Abstract
For top performers, including athletes and musicians, even subtle inconsistencies in rhythm and force during movement production decrease the quality of performance. However, extensive training over many years beginning in childhood is unable to perfect dexterous motor performance so that it is without any error. To gain insight into the biological mechanisms underlying the subtle defects of motor actions, the present study sought to identify the kinematic origins of inconsistency of dexterous finger movements in musical performance. Seven highly-skilled pianists who have won prizes at international piano competitions played a short sequence of tones with the right hand at a predetermined tempo. Time-varying joint angles of the fingers were recorded using a custom-made data glove, and the timing and velocity of the individual keystrokes were recorded from a digital piano. Both ridge and stepwise multiple regression analyses demonstrated an association of the inter-trial variability of the inter-keystroke interval (i.e., rhythmic inconsistency) with both the rotational velocity of joints of the finger used for a keystroke (i.e., striking finger) and the movement independence between the striking and non-striking fingers. This indicates a relationship between rhythmic inconsistency in musical performance and the dynamic features of movements in not only the striking finger but also the non-striking fingers. In contrast, the inter-trial variability of the key-descending velocity (i.e., loudness inconsistency) was associated mostly with the kinematic features of the striking finger at the moment of the keystroke. Furthermore, there was no correlation between the rhythmic and loudness inconsistencies. The results suggest distinct kinematic origins of inconsistencies in rhythm and loudness in expert musical performance.
Highlights
Motor excellence in top athletes and expert musicians typically involves the production of highly consistent motor actions
Our findings are consistent with previous observations of expert pianists who displayed approximately 8 ms of rhythmic inconsistency of piano keystrokes on average [23]
The observed rhythmic inconsistency is discernible in some cases and should be kept below the threshold for pianists to accomplish the desired musical performance flawlessly
Summary
Motor excellence in top athletes and expert musicians typically involves the production of highly consistent motor actions. Source of Motor Variability in Musicians years display small but non-negligible rhythmic inaccuracies in keystrokes [1,2]. Such motor variabilities are not trivial but are rather a focus of training and pedagogy for top performers. The amount of variability of the bow angle is correlated not with the elbow joint range of motion but with the shoulder joint range of motion [4] These studies suggest that the trial-to-trial variability of motor performance originates from the kinematic variability of not all but some specific joints of the extremities
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