All to many talented musicians suffer from injuries like tendinitis, back pain, and numbness.
In fact, studies (1,2) show that from 50–90% of all musicians experience injuries at some point in their career. That means that if you’re a musician, either you or someone you know has had a playing-related injury.
These injuries take many forms.
- Repetitive strain injuries, overuse injuries
- Carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, focal dystonia, TMJ syndrome, back pain, sciatica, that spot in your shoulder, thoracic outlet syndrome, vocal loss and hoarseness
- Excess fatigue, numbness, tingling, burning sensations
More than a source of physical discomfort, injuries like these threaten what might be the most important pursuit in your life: playing music.
As such, among musicians, injuries are spoken about in hushed tones. Being injured means not being able to pursue what you love, not getting the performances you want, not hanging out with your friends and colleagues, not fully giving form to your creative voice. In the worst case, it could mean giving up music altogether.
To make matter worse, repetitive strain injuries are notoriously difficult to treat. Many injured musicians go from doctor to doctor, therapist to therapist, and treatment to treatment, seeing no real progress with pain-relief. As a result, some end up feeling more hopeless than ever.
I certainly felt this way, back when I was dealing with pain in both arms that nearly stopped my career as a violinist. I could barely play for more than a few minutes at a time, and I thought my music career was over before it started.
Thankfully, I found a collection of methods (including the Alexander Technique, among others) that helped me become totally free from pain. I have since performed on countless stages across the country and have recorded on dozens of albums.
The good news: if I can be free from pain and injuries, so can you!
Here are three shifts to help you permanently fix your musician’s injuries. Implement these, and you’ll never have to worry about pain again!
- Adopt a holistic approach. Most pain-relief methods focus only on the area of pain without acknowledging how the rest of your body impacts that area. Your body is a web, not made of isolated parts. As such, the place where it hurts is merely a local expression of a larger inefficient body movement pattern. If you don’t address the larger pattern, the pain will keep coming back. In addition, most pain-relief methods only focus on one level of your being: body, emotions, or mind. However, all three interact to produce any injury. Strong negative emotions or a limiting mindset are always present with injuries. You need to address body, emotions, and mind all together for effective, lasting relief.
- Relax in the critical moment. The tension that causes musician’s injuries happens when you’re under pressure in some way. Being on stage, time pressure, social pressure, playing a difficult or fast piece of music… all these contribute to tension and pain. The trick isn’t to stop putting yourself in these situations. It’s to learn to relax in the very moment when you normally get tense or use force. The Alexander Technique will teach you this skill.
- Unkink your musical expression. Many musicians do some version of “guitar face” when trying to play expressively. Guitar face is the use of excess muscular tension to create musical expression. What most musicians don’t realize is that this muscular tension only interferes with their musical expression. Musical expression is meant to flow effortlessly, like water through a hose. Tension just kinks the hose. You can learn to unkink your musical expression through techniques like my “Playing from the Heart” method outlined in my book.
These three shifts can feel counterintuitive. However, if you implement them you will find quick and permanent relief from your tension and pain.
These three shifts have some surprising side benefits. Your technique will improve automatically, becoming fluid and effortless. Pieces that now feel challenging will feel like little toys in your hands. Your stage presence will become confident and poised. Your sound quality will become resonant and haunting. And your musical expression will carry real Soulforce — an aliveness and flow that will move your audiences deeply.
✨ Ready to implement these three shifts for yourself?
Join my new 6-week live, online program: “Get Back to Playing Freely!”
In this program, you will learn to free your mind, relax your body, and play with soul. You will experience an 80%-90% reduction in tension and pain, and you’ll have the tools to make that reduction permanent.
This program also addresses emotional and mental blocks like performance anxiety, self-doubt, burnout, and an overactive inner critic.
💡 How It Works:
📅 Step 1: Book a free discovery call 👉 www.soulforcearts.com/discovery
📖 Step 2: Join the program and release your performance blocks
🎶 Step 3: Get back to playing freely — what you want, when you want, as long as you want
🔗 Get my free PDF guide: “It Shouldn’t Feel This Hard” 👉 www.SoulforceArts.com/PlayingFreely
🎶 Your music matters. You deserve to play with freedom. Let’s make it happen. ✨
Joseph Arnold
“The Art Whisperer”
Violinist, Alexander Technique Teacher, & Award-Winning Author of “Soulforce”
Director of the Soulforce Arts Institute
SoulforceArts.com
