A maintenance manual for peak performance
Rosset i Llobet, J. and Odam, G. (2007). Co-published by The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) and Ashgate (Aldershot).
Within Australia: $39.95. Overseas: GBP14.99.
Purchase a copy from your local bookstore or the publishers.
A collaborative project between The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London; Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya; and Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre.
Musicians suffer greatly from industry-related injury and illness, and many of these problems are established during student days or even before. This affects all forms of music-making from classical through jazz and rock to traditional folk. Hearing damage is of serious concern in most forms of music-making, but the most stressful situations and the most physical damage is recorded in the practice of classical music. The long hours of practice at the beginning of a musician's career are the main source of problems that sometimes only reveal themselves in later life.
This book is aimed equally at student musicians, practising musicians, and instrumental and vocal teachers, and it aims to help them to begin to understand how and why their bodies function as they do when they perform and also how they may avoid professionally related illness or injury and achieve the highest standards of performance.