Effective exploitation of interaction torques during keystroke by expert pianists

Abstract

The present study investigated the expert-novice difference in the kinetics of upper-limb movement during the keystroke on the piano. Kinematic recordings were made while experts (N = 7) and novices (N = 7) of classical-piano players performed a right hand octave keystroke with staccato articulation to produce four different sound dynamics. Using the inverse dynamics method, interaction and muscular torques generated at the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints were computed. At all sound dynamics, the experts produced larger interaction torques at the elbow and wrist joints compared to the novices, and there by had smaller muscular torques at these joints. This suggests that through the long-term piano training the expert pianists acquired motor skill of reducing muscular load during the keystroke by effectively exploiting the interaction torques.