The role of the joints of the human arm in controlling the bow-force of violin playing

Abstract

Human can control the forces on his hands with the finger-arm coordination. This study aims to clarify the role of the joints of human arm in controlling the bow-force of the violin playing which is regarded one of the examples of finger-arm coordination. In the experiments, down-bow and up-bow which are the most basic play in violin playing are played with three different bow pressure by two professional players and two inexperienced persons. The bowing motions were measured by 3D-Video Tracker System, and the bow-force was measured by strain gauges on the bow. The torques of their right arm joints were calculated by the Newton-Euler method. From the analysis of the joint torques, it is clarified that the professional players can use their wrist to control bow-force but the inexperienced persons can not, and the role of the shoulder joints and wrist joints of professional players are divided clearly.