Anyone of any age and any level is at risk of pain and injury if they play enough. Every musical instrument whether it be for classical, jazz, pop, rock or any style has inherent risks and commonly seen concerns. The people we see the most are university level students whose playing time and intensity has increased from school age and professional or semi-professional musicians who often struggle with varying workloads and sudden bursts of rehearsals and intensive playing.

Yes, please. How you hold and play your instrument is an important aspect of why you will be experiencing pain or injury. While every instrument has an ‘ideal’ technique, every person holds instruments differently because of different body shape, arm length, hand size and playing ability. Assessing you with your instrument is an important part of what how we can help.

At your musicians' physiotherapy appointment, you will receive a combination of manual therapy techniques, education, advice and an exercise programme to minimise the chances of your problems returning. Quite often, where you experience pain is not the primary area of the body that we have to treat to solve the problem. This analysis of why your body is being overloaded is a critical aspect of our services for musicians.

Rest is always our last option! For professional musicians rest = no income so we always try to alter what we can and keep you playing before resorting to rest. Just resting for a few weeks does not solve the questions of why you pain or injury started so is rarely a food solution for musicians.

We don’t! There are common principles that apply to all musicians practices and historically musicians are not taught about the physicality of what they do until they get injured. We always like to work with your teachers or tutors to offer changes to playing style, postures and habits but we will never try to tell you how to play your instrument!