When I think back on the almost six years I spent running our hotel in France – and the backbreaking work it involved – I sometimes have to remind myself that once upon a time I was a professional musician. Believe it or not but playing certain musical instruments can leave you with a back as sore as someone who scrubs floors for a living…being a string player and a hotel owner I can say that I have experienced both.
When I was playing for a living, like many string players, I had a physiotherapist on speed dial because there are times when your neck or shoulder can give you problems. When I transferred from playing violin to playing viola I really noticed the strain as the viola is a larger, heavier instrument. Just lately I am concentrating on becoming a musician again (after a long break) and am feeling those familiar aches in the neck from being out of practice in holding the instrument for an extended length of time. I am not sure whether I need some physio or just a good spray of WD40…maybe a bit of both, I just need to work on my posture again.
A friend of mine is a cellist as well as a trained physiotherapist and she has found a lucrative business in that when she is not playing she is tending to the backs of those who do; physiotherapy jobs are not a bad sideline really for those jobbing musicians who are trying to eke out an existence as a classical musician. I just wish there was one handy right now…
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