Lecture Videos
This video was recorded at the 2019 International Trombone Festival at Ball State in Muncie Indiana.
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"Valsalva Maneuver" and "Musical Stuttering" are both names used to describe a performance disorder in brass musicians that causes a "locking up" when attempting to start a note. This lecture presents data that supports classifying this disorder as a unique type of task-specific focal dystonia, separate from embouchure or hand dystonia. The data comes from an epidemiological survey of 252 brass musicians who have experienced it in their own playing.
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The most important point of this lecture is that musicians who have experienced this disorder, or know someone who has experienced it, need to be proactive in contacting performing arts medicine practitioners. PAM professionals have the knowledge and resources to help grow our understanding of this problem, which is our best chance to eventually develop treatments and preventions. For help contacting a local PAM practitioner, contact the Performing Arts Medicine Association at artsmed.org and ask for a local referral.
Good question!
This video was recorded at the 2018 International Trombone Festival at University of Iowa in Iowa City.
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Valsalva maneuver, musical stuttering, stutter tongue; these are all names used to describe a problem that is known to negatively impact the ability to play the trombone. The academic literature on this topic is currently insufficient for describing, understanding, preventing, or treating this problem. Without scientifically derived insights, trombonists, pedagogues, and performing arts health clinicians are often left guessing about when and how to intervene before the problem becomes serious enough to potentially end a career. This presentation discusses this concern while contextualizing the problem as a potential performance disorder. Includes a discussion on epidemiology and the study of performance problems by musicians.
This video was taken from the 2019 Performing Arts Medicine Association's annual symposium.
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I suffered from a performance disorder that is sometimes called "valsalva maneuver", or "musical stuttering". I had it for nearly 5 years, but was lucky enough to study with a specialist who retrained my playing. Since then, I wanted to investigate this problem. I quickly learned that the state of research about this disorder is far weaker than it should be, considering how many musicians seem to suffer from it. To further our understanding of this disorder, I created an epidemiological survey to investigate it in brass musicians.
This presentation provides evidence that this disorder could be classified as a unique form of focal dystonia, distinct from embouchure or hand dystonia. Further research is required to determine the source of the dystonia, and what treatments can reduce symptoms.
This video was taken in 2016 at the University of North Texas. It was a lecture for the Occupational Health course in the College of Music.
This is a lecture on personality theory, musical identity, and how they can impact your performance anxiety. Musical Identity is the extent to which you identify as a musician. It was adapted from the Athletics Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS). Personality theory is a way to classify a person's reactions, feelings, and motivations in certain situations as specific traits. I hypothesized that an individual's personality and musical identity could predict their likelihood of experiencing increased performance anxiety.
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Data used in this lecture is from the first epidemiological study of trombone players, which was conducted in 2013. This lecture took place on 11/14/2016 at the University of North Texas.