Music education and performing arts medicine: the state of the alliance.

As a group, musicians tend to be somewhat disembodied; their awareness of their whole selves extends almost exclusively to the parts involved directly with musical technique. Even though many consider musicians to be small muscle athletes, it is unusual to see a group of beginning musicians working out or warming up on their practice field, or having a trainer present to supervise their movements or their mental performance orientation, as one would in sports. Several questions come to mind. How has this state of things come about? What do musicians know about the mental, spiritual, and physical attributes they bring to music making? What do music teachers teach students about wellness? How can a collaboration of the fields of music education and rehabilitation medicine approach these issues? This article addresses these questions.