries were not taken seriously. Music was all "fun and games" and the rigors of playing in a professional orchestra were not understood (some would say that they still aren't). No one really thought of performing as a musician as an athletic endeavor. As anyone who has ever been through a marathon preparation period for a musical performance will tell you, muscle fatigue, tension, and strain are a common occurence.

Janet spends a significant part of her time presenting clinics on the body of work she has collected in her book, and Hal Leonard is in the midst of trying to spread her work to the U.S. scholastic band industry, among others. Her book has received praise from the academic, performing, and medical communities as "...impressive research and work."

At the end of the conversation, I agreed to purchase her book and give it a read. When I am finished, Janet has agreed to grant me an interview which will be hosted on this special web page. I plan to have this interview completed before the end of August.

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