Since last month's article about a 15% discount offered to CPB readers for the Armaid device, there have been some interesting articles in the blogosphere about musicians and performance-related injuries. Gretchen Saathof makes the point that massaging devices need to be viewed in a much larger dialogue about injury prevention and awareness.
On the other hand, Norman Lebrecht puts forward the opposite argument, that sometimes you need to play through the pain. I disagree with Mr. Lebrecht for the following reason: unlike the 10-15 year career of the professional athlete, the professional playing career of a musician can typically last from 40-50 years. With that time-line in mind, the goal of a good technique should by necessity include the smartest and safest playing setup, so that when one reaches artistic maturity (often in one's 40's or 50's), there is a solid technical foundation in place to extend that maturity as long as possible.
