Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the hand motion of pianists when they performed an octave and a chord, which accounted for 74% of the piano techniques that the subjects practiced at the onset of overuse hand problems. The octave position was to strike 2 keys that were 16.7 cm apart simultaneously with the thumb and small finger, and the chord position was to strike 3 keys with 4.8 cm between the borders. Methods: The abduction angle of both the thumbs and the small fingers of 10 pianists while playing a chord and an octave were measured repeatedly with a video-based passive marker detection system. The angles were compared between pianists with large hand spans and those with small hand spans. Results: When playing the octave both the maximal and minimal abduction angles of the thumb were significantly larger for the smaller-hand pianists as compared with the pianists with larger hand spans. When playing the chord the maximal abduction angle of the thumb of small-hand-span pianists was significantly larger than that of large-hand-span pianists. The abduction of the small finger, however, did not differ during performance of either the octave or the chord. Conclusions: These results suggest that the small-hand-span pianists must abduct the thumb more than large-hand-span pianists while minimizing movement of the small finger. This may cause de Quervain's tenosynovitis in pianists.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 830-835 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Hand Surgery |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2006 |
Keywords
- Finger
- hand span
- keyboard
- motion
- piano
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Surgery
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine