If you’ve been reading my blog for more than about 15 minutes then you know that injury prevention is important to me. If it hasn’t been 15 minutes yet or you don’t remember seeing these posts check out this post, this one, and this too.
Injuries aren’t fun. After all, they hurt! But more importantly they can take you away from playing. It’s difficult to sit on a hard bench when your back aches or is “thrown out”. Having a crick in your neck can turn into a headache while sight reading. Overuse “ouchies” in your hands can curtail your practice so that you don’t spend as much time at the harp as you planned/would like to/need to. And an injury that is untended or uncared for can lead to enforced time away while you recover.
Hopefully, you’ll take good care of yourself, and this post will be irrelevant for you forever. However, it is estimated that 70 – 80% of musicians have developed an overuse injury – which suggests that the odds are ever in your favor … to get hurt.
While that’s sobering (and a little disheartening) let’s move to the next question – if you’re injured and need to rest and recover – away from the harp – do you just slag off and wait?
No, of course not!
There are loads of things you can do to keep your recovery time useful and moving forward! Here are ten:
1. Read a book. Whether it’s Sanger and Kinnaird’s Tree of Strings, Rensch’s Harps and Harpists, or McCaffery’s The HarpMaster of Pern, you can stay connected to your instrument by reading a good book.
2. Read a score. We’ve talked before about sight reading practice – this is a perfect time. You could sightread by reading a note and then fixing your gaze on the appropriate string to be played, or you could point to the string as you read. You can also work on your sight singing (or hearing the music in your head).
3. Learn your intervals – do a little ear training. Find and identify particular intervals in music you already know. Go online to find ear training exercises. It does get easier – I promise.
4. Compose. You can do this in your head and sing what you come up with into your recorder. When you’re healed you can move your tune onto the harp.
5. Study your theory. Find a good theory book and work through it. Don’t skim – do the exercises!
6. Listen to music. Find new things to work on later, when you’re healed. It’ll give you something to look forward to.
7. Read all the posts in this blog! (No, really)
8. Go for a walk (or knit, or some other thing that’s sort of meditative and quiet) and sing your rep in your head to keep it in there.
9. Restring your harp (if it needs it). You might need practice changing strings and this will do it. At a minimum, it will build your confidence for quick string changes!
10. Have coffee with a harp friend to enjoy their growth, commiserate on your injury, and stay connected to your harp world.
If you’re not injured, celebrate – but take care too. Hopefully this assures you that, should you become injured you will be able to keep working. And it might give you some ideas if you find yourself there. Not every injury will require weeks to recover (for instance, I am quite good at cutting my index finger just before gigs). I’m sure there are loads of other things you could do while you heal. If you’re already hurt, which of these have you done/are you likely to try or do you have other ideas? Please share them in the comments!
I can’t stress enough how important it is to do whatever physical therapy may be ordered for you by your doctor if you’ve suffered a muscular injury or bone fracture or anything like that. Yes they are boring and sometimes uncomfortable (even painful at times) but boy do they work. I continue with some of the exercises prescribed for my broken wrist years later.
Jen I have this vague recollection that you once instructed me to “warm up” my hands and fingers before sitting down to practice. Do the hand shaking thing and wiggle your fingers — this really helps too! Glenn Gould used to soak his hands in hot water before performing. That’s very nice to do on a cold winter day too.
Very good points! It really is important to make ready to play – we, none of us, is getting any younger. I know that many are good at doing their physical therapy when it’s assigned and someone’s watching over them, but then slag off when their sessions are over. That movement (exercises or stretches) really does help. I’m really pleased that you have continued to “do the things”!
I have struggled with cricks in my back and hip that are exacerbated by longs sessions behind my harp. I added some floor Pilates into my week and both of these other problems have receded. Yay! Seriously, learning some good stretches has been invaluable.
I do have a question though; is there a good theory book that you recommend? I’m headed into two weeks away from my harp because of schedule stuff and I would love to spend some of that time on theory…. can you point me in a particular direction?
Thanks!
I feel for you – so often we do spend such a long time on the bench! Delighted to hear you’ve added pilates and streatches and that it’s helping!
Theory books – it’s so challenging to select one. So often they’re dry, and many remind me of the writing exercise so many of us did in school to write out how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We have to acknowledge it’s hard to write “how” in a useful, compelling, informing, and comprehensible way. The book I felt like I learned the most from is Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory (a multibook set with ear training exercises)(available in loads of places – here’s the Amazon link – not an endorsement of Amazon, but you can see what I’m talking about) – it is easy to follow and is a workbook which helped kept me honest. But my favorite remains “Lies My Music Teacher Told Me” by Gerald Eskelin (also available at fine retailers online and in person, I’m sure). It is a reading book (not a workbook) and requires some understanding of music and how it is taught and is a bit nerdy. If you want to be told what’s what go for the Alfred. If you want to learn why’s what, read the Eskelin.
Thank you so much! I will look at them both. I grew up playing the piano and multiple other instruments in the school band. Picking up the harp as an adult has shown me how many holes there were in my music education….. gotta fill those in!
My pleasure – who was it that said, “Wisdom is knowing what you don’t know”? Good for you!
I am a huge McCaffery fan. Somehow I don’t think that book will help. 🤔🤔🤔 but it will have dragons!
I find wearing a back support really helps me keep proper posture and avoid more back pain. I also purchased a Junior chello chair both for my short legs and to provide more back support than a standard piano bench.
Good point that you need to recover from injuries – and continue to care for yourself after that! I’m not sure reading the Pern novels will improve your playing directly, but sometimes you just need an escape and I’m all for novels with herp players in them! 🙂
great ideas all!
Thanks Kate!