Playing (less) Hurt An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians
Playing (less) Hurt is a readable and
comprehensive guide
and reference for all concerned with pain in musical work:
professional and amateur musicians, teachers and students,
doctors and therapists. This book is essential for all musicians.
String, keyboard, percussion, harp, brass, wind, jazz,
and rock players will play better and feel better.
Updates can be seen on
the left of the homepage. Janet will be posting daily!
____________________________
SPECIAL
OFFER!
You will want our new 2009 edition (completely rewritten) even
if you have a previous edition. Exciting new information, photos, and
charts.
Tear out the order form
of a previous edition (proof of purchase) and include it with our new
order form online (available at the PLH store) and receive a 25%
discount on the 2009 edition!
Send or fax to the
locations listed on the order form!
Your price: $22.50!
Offer
good through August 2009. ____________________________
Richard Norris MD's Musicians Survival
Package Now Available in the Playing (less) Hurt
Store! ____________________________
OVER
8,000 BOOKS SOLD!
2009 Edition of Playing (less) Hurt
has been released!
Acclaimed Cellist/Author/Speaker Janet
Horvath celebrates the milestone of 8,000 books sold as she releases
the 2009 edition of her revised self-published book.
A one-of-a-kind
guide and reference, Playing (less) Hurt is available online at
playinglesshurt.com and nationally at Shar Products Company and a host
of music stores. Need the book for a class? Wholesale and bulk
discounts are available.
How can
musicians play with ease and avoid injury?
Musicians face many challenges every time they pick up their
instruments: awkward postures, endless repetition, a competitive
environment, performance anxiety and demanding repertoire. Years of
solitary practice, the hectic pace of rehearsals, and the demands of
performances reinforce their physical and psychological strains.The
required athleticism, precision, co-ordination and extraordinary skill
is challenge enough. Performing with tension and intensity adds to the
stresses. The combination of all these factors can lead to
career-threatening injury.
Playing
(less) Hurt is a readable and comprehensive reference for all concerned
with the music-making: professional and amateur musicians, teachers and
students, doctors and therapists. This book is essential for all
musicians who want to play better and feel better.
“
We musicians seem to be willing to self destruct in order to achieve
our goals. We are willing to suffer any obstacle in order to recreate
the great masterworks of music with passion, and musicality, until we
are thwarted by pain and injury. This book is intended for all
instrumentalists and those who want to take care of them . We all want
to play with more ease professional and amateur musicians, teachers and
students, classical, jazz and rock musicians and doctors and
therapists,” says Horvath, the Minnesota Orchestra’s
Associate Principal Cellist for more than two decades.
In the United States today there are nearly 63 million instrumental
musicians, both professional and amateur, pursuing their passion for
making music (according to a recent Gallup survey). Many of the
challenges musicians face are clearly acknowledged, including a highly
competitive environment, performance anxiety and the isolation of
solitary practice, but only recently have they begun to grapple with
the biggest challenge of all: the very real obstacle of physical pain.
In her book,
Playing (less) Hurt - An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians, Horvath
addresses subjects that are pertinent to all musicians on any
instrument. The book’s first chapters address how injuries can
arise in the course of musical life. The second section goes into
considerable medical depth to explain various injuries common to
instrumental musicians, the third section of the book offers a
wide-ranging compendium of preventative and restorative approaches, and
finally the fourth section contains a comprehensive multi-page resource
guide.
“This
is a practical, usable guide with a wide range of hints,” Janet
Horvath explains. “Teachers will learn how to select an
instrument sized properly for their students and to guard against
injuries among them. Performers can take the injury susceptibility
quiz, and can use the 90 stretches and onstage tricks for injury
prevention. There are practice pointers, rehabilitation strategies, and
photos of the latest in instrument modifications, props and
splints.”
Horvath has
compiled an extensive resource list that includes books, videos,
articles, web sites, as well as a listing of doctors and performing
arts medical facilities. The book’s spiral binding allows the
book to lie flat for easy placement on the floor or on music stands.
(The book is also available in a standard spine binding.)
