Teaching Healthy Musicianship: The Music Educator's Guide to Injury Prevention and Wellness

Teaching Healthy Musicianship: The Music Educator's Guide to Injury Prevention and Wellness

Written by a professional musician who is also a certified occupational therapist, Teaching Healthy Musicianship first and foremost help music educators avoid common injuries that they themselves encounter, and in the process it also equips them with the tools they need to instill healthy musicianship practices in their students. Author Nancy Taylor combines her two unique skill sets to provide a model for injury prevention that is equally cognizant of the needs of music educators and their students. Through practical explanation of body mechanics, ergonomics, and the performance-related health problems and risk factors unique to musicianship, she gives music educators the tools they need to first practice healthy posture, body mechanics, environmental safety, and ergonomics, and then to introduce these same practices to their students. Thoroughly illustrated with 125 photographs, this book is a key resource for preservice and inservice teachers of middle school and high school band, orchestra, choir and general music. "Taylor's book is the go-to resource for music educators to find authoritative information and warm-ups/stretches with illustrations on practicing healthy musicianship for wind, percussion, string players, vocalists, and conductors!"--Dr. Shelley Jagow, Professor of Music, Wright State University "Wonderfully clear, and engagingly presented, Taylor's book provides a practically efficient and scientifically sound guide to teaching healthy musicianship. This invaluable resource is a must-read for all who desire to prevent and/or to heal performance related pain. It should be required reading for all music educators!"--Paula Crider, Professor Emerita, University of Texas, Austin "Taylor's book on healthy musicianship is a total asset to the field of music education, as this is an important topic that has not received enough attention. However, the best part of her work is that it has evolved from her own incredible foundation as a musician, and through her work as occupational therapist to deliver to educators the knowledge and understanding to support our students as healthy musicians."--Elizabeth Sokolowski, Associate Professor of Music Education, The University of the Arts Nancy Taylor is a professional musician, educator, and occupational therapist. In addition to teaching trumpet at University of Texas at El Paso, she is a clinician for workshops on injury treatment and prevention for musicians.