have you ever got injuried?
i have some problems with my jaws(clicking sound and cheek muscle pain) when i play the clarinet, it really annoys me

back problem (due to too much organ playing)

Yes - awful pains in the arms, shoulders and neck due to playing piano when tense.

Interestingly enough, last night I thought enough was enough (got carried away yesterday with the practise and ended up having to take lots of pain killers and have a hot bath) and looked online for some advice.

I found an article about stress injuries in musicians which was presented at a conference for physical therapists and the like. It mentioned that musicians should learn something like the Alexander technique.

Having investigated this, I have ordered a book off amazon called "What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body by Mark, Gray" and they also do a general one for musicians.

If anybody is remotely interested, I'll let you know if it's worth a read.

I've had synovitis (joint inflammation) in my left wrist which made it impossible to play my violin for a few weeks - not sure if the violin actually caused it though.

Split lip (oboist)

broken toes! (not entirely the organ's fault). i play the organ in socks, and i took my shoes off to play on thursday, and went to go stand in the middle of the church while my mum played to get an idea of what the organ sounds like at different points in the church, and as i was walking between our new VERY HEAVY new chairs, i tripped, and wacked the whole of my foot on the big metal leg! OWWW! my foot is now very painful, and it still hurts when i bend it, like when walking downstairs in socks!

Jacob.

Tennis elbow from playing the piano. Luckily one of my students, a physiotherapist at the local hospital, diagnosed it, and with wearing the support she recommended, it has now gone away.

Ouch! I'll add a very bruised and slightly cut inside lip from my early attempts at altissimo

I've bashed myself in the teeth with my flute on more than one occasion! That hurt.

I remember my first flute lesson with a new teacher, after I told her the wrong timetable by mistake, I then bashed my lip with my flute and cut it. Whoops.

I went on this music course, and this specialist said to warm up (as in strecthing, etc) beofre playing, and to stop every half hour for a break. never put it into practice, I always forget!

Me too! (from playing on bad reeds) and a sore right thumb, now rectified (mostly) by altering the position of my right hand on the oboe.

"Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?" . . .

As far as i can remember, i've never been injured from playing an instrument. But i'd have thought that lots of musicians (pianists especially) would suffer from repetetive strain injury.

You hum it, I'll sing it.

tenosynovitis from a combination of typing all day then playing cor anglais all evening. the answer as I could not get out of the typing... wrist splints. I learnt to play in them too.

Unfortunately I had to take a break from the piano, but at least that way I kept my job and still could play my oboe and cor.

Oh and stop using a sling to carry the cor as the pressure on the neck was causing half the problems. A previous non-musically related injury meant I have a tendancy to carpal tunnel probs.

My solution pilates to strenghten the core muscles and gain the strength to hold the instrument in a more ergonomic way.

Seriously though . . . this is not a musical injury as such, but I once caught the index and middle fingers of my left hand in a circular saw. My two main instruments at the time were (and still are) guitar and piano. I couldn't play either for a year (though I know I'm VERY lucky to still have fingers at all!)

Yeouch!
I can imagine that causing you a few problems with your day job too...

I broke my scaphoid (wrist, for everyone else!) and couldn't play my flute, which was my main instrument at the time, for about 6 months afterwards. That was really annoying and absolutely no one had any sympathy! It was always "Poor you! How did you do it?", followed swiftly by "Oh, well that's your own silly fault!"
One person I know saw the cast, grinned and said "You did that playing hockey, didn't you?" and when I nodded, he said "Well, if you will play that /ridiculous/ sport...!"


Right now I'm wondering if it's possible to get frostbite in church if you stay there long enough. ;-)

T.

even though i injuried my jaws(clicking sound and cheek muscle pain) but i think what i was suffering the most was the depression because uni was giving me pressure and my teacher said either to give it up right now or carry on and i was worrying what if i might never play wind instruments again. it was the most painful part.

How the ###### do you play tennis with a piano?

(sorry).

Apart from occasional cramp in my left arm, I've never injured myself playing.

Work from the bass line!

I broke my scaphoid showjumping a horse... well, we didn't jump we just crashed into the side and he stood on my wrist (with a metal shoe on).

I got no sympathy at all! In fact the staff at the hospital were foul to me (because it was my own fault for doing a 'dangerous sport') and I was left in the corridor in a line-up of four riding injuries (well it was Sunday afternoon). We were all sitting there with johdpurs on and dirty teary faces

Right now I've got insomnia because I got a new violin last Tuesday and yesterday we changed the strings and bridge and I'm so excited about playing it I can't sleep! It's beautiful! My fingers hurt from playing it so much and I have a CONCERT tomorrow so I guess I feel sick with nerves too.... but SO excited....

Managed to trap a nerve in my neck during my grade 1 violin exam (it started feeling funny on the walk back to the car after the exam that afternoon and by bedtime I couldn't move my head at all).

And managed to exacerbate a dodgy right shoulder by catching a falling clarinet yesterday Hoping rest, ibuprofen and a few days not violining will sort it

Not really to do with musicians' injuries but hospital staff are often foul to horse riders because they think that we all go out hunting poor little foxes.

I have seen many violin players with lumps on their necks and harp players with calluses on the ends of their fingers. I don't think that recorder players get much more than knocked teeth but I have never managed to damage any of mine so far.

Jst reading about the tennis elbow thingy... my right forearm has been a bit achey for some time now, especially if I attempt to carry anything of wight or when I rotate my elbow in a 'thumbs upwards' direction. Most of the ache is just below the joint. Is this similar? Lots of piano playing, but I thought it too minimal to bother a doctor with.

Stiff neck after several long rehearsals + 2 carol concerts standing holding heavy folders in drafty churches
Sore throat from the same (at least I hope that's the reason; otherwise I've get the cold that's going around...)

and make a racket

A very very very bent left little finger from playing the horn - it's a bit of a novelty for me now hehe, you can visibly see how bent it is compared to the other one And in general it doesn't hurt any more, I have a leather strap that supports the weight on my hand not my little finger, and stops the little-finger-grip digging in.