For musicians, in most cases warm-up means finger exercising. Playing scales, arpeggios, chords can help achieve for example flexibility of fingers and concentration. However, this traditional finger warm-up on the instrument is not always adequate. In some cases several hours of practice are needed to be sufficiently prepared for musical tasks. It seems that musicians need a more efficient warm-up method involving a more wholistic approach. They need to be warmed-up physically, mentally, and spiritually in order to be ready for any musical assignments.

Sports training and musicians’ training have much in common. Musicians, too, are prone to physical injuries because of professional hazards. However, it is possible to reduce the risk of these injuries by practicing proper warm-up routines as athletes do. In a Time magazine article, March 1, 1999, Christine Gorman wrote about Michael Jordan, "Through 13 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, six championships and five Most Valuable Player awards, Jordan suffered only one serious injury: a broken foot in 1985. Much of that extraordinary good fortune can be tied to Jordan’s intense conditioning regimen, especially his devotion to stretching before, during and after his workouts and games."

At the Illinois-American String Teachers Association Conference, June 1984, "Audience members filled out a questionnaire about their experiences with pain or injury related to string playing and about their own habits regarding practice, warm-up for practice, general exercises for fitness…. The results of the questionnaire confirm that among these string players… there had been a general lack of warm-up routines away from the instrument, regular exercises, or training in the area of ‘movement education.’" (Sforzando! Music Medicine for String Players By Anne Mischakoff)



With respect to harp players, the entire body is involved in music making from fingertips to toes. How can finger warm-up exercises prepare the trunk that balances the instrument, or the feet that plays an important role in pedal harp playing? While working on my doctoral degree, I did a research project (Incidence of Occupational-Related Problems Among Harpists) regarding harp player’s physical wellness. As part of the research, I developed a questionnaire, which was mailed to 500 harp players in 47 countries. I was not surprised to find from the results that the problems of 1984 were very much the same in 1997.

According to the survey, most harp players omit any kind of general body warm-up exercises, or even finger warm-up exercises before they practice, even though they acknowledge that such exercises could prevent injuries. As one respondent commented, "It amazes me how often my colleagues seem to fail to use common sense - an athlete would not expect to sprint 100m from cold, yet musicians frequently do!" Harpists expressed an eager interest in methods for physical wellness as well as indicating that difficulties encountered with the harp develop gradually over a period of time. One harpist said, "I have noticed that as I am getting older, my body needs more warm-up and stretching to play harp pain-free. It would be valuable to learn these habits in school, so that when you really need it, perhaps some time later, you already have established good work habits and can avoid injury." As another teacher wrote "I would love to incorporate this into my teaching, but don’t know where to begin."
One way to begin is to start with a full body warm-up away from the instrument, as suggested by the Kovács Method, the Care of Musicians’ Work Capacity program. This Hungarian physical wellness program is a pedagogical approach for improving physical, mental, and spiritual capacities of musicians and keeping all three of these in balance. In bringing these traits to their highest levels and keeping them in constant equilibrium, it enables musicians to achieve their utmost in performance.



A well-planned warm-up routine will also improve work capacity. Full body warm-up before music activities increase blood flow in all parts of the body. Increased oxygenated blood flow throughout the body has a pronounced effect upon our emotional state, our mental capacity to think, and our direct physical ability to approximate our very best while performing. At the same time, this improved health condition can prevent occupational related injuries. In my teaching experiences, I use 5-7 minutes of full body warm-up exercises away from the instrument. However, the optimal time for warm up should be according to the individuals’ needs, strength and momentary work capacity level.

There are also additional benefits to be derived from full body warm-up routines away from the instrument. We can also include exercises in our warm-up routine that lay a foundation for movements used in instrumental playing such as developing suppleness of hands that creates beautiful tone quality, or developing finger independency or independency of arms, or coordination of hands and feet. In addition, there are exercises that can teach awareness of proper breathing. All of these preparatory exercises save time and energy at the harp.

The professional standard of music teaching and of the general music profession, too, is continually rising. Therefore, the demand upon the physical body and the nervous system of musicians is also being increased. Be sure to follow your systematic plan for warming-up to help meet this demand and to keep yourself a healthy harpist!


Copyright © 2003, Lyon & Healy Publications
Printed originally in the Winter 2003 Volume 7 issue of the Harp Today.
Used by permission.