The ‘Safe Trad – Traditional Music Injury Prevention Project’ was developed to investigate PRMDs (playing related musculoskeletal disorders) across a range of instruments specifically within the traditional music community in Ireland in order to determine whether an exercise intervention programme could reduce the severity of PRMDs in traditional musicians. The intention was to:

  • ascertain the current level of awareness of PRMDs among practitioners of traditional music
  • establish, implement and evaluate an exercise program specifically for traditional musicians in order to prevent PRMDs
  • disseminate the findings of these studies and raise awareness of PRMDs among practitioners of traditional music through a series of workshops and information clinics
  • create a website that would include information regarding the prevention and reduction of PRMDs for the traditional music community

A series of studies was developed as follows:

Study 1: Controlled Trial

Study 2: Individual Case Studies (biomechanical analysis)

Study 3: Pilot Study assessing the feasibility of a preventative exercise programme for PRMDs among juvenile Irish traditional musicians

Ethical approval was obtained for each of the studies through the University of Ulster’s Research Governance process. The research commenced in 2009.

Findings from the various stages of the research are currently being prepared for publication and will be uploaded to this website in due course.