Practicing prevention in the music schools.

A common misconception is that a career in the Performing Arts is easygoing and effortless when, in fact, it is extremely demanding. Success for a professional musician requires a virtual endless amount of time practicing and studying music. Because of the extremely high level of perfection required to achieve any prestigious position, be it professor of music in a university or a member of a renowned orchestra, the students of the 1990's must be flawless and thus much more demanding of themselves. Unfortunately, this tremendous intensity and pressure is coupled with an increase in the number of musicians inflicted with music-related injuries, the prevalence which has significantly increased over the past 10 years. This increase can be attributed to several factors common to both music students and professional musicians alike. They include lack of knowledge and employment of proper practice techniques, physical education and physical fitness, common predisposing factors related to music-related injuries, and the preventative techniques which could reduce their chance of acquiring music-re-