Inside Linfield -
Music
The Linfield Department of Music is committed to providing a safe environment for music students, faculty, and staff, to raise the awareness of musicians' health, and actively seeks to guard against injury and illness in the study and practice of music. Our accrediting body, the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), requires us to inform our constituents of health and safety issues, hazards, and procedures inherent in practice, performance, teaching, and listening both in general and as applicable to their specific specializations. This includes but is not limited to information regarding hearing, vocal and musculoskeletal health, injury prevention, and the use, proper handling, and operation of potentially dangerous materials, equipment, and technology.
Each individual is personally responsible for avoiding risk and preventing injuries to themselves before, during, and after study or employment at Linfield.
Many organizations now exist that are dedicated to helping musicians maintain and protect health. NASM has collaborated with the Performing Arts Medical Association (PAMA) to develop a number of useful documents concerning health for musicians. Below is information devoted to different aspects of Musicians' Health and Safety based on documents developed together by NASM and PAMA.
Hearing health is essential to your lifelong success as a musician. Your hearing can be permanently damaged by loud sounds, including music. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is generally preventable by avoiding overexposure to loud sounds, especially for long periods of time. The closer you are to the source of a sound, the greater the risk of damage to your hearing. Sounds over 85dB (your typical vacuum cleaner) in intensity pose the greatest risk to your hearing. Risk of hearing loss is based on a combination of sound loudness and duration.
Recommended maximum daily exposure times (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - NIOSH) to sounds at or above 85 dB:
When working in the Composers Studio, keep your monitoring levels low to protect your hearing and maintain your essential ability to notice detail. If your neighbor can hear the music from your headphones, or the music can be heard from outside of the studio door, then you are monitoring with too much volume.
It is very important to understand that the hair cells in your inner ear cannot regenerate. Damage done to them is permanent. There is no way to repair or undo this damage.
The neuromusculoskeletal system refers to the complete system of muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments and associated nerves and tissues that allow us to move, speak, and sing. This system also supports our body's structure. The "neuro" part of the term "neuromusculoskeletal" refers to our nervous system that coordinates the ways in which our bodies move and operate. The nervous system consists of the brain, the spinal cord, and the hundreds of billions of nerves responsible for transmitting information from the brain to the rest of the body and back again in an endless cycle. Our nervous systems allow us to move, to sense, and to act in both conscious and unconscious ways. We could not listen to, enjoy, sing, or play music without these structures. In fact, making any change in our approach to movement, particularly to the array of complex movements needed for the performance of music, means working closely with our nervous system so that any automatic, unconscious or poor habits may be replaced with healthy, constructive, and coordinate movement choices.
Basic Protection Steps:
Vocal health and understanding basic care of the voice are important for all musicians and essential to lifelong success for singers. Because practicing, rehearsing, and performing music are physically demanding activities, musicians are susceptible to numerous vocal disorders, many of which are preventable and/or treatable.
Basic Protection Steps:
(Safe lifting and carrying techniques, adapted from Brookhaven National Laboratory, Safety Requirement for a Safe Workplace.)
Proper methods of lifting and handling protect against injury, and makes work easier. You need to "think" about what you are going to do before bending to pick up an object. Over time, safe lifting technique should become a habit.
Basic Protection Steps for safe lifting and handling heavy music equipment or instruments:
Basic Information on Neuromusculoskeletal and Vocal Health
Read the NASM Advisory Document
This basic toolkit contains information and resources compiled for the use of administrators, music faculty and staff, and music students.