Understanding the Muscles of the Shoulders, Back, and Core : Injury Prevention for Pianists
Scott Santoro (Author), University of Alabama (Degree granting institution), University of Alabama School of Music
The degree of interconnectedness that exists between different parts of the body is often highly underestimated. In fact, injury to one part of the body often manifests as pain in an entirely separate structure. For instance, if a pianist sits with poor posture or on a hard seat for extended periods of time, the muscles around the buttocks and pelvis can become injured. This places extra stress on the lower back muscles that now must compensate for the pelvis and buttocks muscles, and thus the pianist feels pain in their lower back. Although the muscles of the pelvic and buttocks region may be compromised, the lower back might be the only region with radiating pain. Feeling pain in the lower back may lead the pianist to take restorative measures such as icing and resting the lower back. Yet in doing this, they are treating the symptoms rather addressing the root cause of their pain and as a result, will never completely resolve their injury. This common situation is the inspiration of this document. My goal is to educate musicians on the proper function of the shoulder, back, and core muscles. This will allow them to evaluate their own use muscle use and ultimately to prevent injury. This document seeks to not only share injury precautions, but also information regarding effective remedies
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2022
[University of Alabama Libraries], [Tuscaloosa, Ala.], 2022