ABRSM Teacher Development
Professional Values & Practice
Musicians’ Health
and Wellness
It is important to manage your own health at work, and you should spend an
appropriate amount of time reflecting on this. As teachers, we often adapt our
posture to suit the student, sitting next to the end of the keyboard, or leaning over
to fix cello spikes, for example. However, it does not just stop with the physical.
Teaching requires a lot of energy and sometimes
over the top enthusiasm to achieve a required
result, which can be very draining. We are also the
confidant to some of our students, and this can be
draining on our own emotional wellbeing. We often
go the extra mile to be accommodating for our
students, but we need to avoid burnout as a teacher.
It is important to know some of the signs of this so
you can spot burnout symptoms before it has too
negative an impact on your work, and your wellbeing.
Unfortunately, many musicians experience
problems that negatively affect their mental and
physical health. Performing Arts Medicine seeks to
understand and support performing artists’ health
and wellness. Factors such as age, gender, and
physical flexibility can affect how likely we are to
develop certain conditions. Education and training
can affect how capable we are of caring for ourselves.
The physical and social environments that we work,
study, and live in can influence our opportunities
to make healthy choices. A variety of motivating
factors can encourage us to either look after
ourselves or put ourselves in situations that may
threaten our health. Which of these factors are
particularly relevant for musicians that you know?
Resources are being developed to help musicians
avoid problems and have a lifelong engagement
with music. Many are freely available online and
others can be accessed through organisations and
conferences. Keywords such as ‘performing arts
medicine’ and ‘musicians’ health and wellness’ or
‘wellbeing’ will help you to find relevant material.
When we find resources our first reaction as a
teacher is often to consider how to use what we
have learned to help others. This is a valuable
response and specialists are actively encouraging
teachers to support their pupils’ health and
wellness. But what about your health and wellness?
Teachers deserve the opportunity to live healthy
lives. The aim of performing arts medicine is to
support all performing artists, including teachers.
Your health as a teacher can also have a direct and
indirect effect on your pupils.
Personal experience can influence what we
teach. Research suggests that teachers are likely
to experience problems affecting their hearing,
muscles and soft tissues, voice, and enjoyment of
performance. Sharing this information with pupils
can be positive as it may help them to learn from
our experiences or create a shared connection.
Conversely, a perceived lack of experience may
make us think that we do not have relevant insights
to share.
Do you talk about a range of health-related topics
with pupils or do you focus on things that have
affected you? Exploring new topics may be daunting
and time-consuming but it could benefit you and
your pupils.
Educators are role models. What our pupils learn
through observing and modelling may not always
match what we intended to teach them. For example,
if we talk about the importance of hearing while
allowing rehearsals to be too loud, will they believe
the seriousness of hearing damage? If we demand
good posture while not modelling it, will they follow
what they hear or what they see? Of course, we are
human and cannot get everything right all of the time.
But we can model self-care strategies to show our
pupils what a health-conscious musician looks like.
Self-care is not selfish and by thinking about how it
can help our pupils maybe we can help ourselves
to prioritise it. We can also share the pressures of
being a musician, acknowledge that sometimes
compromise is necessary, and discuss ways of
managing a sustainable lifestyle in ‘the real world’.
It is important to note that we should not share
information that we are not qualified to give. If
you have received medical advice remember that
what worked for you will not necessarily help your
pupils. There are increasing numbers of healthcare
professionals specialising in performing arts
medicine: make contact with experts in your region
so that you can ask for advice and refer pupils to
them if necessary.

Supporting the teaching and learning of music

in partnership with the Royal Schools of Music
Royal Academy of Music | Royal College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music | Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
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