Nationally recognized authority and pioneer in the
area of the medical problems of performing artists, Horvath founded the
Playing (less) Hurt™ Injury
Prevention conference and lecture series. She has published articles in
professional journals, appeared on radio and television programs,
spoken at conferences and presented master classes on the topic.
As a professional symphony orchestra musician, a soloist and chamber
musician, Horvath became a trail-blazer in the music world by openly
speaking and writing about the physical stresses she and many other
musicians have experienced. She has contributed importantly to
improvements in working conditions and in awareness for
musicians’ work-related ailments and their prevention. She has
written numerous articles which have appeared in National and
International publications including the Strad Magazine, Strings, and
The Suzuki Association of Americas Journal and she has been the subject
of numerous interviews. One such interview appeared in Symphony
Magazine in the March/April issue of 2003. An Associated Press
article appeared in 2003.
Horvath, the
associate principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra, is in great
demand to present her injury prevention seminars.
She has presented seminars at several national
conferences, colleges, conservatories and universities and symphony
orchestras including the New World Symphony (Miami), the University of
Miami, the San Francisco Symphony, the Boston Symphony, and the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
In May of 2003 the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra invited Ms. Horvath to present “Playing
(less) Hurt” seminars for its musicians. These sessions
marked the first time a major American orchestra hosted an injury
prevention and rehabilitation seminar as a mandatory administrative
service for musicians using rehearsal time for the presentation.
”I
couldn't be more thrilled. The field of Performing Arts
Medicine is growing fast and the new information in the revised edition
keeps current with the latest developments. Based on the many letters
of thanks I have received from musicians, teachers, students, parents
and medical professionals, it is extremely gratifying to see that the
book is filling an important need Playing (less) Hurt
has spurred more interest in the field of performing arts medicine and
professional orchestras and teachers are becoming more proactive in
working to prevent injuries. Conferences and seminars on injury
prevention are now springing up all over the country.”
The 253-page book retails for $29.95 U.S. It can be
ordered online
at www.playinglesshurt.com. The book is also available nationally at a host of music stores in the
U.S. and Canada, such as Shar Products Company. (WHOLESALE AND BULK
DISCOUNTS ARE AVAILABLE, contact janet@playinglesshurt.com)
Also available on this website are:
• “Playing (less)
Hurt”™ Set
of 6 Cards (8.5" x 11"), which includes all 90
stretches that are featured in the book, and the 10 Do's and 10 Don'ts,
the 10 Onstage Tricks and the 10 Danger Signals. They are sized for
easy portability and easy display in studios, lockers or instrument
cases. The cards retail for $9.00 U.S.
Playing (less) Hurt - An Injury
Prevention Guide for Musicians is available for
purchase online .
Let’s talk about something scary,
something musicians are even more reticent to talk about than overuse
injury. Hearing loss is on the rise and is a danger to all of us. read more...
Janet Horvath now has a regular column
on Polyphonic.org discussing health issues relevant to professional
musicians. These articles are of interest to all musicians, giving
excellent advice on strategies to deal with existing injuries as well
as how to avoid injury in the first place.
Ms. Horvath's recent columns at
Polyphonic.org have focused on:
This article is an excellent overview of the all-important issue of
posture and how it relates to tension and injury. Ms. Horvath discusses
"Risky Postures," "Tension" and its relationship to posture, "Natural"
postures, as well as other points related to appropriate posture for
performing musicians.
Internet
Cello Society
When you
hear the words "Mahler's Fifth," you probably think "great music."
Janet Horvath wants you to think "phenomenal athleticism."
Horvath, associate principal cellist of the Minnesota Orchestra and a
pioneer in performing arts medicine, has been on a mission to get
musicians, instructors and management to realize that playing any
instrument is physically demanding. (Interview by Chrys Wu)
Stressing
Prevention: Janet Horvath advocates for injured musicians
Interview by Melinda Whiting,
Symphony Magazine
The March/April 2004 edition of the League
of American Orchestra's Symphony Magazine features an extensive
interview with Janet Horvath. (CLICK HERE TO
DOWNLOAD PDF) or log on to: Symphony.
Pump Down
the Volume
"If you're an orchestral musician you could
be at serious risk of long-term hearing damage. Janet Horvath looks at
some simple and effective solutions." The Strad
(December 2004)
